Blake and David Leary dive into several hot topics in the accounting world including the IRS's renewed focus on enforcement, targeting high-income individuals and non-filers, as well as the push to regulate non-credentialed tax preparers. They also explore the ongoing US CPA shortage and discuss potential solutions, including changes to education and recruitment strategies. Moving on, there's talk about emerging threats to traditional accounting software from industry-specific solutions like Clio's new accounting package for law firms. All this and more, right here, right now! SponsorsRelay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relayZoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoMakers Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/makershubLendflow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/lendflowChapters(01:00) - Global IT Outage Chaos (02:48) - Guess the Company Game (05:04) - Accounting Salaries and Compensation (14:47) - PwC Cutting Chinese Partners Pay by 50% (16:24) - Relay: The Ultimate Banking Solution (18:50) - Payday Advance Apps Under Scrutiny (21:40) - Trump's Tax Plan and Tariffs (29:03) - Community Engagement and Election 2024 (29:48) - Zoho Practice Management Overview (31:34) - IRS Enforcement and Tax Resolution Opportunities (39:40) - Regulating Non-Credentialed Tax Preparers (43:09) - Corporate Tax Rates and Economic Impact (48:49) - Thank you to MakersHub (50:45) - Clio Accounting and Legal Software Innovations (53:41) - Addressing the Accountant Shortage (01:02:31) - Thanks for Listening and Remember to Earn Your Free CPE  Show NotesJuly 19, 2024, global tech outage newshttps://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/global-outage-intl-hnk/index.html AICPA & CIMA Achieves Global Recognition as a Great Place To Workhttps://www.aicpa-cima.com/news/article/aicpa-and-cima-achieves-global-recognition-as-a-great-place-to-work Just How Much Have Accounting Salaries Increased in the Last Five Years?https://www.goingconcern.com/just-how-much-have-accounting-salaries-increased-in-the-last-five-years/ You Need to Make Six Figures to Buy a Home in Almost Half of the U.S.https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/04/04/you-need-to-make-six-figures-to-buy-a-house-in-almost-half-of-america/103541/ Number of the Day: $5.7 Billion - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/06/24/number-of-the-day-5-7-billion/107099/ I.R.S. Crackdown on Delinquent Millionaires Yields $1 Billion - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/11/business/irs-crackdown-wealthy-taxpayers.html The IRS Tidal Wave Is Here - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2024/07/07/the-irs-tidal-wave-is-here/ Tax pros: IRS improving, but getting the right answer takes too longhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2024/jul/tax-pros-irs-improving-but-getting-right-answer-takes-too-long.html IRS advisory committee recommends regulating tax preparers | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-advisory-committee-recommends-regulating-tax-preparers Corporate Tax Rate Spurs Political Fight With More Than $1 Trillion at Stake - WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/corporate-tax-rate-election-53de5180?st=o43aay9xscjk9wt Ohio's shortage of certified accountants is part of a national trendhttps://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio-shortage-of-cpas-part-of-national-trend/530-172bf0d5-0f6a-4037-817f-2a6ae4e12dbf Accountants sound the alarm over high-income residents leaving Massachusetts – New Bedford Guide https://www.newbedfordguide.com/accountants-sound-the-alarm-over-high-income-residents-leaving-massachusetts/2024/06/20 Trump floats tariff hikes to offset income tax cutshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/trump-floats-tariff-hikes-to-offset-income-tax-cuts  The Accountant Shortage Highlights How Critical Accounting Is to Capital Markets | Smith School https://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/research/accountant-shortage-highlights-how-critical-accounting-capital-markets #stitch with @Shanna Morris | accounting major | TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nycoleemccrary/video/7361440633531174186?_r=1&_t=8m1nZEORWQh Best Song Ever???https://www.tiktok.com/@thesavbananas/video/7366410624856837422?lang=enNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchas...

In light of recent events, Blake and David examine assassination attempts on US presidents, providing historical context. They move on to Intuit's recent layoffs, critiquing the company's communication strategy and exploring potential AI improvements for such announcements, and then shift to the Synapse bankruptcy, its impact on fintech users, and evolving regulatory scrutiny. Finally, Blake and David dig into AICPA CEO Barry Melancon's defense of the 150-hour CPA requirement, questioning its effectiveness and impact on the accounting profession.SponsorsOnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpayRightRev - http://accountingpodcast.promo/rightrevMakersHub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/makershubLendflow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/lendflowChapters(01:12) - Assassination Attempt on President Trump (02:05) - Historical Context of Presidential Assassinations (06:38) - Intuit Layoffs and AI Transition (11:20) - Analyzing Intuit's Communication Strategy (21:41) - Listener Mail and CPA Exam Tips (27:51) - Intuit's Overtime Wage Issue (30:48) - CPA Licensure Flexibility (32:02) - Ohio's Alternative Pathway to CPA (34:04) - Listener Mailbag: Emma's Dilemma (40:29) - Listener Mailbag: Walda's Insight (45:45) - Synapse Bankruptcy Update (53:05) - Barry Melancon's Retirement and Legacy (01:05:11) - Join the Earmark Community  Show NotesIntuit Marketing in the UK  pays for commercial/short film of human like talking dogs burying invoices/billshttps://directorslibrary.com/07/2024/latest/campaigns/dogs-intuit-quickbooks/ Bookkeeping Firm Digits Buys Accounting Platform Basis Financehttps://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2024/bookkeeping-firm-digits-buys-accounting-platform-basis-finance/Assassination attempts on US presidents: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-many-assassination-attempt-nb5YvFGbShm0oSRKqi3UkwSynapse’s collapse has frozen nearly $160M from fintech users — here’s how it happenedhttps://techcrunch.com/2024/07/14/synapses-collapse-has-frozen-nearly-160m-from-fintech-users-heres-how-it-happened/ Evolve Bank & Trust Statement on Synapse Bankruptcyhttps://www.getevolved.com/about/news/evolve-bank-trust-statement-on-synapse-bankruptcy/ Banking With Third-Party Appshttps://www.fdic.gov/resources/consumers/consumer-news/2024-06.html Fintech nightmare: ‘I have nearly $38,000 tied up’ after Synapse bankruptcyhttps://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/22/synapse-bankruptcy-customer-funds.htmlAT Think Ask what you can do for your professionhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/ask-what-you-can-do-for-the-accounting-professionAccounting Leader Calls for CPA Training to Evolvehttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/accounting-leader-calls-for-cpa-training-to-evolve-podcastNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Today, Blake and David explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping accounting, discussing its potential to handle 70% of information-based tasks and impact workflows like data collection, reconciliation, and client services. They criticize the current theoretical approach to accounting education, advocating for more practical, hands-on learning experiences. They also dig into the ongoing 150-hour rule debate, examining recent state board initiatives for alternative CPA pathways and concerns about the accounting talent pipeline. Blake and David tackle the recent Evolve cybersecurity breach and its implications for fintech companies and move on to listener feedback and questions.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Relay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relayMakersHub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/makershub Genwise - http://accountingpodcast.promo/genwiseChapters(02:40) - Vacation Plans and Quiet Vacationing (07:45) - Generative AI in Accounting (10:37) - Challenges and Opportunities in AI Adoption (18:38) - CPA Firm Dynamics and Partner Retirement (28:58) - Survey Insights and Alternative Pathways to CPA (33:05) - Arkansaw State Board of Accountancy Pursuing Alternative Pathways to CPA (34:19) - Blake and David Look at the California CPA License Survey (37:29) - Addressing Concerns About CPA Mobility (38:10) - Survey Reflections and Critique (42:38) - Listener Mail: Nebraska's CPA Changes (43:55) - The Practicality of Accounting Education (01:00:38) - Evolve Bank Cyber Attack (01:06:35) - Closing Thoughts and 4th of July Message  Show NotesMillennials call it ‘quiet vacationing,’ but it’s really remote work gone wrong—and it’s CEOs’ worst nightmarehttps://fortune.com/2024/05/23/quiet-vacation-millennials-gen-z-harris-poll-remote-work Death, Taxes, and AI: How Generative AI Will Change Accountinghttps://a16z.com/generative-ai-in-accounting/ Tech lag named top risk for accountants in 2024 Intuit QuickBooks surveyhttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/news/accountant-tech-survey-results/ Finding Qualified Staff Is the Top Issue Facing Most CPA Firms In 2024https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/06/07/finding-qualified-staff-is-the-top-issue-facing-most-cpa-firms-in-2024/106519/ Help! A Partner Wants to Retire Earlyhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2024/04/24/help-a-partner-wants-to-retire-really-early/ Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy – Proposed Rule Changeshttps://www.labor.arkansas.gov/licensing/state-board-of-public-accountancy/proposed-rule-changes/ California Board of Accountancy https://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/ California Board of Accountancy’s LinkedIn Post on CPA Next Surveyhttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/cbanews_we-want-to-hear-from-you-this-weekend-is-activity-7212584294232285184-25sa CPA Candidates Approved To Sit At 120 Hours Starting 1/1/2025https://nebraska-cpa.thenewslinkgroup.org/cpa-candidates-approved-to-sit-at-120-hours-starting-1-1-2025/ Evolve Hit With Fed Enforcement Action, But Why Did It Take This Long?https://substack.com/home/post/p-145886596 Cybersecurity Incidenthttps://www.getevolved.com/about/news/cybersecurity-incident/ Yieldstreet says some of its customers were affected by the Evolve Bank data breachhttps://techcrunch.com/2024/07/02/yieldstreet-says-some-of-its-customers-were-affected-by-the-evolve-bank-data-breach/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcas...

Blake and David explore the intersection of AI, remote work, and accounting technology. They take a look at the phenomenon of "mouse jiggling," examine various AI tools reshaping the accounting industry, and analyze a survey showing widespread adoption of AI in the workplace. There's also a review of different AI chatbots, highlights on new AI-powered accounting startups, and a brief look at the U.S. government's online passport renewal system. This wide-ranging conversation offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of work and technology in the digital age.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowRightRev - http://accountingpodcast.promo/rightrevMakers Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/makershubGenwise - http://accountingpodcast.promo/genwiseChapters(01:14) - Mouse Jiggling Scandal at Wells Fargo (05:28) - Pig Butchering Scams and Synapse Bankruptcy (09:20) - Return to Office Mandates and Employee Turnover (12:55) - AI Tools in Accounting: Zapier Central Demo (18:18) - Impact of AI on Freelance Jobs (21:49) - Private Equity and Audit Board Acquisition (26:05) - AI Co-Pilot for Accounting Firms: Materia Raises $6.3 Million (30:04) - Technology Maturity and Firm Revenue (36:10) - AI Adoption in the Workplace (38:15) - AI Tools Revolutionizing Financial Reporting (40:42) - The Rise of Chatbots: A Wall Street Journal Analysis (42:08) - Comparing Chatbot Performance Across Different Tasks (51:28) - The Future of AI in Accounting Firms (01:00:57) - Innovations in Government Services (01:03:23) - Wrap-Up and Announcements  Show NotesMeet Zapier Central's Chrome extension: Work with your personal AI bots anywherehttps://zapier.com/blog/zapier-central-chrome-extension/The Great AI Challenge: We Test Five Top Bots on Useful, Everyday Skillshttps://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/ai-chatbots-chatgpt-gemini-copilot-perplexity-claude-f9e40d26Numeric secures $10m in Seed funding to revolutionise accounting automationhttps://fintech.global/2024/05/08/numeric-secures-10m-in-seed-funding-to-revolutionise-accounting-automation/Finaloop secures $35 Million in Series Ahttps://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/101198/finaloop-secures-35-million-in-series-aJune 2024 Update: Beta Release of an Online Passport Renewal Systemhttps://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/renew-online.htmlCalifornia Board of Accountancy CPANext Surveyhttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/cbanews_we-want-to-hear-from-you-this-weekend-is-activity-7212584294232285184-25saNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Kwame Agyei, founder and CEO of Appoynt, joins Blake and David to discuss the benefits of outsourcing specific business functions like accounts receivable management. Kwame shares his unique journey from accountant to entrepreneur and offers practical advice on effectively leveraging virtual assistants while addressing common concerns around security and building trust. Meet Our Guest, Kwame AgyeiLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwame-agyei-b3ab1333/Learn more about AppoyntWebsite: http://www.appoynt.co.uk/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Adam Zaki of CFO.com joins Blake and David to explore the trends reshaping the industry, from AI to the talent shortage. They dive into the murky waters of corporate financial controls and audit practices. They also examine what makes a truly effective CFO in today's dynamic business environment and why authenticity might be the most valuable trait in a leader's toolkit. Get an insider's perspective on the 150-hour CPA licensing requirement and hear ideas for reform that could revolutionize the profession.Sponsors Cloud Accountant Staffing - http://accountingpodcast.promo/casRightRev - http://accountingpodcast.promo/rightrevMakers Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/makershubChapters(01:18) - AI Trends in Finance (02:42) - Adoption and Challenges of AI (09:34) - Talent Shortage in Finance (13:33) - Gen Z in the Finance Profession (20:36) - Real Consequences of The Breakdown of Financial Controls (30:03) - AT&T is Bypassing Big 4 Recruitment & Blake's Career Path (31:45) - Q&A Session Begins (32:22) - Would You Trade Your Job for a CFO Role? (33:23) - Work-Life Balance in Accounting (35:10) - Other Ways We Can Attract Talent to The Accounting Profession (39:21) - Challenges in the Accounting Profession (50:06) - Mentorship and Leadership in Accounting (57:22) - Closing Remarks and Future Guests  Show NotesFollow Adam’s stories on CFO.com: https://www.cfo.com/editors/azaki/75% of employees use AI at work: report | CFO San Francisco 49ers, MLB Star Shohei Ohtani Wrestle With Poor Financial Controls 34% of KPMG tax, audit and advisory interns plan to stay 5 years at first job: report | CFO Gen Z Pivots from Accounting, Pursues Creative Freedom and Entrepreneurship | CFO No Gimmicks, Just Authenticity: How To Attract Gen-Z Talent | CFO Peacocking, newskilling and digital detox: 9 new workplace trends CFOs must know | CFO Senior Leaders Nearly Twice as Likely To Receive AI Resources as Junior Staff | CFONeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowRightRev - http://accountingpodcast.promo/rightrevMakers Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/makershubChapters(00:38) - Blake's Conference Adventures (03:13) - AI and the Future of Auditing (05:16) - Insights from the IMA Conference (10:00) - The AI Tipping Point (14:48) - Microsoft Announces Delay of Their Ai Recall Tool (21:33) - AI in Financial Statement Analysis (34:12) - Community and Future Plans (38:08) - Synapse Bankruptcy and What It Means for FinTech Banks (49:50) - PwC and OpenAI Partnership (51:39) - EY Is Spending $1 Billion on Something (53:48) - Big Four Compensation Insights (57:16) - Fake News on Stimulus Checks (01:00:52) - Listener Mail and Advice for Starting a Firm (01:07:27) - Wrap-up and Announcements  Show NotesStudy: ChatGPT Better at Financial Statement Analysis Than Humanshttps://nysscpa.org/news/publications/the-trusted-professional/article/study-chatgpt-better-at-financial-statement-analysis-than-humans-060524PwC to resell ChatGPT Enterprisehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pwc-to-become-first-official-reseller-for-openai-for-openais-chatgpt-enterpriseEY US to invest $1 billion in compensation and technology to improve the attractiveness of the accounting professionhttps://www.ey.com/en_us/newsroom/2024/06/ey-us-to-invest-1-billion-in-compensation-and-technologyChange is in the air: And it is helpful.https://www.orcpa.org/news/13ff8628-9c17-43b1-858a-148af698c818:change-is-in-the-air-and-it-is-helpfulPotential deposit shortfall in Synapse bankruptcy falls in regulatory grey areahttps://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/potential-deposit-shortfall-in-synapse-bankruptcy-falls-in-regulatory-grey-area-82041848Apple brings ChatGPT to Siri as it debuts ‘Apple Intelligence’ at WWDC 2024https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/10/apple-ai-product-launchHow does Sam's Club AI work?https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2024/05/02/sams-club-ai-check-receipt-exit-stores-texas-locations/73526045007/ How fake stories about IRS stimulus checks took over the internethttps://www.fastcompany.com/91138837/fake-stories-irs-stimulus-checks-flood-internet-google-newsFact Check: Is The IRS Really Giving An $8700 Stimulus Check?https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-irs-really-giving-192246766.htmlNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Discover the compelling advantages of nearshoring your accounting and finance functions to Argentina. In this episode, Nicolás Villafañe, partner at South Offices, shares his insider perspective on why Argentina is a top destination for accessing skilled talent while enjoying significant cost savings compared to hiring in the US.Learn how Argentina's timezone alignment, cultural affinity, and highly qualified pool of licensed CPAs can provide your business with a seamless experience as if you were hiring remote employees. Nicolás also shares a case study of how his firm has partnered with a US client to build a successful, integrated team.If you've been considering nearshoring options, this episode is packed with valuable insights to help you evaluate your choices and unlock the benefits for your business. Tune in now to explore the power of nearshoring!Meet Our Guest, Nicolás VillafañeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasvillafane/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David get brutally honest about why pricey accounting conferences are a no-go and how the industry sidelines neurodivergent professionals. You'll also get a rundown of the rebranded Intuit Connect event's new direction, the political firestorm around IRS Direct File, and a Google Sheets update that will blow your mind. From the mailbag, don't miss one reader's incredible story of passing the CPA exam in record time and our take on why firms need to rethink degree requirements. Plus, we offer real-talk advice for starting your ownbookkeeping biz and take shots at the infamous 150-hour rule.SponsorsOnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpay Relay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relayMakers Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/makershubChapters(01:02) - David Has FOMO (03:50) - The Cost of AICPA Engage (07:11) - ADHD and Conferences (16:39) - Community Engagement and Comments (21:23) - Intuit Connect Announcement & Going After the Mid-Market (28:54) - Future of Accounting with AI (32:59) - AI Agents Replacing Human Labor (34:07) - Preparing for a Future in Accounting (35:06) - The Value of Practical Experience (36:52) - Listener Feedback and Community Engagement (39:14) - Intuit and IRS Direct File Controversy (48:20) - Google Sheets' New Conditional Notifications (51:11) - Listener Mailbag: Unique Paths to CPA (55:28) - Earning Your Accounting Degree Quick! (59:13) - The Debate on College Degrees and Signaling (01:04:29) - Closing Remarks and Thanks for Listening  Show NotesHouse GOP proposes IRS funding cuts, defunding free tax filing ...Intuit Connect 2024 - Formerly QuickBooks ConnectGoogle Sheets’ new ‘conditional notifications’ easily keep track of small changes - The VergeNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Anthony Venette, Director of Business Valuation and Advisory Services at DeJoy & Co., joins Blake to discuss his unconventional career path and the world of business valuation. Anthony shares his journey from audit to tax and eventually to valuation, highlighting the importance of soft skills and effective communication in advisory roles. He also provides valuable insights into the day-to-day life of a valuation professional and offers advice for young CPAs interested in pursuing this career path.Meet Our Guest, Anthony VenetteLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyvenettecpaabv/Learn more about DeJoy & Co.https://www.teamdejoy.com/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David delve into the accounting and bookkeeping aspects of Donald Trump's recent guilty verdict in New York. They discuss the charges related to falsifying business records and hush money payments and explore the potential implications for Trump's businesses and campaign. Their conversation also touches on the current state of AI in accounting, the retirement of AICPA president Barry Melancon, and the challenges facing the profession in attracting new talent.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Zoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zoho Blue Onion - http://accountingpodcast.promo/blueonion Bean - http://accountingpodcast.promo/beanChapters(01:10) - Breaking Down Trump's Guilty Verdict (02:56) - Analyzing the Charges (04:52) - Legal Implications and Campaign Finance (07:54) - Trump's Bookkeeping and Legal Strategies (10:01) - Asking ChatGPT How This Entry Should Have Been Coded (17:14) - Commercial Real Estate and Trump's Properties (24:50) - Puzzle Accounting and AI Automation (29:15) - Rose Financial's EASBY adds AI (33:23) - Challenges in AI Categorization (34:07) - Human Oversight in AI Accounting (35:38) - Digits' AI Performance and Market Comparison (39:10) - Live Listener Question: Career Path in Accounting (42:28) - University of Scranton Brags About Number of Accounting Papers They've Published (43:00) - AICPA's Future as President Barry Melancon Announces Retirement (52:32) - App Review: Rose AI-Powered Spreadsheet (54:34) - Watch Our TurboTax Business Assisted 2024 Review and Listen to the Best Metrics Podcast (57:07) - Earn CPE For Listening To Our Podcast  Show Notes"Who's the victim of Trump's Bookkeeping?" Washington Examinerhttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/3014100/who-is-the-victim-of-trumps-bookkeeping/ Trump May Owe $100 Million From Double-Dip Tax Breaks, Audit Showshttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/11/us/trump-taxes-audit-chicago.html The Office-Market Meltdown Comes for Trump’s Prized Wall Street Buildinghttps://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/the-office-market-meltdown-comes-for-trumps-prized-wall-street-building-31b3a667 Profession Leader Humbly Requests You STFU About Long Hours, Busy Season, and Stresshttps://www.goingconcern.com/profession-leader-humbly-requests-you-stfu-about-long-hours-busy-season-and-stress/ New AICPA chair: ‘We need to promote the cool work we do’https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2024/jun/new-aicpa-chair-we-need-to-promote-the-cool-work-we-do.html Rose Financial Solutions Sets Goal to Automate 85% of Finance and Accounting Activities by 2030https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rose-financial-solutions-sets-goal-to-automate-85-of-finance-and-accounting-activities-by-2030-302145576.html TAP: TurboTax Business Assisted Review 2024 (for Tax Year 2023)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaaMIV1lyns Check out Best Metrics here: https://bestmetrics.transistor.fm/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Dr. Mfon Akpan, Assistant Professor of Accounting at Methodist University joins Blake and David for a conversation on the impact of AI on accounting education, the challenges faced by accounting graduates entering the workforce, and the future of the CPA profession. Dr. Akpan shares his insights on incorporating AI into the classroom and the importance of lifelong learning in the rapidly evolving world of technology.Sponsors Cloud Accountant Staffing - http://accountingpodcast.promo/casKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeperBean - http://accountingpodcast.promo/beanChapters(01:43) - AI in Accounting Education (02:49) - Prompting Techniques for AI (04:36) - Practical Applications of AI in Accounting (05:52) - Challenges and Benefits of AI in Education (07:00) - Incorporating AI into Accounting Curriculum (15:07) - Debate on Accounting Education and Skills Gap (23:51) - The 5th-Year Requirement for CPAs (35:01) - The Value of Personal Interaction in Education (35:42) - The Importance of Smaller Class Sizes (37:33) - The Role of AI in Education (41:29) - Improving Salaries in the Accounting Profession (43:09) - The Impact of Technology on Accounting Jobs (43:55) - Balancing Work and Life in Accounting (56:26) - The Future of Accounting Education (01:00:27) - Embracing AI in Accounting (01:03:30) - Final Thoughts and Conclusion  Meet our Guest, Dr. Mfon AkpanWebsite: https://mfonakpan.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmfonakpan/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David dig into reports from the Illinois CPA Society and National Pipeline Advisory Group highlighting issues like long work hours, the 150-hour rule, and low starting salaries. They examine the potential disruption of traditional accounting software by startups and vertical SaaS companies offering embedded accounting functionality and review some of the CPA Practice Advisor Readers' Choice Awards. Wrapping things up, they highlight the health risks of long working hours, and discuss the need for better work-life balance in accounting firms, based on a recent WHO report.SponsorsOnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpay Cloud Accountant Staffing - http://accountingpodcast.promo/casKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeperBlue Onion - http://accountingpodcast.promo/blueonionChapters(01:44) - Does QuickBooks have some new competition? (07:05) - Layer wants to be a GL service (10:08) - Lili's place in the marketspace (13:26) - The role of accountants in software success (16:28) - CPA Practice Advisor's 2024 Reader Choice Awards (18:53) - Illinois CPA Society survey results (25:31) - WHO publishes estimates on health costs from working long hours (30:02) - The long-awaited NPAG Impact Report was released! (33:11) - Identifying pipeline problems (35:06) - Reasons students don't choose accounting majors (49:45) - Final points from report (53:31) - Blake's theory on why accounting starting salaries are low (01:00:15) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show NotesTeal Announces $8M Seed Investment to Drive Next-Gen Accounting Products for Vertical SaaShttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240520567117/en/Teal-Announces-8M-Seed-Investment-to-Drive-Next-Gen-Accounting-Products-for-Vertical-SaaSEmbedded accounting startup Layer secures $2.3M toward goal of replacing QuickBookshttps://techcrunch.com/2024/05/15/embedded-accounting-layer-2-3m-quickbooks/?guccounter=1Illinois CPA Society Releases Updated CPA Pipeline Reporthttps://www.icpas.org/about-us/press/press-release-details/2024/05/16/illinois-cpa-society-releases-updated-cpa-pipeline-reportNational Pipeline Advisory Group releases draft strategy reporthttps://www.accountingpipeline.org/draft-report/Embedded accounting startup Layer secures $2.3M toward goal of replacing Quickbooks | TechCrunch                https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/15/embedded-accounting-layer-2-3m-quickbooks/ The Best Tech for Accounting Firms: CPAs Voted for Readers Choice Tech Awards        https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/05/15/2024-cpa-practice-advisor-readers-choice-award-winners-announced/105089/ Lili Launches New Accountant AI for Small Business Financial Management   https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/05/16/lili-launches-new-accountant-ai-for-small-business-financial-management/105520/ Embedded accounting startup Layer secures $2.3M toward goal of replacing QuickBooks     https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/15/embedded-accounting-layer-2-3m-quickbooks/ Kabbage Inc. Settles Allegations of PPP Fraud        https://smallbiztrends.com/?p=1487492 US accounting group bows to calls for faster path for recruitshttps://www.ft.com/content/b6562303-cfda-4c6e-bb7b-8fe6e092bb01 National Pipeline Advisory Group releases draft strategy report - National Pipeline Advisory Group   https://www.accountingpipeline.org/draft-report/ Bench and Shopify alumni announce $11M CAD to build “the Stripe for accounting” with Teal - BetaKit                https://betakit.com/bench-and-shopify-alumni-announce-11-million-cad-to-build-the-stripe-for-accounting-with-teal/ Embedded accounting startup Teal raises $8M seed          https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2024/05/20/embedded-accounting-teal-8-million-seed The Indicator from Planet Money : NPRhttps://www.npr.org/2024/05/17/1197964709/trade-wars-and-talent-shortages Canadian fintech Teal raises $8M to build ‘Stripe for accounting’               https://techfundingnews.com/canadian-fintech-teal-raises-8m-to-build-stripe-for-accounting/ Kabbage to pay $120M in PPP fraud settlements with DOJhttps://www.bankingdive.com/news/kabbage-pay-120-million-ppp-fraud-doj-small-business-loan-pandemic/716053/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or

This week, Blake and David are puzzled by the results of a survey that shows 40% of tax professionals believe generative AI will allow them to charge clients higher rates. They also cover the sham audit firm BF Borgers and question why the firm's CPA is still licensed despite SEC charges. Blake demonstrates how he uses Zapier Central to build an AI agent that can automatically respond to client emails about the status of their tax returns. Wrapping up, they examine Digits' $35 million raise and pivot to bill pay, and Xero's new filtering functionality for bank reconciliations. SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Cloud Accountant Staffing - http://accountingpodcast.promo/casKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeperBlue Onion - http://accountingpodcast.promo/blueonionChapters(00:53) - Generative AI's Impact on Pricing (05:39) - The Curious Case of BF Borgers and Sham Audits (08:19) - The Slow Response of Regulatory Bodies to Fraud (18:07) - NASBA Hires New President (19:24) - NASBA and the CPA Exam: A Call for Modernization (28:16) - The Trump Stormy Daniels NY Trial (35:19) - Rudy Giuliani's Financial Woes: A Deep Dive (38:18) - Building AI Agents with Zapier Central: A How-To Guide (39:38) - AI Tools for Productivity: Insights from ClickUp (40:41) - The Power of AI in Automating Client Communication (48:04) - The Big Money in AI-Powered Practice Management (53:54) - Bill Pay Innovations and Market Dynamics (55:12) - Xero's New Features and Bank Feed Improvements (58:58) - The Real Value of Dashboards in Business Management (01:04:10) - Closing Remarks and Future Events  Show NotesRudy Giuliani Forced to Learn Accounting After Bankruptcy Beancounter Bailshttps://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-forced-to-learn-accounting-after-bankruptcy-beancounter-bails Stormy Daniels payment puts focus on Trump and check-writing as trial testimony resumeshttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/former-white-house-executive-assistant-stand-trump-trial-dramatic-stor-rcna151578 Trump Accountant on His Stormy Daniels Coverup Notes: ‘I Made a Boo-Boo’https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-accountant-stormy-daniels-coverup-152934446.html Trump Accountant Exposes Checks to Michael Cohen in Damning Testimonyhttps://newrepublic.com/post/181344/trump-accountant-checks-signed-michael-cohen-hush-money-trial What’s new in Xero — May 2024 - Xero Blog      https://blog.xero.com/product-updates/whats-new-in-xero-may-2024/ End of Trump Media’s Auditor Jolts Hundreds of Other Companies      https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/end-of-trump-medias-auditor-jolts-hundreds-of-other-companies Trump Media hires new auditor after previous accounting firm charged with 'massive fraud'  https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/06/trump-media-hires-new-auditor-after-accounting-firm-charged-with-fraud.html Digits Launches AI Bill Pay for Small Businesses            https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2024/digits-launches-ai-bill-pay-for-small-businesses/ Countsy Debuts Platform to Streamline Back-Office Managementhttps://www.pymnts.com/back-office/2024/countsy-debuts-platform-to-streamline-back-office-management/ Why we’re calling 2024 ‘the year of the US bank feed’  https://blog.xero.com/product-updates/year-of-the-us-bank-feed/ Let's Meet NASBA's Next President and CEO    https://www.goingconcern.com/lets-meet-nasbas-next-president-and-ceo/ Digits Launches AI Bill Pay for Small Businesses            https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2024/digits-launches-ai-bill-pay-for-small-businesses/ Digits AI Bill Pay -- The World's First AI Bill Pay, Built Specifically For Startupshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digits-ai-bill-pay--the-worlds-first-ai-bill-pay-built-specifically-for-startups-302131944.html Imagine the Chaos If the PCAOB Starts Naming and Shaming Audit Deficiency Clientshttps://www.goingconcern.com/imagine-the-chaos-if-the-pcaob-starts-naming-and-shaming-audit-deficiency-clients/ 'Nobody seems interested' in helping Giuliani with accounting in bankruptcy case, lawyers claimhttps://thehill.com/video/%e2%80%98nobody-seems-interested%e2%80%99-in-helping-giuliani-with-accounting-in-bankruptcy-case-lawyers-claim/9675968/Canopy Secures $35 Million in Funding to Enhance AI-Powered Practice Management for Accounting Firms https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/709723429/canopy-secures-35-million-in-funding-to-enhance-ai-powered-practice-management-for-accounting-firms  Trump Media Replaces Its Accounting Firm BF Borgers With Semple, Marchal & Cooperhttps://www.fxleaders.com/news/2024/05/06/trump-media-replaces-its-accounting-firm-bf-borgers-with-semple-marchal-cooper/ Trump Org. accounting system was de...

Cody Turley, CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner, joins Blake and David to discuss his SEC career path, describing what it's like to investigate securities law violations. He emphasizes that while Big Four experience is valuable, it's not the only way to have a successful and meaningful accounting career. Cody shares insights into the benefits of working in government accounting roles, including greater responsibility early on, work-life balance, and the ability to transition to public accounting or industry later if desired.Meet Our Guest, Cody TurleyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-turley-cpa-cff-cfe-776254122/Learn about SEC internship opportunities: https://www.sec.gov/pathways-internship-programNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The SEC charged Trump's audit firm with a massive fraud – 1,500 fake filings over 2.5 years! Plus, hundreds of small US banks are at risk due to commercial real estate loan exposure. We're also talking about the potential of AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT to automate various accounting and business tasks, the controversial Corporate Transparency Act's beneficial ownership reporting requirements, and the possibility of its repeal. We wrap with fintech and crypto news, including Mercury Bank's rapid growth and potential regulatory issues.Sponsors Zoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoRelay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relayKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeperHarbor Compliance - http://accountingpodcast.promo/harborChapters(09:04) - Anthropic launches Claude for teams (11:12) - More LLM models pass CPA exam (18:28) - Blake demonstrates AI's abiity to help with emails (32:56) - 28 AI prompts for small businesses (36:39) - Oregon Senator going after TurboTax to issue refunds to Oregonians (38:44) - The possibility of a regional banking crisis (48:12) - The Corporate Transparency Act might be repealed (54:15) - Tether claims they can't find a Big 4 firm to audit them (56:54) - Mecurity Bank being looked at by FDIC (01:02:05) - Square to allow users to transfer percent of daily sales to Bitcoin (01:03:26) - Download and sign up for the Earmark app  Show NotesAnthropic launches a free Claude iOS app and Team, its first enterprise plan | ZDNEThttps://www.zdnet.com/article/anthropic-launches-a-free-claude-ios-app-and-team-its-first-enterprise-plan/ SEC.gov | SEC Charges Audit Firm BF Borgers and Its Owner with Massive Fraud Affecting More Than 1,500 SEC Filingshttps://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2024-51 Oregon senator demands refunds for TurboTax customers over glitch | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/oregon-senator-demands-refunds-for-turbotax-customers-over-glitch Can LLMs Pass the CPA Exam? Evaluating Large Language Model Performance on the Certified Public Accountant Test by Will Zacher, Sanmukh Kuppannagari :: SSRN           https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4788096 Sam Altman says helpful agents are poised to become AI’s killer function | MIT Technology Review    https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/01/1091979/sam-altman-says-helpful-agents-are-poised-to-become-ais-killer-function/ Why hundreds of U.S. banks may be at risk of failure   https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/why-hundreds-of-us-banks-may-be-at-risk-of-failure.html Tether CEO Says An Audit By A Big Four Giant Is Our Top Priority            https://coingape.com/tether-ceo-says-an-audit-by-a-big-four-giant-is-our-top-prioritterrestrialBlock lets Square merchants convert a part of their daily sales to bitcoinhttps://techcrunch.com/2024/04/24/block-now-lets-square-merchants-convert-a-part-of-their-daily-sales-to-bitcoin/ The 28 best AI prompts for small businesses    https://www.sage.com/en-us/blog/the-28-best-ai-prompts-for-small-businesses/ Congress considers how to fix the Corporate Transparency Acthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/congress-considers-how-to-fix-the-corporate-transparency-act Article from www.congress.gov              https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8147/cosponsors Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to 4 months in prison after plea dealhttps://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/30/binance-founder-changpeng-zhao-cz-sentenced-to-four-months-in-prison-.htmlNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher:

Blake and David examine the latest tax legislation traveling through Congress, including a new bill requiring the IRS to provide detailed explanations for math errors on tax returns. They also discuss the IRS's new direct file program, the banning of non-compete agreements, and the coolest profession around (spoiler alert: it's not accounting). Lastly, they touch on the concerning data breach at BerryDunn and the AICPA's efforts to rebrand the CPA to attract more young people to the field.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Zoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeperHarbor Compliance - http://accountingpodcast.promo/harborChapters(02:40) - New proposed IRS Math Act (05:42) - IRS wraps first season with free file program (09:44) - "The Magician" tax preparer arrested for $100 million tax fraud (15:11) - The future of social security (19:01) - Sam Bankman-Fried makes a deal in civil suit (20:34) - FTC rules noncompetes are unlawful (25:32) - Ryan Tax Firm challenges FTC noncompete ruling (28:04) - QuickBooks Live announcement upsets accountants (41:24) - Anonymous listener says you can work normal hours and still make money (44:45) - Accountant charged with embezzling $800k from CA paving firm (47:53) - Ryanair CEO thinks more accountants should be running airlines (55:39) - Accounting firm sued for data leak (57:36) - CPA "Coolest Profession Around) (01:01:49) - What is "Accounting Plus" (01:06:52) - NASBA offers The Accountancy Licensing Library (01:10:14) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show NotesAccountant Charged With Embezzling $800,000 From Paving Firm in California - CPA Practice Advisor            https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/04/25/virginia-accountant-charged-with-embezzling-800000-from-richmond-paving-firm/104508/ Ryan Leads Charge Against Biden’s Ban on Noncompete Clauses - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/04/26/ryan-leads-charge-against-bidens-ban-on-noncompete-agreements/104537/ Move Over, TurboTax? IRS Considers Expanding Free Tax-Filing Program – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/taxes/irs-considers-expanding-free-tax-filing-program-8f68cc9a?st=0akqqiu2v0gjb8v Boeing Needs Another Accountant As CEO, Says Ryanair CEO – Avwebhttps://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/boeing-needs-another-accountant-as-ceo-says-ryanair-ceo/ Ultra-Rich Should Pay More Taxes to Save Social Security, Poll Shows - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/04/25/ultra-rich-should-pay-more-taxes-to-save-social-security-poll-shows/104458/ FTC Bans Noncompete Agreements That Restrict Job Switching – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/ftc-bans-noncompete-clauses-that-restrict-job-switching-984d2187?st=sxhwibcr49evqxc Bronx tax preparer known as "the magician" arrested for $100 million tax fraud | ADN Américahttps://adnamerica.com/en/new-york/bronx-tax-preparer-known-magician-arrested-100-million-tax-fraud With close calls mounting, the FAA will require more rest for air traffic controllershttps://www.npr.org/2024/04/22/1246349237/close-calls-faa-air-traffic-control-fatigue New bill would force IRS to explain tax return errors | The Hillhttps://thehill.com/business/4602429-new-bill-would-force-irs-to-explain-tax-return-errors/ The Accountancy Licensing Library: Your Ultimate Resource for CPA Licensure | NASBAhttps://nasba.org/blog/2024/04/01/the-accountancy-licensing-library-your-ultimate-resource-for-cpa-licensure/ The cost of doing your taxes are up nearly 10% this year – Marketplacehttps://www.marketplace.org/2024/03/15/tax-preaparation-costs-up-nearly-10-percent/Sam Bankman-Fried agrees to help FTX investors in lawsuits against Tom Brady, Larry Davidhttps://nypost.com/2024/04/22/business/sam-bankman-fried-agrees-to-help-ftx-investors-in-lawsuits-against-tom-brady-larry-david/ Intuit Hosting 'QuickBooks Live' Webinar           https://insightfulaccountant.com/in-the-news/people-and-business/intuit-hosting-quickbooks-live-webinar/ QuickBooks "Live Experts" May Not Be So Badhttps://insightfulaccountant.com/accounting-tech/general-ledger/quickbooks-live-experts-may-not-be-so-bad/ Millions more salaried workers will be eligible for overtime pay under final Biden administration rulehttps://www.cnn.com/2024/04/23/politics/overtime-pay-salaried-workers-biden/index.html Senators introduce bill to simplify IRS notices https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/senators-introduce-bill-to-simplify-irs-notices IRS Says It Saw ‘Strong Response’ From Direct File Pilot Users This Tax Seasonhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/04/26/irs-saw-strong-response-from-direct-file-pilot-users-this-tax-season/104545/ U.S. accounting firm Be...

Blake Oliver sits down with Brannon Poe of Poe Group Advisors to discuss the differences between traditional and subscription-based virtual accounting firms. Brannon shares his expertise on firm valuation, revealing that factors like cash flow to owner and owner hours play a significant role in determining a firm's value. He also emphasizes the importance of pricing strategies, noting that implementing value pricing and subscription models can dramatically improve a firm's profitability and overall value. Throughout the conversation, Brannon provides valuable insights and real-world examples to help firm owners maximize their firm's value in preparation for a potential sale.Meet Our Guest, Brannon PoeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/poe-group-advisors/Twitter: https://twitter.com/poegroupadvisorFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PoeGroupAdvisors/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poegroup/Learn more about Poe Group AdvisorsWebsite: https://poegroupadvisors.com/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David take a dive into Google's decision to offshore accounting jobs to Mexico and India, which Google’s CFO claims is necessary to free up resources to invest in AI. They also discuss the stagnation of CPA salaries despite a shortage of talent. The conversation touches on a variety of other topics, including the modernization of the IRS, the future of the CPA profession, and advice for young accountants looking to carve their own career paths in a rapidly changing industry.Sponsors Relay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relay Zoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeperSettle - http://accountingpodcast.promo/settleChapters(05:53) - Blake reads some tweets about hours people are working during busy season (10:52) - Unlimited PTO is worse for employees (13:22) - College degrees aren't necessary for success (20:24) - Florida creates retired CPA status (23:35) - Listener mail on the 150-hour rule and salaries (29:16) - Update on Boston's commercial real estate woes (33:48) - Why office rent prices are still so high (43:10) - Some encouraging IRS news (48:27) - Internal audit reveals 279 former IRS employees or contractors still had access to logins (52:12) - Offshoring can be good or bad (54:04) - Setting a limit on billable hours (55:50) - Let accounting firms decide what requirements accountants need (58:08) - The rise of the "remote partner" (01:04:00) - Wrap up and Earmark now has a web browser version  Show NotesGoogle restructures finance team as part of AI shift, CFO tells employees in memohttps://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/17/google-restructures-finance-team-as-a-part-of-ai-shift-cfo-tells-employees-in-memo.html Josh Youngblood, EA didn’t work over 40 hours per week in tax seasonhttps://x.com/joshyoungblood/status/1779858374403747847?s=12 Skills-Based Hiring Can Shred the Paper Ceiling | BCGhttps://www.bcg.com/capabilities/diversity-inclusion/expert-insights/skill-based-hiring-can-shred-paper-ceiling The Office Market Is in Turmoil. So Why Are Rents More Expensive? – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/the-office-market-is-in-turmoil-so-why-are-rents-more-expensive-d096f961?st=9ieavh5j7ep3wcw Florida Legislature Passes Bill Creating New Retired CPA Status | Florida Institute of CPAshttps://www.ficpa.org/publication/florida-legislature-passes-bill-creating-new-retired-cpa-status Kyle J. Bauman, CPA on X: "“Unlimited PTO” “Only 2100 Hours”https://twitter.com/kjb_cpa/status/1763595505928442248 62% of Americans Lack a College Degree. Can They Solve the Labor Shortage?https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/employers-open-more-doors-to-workers-without-degrees-but-few-are-getting-in-732f1098 Senior Leaders Nearly Twice as Likely To Receive AI Resources as Junior Staff | CFOhttps://www.cfo.com/news/senior-leaders-are-nearly-twice-as-likely-to-receive-ai-guidance/707230/ IRS didn't remove contractors' access to sensitive information | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-didnt-remove-contractors-access-to-sensitive-information Boston mulls commercial tax hike        https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/boston-mulls-commercial-tax-hike-to-counter-office-market-slump IRS Commissioner Delivers End Of Tax Filing Season Message Touting Improvementshttps://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2024/04/15/irs-commissioner-delivers-end-of-tax-filing-season-message-touting-improvements/ Florida Creates New Status for Retired CPAs in the State          https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/04/15/florida-creates-new-status-for-retired-cpas-in-the-state/103983/ Treasury cash balance jumps most in 2 years as tax payments risehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/treasury-cash-balance-jumps-most-in-2-years-as-tax-payments-rise The rise of the remote accounting firm partner               https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/the-rise-of-the-remote-accounting-firm-partner Werfel sees IRS budget request yielding $341B in extra revenuehttps://www.cfodive.com/news/werfel-sees-irs-budget-request-yielding-341b-extra-revenue-tax-taxation-enforcement/713534/ Google restructures finance team as part of AI shift, CFO tells employees in memohttps://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/17/google-restructures-finance-team-as-a-part-of-ai-shift-cfo-tells-employees-in-memo.html Despite moratorium, IRS gets 20,000 ERC claims weekly, Werfel sayshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2024/apr/despite-moratorium-irs-gets-20000-erc-claims-weekly-werfel-says.htmlNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.com...

Blake and David delve into the effects of remote work on accountant salaries and the mental health challenges faced by auditors at Big Four firms. They inspect a recent study showing lower pay for hybrid workers compared to fully remote or in-office employees. They also contemplate the future of work organization inspired by Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer, and discuss the potential impact of AI on the accounting profession, the accuracy of AI-related surveys, and the misrepresentation of AI capabilities in recent news headlines.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Uncat - http://accountingpodcast.promo/uncatEarmark - https://earmark.appSettle - http://accountingpodcast.promo/settleChapters(00:34) - Will accountants soon earn overtime pay? (04:57) - Listener writes in about their own audit experience at a Top-30 firm (08:14) - Trump's Truth Social audit update (14:44) - PCAOB proposed audit metrics (20:44) - 71% of Big 4 auditors worry about mental health (23:27) - Blake shares a clip from new Bayer CEO (33:48) - H&R Block employees prefer remote work (38:14) - Remote accountants get paid less (39:35) - Executives and managers perceive in-office workers as higher performers (42:06) - The four day work week is becoming more common (45:27) - Cody writes in about Big 4 vs industry (47:09) - Hannah asks about outsourcing and offshoring costs (49:59) - Amazon Fresh stores were using Indian employees for "just walk out" tech (55:22) - Shohei Ohtani's translator charged in sports gambling case (58:14) - Accounting Today wrongly claims accountants are saving 30 hours a week on average using AI (01:01:34) - Blake shares a clip from the All In podcast on the future of AI (01:04:48) - Is it time for a new ERP system? (01:07:47) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show Notes71% of Big 4 Auditors Worry About Mental Health | CFO             https://www.cfo.com/news/71-of-big-4-auditors-worry-about-mental-health/712063/ Will Getting Rid of Bosses Fix the Workplace? - The Journal. - WSJ Podcastshttps://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/will-getting-rid-of-bosses-fix-the-workplace/fc0d31d3-2d08-441e-abd8-d77b660fe258 59% of accountants use AI to save about 30 hours a week on tasks | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/59-of-accountants-use-ai-to-save-about-30-hours-a-week-on-tasks Y Combinator wants to fund new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software"https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3-zHmOIqbI/?igsh=dTMxMDBjNGg3a2p0 Ohtani translator charged with stealing millions for 19,000 bets | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/ohtani-translator-charged-with-stealing-millions-for-19-000-bets KPMG Fined Record $25 Million in Exam-Cheating Scandal – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/kpmg-fined-25-million-over-alleged-netherlands-exam-cheating-a4dcba2a?st=yl6xiqm8nh6gug8 Botkeeper Infinite replaces outsourcing with more AI to help firms automate | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/botkeeper-infinite-replaces-outsourcing-with-more-ai-to-help-firms-automate More Companies Adopt 4-Day Work Week - CPA Practice Advisor        https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/03/27/more-companies-adopt-4-day-work-week/103199/ When Layoffs Happen, Remote Workers Are Hardest Hit - WSJ               https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/layoffs-remote-work-data-980ed59d?reflink=integratedwebview_share Does Working from Home Boost Productivity Growth? | San Francisco Fed     https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2024/january/does-working-from-home-boost-productivity-growth/Trump Media's Accounting Firm Has Audit Deficiency History https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-media-accounting-firm-history-150150627.html Amazon's Just Walk Out Actually Uses 1,000 People in Indiahttps://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4 PCAOB Wallops KPMG Netherlands With Record $25M Fine For Exam Cheatinghttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/04/10/pcaob-wallops-kpmg-in-the-netherlands-with-25-million-fine-for-exam-cheating/103803/ PCAOB crackdown shifting to focus on auditing firmshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pcaob-crackdown-shifting-to-focus-on-auditing-firms PCAOB Proposal Would Require Audit Firms to Disclose a Variety of Metricshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/04/10/pcaob-issues-proposal-requiring-audit-firms-to-disclose-variety-of-metrics/103758/ PCAOB proposals call for firms to disclose more about themselveshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2024/apr/pcaob-proposals-call-firms-to-disclose-more-about-themselves.html Only 48% of accounting, consulting, legal, and private capital professionals have used AI tools at work despite near ...

Joe Woodard joins Blake and David to examine how accountants and bookkeepers can increase the value of their services in the eyes of their clients. Joe introduces the Cobb value curve, illustrating how differentiation and relative value impact pricing. He emphasizes the importance of offering unique, high-value services like controllership and financial planning to stand out from commoditized offerings and command premium prices.Meet Our Guest, Joe WoodardLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quickbooksadvisorTwitter: https://twitter.com/joewoodardLearn more about WoodardWebsite: http://www.woodard.comNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David dive into the concerning trend of small CPA firms conducting shoddy audits of large companies and SPACs, raking in big fees while facing minimal consequences for deficient work. They also discuss the latest accounting app funding news, the power of AI for crafting persuasive arguments, and the American Institute of CPAs' puzzling resistance to changes in CPA licensure requirements and touch on the growing importance of client accounting services for public accounting firms.Sponsors Cloud Accountant Staffing - http://accountingpodcast.promo/cas Uncat - http://accountingpodcast.promo/uncatEarmark - https://earmark.appChapters(00:38) - Blake is back from a conference in Atlanta (03:58) - The truth behind Trump's Truth Social SPAC audit (19:27) - AI startup Fieldguide secures $30 million in Series B funding (22:43) - FundGuard secures $100 million in Series C funding round (24:28) - BotKeeper launches BotKeeper Infinite (30:03) - Scientists find that AI is more persuasive than humans at changing people's opinions (38:15) - Formula 1 team using Excel to track car parts (40:08) - CAS is the fastest-growing service in Accounting Today's annual survey (42:08) - The AICPA warns about losing the 150-hour rule (49:20) - Send us an email and remember you can earn FREE CPE for listening to this podcast!  Show NotesFieldguide Raises $30 Million to Combat CPA Shortage With AIhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2024/fieldguide-raises-30-million-to-combat-cpa-shortage-with-ai/AI accounting startup raises $100Mhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/ai-accounting-startup-fundguard-raises-100m-in-new-fundsOn the Conversational Persuasiveness of Large Language Models: A Randomized Controlled Trial (PDF) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.14380.pdf?utm_source=www.therundown.ai&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=nvidia-s-new-ai-chip-competitor The year CAS took overhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/the-year-cas-took-over-accountingNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://royalwise.com/partnerForwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David dig through the latest accounting news, including the effectiveness of pizza parties in boosting accounting firm morale, the record number of baby boomers reaching retirement age, and the impact on Social Security, as well as the massive amount of COVID-related fraud originating in South Florida. They also take a look at audit integrity issues, the long working hours in accounting, and some of the latest app headlines.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Relay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relay Bookkeep - http://accountingpodcast.promo/bookkeepChapters(00:22) - Thomson Reuters says pizza parties boost accountants morale (03:33) - Trump cheats at golf (04:50) - Truth Social goes public (07:41) - Grant Thornton sells majority stake to private equity firm (12:28) - Almost 20% of all PPP fraud happened in South Florida (17:59) - 49ers docked 5th round draft pick for accounting error (20:08) - Sam Bankman Freed sentenced to 25 years in prison (22:29) - David shares WSJ video on the future of social security (31:16) - Tingo audit faulire update (41:48) - Big 4 Transparency firm awards (50:28) - Blake takes on a Reddit user's problem (56:35) - Microsoft Teams combining business and personal offerings (57:04) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show NotesFTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/sam-bankman-fried-sentencing-ftx-fraud-2d92fce9?st=d45lmr6uc8gg6wcTrump ‘cheats like a mafia accountant’ at golf, writer who played with him says - pennlive.com https://www.pennlive.com/news/2024/03/trump-cheats-like-a-mafia-accountant-at-golf-writer-who-played-with-him-says.htmlBig 4 Transparency - Awards Season 🏆 https://big4transparency.beehiiv.com/p/big-4-transparency-awards-season?utm_source=big4transparency.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=big-4-transparency-awards-seasonPCAOB bars Colorado firm Gries & Associates from doing audits | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pcaob-bars-colorado-firm-from-doing-auditsSan Francisco 49ers docked 2025 fifth-round draft pick for accounting error | FOX Sports https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/san-francisco-49ers-docked-2025-fifth-round-draft-pick-for-accounting-errorGrant Thornton gets major PE stake from New Mountain Capital | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/grant-thornton-gets-major-pe-stakeHow Miami Became a Hub of PPP Fraud After Pandemichttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/03/26/how-miami-became-a-hub-of-ppp-fraud-after-pandemic/103156/ Audit Plan to Flag Illegal Acts Needs Do-Over, Critics Chargehttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/audit-plan-to-flag-illegal-acts-needs-do-over-critics-charge Blackrock larry fink annual letter 8484e68e      https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/blackrock-larry-fink-annual-letter-8484e68e Ahead of sentencing, SBF team argues for 5-6 years in jail because FTX customers will get money back          https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/27/sbf-team-argues-for-5-6-year-sentence-ftx-customers-to-get-money-back.html The Home Stretch: Strategies & insights for today’s tax professionals as their busy season concludes              https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/tax-and-accounting/home-stretch-tax-professionals/ Trump's social media company rises 16% in first day trading gains, but the stock could fall 95%, says an IPO expert  https://fortune.com/2024/03/26/trump-social-media-rises-trading-gains-fall-expert/ FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years in prison           https://www.bankingdive.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-25-years-prison-fraud-conspiracy-ftx-crypto-sbf-kaplan-alameda/711601/ IRS Criminal Investigation Says COVID-Related Fraud Totaled Nearly $9 Billionhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2024/03/28/irs-criminal-investigation-says-covid-related-fraud-totaled-nearly-9-billion/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? ...

Blake and David meet with M&A advisor Charles Bedard about valuations for accounting firms looking to sell. Bedard explains that subscription-based "modern" firms command much higher multiples than traditional hourly billing firms. Bedard provides specific valuation ranges based on revenue and EBITDA multiples and highlights the importance of recurring revenue. He also offers actionable tips for firm owners to increase their value in preparation for an exit.Meet Our Guest, Charles BedardLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesbedard/Twitter: https://twitter.com/SolvingtheValueLearn more about ERGO Comps, LLChttp://www.ergocomps.com/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David look at the potential impact of AI on the accounting profession and discuss how AI tools like ChatGPT can boost productivity by automating tasks, improving communication, and assisting with problem-solving. They also examine the implications of these efficiency gains on the billable hour, predicting that firms will need to adapt their pricing strategies as a result. Finally, they review the results of a recent Accounting Today survey, which reveals accountants' perceptions and concerns about AI in the profession.Sponsors OnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpayKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeper Bookkeep - http://accountingpodcast.promo/bookkeepChapters(02:24) - The inefficiency at Disney World compared to accountants and timesheets (09:38) - JP Morgan AI tool cuts human work by 90% (11:14) - BofA Cash Pro Forecasting (18:29) - Blake checks in on live chat (19:11) - Survey on how much people actually want to work (27:17) - Kindness initiatives at firms (28:26) - Is gratitude better than a pay raise? (29:34) - New Accounting Today AI survey (40:00) - Blake shares example of how he used AI in his personal life (42:36) - Forbes article on ChatGPT prompts for leaders and managers (55:29) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show NotesJPMorgan Says Its AI Cashflow Tool Cut Human Work Almost 90%https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/jpmorgan-says-its-ai-cashflow-tool-cut-human-work-almost-90/470682 Accounting's reluctant AI revolution    https://www.accountingtoday.com/research-report/accountings-reluctant-ai-revolution Firms find it’s cool to be kind    https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2024/mar/firms-find-its-cool-to-be-kind.html Bank Of America CashPro Forecasting               https://business.bofa.com/en-us/content/cashpro-forecasting.htmlAmericans Don’t Care as Much About Work. And It Isn’t Just Gen Z.https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/americans-attitude-work-data-0c2e487c?st=zyx80zw1zyfu1jfGratitude is Better Than a Pay Raise for 55% of U.S. Workers, Survey Findshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/02/29/gratitude-is-better-than-a-pay-raise-for-55-of-u-s-workers/102148/12 ChatGPT Prompts For Leaders And Managers In 2024https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelwells/2024/01/23/12-chatgpt-prompts-for-leaders-and-managers-in-2024/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://royalwise.com/partnerForwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Professor Ed Ketz of Penn State joins the show to discuss audits' current state and future. We delve into the relevance of audits and explore the value of unqualified opinions in making audits meaningful. The discussion also touches on the overstandardization of audit reports and how this can lead to investor misunderstandings. Professor Ketz brings a unique perspective, sparking a debate on whether the existence of the unqualified opinion creates value rather than the content within. The episode ends with a brainstorm on potential regulation improvements to improve audit quality and usefulness.Meet Our Guest, Ed KetzWebsite: https://directory.smeal.psu.edu/k55LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-ketz-7982421a7Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David start with a discussion on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony regarding the failure of small and mid-sized banks due to exposure to the commercial real estate sector. They also get into Minnesota's CPA licensure bill for 150-hour requirement alternatives and KPMG's audit findings on the Department of Education and the cost of the federal student loan program. Rounding out the episode, they answer listener questions and comments on topics including the psychological challenges of CPA firm employment, NASBA's lack of customer service, and the high fees for taking the CPA exam internationally.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeperClient Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters(00:28) - Welcome to the show, how much trouble are small banks in? (06:49) - Minnesota CPA Society's Pathways CPA Licensure Bill advances in Senate (10:08) - Our listener plugs a security hole in tax client portal software (14:03) - The cultural issues that plague the accounting profession (20:57) - Fortune magazine article that CPAs need to tell their stories (24:39) - Should we have a federal CPA license? (27:45) - The government doesn't know the costs of student loans (34:54) - Christy shares a positive message (36:12) - Does starting your career at Big 4 lead to better industry jobs? (40:33) - Alex writes in about problems they had scheduling their CPA exam (45:46) - IRS inviting biggest ERC filers to learn the correct way to file them (50:25) - Tax preparer using basic Word doc to collect information (51:55) - Listener replies to Blake's Accounting Today article (54:18) - The international costs to take the CPA exam (57:36) - The firm and work culture issue (58:43) - Why students don't want to major in accounting (59:30) - Thanks for listening! The new Earmark app is coming soon!  Show NotesCould CPAs telling their stories be the key to attracting Gen Zers to accounting? A PwC vice chair thinks so   https://fortune.com/2023/11/15/cpa-attracting-gen-z-accounting-pwc/ Senate File 1660, the MNCPA-backed bill to broaden the pathways to CPA licensure, advanced in the Minnesota Senate on Thursday.     https://www.mncpa.org/about/press/releases/pathways-cpa-senate-bill-hearing/ Powell: ‘There will be bank failures’ caused by commercial real estate losseshttps://thehill.com/business/4516758-powell-there-will-be-bank-failures-caused-by-commercial-real-estate-losses/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsFutureFirm - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capRoyalwise - https://royalwise.com/partnerForwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Here's a preview of Blake's recent appearance on Federal Tax Updates, where he joined host Roger Harris to unpack some of the biggest tax stories making headlines, from a federal court ruling deeming a new business reporting law unconstitutional to the staggering estimates of tax evasion by the wealthy. To hear the complete discussion, visit Federal Tax Updates: https://share.transistor.fm/s/d8c45ed9Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

Blake and David meet up with AJ Yawn, partner at Armanino LLP, about Armanino's new tool, Audit Ally, which streamlines and automates SOC 2 audits. They discuss the growing trend of tech companies entering the audit space and commoditizing services like SOC 2 audits, and explore how Audit Ally aims to help accounting firms compete on price and quality by utilizing AI and machine learning.Meet Our Guest, AJ YawnLinkedIn: https://www.armanino.com/company/people/aj-yawnLearn about about Audit Ally Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We're celebrating surpassing 10,000 YouTube subscribers! Thank you! Blake and David look into H&R Block's new reality show about teaching people life skills like doing their taxes. They also talk about workflow automation challenges for accounting firms, how the IRS is contacting wealthy non-filers, and the Trump Organization CFO pleading guilty to perjury. They also break down the SEC's extensive new climate disclosure rules and the job opportunities this could create for accountants.Sponsors FreshBooks - http://accountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksRelay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relay Webgility - http://accountingpodcast.promo/webgilityChapters(03:04) - H&R Block is creating a reality TV show (08:51) - WSJ Op-Ed says IRS agents shouldn't work from home (12:21) - The Accountant 2 gets a big tax credit (14:42) - South Carolina finds $2 billion in bank account (20:49) - Bloomberg article on the lack of accountants (23:18) - Regional banks in trouble? (27:00) - Lyft being sued by their shareholders (29:39) - Is bad workflow automation the cause of bad work/life balances? (37:42) - CPA Trendlines: "Which Niche is the Best Niche?" (46:28) - TurboTax and H&R Block are using AI giving awful tax advice (50:12) - Blake shares new SEC rule's GPT he made (53:19) - AI and data privacy concerns (55:48) - Can AI predict when you'll die? (01:01:37) - Former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury (01:03:56) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show Notes2024 Report: The State of Accounting Workflow Automationhttps://financial-cents.com/resources/articles/2024-report-state-of-accounting-workflow-automation/ Gartner Survey Shows That a Third of Accountants Make Several Financial Errors Per Week due to Capacity Constraints       https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-02-21-gartner-survey-shows-that-a-third-of-accountants-make-several-error-per-weeo-due-to-capacity-constraints The U.S. is short 340,000 accountants-just look at the wave of earnings report mistakeshttps://fortune.com/2024/03/01/accounting-shortage-earnings-report-mistakes/ Intuit, H&R Block tax AIs critiqued on accuracyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-h-r-block-tax-ais-critiqued-on-accuracy-of-answers-many-inaccurate SC accounting error gets renewed focus over $1.8B sitting in state bank accounthttps://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2024-03-05/legis-treasurermoney Ex-Trump Org CFO Pleads Guilty to Perjury in Fraud Casehttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/03/05/ex-trump-org-cfo-pleads-guilty-to-perjury-in-fraud-case/102306/ H&R Block to Release Short Format Comedy Streaming Series, “Responsibility Island”https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/02/29/hr-block-to-release-short-format-comedy-streaming-series-responsibility-island/102172/ Federal court holds Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutionalhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2024/mar/federal-court-holds-corporate-transparency-act-unconstitutional.html Lyft earnings report error prompts shareholder lawsuit              https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lyft-earnings-report-error-prompts-150849490.htmlNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsFutureFirm - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capRoyalwise - https://royalwise.com/partnerForwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel ma...

Blake and David meet with Chris Vanover, President of CPAClub, about the recent $2 million PCAOB fine against Withum for poor audit quality on many 2021 SPAC audits. They examine Withum's 500% increase in audits with minimal staff growth, leading to overworked teams and partners working 100+ hour weeks. They also debate whether the fines are large enough to change behavior or just a cost of doing business.Meet Our Guest, Chris VanoverLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisvcpa/Learn more about CPAClubWebsite: https://cpaclub.cpa/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Fast food chain Wendy's considers demand pricing – should your firm, too? We discuss the potential for surge pricing tax returns to smooth workload and raise revenue. We also dive into new AI-powered accounting productivity tools from Sage and Xero, Zoho's $5 per user practice management suite, and analyze the results of our listener survey.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoClient Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters(06:40) - What can accountants learn and try in pricing? (13:59) - The IRS debuts free file system (26:47) - Xero announces their AI tool JAX (34:12) - QuickBooks new offering, Solopreneur (40:11) - Zoho is getting into practice management (44:52) - FTC goes after H&R Block over free filing claims (47:15) - Can AI teach accounting? (55:41) - TAP Listener Survey results (01:00:40) - Blake asks AI to generate an image of the average listener (01:05:09) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show NotesJust Ask Xero | Xero US Introduction to QuickBooks Solopreneur (intuit.com) Practice software features for businesses | Zoho practice FTC alleges H&R Block deleted customer tax data, used deceptive advertising             IRS Direct File free tax system moves into public test phase Intuit introduces QuickBooks Solopreneur for one-person businesses Intuit Introduces QuickBooks Solopreneur, an Easy-to-Use Financial Tool Built for One-Person Businesses    H&R Block’s online tax prep tricked customers into paying more money, FTC claims AI will 'change nature' of accounting, says Sage boss    Sage launches generative AI copilot assistant for SME accounting H&R Block ‘Data Wiping’ and Upgrade Policies Harm Taxpayers, FTC Says Expert Examines AI's Role in Accounting Education       Sage Intacct Unveils New Features to Streamline Operations and Boost Productivity Zoho dives into practice management with Zoho Practice Xero's AI Leap: Unveiling 'Just Ask Xero' to Revolutionize Small Business Accounting How GenAI will shape the future for our customers       IRS reopens Direct File testing after pause Study: ChatGPT Won’t Be Replacing Accounting Professors In the Near Future ChatGPT in Education: Study Reveals Utility and Limits in Financial Accounting Learning Xero wants to use AI to help your SMB solve all its accounting woes Wendys surge pricing ai backlash internet        Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/pod...

Aaron Harris joins Blake and David to discuss Sage's new AI offering, Sage Copilot, which brings generative intelligence into Sage Intacct to eliminate routine accounting work. They discuss specific use cases Copilot handles, like chasing people for approvals/documents, drafting emails, and answering ad hoc questions without running reports. Aaron also shares his perspective on AI’s impact on the accounting profession and why increased automation will make human review and trust even more essential.Meet Our Guest, Aaron Harris, CTO, SageLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-harris-7407b2/Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2FAaronRHarrisLearn more about Sagehttp://www.sage.comListener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David discuss the Lyft financial typo that sent its stock price soaring. They also examine how AI-powered help desks and customer service are improving efficiency by 10-20%, and look at some alternatives to the pesky 150-hour rule. Other news includes the future of commercial real estate taxes, the use of AI tools to monitor employee communications, and how the IRS plans to collect over $500 billion more in owed taxes. Sponsors OnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpayCloud Accountant Staffing - http://accountingpodcast.promo/casWebgility - http://accountingpodcast.promo/webgilityChapters(00:39) - David asks Blake to guess the profession (07:25) - Lyft's earnings report typo (14:36) - Trump found guilty! (23:08) - The City of Boston could lose over $1 billion from commercial real estate taxes (29:24) - How are some companies using generative AI to improve their businesses? (37:11) - Companies using AI to monitor employee messaging (40:20) - New Jersey CPA Society talks 150-hour rule (52:21) - The IRS is collecting $500 billion more in taxes (54:04) - Thanks for listening, leave us a review and Earn Free CPE  Show NotesHow Walmart, Delta, Chevron and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messagesLyft's Extra Zero Puts Focus on Corporate Controls: Explained$1,741 Is the Average Tax Refund So Far, IRS SaysIRS aims to close 'inequity gap' for unpaid taxes. How the agency targets top earners for auditAs A New Tax Filing Season Kicks Off, We Look at the IRS Efforts to Improve Customer Service and the Audits of Two Very Different Kinds of Taxpayers               Trump civil fraud case: Judge fines Trump $354 million, says frauds 'shock the conscience'                How WeWork became the largest tenant in Boston           In biggest office lease of the year, Deloitte plans move to Winthrop Center             Lyft CEO addresses major typo in earnings report Listener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsThe CAS Cache - https://cas.beehiiv.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/partnerForwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ FutureFirm - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David meet with Geoffrey Brown of the Illinois CPA Society to examine some key findings from ICPAS's recent retention report, including top reasons for turnover, where departing accountants are going, and ideas for improving work-life balance.Meet Our Guest, Geoffrey BrownLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffrey-brown-cae-9039484/Twitter: https://twitter.com/IllinoisCPAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/ICPASInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/illinoiscpasociety/Learn more about the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS)Website: https://www.icpas.org/Listener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David break down the IRS's $99 million paper-check limit, how states use tax credits to attract movie productions (sometimes unsuccessfully) and give their take on actor Kenan Thompson losing $1.5 million to fraud as a child. They also cover couples arguing over finances, AI answering tax questions in California, accounting rules hiding commercial real estate loan losses on bank balance sheets, and the lack of action from accounting standards boards to change these rules.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Relay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relayClient Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters(00:40) - What's the largest check you can write to the IRS? (05:38) - Jeff Bezos could be saving $600 million from moving to Florida (14:44) - Why movie studios are throwing out projects for tax breaks (20:54) - Keenan Thompson's accountant stole $1.5 million from him (26:18) - How much of relationship problems are finance-related? (31:29) - California plans to use AI to help answer people's tax questions (35:42) - PwC UK boss says AI is why workers should be in the office (40:36) - Silicon Valley Bank collapse follow-up and why it could happen again (51:00) - Thanks for listening and check out the Unofficial Quickbooks Accountants Podcast  Show NotesWarner Bros.' Disgusting Accounting Trick May Find an Opponent in the U.S. GovernmentIRS Seeks More Than $1 Billion From SVB for TaxesIRS sues FDIC to get $1.45B in SVB back taxes       Mayweather’s $18 Million Check To The IRS Packs A Punch, But Is Under The $100 Million Weight LimitCalifornia plans to use AI to answer your tax questionsJeff Bezos will save over $600 million in taxes by moving to MiamiThe Indicator from Planet Money : NPR  Mayweather’s $18 Million Check To The IRS Packs A Punch,But Is Under The $100 Million Weight Limit Jeff Bezos reaps Florida tax benefit with $4B Amazonshare sale Young staff need to be in the office because of AI, saysPwC's UK boss | Accounting Today Money is the Biggest Relationship Hurdle for 1 in 4Couples, Survey Reveals - CPA Practice Advisor Kenan Thompson Reveals a Crooked Accountant Stole $1.5Million From Him During His Nickelodeon Days | Video When accountants attack: why Netflix is cancelling HalleBerry’s new sci-fi movie Ben Affleck Reportedly Filming The Accountant 2 This Year FASB Won’t Consider Changes in Securities AccountingAfter Bank Failures - WSJNew York Community Bank’s Commercial Real Estate LoanProblem May Be Isolated, Experts Say Banking Crisis Plays Out at America’s Smallest LendersListener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast:...

Blake and David talk with Chayton Farlee, an accounting student at the University of the Pacific, about his journey into accounting and his thoughts on the profession. They discuss his inspiring path from cleaning carpets during the pandemic to pursuing his CPA and CMA, the disconnect many students feel between accounting theory and real-world application, the importance of bookkeeping skills, and considerations around starting his career at a Big Four firm or a smaller, more lifestyle-friendly firm.Meet Our Guest, Chayton FarleeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaytonfarlee/Listener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David discuss a wealth of timely topics, including the risks of filing taxes electronically versus by mail, the impact of the 150-hour rule on diversity in the accounting profession, and how major accounting firms are turning to private equity funding to accelerate growth. They also explore news from the artificial intelligence space, including Google's unveiling of Gemini, as well as ADP's new AI assistant, and examine how deepfake video calls enabled the theft of $25 million.SponsorsRelay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relayFreshBooks - http://accountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksAirbase - http://accountingpodcast.promo/airbaseChapters(00:29) - Welcome to the show (03:24) - Finance worker pays $25 million after video call with a deep fake of company CFO (08:54) - Is QuickBook taking tax accountants' jobs? (16:23) - Three AI accounting startups raise money funding round (25:14) - Baker Tilly is now private-equity-owned (27:32) - How much do the Big 4 spend on lobbying? (31:52) - The Wall Street Journal's terrible opinion piece of E-filing (38:25) - 13 states are suing the IRS for direct file system (40:15) - MIT study on effects of 150-hour rule (46:28) - Dual licensed CPAs and CMAs earn almost $40k more per year (49:17) - Google releases Gemini and is retiring BARD (53:33) - ADP launches ADP Assist (56:48) - Gemini also now does AI art (59:25) - Thanks for listening and please fill out our survey  Show NotesFinance Employee Defrauded for $25M by Deepfake CFODual Certifications Mean Big Bucks for Accountants - CPA Practice AdvisorBaker Tilly US gets PE investment | Accounting TodayBig Four Lobby Congress on Accounting Pipeline, AI, CryptoBeware of E-Filing Your Tax ReturnQuickBooks Live Tax Update: Understanding QuickBooks customers use of tax prep servicesAccounting software startup Pennylane becomes France’s latest unicorn | TechCrunchGoogle’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.Accounting body tells members to make annual pledge to be ethical    Platform Accounting Group gets $85M funding round   Finally, now with $10M, adds AI for better insight into small business accounting    AI Will Be Doing More Accounting If Startup Investors Have Their Way    ADP launches ADP Assist genAI assistant    Republican attorneys general denounce IRS free file pilot as rival to products like TurboTax    Higher tax filing costs could take a bite out of your refund    DataSnipper, startup that uses AI to eliminate some of the ‘dread’ in accounting, is valued at $1 billion in latest funding round    Platform Accounting Group Secures $85 million in Funding Led by Cynosure Group    Finally Raises $10 Million to Expand Small Business Automation Solutions    Finally, the AI-Powered Accounting & Finance Suite, Closes $10M Raise to Propel SMB Growth Forward    France gains a new unicorn as Pennylane raises €40m    QuickBooks Live Tax Update     Beware of E-Filing Your Tax Return    DataSnipper Raises $100M at $1B Valuation to Empower Auditors with AI    Big Four Lobby Congress on Accounting Pipeline, AI, Crypto    Finance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake ‘chief financial officer’    I'm an Accountant and Here's Why I'd Never File My Taxes Online — Best Life Listener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver ...

Yoseph West joins Blake and David to examine Relay Financial's background and their ambition to solve banking problems by becoming a bank themselves, designing the ideal user experience, and overcoming regulatory challenges. West also outlines Relay's redesigned accountant partner program, its many benefits, and upcoming features like receipt capture. The discussion turns to best practices for incorporating technology like Relay into accounting practices to solve client problems and the importance of understanding client pain points.Meet Our Guest, Yoseph WestLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosephwest/Twitter: https://twitter.com/bankwithrelayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/bankwithrelayInstagram: https://instagram.com/bankwithrelayLearn more about the Relay Partner Program: https://www.relayfi.com/advisor-partner-program?referralcode=acctpod&utm_source=ab&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=abpartnerprogramListener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

CNBC tells taxpayers to seek out EAs if they can't find a CPA, crypto fraud by a pastor who claims God told him to do it, issues with IRS taxpayer notices and filing, accounting irregularities at agricultural giant ADM send the stock plummeting, CPA reciprocity is a pain, AI updates including Microsoft Mesh VR meetings in Teams, FTC forcing TurboTax to stop advertising as "free," Wave’s new paid subscription model, and the liquidation threat facing massive Chinese developer Evergrande.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoClient Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters(00:29) - Welcome to the show (02:13) - CNBC article on what to do if you can't find a CPA to do your taxes (07:06) - Trump tax leaker sentenced to 5 years in prison (08:39) - FTC rules Intuit can no longer advertise their product as free (12:45) - H&R Block and Intuit are suing each other and each one's AI (18:32) - Brex is cutting 20% of their staff (20:52) - Microsoft Mesh and virtual reality meetings (24:07) - Wave introduces paid pro plan (25:58) - Microsoft passes Apple as the world's most valuable company (29:54) - Blake reads a few live viewer comments (30:50) - ADM suffers big stock drop amid accounting investigation (36:00) - Pastor charged with cryptocurrency fraud (38:32) - FTX has amassed $4.4 billion by selling cyrpto assets (39:51) - Tingo fraud update and correction (44:40) - Iowa CPA survey shows CPAs support alternative pathways to license besides 150-hour requirement (52:27) - A few IRS stories (01:00:17) - Blake teases China and Evergrande story (01:01:35) - Wrap up and please fill out our listener survey  Show NotesSEC Charges Tingo Mobile Founder, Three Companies with Massive Fraud and Obtains Emergency ReliefPastor Charged With Cryptocurrency Fraud Said God Told Him to Do It - The New York TimesAccounting investigation under way at ADM and its top financial executive has been placed on leave | AP NewsHere's what to do if you can’t find an accountant for tax seasonFormer IRS Contractor Sentenced for Disclosing Tax Return Information to News Organizations | United States Department of JusticeTurboTax Can No Longer Advertise Products as Free, F.T.C. SaysH&R Block launches AI tax filing assistant - The VergeTurboTax bolsters support options, both human and AIBrex cuts 20% of staff amid reports of stalled growth, high burn | TechCrunchBring virtual connections to life with Microsoft Mesh, now generally available in Microsoft TeamsInvestors see Microsoft's stock market value leaving Apple behindInput steers CPA licensure pathways recommendation - Iowa Society of CPAsListener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsREFRAME WORKSHOP - https://www.reframe2024.com/Royalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/The CAS Cache -

This week, Blake and David Leary sort through the mail and respond to a variety of listener emails and voicemails. Amongst the topics covered, they explore working as a TurboTax preparer to barriers faced by career-changers entering public accounting. They go on to debate the root causes behind accounting's heavy workloads and offer perspectives on how licensing rules and firm profitability shape experiences.SponsorsOnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpayA2 Advisors - http://accountingpodcast.promo/luke Earmark - https://earmarkcpe.promo/EarmarkMediaKitChapters(00:04) - Welcome to the show and some personal updates from David and Blake (07:38) - A TurboTax expert tells us why she loves her job (16:26) - Tyler writes in about the pipeline problem (23:42) - Looking at other career certification requirements as inspiration for CPA change (27:47) - CPA mobility and reciprocity (37:32) - Bank statements are the norm for getting any loan in Puerto Rico (39:37) - The CPA profession is the transmission of a car (44:37) - Accountant's starting salaries are the biggest pipeline problem (53:39) - Blake checks in with the live chat (57:26) - Creating a "paralegal" type license in the accounting field (58:59) - Ways to mitigate busy season (01:02:17) - Wrap up and remember to send us your thoughts and stories  Show NotesComing soon!Listener SurveyPlease take our listener survey: https://accounting.show/surveyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsREFRAME WORKSHOP - https://www.reframe2024.com/Royalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

Blake and David discuss the challenges of busy season and achieving work-life balance as accountants. They also debate the value and investment risks of cryptocurrency and analyze global economic impacts like outflows from China's economy. They also review some of the latest AI trends including self-driving vehicle safety data, and examine some recent news regarding a software error falsely accusing hundreds, an SEC crypto ETF approval, and a feel-good small town tax budget balanced without rate hikes thanks to a new accounting system implementation. Grab your favorite snack and have a listen!SponsorsOnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpayFinDaily - http://accountingpodcast.promo/findailyClient Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters(00:31) - Welcome to the show. Blake has been traveling (07:04) - How can accountants attract lifelong customers (09:59) - KPMG working to reduce late hours and weekend work (16:08) - UK coffee shop introduces subscription pricing (19:54) - Are accounting tech jobs more balanced? (21:49) - We did a bonus interview with Rightworks and more AI updates (24:32) - Waymo caused accidents vs human drivers (29:39) - Are AI-caused layoffs coming? (31:29) - The SEC approves crypto ETFs (34:52) - NYT story on NYU student's $6 million crypto mine (39:35) - Update on UK Postal scandal and Fujitsu (43:52) - An estimated $50 billion per month moved out of China in 2023 (47:54) - Hydroxychloroquine and putting numbers in perspective (51:14) - David's personal information may have been leaked in the Framework leak (53:08) - GM suing the city of San Francisco over taxes (55:23) - Small Pennsylvania town cancels tax hikes after new accounting system finds unaccounted revenue (56:25) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show NotesKPMG looks to take some of the pain out of the auditing ‘busy season’ OpenAI debuts ChatGPT subscription aimed at small teams | TechCrunch Comparison of Waymo Rider-Only Crash Data to Human Benchmarks at 7.1 Million Miles Expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 to businesses of all sizes A third of companies have already laid off workers due to AI This N.Y.U. Student Owns a $6 Million Crypto Mine. His Secret Is Out. - The New York Times SEC Approves Bitcoin ETFs for Everyday Investors Gold Bars and Tokyo Apartments: How Money Is Flowing Out of China. - The New York Times Hydroxychloroquine could have caused 17,000 deaths during Covid, study finds GM blasts San Francisco in lawsuit over $108M tax bill OpenAI debuts small team ChatGPT subscription Intuit sues H&R Block over marketing claims it says are false, misleadingThe role of auditors in the Post Office scandal: A need for greater accountability?  Framework email customers for data breach from accounting partner getting phishedFujitsu shares drop nearly 4% as its Europe chief says compensating Post Office victims is a 'moral obligation'        Report: 25% of CEOs Expect AI to Lead to Job Cuts in 2024           Expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 to businesses of all sizes Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch<...

Dominic Piscopo is the founder of Big4Transparency.com, an accounting salary transparency website. Dominic was inspired to start the site based on his experience discovering the disparity in compensation between his accounting job and what other accountants were making in the same city. To date, Big4Transparency.com has collected over 13,000 salary data points. In the episode, we discuss the value of using the platform for salary negotiation. Dominic also highlights trends in accounting salaries, the impact of job hopping on earnings, and the relationship between work environment and job satisfaction.Meet Our Guest, Dominic PiscopoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dopiscopo/Learn more about Big4Transparency.comWebsite: https://www.big4transparency.com/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David mull over the Arizona CPA Society's survey revealing that 80% of Arizona CPAs support 150-hour-rule alternatives. They also examine the UK Post Office scandal that led to hundreds of criminal convictions of postmasters, as well as Deloitte's recent massive audit failures, and the impacts of the talent shortage illustrated by delayed government audits in Wyoming. Wrapping things up, some reflections on the need for major reforms in auditing and regulation of the accounting profession. All this and more, right here, right now!Sponsors Zoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoRelay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/relayClient Hub - http://accountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters(00:29) - Blake goes over the Arizona Society of CPA's survey results (06:09) - Do 150-hour employees do better work? (09:38) - Are firms facing an accounting shortage? (14:49) - Did you know Nikki Haley was an accountant? (16:35) - Deloitte audit failure in Nigeria (29:42) - Certified Pastry Aficionado (31:44) - Tsunami miracle baby, now 19, pursuing an accounting degree (34:37) - Fujitsu, Horizon, and the disgusting postal worker prosecution failure by the UK government (48:48) - Blake checks in on the live chat (53:26) - Going Concern: Wyoming firm faces staffing shortage in critical government audits (56:56) - Download Earmark. Earn free CPE for listening  Show NotesArizona CPA Society releases 150-hour survey resultshttps://www.ascpa.com/news/ddf50a1e-70cc-4d5b-9e00-cc9c5f82c17e:az-cpa-januaryfebruary-2024How Deloitte missed a massive Nigerian company fraudhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonkochkodin/2024/01/10/how-auditor-deloitte-missed-a-nigerian-companys-massive-fraud/?sh=49b6cce059f4Tsunami miracle baby now majoring in accountinghttps://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/12/994163/tsunami-miracle-baby-now-19-pursues-accounting-degree-nsttvOnly two firms in Wyoming can do government audits, and one can’t do its jobhttps://www.goingconcern.com/there-are-only-two-firms-in-wyoming-that-can-do-government-audits-and-one-cant-do-its-job-because-of-staff-shortages/There Are Only Two Firms in Wyoming That Can Do Government Audits and One Can’t Do Its Job Because of Staff Shortages            https://www.goingconcern.com/there-are-only-two-firms-in-wyoming-that-can-do-government-audits-and-one-cant-do-its-job-because-of-staff-shortages/ Revealed: The Fujitsu fat cats who pocketed huge salaries while its flawed Horizon accounting system ruined...https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12948671/The-Fujitsu-fat-cats-pocketed-huge-salaries-flawed-Horizon-accounting-ruined-lives-thousands-postmasters-wrongly-accused-stealing-Post-Office-emerges-charge-government-contracts.html What should accounting technology providers learn from the Post Office Horizon scandal?https://www.accountancyage.com/2024/01/09/what-should-accounting-technology-providers-learn-from-the-post-office-horizon-scandal/ Plans to legislate for resolution of Post Office accounting scandalhttps://www.accountancydaily.co/plans-legislate-resolution-post-office-accounting-scandal Post Office under criminal investigation for potential fraud over Horizon scandalhttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/05/post-office-criminal-investigation-potential-horizon-accounting-fraud Some 86 people have seen their convictions for false accounting and theft overturnedhttps://curated.tncontentexchange.com/partners/afp/the-firm-created-faulty-accounting-software-that-saw-subpostmasters-wrongly-convicted-of-theft/image_383af729-fda2-517c-b5ff-85afffefb214.html UK police launch fraud inquiry over post office IT scandalhttps://www.themountaineer.com/news/national/uk-police-launch-fraud-inquiry-over-post-office-it-scandal/article_72e76f8b-7e6f-55ad-9605-93183aefb01e.html How the Post Office’s Horizon system failed: a technical breakdownhttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/09/how-the-post-offices-horizon-system-failed-a-technical-breakdown Bad software sent postal workers to jail, because no one wanted to admit it could be wronghttps://www.theverge.com/2021/4/23/22399721/uk-post-office-software-bug-criminal-convictions-overturned Post Office warned of software flaw in 2006, but failed to alert subpostmaster networkhttps://www.computerweekly.com/news/252514110/Post-Office-warned-of-software-flaw-in-2006-but-failed-to-alert-subpostmaster-network Post Office spunks fresh £36m on Fujitsu after cloud fail  https://www.thestack.technology/post-office-fujitsu-extension/ When did the Post Office scandal start? Timeline of key eventshttps://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/when-post-office-scandal-start-happen-timeline-of-key-events-2q23bhm2c Briefing presumption that computers are reliable               https://www.benthamsgaze.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/briefing-presumption-that-computers-are-reliable.pdf Horizon: The 20-year accounting software scandalhttps://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/horizon-the-20-year-accounting-software-scandalNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/LiveFlow Event - https://www.liveflow.io/events/greg-kyte-eventREFRAME WORKSHOP - https://www.reframe2024.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David meet up with TJ Lewis and Aaron Van Ruler from RightWorks about their new AI tool called Spark, built specifically for accountants on top of ChatGPT. They discuss how Spark helps accounting professionals by providing industry-specific content, tools, and assistants to enhance efficiency and expertise. TJ and Aaron also share details on Spark's capabilities, roadmap, and potential integration with other RightWorks products.Meet Our GuestsTJ Lewis, Innovation Strategist, Right NetworksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tj-lewis/Aaron Van Ruler, Innovation Strategist, RightworksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avanruler/Learn more about Rightworkshttps://ai.rightworks.com/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake throws his hat into the ring for President and CEO of NASBA! Hear how he intends to shake things up should he be chosen! Next, Blake and David unpack a survey on the surprisingly low tax-preparer fees across the country, discuss the headaches still posed by interstate CPA licensing, and consider some solutions like modeling CPA reciprocity rules! Grab some snacks and enjoy!Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowUncat - http://accountingpodcast.promo/uncatBookkeep - https://earmarkcpe.promo/EarmarkMediaKitChapters(00:00) - How Much Tax Preparers Charge (01:18) - Blake applied to be the new NASBA President and CEO (08:56) - David's customer experience at a Publix's grocery store (11:06) - National Association of Tax Professionals 2023 survey results (17:54) - What type of returns are they doing? (23:16) - How do tax preparers operate? (24:32) - How do tax preparers price? (27:38) - Now lets talk about business tax returns (32:02) - When do tax preparers get paid? (50:57) - What work went unbilled? (54:58) - Type of services offered (55:27) - Average wages for tax employees (56:08) - Blake checks in with the live stream (59:14) - Daryl asks for career advice (01:04:56) - New TurboTax ad doesn't shy away from "free" claim (01:06:10) - Listener email on reciprocity (01:18:38) - Wrap up and where to reach us  Show NotesIntuit TurboTax's 2024 "Make Your Moves Count" Campaign Highlights Its Tax Experts, AI Technology and Filing Solutions Ensuring the Best Tax Outcome for All Types of Filers   TurboTax Free Edition 2024 Commercial "Free Connoisseur" (Official TV Ad :30) NATP 2023 Tax Professional Fee StudyNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/LiveFlow Event - https://www.liveflow.io/events/greg-kyte-eventREFRAME WORKSHOP - https://www.reframe2024.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

In this 2023 wrap-up, Blake and David discuss an appeals court ruling that audit reports are so generic they are essentially useless to investors. They also explore the concept of "productivity theater" where employees pretend to be constantly working, even though it leads to disengagement and burnout. Continuing the theme, they contemplate why mandatory weekend work persists and share ideas on how firms can improve work-life balance. Rounding out the discussion, they offer up some career advice to accounting students on finding fulfilling roles and avoiding common traps such as extreme overwork. Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoEarmark - https://earmarkcpe.promo/EarmarkMediaKitChapters(00:21) - David will get an Earmark tattoo at 100,000 subscribers (04:13) - Slack survey reveals forced overtime reduces productivity (07:37) - Remote workers' surveillance (10:17) - Mandatory Saturdays going away (16:12) - What is keeping firms up at night? (21:38) - What percentage of firms are filing tax extensions for their clients (23:46) - A junior accounting student asks for some advice (29:48) - Appeals court rules audit report is immaterial (34:58) - SPACs accounted for at least 21 bankruptcies and $46 billion lost in 2023 (39:54) - The importance of finding and making your own work/life balance (48:46) - Back to advice for younger accountants entering the profession (57:45) - An accountant has a breakdown at the airport (59:47) - Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe  Show NotesTurning staff into workaholics makes them way less productive | FortuneBurned Investors Ask ‘Where Were the Auditors?’ A Court Says ‘Who Cares?’ - WSJAccounting in 2024: The year ahead in numbersFull PDF of study is here: https://www.accountingtoday.com/research-report/optimism-abounds-but-people-problems-persistSPAC companies accounted for at least 21 bankruptcies this year and a staggering $46 billion in lost investor value | FortuneNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Just in time for the holidays, Blake and David examine the accounting professor from NYU who charged Trump nearly $900,000 for expert testimony. They also tackle issues around accountant retention and turnover, tax updates, the financial operations of Hamas, as well as Hunter Biden's indictment on tax charges, and tips for using spreadsheets in filmmaking and other creative projects. All this and more to keep you entertained while you wrap those last-minute gifts!Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowEarmark - https://earmarkcpe.promo/EarmarkMediaKit Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:38) - Who knew being an expert witness paid so well (06:43) - Former Wall Street accountant leaves profession to become an escort and exotic dancer (09:37) - Illinois retention survey (17:21) - Has AI job replacement theory reached mainstream? (18:31) - Why employees resign (20:55) - Accounting rules and the supply of accountants (24:53) - FASB announces new rules for cryptocurrencies (26:07) - IRS expanding their modernization efforts for technology (27:48) - FinCEN updates a new service opportunity for accountants (34:20) - Former Jaguars employee accused of stealing over $22 million (39:23) - Nikola founder sentenced to prison for fraud (43:10) - 64% of employees waste time due to lack of deadlines (45:20) - EY laying off US partners (48:28) - EY names Janet Truncale first female global CEO of big 4 firm (49:20) - The IRS plans reorg at the highest leadership levels (50:02) - Israel and the US knew of Hamas bank account (54:00) - Hunter Biden's indictment (58:22) - All Sorts director demonstrates how he uses spreadsheets (01:02:07) - Wrap up and where to reach us  Show NotesTrump PAC paid for expert witness testimony in NY civil fraud trialhttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-pac-paid-expert-witness-testimony-ny-civil-fraud-trial-rcna128804 EY Is Laying Off U.S. Partners Amid Tough Economic Conditions – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ey-is-laying-off-u-s-partners-amid-tough-economic-conditions-9efc4aa6 Accounting Rules and the Supply of Accountants by Anthony Le :: SSRNhttps://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4666335 Righting Retention - Insight Special Featurehttps://www.icpas.org/information/professional-issues/talent-retention Stripper and escort rakes in $34k per week catering to Wall Streethttps://nypost.com/2023/12/18/business/stripper-and-escort-rakes-in-34k-per-week-catering-to-wall-street/ FinCEN ramps up guidance as beneficial ownership requirements looms | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/fincen-ramps-up-guidance-as-beneficial-ownership-requirements-fast-approach Trevor Milton Gets Four Years in Prison for Deceptions on Zero-Emission Truckshttps://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/trevor-milton-lied-about-nikolas-zero-emission-trucks-is-that-worth-a-decade-in-prison-ae35ce40 64% of Employees Waste Hours Due to Lack of Deadlines | CFOhttps://www.cfo.com/news/64-of-employees-waste-hours-due-to-lack-of-deadlines/702774/ IRS Expands Business Tax Account Tool To Include S Corps And Partnershipshttps://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/12/18/irs-expands-business-tax-account-tool-to-include-s-corps-and-partnerships/ Israel Found the Hamas Money Machine Years Ago. Nobody Turned It Off.https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/16/world/europe/israel-hamas-money-finance-turkey-intelligence-attacks.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Hunter Biden Charged With Evading Taxes on Millions From Foreign Firmshttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/us/politics/hunter-biden-indictment.html Former Jaguars employee accused of stealing over $22 million – ESPNhttps://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39059710/former-jaguars-employee-accused-stealing-22-million EY names Janet Truncale as first female global CEO of Big Four firm | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/ey-names-janet-truncale-as-first-female-global-ceo-of-big-four-firm NY AG disputes Trump expert’s GAAP analysis      https://www.cfodive.com/news/gaap-holds-spotlight-final-stretch-250m-trump-civil-fraud/702327/Hunter Biden Indicted On Criminal Tax Charges In Californiahttps://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/12/08/hunter-biden-indicted-on-criminal-tax-charges-in-california/ Hunter Biden Charged with Tax Crimes in Los Angeleshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/12/11/hunter-biden-charged-with-tax-crimes-in-los-angeles/98977/ Trump's accounting expert trashes NY's 'absurd' fraud casehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/trumps-expert-accounting-witness-trashes-nys-absurd-fraud-case-in-court-clash Donald Trump returns to court, lauds his defense expert who sees no evidence of accounting fraudhttps://thepublicsradio.org/article/donald-trump-returns-to-court-lauds-his-defense-expert-who-sees-no-evidence-of-accounting-fraud First US Crypto Accounting Rules to Capture Token Highs, Lowshttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/first-us-crypto-accounting-rules-to-capture-token-highs-lows Accounting Expert Receives Huge Sum for Testimony in Trump's Fraud Casehttps://ticker.tv/news/trump-expert-witness-paid-nearly-900000-for-testimony-in-fraud-case/362692/ The 73 Spreadsheets You'll Need to Finish Your Feature Film          https://nofilmschool.com/film-spreadsheet Trump judge slams credibility of paid expert in fraud case, suggests fee influenced testimonyhttps://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/18/trump-judge-in-ny-fraud-case-slams-credibility-of-paid-defense-expert-.html Illinois CPA Society Releases New Report on Turnover in the Accounting Professionhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/12/18/illinois-cpa-society-releases-new-report-on-turnover-in-the-accounting-profession/99314/ Last Minute Scramble To Delay New Law Impacting Small Businesseshttps://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/12/18/last-minute-scramble-to-delay-new-law-impacting-small-businesses/ IRS Announces Plans To Shake Up Leadership Roleshttps://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/12/13/irs-announces-plans-to-shake-up-leadership-roles/ PwC agrees to pay $1.45-million to settle with Ontario accounting regulator over exam cheatinghttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-pwc-agrees-to-pay-145-million-to-settle-with-ontario-accounting/ Cheaters at PwC Canada Thought Sharing Answers With Each Other Was “Collaborative Culture”https://www.goingconcern.com/cheaters-at-pwc-canada-thought-sharing-answers-with-each-other-was-collaborative-culture/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Keila Hill-Trawick joins Blake and David to discuss her philosophy on intentionally building a firm to the "right" size, rather than pursuing endless revenue growth. She also explains how her firm narrowed its service offerings to focus on core recurring services like tax planning and fractional CFO work. Blake and David examine research on how much money Americans think they need annually to be happy, with millennials citing much higher targets. They also talk about an accounting reference in the new Trolls movie and the need for more diverse and positive CPA portrayals in media.Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowEarmark - https://earmarkcpe.promo/EarmarkMediaKit Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:31) - Keila Hill-Trawick joins the show (07:32) - How did you decide to cut back on services your firm offered? (09:44) - What core services do you offer? (12:04) - Do you help clients set up the services you don't offer? (13:24) - What does your current team look like and how did you build it? (17:04) - What are you charging clients? (20:32) - How many clients does each employee handle and will that change with technology? (23:18) - What's the ultimate goal? (28:25) - Berkshire Hathaway lawsuit (38:51) - SmileDirectClub declares bankruptcy (45:37) - Thoughts on accountants doing IT audits (51:03) - How much money do Americans need to be happy? (01:04:24) - Accounting reference in the newest Trolls movie (01:07:31) - Wrap up and how to reach Keila  Show NotesWhat’s Behind Warren Buffett’s Fight With a Truck-Stop Mogul – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/business/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-jimmy-haslam-pilot-lawsuit-70ef0413Trolls movie CPAhttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/jacob-g-5819b780_went-to-see-the-new-trolls-movie-with-my-activity-7134882587042320384-RC32Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sued by Haslam family over Pilot truckstop chain takeoverhttps://cdllife.com/2023/haslam-family-sues-pilot-majority-owner-berkshire-hathaway-over-accounting-practices/Bankrupt SmileDirectClub shuts down, says its ‘Lifetime Smile Guarantee’ is canceled - but Smile Pay users are expected to keep paying https://fortune.com/2023/12/11/bankrupt-smiledirectclub-shutting-down/Meet our Guest, Keila Hill-TrawickWebsite: http://www.littlefishaccounting.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keilahilltrawickTwitter: https://twitter.com/littlefishcpaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/littlefishaccounting/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Lexy Kessler, National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) chair and Sue Coffey, Chief Executive Officer – Public Accounting with AICPA join us for a special bonus episode to address the accounting talent crisis and talk about how we can improve the CPA pipeline. Along with these issues, they also emphasize the importance of working together as a profession, being data-driven in their approach, and looking at the broader ecosystem of accounting, with updates and more comprehensive strategies expected to be detailed in the NPAG draft national strategy plan in May 2024.Meet Our GuestsLexy Kessler, Chair - National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG)Website: https://www.accountingpipeline.org/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexykessleraprio/Susan S. Coffey, CPA, CGMA - CEO – Public Accounting at the Association of International Certified Professional AccountantsWebsite: https://www.aicpa-cima.com/resources/article/susan-s-coffey-cpa-cgmaLearn more about the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG)https://www.accountingpipeline.org/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David discuss Intuit's announcement that QuickBooks Desktop will no longer be sold as new subscriptions after July 2024. They also talk about the need for changes in the accounting profession, such as simplifying financial reporting requirements and revising the 150-hour rule. In other news, they cover sanctions against China-based accounting firms, incorrect IRC claims by businesses, and the Adidas-Kanye West fallout. They also explore how AI can help explain complex concepts to clients clearly and accurately.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Relay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (01:13) - Accounting has been in the news a lot recently (03:57) - QuickBooks Desktop is dead (11:26) - Blake's thoughts from The Digital CPA Conference (16:18) - CPA Journal - eliminate the 150-hour rule (18:26) - The Accountant 2 film confirmed (21:04) - Blake went to Kentucky (22:39) - The PCAOB sanctioned 3 China-based firms (25:33) - The IRS sends 20,000 letters regarding ERC claims (30:02) - Kanye West and Adidas fallout (38:41) - Earmark updates and the IRS releasing taxpayer business accounts (40:48) - CFO.com: 61% of finance executives are not using AI (44:54) - Can AI trim years off of the partner path? (46:25) - The traditional CPA firm structure (50:10) - Blake asks AI to explain basis to a non-accountant (56:27) - AccountingWeb tricks to help detect AI-written articles (59:09) - Wrap up and how to reach us  Show NotesTwitter: Any good plain-English way to explain basis? https://x.com/wtfoote/status/1725193933410668755?s=12 61% of Finance Execs Not Using AI Yet: Weekly Stat | CFOhttps://www.cfo.com/news/artificial-intelligence-implementation-adoption-gartner-survey/699082/ The Yeezy standard for accounting | Financial Timeshttps://www.ft.com/content/8b094370-f7e7-492b-b56d-6c0096be7784BST & Co. Got Sick of Hounding Rudy Giuliani to Pay His Bill So Now They’re Suing Him          https://www.goingconcern.com/bst-co-got-sick-of-hounding-rudy-giuliani-to-pay-his-bill-so-now-theyre-suing-him/ PCAOB sanctions three Chinese firms, including PwC affiliateshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pcaob-sanctions-three-chinese-firms-including-pwc-affiliates The Accounting Profession Is in Crisis    https://www.cpajournal.com/2023/12/01/the-accounting-profession-is-in-crisis/ BREAKING NEWS: QuickBooks Desktop Product Changeshttps://insightfulaccountant.com/accounting-tech/general-ledger/breaking-news-quickbooks-desktop-product-changes/ What Can the Profession Do?       https://www.cpajournal.com/2023/12/04/what-can-the-profession-do/ Supreme Court could make massive tax impact — or none at allhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/supreme-court-to-hear-arguments-in-moore-v-u-s Billionaire Tax Rests on a Disputed $14,729 Refund at the Supreme Courthttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/12/04/billionaire-tax-rests-on-a-disputed-14729-refund-at-the-supreme-court/98782/ Some of the Big 4 consulting giants already think AI could trim years off the path to partner        https://fortune.com/2023/12/04/big-4-consulting-giants-pwc-kpmg-ai-trim-years-path-partner/ Opioid trust transparency questioned after accounting firm choicehttps://www.thecentersquare.com/pennsylvania/article_c7977d42-9515-11ee-8bd6-3b90276d4b6b.htmlNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David discuss updates from the AICPA's Talent Pipeline Committee, including surprises about the high dropout rate of accounting majors in college. They also explore new custom AI capabilities in ChatGPT that allow users to create specialist bots and speculate on applications for accounting firms. They also cover lawsuits alleging Hollywood accounting tricks used by Disney to deprive financial partners of profits. Grab some snacks and enjoy!Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowEarmark - https://earmarkcpe.promo/EarmarkMediaKit Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (01:34) - NASBA is hiring a new COO (05:27) - What we'll cover on this week's show (07:13) - AICPA talks about the pipline issues on Accounting Today's podcast (13:28) - Blake checks in on the live chat (22:08) - Two vastly different articles on CPAjournal.com about how to solve the accountant shortage (30:59) - Making the CPA more accessible (42:05) - Blake demonstrates OpenAI's new custom GPT maker (54:32) - Disney sued for "Hollywood Accounting" methods (01:01:07) - Thanks for listening and how to reach us  Show NotesNASBA Begins Search for New President and CEO | NASBAhttps://nasba.org/blog/2023/11/28/nasba-begins-search-for-new-president-and-ceo/ Rethinking the 150-Hour Requirement for CPA Licensure - The CPA Journalhttps://www.cpajournal.com/2023/11/27/rethinking-the-150-hour-requirement-for-cpa-licensure/ The Accounting Pipeline - The CPA Journalhttps://www.cpajournal.com/2023/11/22/the-accounting-pipeline/ Disney sued over accounting by film financiershttps://www.cfobrew.com/stories/2023/08/29/disney-sued-by-film-financiersA pipeline progress report            https://www.accountingtoday.com/podcast/a-progress-report-on-accountings-pipeline-problem Rethinking the 150-Hour Requirement for CPA Licensurehttps://www.cpajournal.com/2023/11/27/rethinking-the-150-hour-requirement-for-cpa-licensure/ Accounting Education Disrupted https://www.cpajournal.com/2023/11/21/accounting-education-disrupted/ KPMG, Deloitte Ask Staff to Use Burner Phones for HK Visits: FThttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/kpmg-deloitte-ask-staff-to-use-burner-phones-for-hk-visits-ft Deloitte and KPMG encourage use of burner phones in Hong Konghttps://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/deloitte-kpmg-encourage-burner-phones-101802848.html NASBA starts search for CEO successor    https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/nasba-starts-search-for-ceo-successorNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David sort through the listener mailbag to find out what you think! Amongst the letters, we’ve got opinions on accounting without assurance and the industry talent crisis, as well as potential unethical practices by some tax experts, and the need for accrediting standards for accounting programs. Blake and David also address the complex nature of the taxation system and emphasize the need for industry-wide changes to address ethical dilemmas. Join us to hear all this and so much more! Sponsors OnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayZoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zoho Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:30) - Welcome to the show and what we'll cover (07:14) - Trump's legal team again blaming accountants for faulty financial statements (08:54) - Anthony writes in about compilations (13:51) - Nathan writes in to suggest more people contract audit work (16:03) - Chris asks some questions about the BDO ESOP episode (19:29) - Cheryl writes in about the 150-hour requirement (23:27) - Kurt asks about the disparity between accounting graduate programs (28:40) - Ryan tells a story of a client getting awful advice from a TurboTax Live employee (35:00) - Digitial Accountants asks why so many tax clients want to push the envelope too far with tax returns and the IRS (38:57) - Listener gives some insights on why academia is filled with the professors it has (56:00) - A UK accounting firm has client data leaked after being hacked (01:01:19) - The University of Arionza is missing $240 million (01:05:18) - QuickBooks ProAdvisor badges and changes (01:12:25) - Wrap up and remember you can earn free CPE from listening to this podcast  Show NotesA cyberattack on a U.K. accounting firm wound up leaking U.S. ... https://www.databreaches.net/a-cyberattack-on-a-u-k-accounting-firm-wound-up-leaking-u-s-patient-data-now-what/Reimagined ProAdvisor Program Goes Live Today https://insightfulaccountant.com/accounting-tech/general-ledger/reimagined-proadvisor-program-goes-live-today/Always Something University and UofA $240-million accounting mistake https://sports360az.com/always-something-university-and-uofa-240-million-accounting-mistake/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We're back from QuickBooks Connect 2023 with announcements, updates, new features, and improvements in QuickBooks Online. Also, EY got fined $3 million for cheating on ethics exams, and 42 percent of firms are turning away work due to staff shortages. Finally, we discuss the disruption of Alphabet's main search business by Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple in the AI-powered assistant space.Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zoho Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:32) - Blake and David are back from QuickBooks Connect (06:38) - New QuickBooks features announced at QuickBooks Connect (07:25) - QuickBooks Ledger (09:47) - Expanded roles and permissions in QBO (10:16) - QuickBooks Payroll cost allocations (11:23) - Chart of Accounts templates (12:26) - Changes to ProAdvisor Program (13:08) - Now you can copy QBO files to a sandbox (16:20) - Blake's AI session at QuickBooks Connect (24:47) - Blake will be giving a webinar on AI on Earmark's Webinars+ (27:33) - EY Texas gets a $3 million penalty for cheating on ethics exams (34:35) - 46% of EY audits in 2022 had flaws (37:47) - What numbers do investors care about? (41:40) - PCAOB says they have doubled their fines in recent years (43:35) - More cities are struggling with ERP rollouts (44:57) - Zoho introduces practice management software for accountants (46:45) - Tech Radar's top laptops for accountants (48:04) - Intuit updates their tax software and shuts down Mint (55:29) - 42% of accountants turn down work over staff shortages (57:51) - ClientHub introduces AI-enabled email integration (59:24) - 3 AI-based accounting companies raise a lot of money (01:08:48) - Is Google/Alphabet in trouble? (02:03) - 31 Wrap up and thanks for listening  Show NotesIntuit rolls out bevy of new features for the next tax season | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-rolls-out-bevy-of-new-features-for-the-next-tax-year New product innovations at announced at QuickBooks Connect help accountants drive small business growthhttps://www.firmofthefuture.com/quickbooks-connect/new-product-innovations/ PCAOB fines doubled in recent years | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pcaob-fines-doubled-in-recent-years Accounting firms hit with record US fines over audit failureshttps://www.ft.com/content/25a65a49-4b94-4a80-82d8-435616a78f27 SURVEY: 42% of Accountants Turn Away Work Over Staff Shortages - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2023/11/09/survey-48-of-accountants-turn-away-work-over-staff-shortages/ Black Ore Emerges from Stealth with $60 Million in Funding to Bring AI to Financial Serviceshttps://www.blackore.ai/articles/black-ore-emerges-from-stealth-with-60-million-fundingLaunching Zoho Practice: The Ultimate Practice Management Softwarehttps://www.zoho.com/blog/general/launching-zoho-practice.html Bill Holdings Is Said to Near $1.95 Billion Deal for Meliohttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-08/bill-holdings-is-said-to-near-1-95-billion-deal-for-melio Bill Holdings stock sinks amid report of $1.95B deal talks for Melio ...https://seekingalpha.com/news/4033680-bill-holdings-sinks-amid-report-of-195b-deal-talks-for-melio-payments Bill Holdings denies media report on Melio deal  https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/bill-holdings-nears-195-billion-payments-deal-melio-bloomberg-news-2023-11-08/ Puzzle secures $30m for revolutionary AI-powered accounting ...https://fintech.global/2023/11/15/puzzle-secures-30m-for-revolutionary-ai-powered-accounting-platform/ EY Gets $3 Million Penalty by Texas Board of Public Accountancyhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/11/13/ey-gets-3-million-penalty-by-texas-board-of-public-accountancy/97576/ Bill's stock bounces after denial of report it was pursuing a $2 billion ...https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bills-stock-bounces-after-denial-of-report-it-was-pursuing-a-2-billion-cash-and-stock-buyout-of-melio-payments-7562580b Black Ore Raises $60 Million and Debuts AI Tool for Accountantshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2023/black-ore-raises-60-million-dollars-debuts-artificial-intelligence-tool-accountants/ New Products at QuickBooks Connect Help Accountants Drive Small ...https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/11/14/new-products-at-quickbooks-connect-help-accountants-drive-small-business-growth/97644/ St. Louis comptroller said prior mayor wanted new accounting ...https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/st-louis-comptroller-said-prior-mayor-wanted-new-accounting-system-but-she-voted-for-it/article_8afa54ca-8275-11ee-9673-efc459761629.html Intuit QuickBooks Unveils New Product Innovations at QuickBooks Connect that Help Accountants Drive Small Business Growth https://www.intuit.com/company/press-room/press-releases/2023/intuit-quickbooks-unveils-new-product-innovations-at-quickbooks-connect-that-help-accountants-drive-small-business-growth/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

CPA Exam prep rockstars Peter Olinto and Roger Philipp join Blake and David to discuss the evolution of the CPA Exam over time, the importance of making studying entertaining, and challenges facing the accounting profession like public accounting burnout. Both Olinto and Philipp believe competition between CPA review courses drives innovation and helps students pass the exam, and they aim to make studying engaging through humor, memory techniques, and technology.Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowChapters (00:38) - Where did you learn to make CPA exam prep entertaining? (05:12) - Do you have any nightmare CPA exam stories? (10:39) - What does the current CPA exam look like and what's changing in 2024? (14:27) - Do you think the CPA exam changes will help the pipeline? (17:12) - Have CPA exam pass rates gone up with the 5th-year requirement? (19:58) - How did you both get involved with UWorld? (22:58) - Advice for accountants struggling to balance studying with their work and lives (29:23) - How are you dealing with reduced attention spans (36:30) - Do you tell students to diet and exercise as part of exam prep? (42:04) - Peter's famous coffee offer (43:00) - Why do you think young accountants are leaving the profession? (51:12) - The problem with work-life balance versus billable hours (59:08) - Wrap up and where to find out more about UWorld Meet Our Guests:Peter Olinto LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-olinto-5966586b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterolinto?lang=enRoger Philipp, CPA, CGMALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerphilipp/Twitter: https://twitter.com/rogercpa?lang=enShow Noteshttps://newsroom.uworld.com/story/uworld-launches-all-new-cpa-exam-review-product-to-prepare-candidates-for-the-2024-cpa-evolution/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Listen to the full Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast here: https://share.transistor.fm/s/5586a16eEarmark Media Presents a bonus episode of Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast. Hector and Alicia dig into all the details and speculation around Intuit's newest cloud accounting product QuickBooks Ledger. Is it an affordable option for write-up clients or an over-hyped limited edition QBO? Listen to the full Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast here: https://share.transistor.fm/s/5586a16eSend your Questions/Comments (we could read/answer them on air) [email protected]/Apps Mentioned in this episode: Hector's App - RightTool www.righttool.app Alicia's Training - RoyalWise http://royl.ws/uqapodcast QuickBooks Connect Conference:www.quickbooksconnect.com Firm of the Future: www.firmofthefuture.com

Blake and David examine the downfall of FTX and founder Sam Bankman-Fried and look at some controversies around Deloitte auditors backdating audit paperwork in Canada, receiving only a minor fine. They also marvel at Donald Trump's attempt to blame accountants for alleged financial statement fraud in his organization. All this, and other news including NASBA's CEO's upcoming retirement, IRS budget cut updates, and generational differences around public accounting work environments. Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeper#IgnitionPrecon Party at QuickBooks Connect - Sunday, November 12,  7:00pmRSVP here: https://ignitionapp.info/precon-earmarkChapters (00:39) - Blake is back from Maryland where he gave a talk on AI and accounting (04:16) - CPA Journal uses bad AI to draw conclusions on AI's future in accounting (10:32) - Guinness Stout might not exist without taxes (13:44) - Jeff Bezos is moving to Miami (17:23) - Over 2/3 of Ohio CPAs are 50 or older (22:58) - Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty (24:30) - WeWork files for bankruptcy (30:28) - Trump trial updates: Donald Trump takes the stand (41:19) - CPA Ontario fines Deloitte (47:34) - IRS budget cut again (53:08) - NASBA CEO Ken Bishop plans to retire (54:36) - BDO and other firms becoming ESOPs (56:27) - Expensify closes their longue in SF (01:00:29) - We're going to QuickBooks Connect (01:01:17) - Blakes shares Instagram clip of street CPA interview (01:03:11) - Wrap up and how to earn free CPE for listening to this podcast  Show NotesHouse passes Israel aid tied to IRS cuts, triggering Biden clash | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/house-passes-israel-aid-tied-to-irs-cuts-triggering-biden-clash New York accounting firm Grassi announces ESOP | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/new-york-accounting-firm-grassi-announces-esop Trump’s Sons Cast the Blame for Fraud on Their Company’s Accountantshttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/nyregion/eric-trump-donald-jr-fraud-trial.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare NASBA CEO Ken Bishop plans to retire | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/nasba-ceo-ken-bishop-plans-to-retire IG reel: Good salary BUT don’t become a CPAhttps://www.instagram.com/reel/CzCgptfpjmv/ Can Artificial Intelligence Become an Accounting Expert? - The CPA Journalhttps://www.cpajournal.com/2023/10/24/can-artificial-intelligence-become-an-accounting-expert-2/Deloitte Auditors Got Caught Changing Their Computer Clocks to Backdate Workpapershttps://www.goingconcern.com/deloitte-auditors-got-caught-changing-their-computer-clocks-to-backdate-workpapers/ Ohio floats plan to recruit more CPAs      https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ohio-floats-plan-to-recruit-more-cpas WeWork, once valued at $47 billion, files for bankruptcy https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/07/wework-files-for-bankruptcy.html Here's how much WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann made before the company's bankruptcyhttps://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/07/heres-how-much-wework-founder-adam-neumann-got-before-bankruptcy.html Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty on all seven criminal fraud countshttps://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/02/sam-bankman-fried-found-guilty-on-all-seven-criminal-fraud-counts.html Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is leaving Seattle for Miami    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/03/amazon-founder-jeff-bezos-is-leaving-seattle-for-miami.html Ohio Society of CPAs Develops Action Plan Aimed at Talent Shortagehttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/11/06/ohio-society-of-cpas-develops-action-plan-aimed-at-talent-shortage/97271/ Billions still lost through bad accounting, says auditor general       https://mg.co.za/business/2023-11-03-billions-still-lost-through-bad-accounting-says-auditor-general/ Eric Trump testified over and over again he had nothing to do with his dad’s accounting. Then he was shown his own emails   https://fortune.com/2023/11/03/eric-trump-testifies-fraud-trial-never-worked-donald-financial-statements-emails-testimony-involvement/ Former FTX CEO found guilty of fraud      https://www.bankingdive.com/news/former-ftx-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-found-guilty-7-counts-fraud-conspiracy/698555/ House Passes Israel Aid Bill Tied to IRS Cutshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/11/02/house-passes-israel-aid-bill-tied-to-irs-cuts/97224/ Jeff Bezos: Leaving Seattle and Embracing Miamihttps://www.smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2023/11/jeff-bezos-leaving-seattle-and-embracing-miami.html/ Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos moves to Florida, where his parents live-and capital gains are not taxed        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-amazon-founder-jeff-bezos-125828852.html Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

An independent audit reveals over $1.4 billion in questionable spending and lack of financial oversight at Maryland's Health Department during the COVID pandemic. We break down the audit's alarming findings, and the response from state officials committed to improving financial practices.Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

A former Vegas hotel manager is accused of stealing over $773,000 in guest refunds and using the money to live lavishly. We unpack how he allegedly pulled off the massive refund scam and what could have been done to catch it sooner.Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

An embezzlement scheme at Aria Hotel costs MGM $770,000, an accounting firm apologizes for paying a staffer below minimum wage, problems with Workday ERP implementations for state and local governments, a spike in accounting enrollment at Purdue University, and tax migration trends between high-tax and low-tax states.SponsorsOnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpay Zoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zoho Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:59) - Clarence Thomas and a questionable RV loan (07:03) - Trump trial updates (10:35) - Allen Weisselberg accused of perjury by Forbes (12:38) - Earmark presents a "Federal Tax Updates" webinar on the IRS withdrawal process for ERC claims (14:08) - The complicated way the IRS wants you to complete this process (17:32) - Do Millenials use voice assistants to pay bills? (19:33) - We got a new 5-star review! (21:39) - Roblox and forcing remote workers back to the office (24:58) - Checking in on the live chat (26:07) - Data shows people are relocating to states with lower taxes (29:48) - Liberty Tax loses suit against Better Call Saul (32:27) - All your bank feeds are about to break (33:06) - $770,000 embezzlement at the Aria in Vegas (36:18) - Maryland Department of Health lost track of over $1 billion in COVID funds (37:38) - The City of Baltimore blames Worday for AR problem (42:27) - Grant Thornton apologizes for paying trainee below minimum wage (46:31) - Latest AICPA MAP survey shows no gain in starting accountants' salaries (50:51) - Purdue University sees spike in accounting enrollment (55:02) - Seton Hall launches new master's program in accounting and analytics (57:13) - Thanks for listening!  Show NotesClarence Thomas Didn’t Fully Repay $267,230 Loan for Luxury Motor Home, Senate Report Says - WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/clarence-thomas-didnt-fully-repay-267-230-loan-for-luxury-motor-home-senate-report-says-4651d23f?st=3z9ga4dwlcgci2c Accounting firm apologises for paying trainee below minimum wagehttps://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/2023/10/pay-for-trainee-accountants Audit of Maryland Health Department finds $1.4 billion accounting lapse - The Washington Posthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/25/maryland-health-department-audit-accounting-lapse/ Justice Thomas’s R.V. Loan Was Forgiven, Senate Inquiry Finds - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/us/politics/clarence-thomas-rv-loan-senate-inquiry.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Michael Cohen Testifies Trump Ordered Him to Inflate Wealth - WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/michael-cohen-testifies-against-trump-in-civil-fraud-trial-f9bb52c1?st=ep1l5nyp84fsot2 Purdue University sees spike in accounting enrollment | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/purdue-university-sees-spike-in-accounting-enrollment Trump’s Longtime CFO Lied, Under Oath, About Trump Tower Penthousehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2023/10/12/trumps-longtime-cfo-lied-under-oath-about-trump-tower-penthouse/ IRS announces withdrawal process for Employee Retention Credit claimshttps://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-withdrawal-process-for-employee-retention-credit-claims-special-initiative-aimed-at-helping-businesses-concerned-about-an-ineligible-claim-amid-aggressive-marketing-scams Donald Trump Watches as Witness Dismantles His Net Worth Calculationshttps://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-watches-witness-dismantles-his-net-worth-calculations-1835556 How an IRS contractor leaked tax data on Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/how-an-irs-contractor-leaked-tax-data-on-donald-trump-jeff-bezos-and-elon-musk Profits and Pay Lag Behind Revenue Gains at CPA Firms - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2023/10/11/cpa-firm-profits-and-pay-lag-as-revenue-tops-1-million/ 'Better Call Saul' creators beat Liberty Tax's defamation, trademark lawsuit | Reutershttps://www.reuters.com/legal/better-call-saul-creators-beat-liberty-taxs-defamation-trademark-lawsuit-2023-09-25/ Crazy Embezzlement Case At Aria Las Vegas: Hotel Manager Refunds $770,000+ To His Debit Card - LoyaltyLobbyhttps://loyaltylobby.com/2023/09/09/crazy-embezzlement-case-at-aria-las-vegas-hotel-manager-refunds-770000-to-his-debit-card/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Today, we are honoring the life of Joshua Lance, CPA, founder of Lance CPA Group, who passed away in October at the age of 40 after a battle with cancer. To commemorate Josh's life, we are playing a eulogy delivered by Kenji Kuramoto at Josh's memorial service this past weekend. Kenji represented the many voices in the accounting profession that Josh was a part of. Kenji shares stories about Josh's humility, thoughtfulness, and influence. Although Josh never sought the spotlight, he became well-known in the accounting world through his steady leadership and generosity of spirit. Josh's presence will be deeply missed in the accounting community.Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

A recent report alleges Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose that a $267,000 recreational vehicle loan from a friend was forgiven, raising questions about potential tax issues and scrutiny around the justice's financial practices.Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David discuss the factors that impact accountant salaries, including location, experience, and industry, and highlight the correlation between accounting salaries and overall economic conditions, noting that periods of economic growth can lead to higher salaries. They also take a look at the partnership between PwC and OpenAI and speculate on the potential impact of AI on accounting consulting and fraud detection. All this and more, right now! SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zoho Aero Workflow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/aeroChapters (00:27) - Blake and David are back from SuiteWorld and talk about NetSuite's new AI features (09:31) - Using AI to audit cattle (12:22) - Former Trump CFO, Allen Weisselberg, describes GAAP (14:03) - FTX trial update (17:27) - The "proof of reserves" myth in crypto (20:22) - Are financial statements and audits irrelevant in 2023 (26:45) - QuickBooks is launching bill pay (33:01) - The 150-hour rule is a barrier, not a bar (40:24) - Should CPAs have more specific designations and should bookkeeping require licensure? (43:10) - 3 professors know how to solve the pipeline problem? (46:45) - Some ChatGPT updates (50:44) - PwC partners with OpenAI (55:53) - Xero announces AI with searches (57:38) - Wrap up and where to reach Blake and David  Show NotesBill to compete with Intuit after partnership ends               https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/bill-intuit-partnership-embedded-payments-smb-competition-b2b/691269/ BILL Introduces Integrated Financial Operations Platform for Small Businesseshttps://www.pymnts.com/smbs/2023/bill-introduces-integrated-financial-operations-platform-for-small-businesses/ Intuit Introduces QuickBooks Bill Pay, Expanding Money Platform to Deliver Business-to-Business Payments with AP Automation        https://investors.intuit.com/news/news-details/2023/Intuit-Introduces-QuickBooks-Bill-Pay-Expanding-Money-Platform-to-Deliver-Business-to-Business-Payments-with-AP-Automation/default.aspx Intuit Introduces QuickBooks Bill Pay       https://thepaypers.com/online-mobile-banking/intuit-introduces-quickbooks-bill-pay--1265038 Is FTX the biggest audit disaster ever?     https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/community/blogs/philip-fisher/is-ftx-the-biggest-audit-disaster-ever The mystery of FTX's missing $9B is unraveled     https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/the-mystery-of-ftxs-missing-9b-is-unraveled-at-sbf-trial Bill Unveils Accountant Console for Accountant Partners https://insightfulaccountant.com/accounting-tech/vendor-news/bill-unveils-accountant-console-for-accountant-partners/ Stick with high standards — and 150 hours           https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/stick-with-high-standards-and-the-150-credit-hour-requirements-for-cpas With annual reports in the hundreds of pages, who has time to run a business?   https://www.cityam.com/with-annual-reports-in-the-hundreds-of-pages-who-has-time-to-run-a-business/ PwC partners with ChatGPT creator OpenAI         https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/pwc-offers-advice-from-bots-in-deal-with-chatgpt-firm-openai Avalara Expands Partnership with Oracle NetSuite to Deliver Integrated E-Invoicing Solutionhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/10/17/avalara-expands-partnership-with-oracle-netsuite-to-deliver-integrated-e-invoicing-solution/96047/ New York AG accuses crypto firms of deceiving investors in $1 billion fraudhttps://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/tech/crypto-firms-fraud-charges-new-york/index.html CPA Standoff: Why haven't the other provincial bodies joined the ...          https://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/profession/cpa-standoff-other-provincial-bodies Accounting is facing a labor crisis. Could fraud be part of the solution?     https://phys.org/news/2023-10-accounting-labor-crisis-fraud-solution.html FTX Used Billions in Customer Funds to Buy Back Binance Stake   https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/19/ftx-used-billions-in-customer-funds-to-buy-back-binance-stake/ Accounting is facing a labor crisis. Could fraud be part of the solution?     https://news.ufl.edu/2023/10/accounting-facing-labor-crisis/ Accountants battle software integration frustration          https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/accountants-battle-software-integration-frustration Oracle NetSuite Embeds Generative AI Throughout the Suite to Help Organizations Boost Productivity       https://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/oracle-netsuite-embeds-generative-ai-throughout-the-suite-to-help-organizations-boost-productivity.shtml Cohere Taps NetSuite to Scale Business Processes and Meet Global AI Demand     https://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/cohere-taps-netsuite-to-scale-business-processes-and-meet-global-ai-demand.shtml Oracle Acquires Next Technik | NetSuite https://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/netsuite-acquires-next-technik.shtml Accounting is facing a labor crisis. Could fraud be part of the solution?     https://news.warrington.ufl.edu/faculty-and-research/accounting-is-facing-a-labor-crisis-could-fraud-be-part-of-the-solution/ Is Audit in Crisis Because of Definitions? - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2023/10/17/alan-anderson-is-audit-in-crisis-because-of-definitions/ The 'proof of reserves' myth in crypto-accountancyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/the-proof-of-reserves-myth-in-crypto-accountancy OpenAI gives ChatGPT access to the entire internet | VentureBeathttps://venturebeat.com/ai/openai-gives-chatgpt-access-to-the-entire-internet/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

NetSuite founder Evan Goldberg discusses the company's 25th anniversary, new AI features like Text Enhance and Customer 360, and his long-term vision for intelligent assistants integrated with NetSuite.Meet Our Guest, Evan GoldbergLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-netsuite/Learn more about NetSuiteWebsite: https://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtmlNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Wayne Berson, CEO of BDO USA, joins Blake and guest host, David Leary, on the Earmark Podcast to discuss BDO's recent transition to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), making it the first major accounting firm to implement an ESOP structure. They discuss how the ESOP aims to attract and retain talent in the accounting profession and provide employees at all levels with an ownership stake in the firm.Meet Our Guest, Wayne BersonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayneberson/Learn more about BDOWebsite: https://www.bdo.com/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

There’s a lot to digest in this episode! Blake and David discuss Microsoft's $28.9 billion tax bill, and examine a tax-fraud scheme involving art donations. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon predicts that AI advancements will create a shorter workweek in the future. They also look at Xero’s newest features, including improved algorithms for recognizing new contacts and bank reconciliation statements, and talk about Grant Thornton's implementation of Git Assist, an AI tool for accessing internal knowledge resources. All this and so much more, right here, right now! SponsorsZoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoKeeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperSouth Carolina Association of CPAs (SCACPA) - http://accountingpodcast.promo/scacpaChapters (00:35) - The war in Israel and its effect on tech startups (04:36) - Heather Smith sends in an example of an AI language changer she used (06:49) - Arthur Andersen's Chicago house for sale (09:17) - Updates from the FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried trial (15:44) - IRS contractor who leaked tax returns of famous agrees to plea deal (19:03) - Trump trial updates (22:49) - George Santos facing 23 new charges (24:50) - Update on the Canada CPA standoff (26:42) - Nationwide accounting shortage is threatening small towns (27:59) - Number of accounting graduates drop largest percentage in single year since 1985 (31:03) - Workday and the problem with schools rolling out ERP's (38:02) - What pricing lessons accounting firms can learn from ski resorts (42:56) - CFO Brew's survey on remote work (47:27) - IRS says Microsoft owes $28.9 billion in back taxes (51:40) - IRS tax-gap predictions, and scams to watch for in 2022 (54:59) - Jamie Dimon predicts AI will reduce workweeks to 3.5 days (55:56) - Xero announces new AI features (56:49) - Grant Thornton rolls out GT Assist (59:13) - Earn free CPE for listening to this episode and remember to subscribe  Show NotesPool of accounting graduates shrinks, AICPA report findshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2023/oct/pool-of-accounting-graduates-shrinks-aicpa-report-finds.html Report: Iowa can pay the bills but lacks transparency in its accountinghttps://blackchronicle.com/midwest/iowa/report-iowa-can-pay-the-bills-but-lacks-transparency-in-its-accounting/ New accounting system causes bill backlog at U of Washingtonhttps://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/10/12/new-accounting-system-causes-bill-backlog-u-washington Grant Thornton launches internal generative AI tool          https://www.accountancydaily.co/grant-thornton-launches-internal-generative-ai-tool Art of Accounting: Leaving your job to start your own practicehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/art-of-accounting-leaving-your-job-to-start-your-own-practice Arthur Andersen's Winnetka home for salehttps://www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-real-estate/arthur-andersens-winnetka-home-sale The SBF Trial is Embarrassing For Crypto Industry               https://www.smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2023/10/the-sbf-trial-is-embarrassing-for-crypto-industry.html/ Returning to the office is costing you $51 per day, study finds       https://finance.yahoo.com/news/returning-office-costing-51-per-172630839.html Microsoft May Owe $28.9 Billion in Back Taxes to the IRShttps://gizmodo.com/microsoft-may-owe-28-9-billion-in-back-taxes-to-the-ir-1850921247 IRS Says Tax Gap For 2021 Expected To Be $688 Billion     https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/10/12/irs-says-tax-gap-for-2021-expected-to-be-688-billion/ How Israel's tech community is responding to the Israel-Hamas war           https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/13/israels-tech-community-responds-to-israel-hamas-war.html Iowa's annual financial report late again; agencies mum on whyhttps://www.bleedingheartland.com/2022/02/02/iowas-annual-financial-report-late-again-agencies-mum-on-why/ Iowa auditor slams governor, state for delays threatening universitieshttps://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-auditor-slams-governor-state-for-delays-threatening-universities/ UW’s Financial Accounting System            https://www.washington.edu/opb/uws-financial-accounting-system/ WSU recognized externally for Workday expertise              https://news.wsu.edu/news/2023/07/27/wsu-recognized-externally-for-workday-expertise/ Ohio State drops effort to update student information systemhttps://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/01/11/ohio-state-drops-effort-update-student-information-system LMU announces Workday Forward; staff reflect on the “abysmal fiasco” of original Workday launchhttps://www.laloyolan.com/news/lmu-announces-workday-forward-staff-reflect-on-the-abysmal-fiasco-of-original-workday-launch/article_13a1bb8f-fae6-5958-abe4-c090a3c80be1.html UT’s switch to Workday came with more than a few hiccups, but they were to be expectedhttps://thedailytexan.com/2019/05/08/uts-switch-to-workday-came-with-more-than-a-few-hiccups-but-they-were-to-be-expected/ Open Letter on Workday Issues  https://www.agsem.ca/post/open-letter-on-workday-issues Workday Implementation Considerations in Higher Educationhttps://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/public-sector/articles/higher-ed-software-workday-implementation.html Workday Sees Continued Momentum in Higher Education, With More than 70% of Workday Higher Education Customers Live  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/workday-sees-continued-momentum-in-higher-education-with-more-than-70-of-workday-higher-education-customers-live-301931288.html The Ohio State University Walks Away from Workday Student      https://www.thetambellinigroup.com/the-ohio-state-university-walks-away-from-workday-student/ Erie Community College to Spend $5.2M Replacing Disastrous ERP Systemhttps://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/erie-community-college-to-spend-5-2m-replacing-disastrous-erp-system ISU switch to Workday accounting delayed state financial report  https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2021/02/02/isu-switch-to-workday-accounting-delayed-state-financial-report/ Iowa ends contract with Workday, company chosen without traditional competitive biddinghttps://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-ends-contract-with-workday-company-chosen-without-traditional-competitive-bidding/ Exclusive: Iowa's late reporting jeopardized universities' federal fundshttps://www.bleedingheartland.com/2023/06/27/exclusive-iowas-late-reporting-jeopardized-universities-federal-funds/ If Amazon can’t make Workday work, who can?  https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/protocol-enterprise/workday-amazon-fail CPA Standoff: Accountants question the motives behind national ...           https://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/profession/cpa-standoff-member-consultation Arthur Andersen's House on Zillow           https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/44-Locust-Rd-Winnetka-IL-60093/70453195_zpid/ Tax return thief who took Trump, Griffin data pleads guilty | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/tax-return-thief-who-took-trump-griffin-data-pleads-guilty An update on our IRS tax audit - Microsoft On the Issues https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2023/10/11/update-irs-audit/ IRS sees tax gap widen to $688B | Accounting Today         https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-sees-tax-gap-widen-to-688b Melio Life on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CyQHzZiNDFi/ Caroline Ellison Tells Jury She Dreaded Inevitable Collapse of FTX – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/caroline-ellison-tells-jury-she-dreaded-inevitable-collapse-of-ftx-62f46947 Arthur Andersen's House Is For Sale - Going Concern        https://www.goingconcern.com/arthur-andersens-house-is-for-sale/ U.S. employees spend $51 daily when they work full-time in office, study sayshttps://www.newsnationnow.com/business/your-money/us-employees-spend-51-daily-when-they-work-full-time-in-office-study-says/amp/ The $300-a-Day Lift Ticket That Every Skier Hates - WSJ   https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/ski-resorts-lift-passes-epic-ikon-dbff41f7 Banker says Trump’s financial statements were key to loan approvals, but there were 'sanity checks' | AP News     https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-letitia-james-fraud-new-york-364d1052f98816121000c26dc66f3878 Bankman-Fried dismissed audit risks at FTX, ex-girlfriend testifies | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/bankman-fried-dismissed-audit-risks-at-ftx-ex-girlfriend-testifies Israeli Startup Community, at Home and Abroad, Prepares to Fight – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/israeli-startup-community-at-home-and-abroad-prepares-to-fight-60cea308 Santos Faces New Charges Accusing Him of Lies and Credit Card Fraud - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/nyregion/george-santos-charges.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX trial witnesses: Who knew what, when | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/sam-bankman-frieds-ftx-trial-witnesses-who-knew-what-when Fake mansions and rent-stabilized units emerge in Trump trial | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/fake-mansions-and-rent-stabilized-units-emerge-in-trump-trial Sam Bankman-Fried Lieutenant Recounts FTX Crash for Jurors – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/sam-bankman-fried-lieutenant-recounts-ftx-crash-for-jurors-3e91a325 Here’s How FTX Executives Secretly Spent $8 Billion in Customer Money – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/sbf-trial-ftx-customer-money-missing-6ba13914 Trump Organization Controller Admits to Tax Fraud Over Fear of Losing Jobhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/10/06/trump-organization-controller-admits-to-tax-fraud-over-fear-of-losing-job/95541/ Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

After a decade-long audit, Microsoft is facing a whopping $29 billion tax bill from the IRS for what the agency claims was an "illusory scheme" to channel profits through Puerto Rico—but with years of appeals ahead, will the tech giant ultimately pay the total amount?Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David dig into the use of AI agents in solving problems, emphasizing the effectiveness of assigning different roles to the agents and having them interact with each other to reach satisfactory results. They also discuss the latest accounting news, including the recent arrest of an IRS contractor, the IRS slashing the PTIN fee, ongoing trials, and cyber-attacks.SponsorsRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayKeeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperAccountests - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/accountestsChapters (00:47) - Don Jr. explains GAAP (03:26) - Stories we'll cover this week (05:32) - WSJ article on why no one is going into accounting (09:49) - New Illinois CPA Society survey (12:01) - The IRS is watching people who resold Taylor Swift tickets (13:30) - Chick-fil-A is testing out robot servers and what accountants can learn in what customers want & expect in restaurants (17:58) - Zoom adds AI companion features (23:17) - FedNow hits milestone (25:26) - Listener mail (33:34) - QuickBooks offers a $50/month assisted bookkeeping service (39:52) - Listener mail: Should I change majors from accounting? (42:36) - FEMA and WGU are alternative ways to earn 150 credits (45:52) - Microsoft using AI to help AI (50:19) - Former IRS contractor charged with leaking billionaire tax filings (54:22) - Trump blaming his former Mazars accountant in fraud trial (58:55) - CPA Canada vs CPA Quebec and CPA Montreal updates (01:01:12) - MGM cyber attack follow up (01:03:35) - WSJ reports Binance is in trouble (01:07:44) - Wrap up and how to reach us  Show NotesChick-fil-A Reportedly Tests Robot Servers Amid Diner Concerns Around Automationhttps://www.pymnts.com/restaurant-technology/2023/chick-fil-a-tests-robot-servers-amid-diner-concerns-around-automation/ AICPA Endorses Key Legislation Recognizing the Link Between ...  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aicpa-endorses-key-legislation-recognizing-the-link-between-accounting-and-stem-301941029.html Why No One's Going Into Accounting - WSJ           https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/accounting-salary-cpa-shortage-dec2caa2 IRS slashes PTIN fees       https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-slashes-ptin-fees New National Research on CPA Pipeline Challenges Underway      https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/10/05/new-national-research-on-cpa-pipeline-challenges-underway/95453/ IRS contractor charged in leak of billionaire taxpayer infohttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-contractor-charged-in-leak-of-billionaire-taxpayer-info-to-news-outlets CPA Standoff: Financial transparency a key issue in national ...      https://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/profession/cpa-standoff-financial-transparency-dispute Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza and Wings removes AI ordering platform           https://www.pizzamarketplace.com/articles/anthonys-coal-fired-pizza-and-wings-removes-ai-ordering-platform/ FedNow Service Surpasses 100 Participants Since July Launch       https://www.pymnts.com/news/faster-payments/2023/fednow-service-surpasses-100-participants-since-july-launch/ 2024 Public Accounting Starting Salary Numbers Are In   https://www.goingconcern.com/2024-public-accounting-starting-salary-numbers-are-in/ Clorox Experiences Significant Financial Loss Stemming From Recent Cyber Attack               https://blog.knowbe4.com/clorox-cyber-attack-financial-loss CPA Pipeline Research Survey      https://intraprise.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cUSqP1Kalfh58ZE?Source=PRMK 2024 Salary Guide | Robert Half https://www.roberthalf.com/us/en/insights/salary-guide CPA Standoff: Unique regulatory status of CPA Quebec complicates accounting rift              https://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/profession/cpa-standoff-ontario-governance-dispute CPA standoff: Ontario government sticks to sidelines in governance dispute           https://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/profession/cpa-standoff-ontario-governance-dispute Message from Jerilyn Dressler re: accounting profs lacking real world experience  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtxTBWVtqNtvTshjnDnxjTvHJM Trump business fraud trial continues with accountant testimony on 4th day | PBS NewsHour         https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/trump-business-fraud-trial-continues-with-accountant-testimony-on-4th-day MGM Resorts Refused to Pay Ransom in Cyberattack on Casinos - WSJ     https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/mgm-resorts-refused-to-pay-ransom-in-cyberattack-on-casinos-3a53fa6d?st=36ug7ecd0g4b0jw&reflink=article_copyURL_share Why No One’s Going Into Accounting - WSJ           https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/accounting-salary-cpa-shortage-dec2caa2?st=oefhxkj9cccegz7&reflink=article_copyURL_share New National Research on CPA Pipeline Challenges Underway - CPA Practice Advisor          https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/10/05/new-national-research-on-cpa-pipeline-challenges-underway/95453/ Not having a House Speaker is threatening tax and other key areas | Accounting Today     https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/not-having-a-house-speaker-is-threatening-tax-and-other-key-areas Zoom AI Companion       https://click.zoom.us/e/84442/ign-aicompanionpaid-zcid-13740/c57lg8/5011214560?h=3QFIwWrjLnzoizu3UjHPldpZxIIke3dKP8BHtKL9QSo WATCH: Clip of Don Jr.'s deposition in NY civil fraud case.                https://x.com/thebeatwithari/status/1708983890600198372?s=12 AutoGen - Microsoft steps into the AI AGENTS arena - YouTube    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdcCD--IieY Binance, the World’s Biggest Crypto Firm, Is Melting Down - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/the-worlds-biggest-crypto-firm-is-melting-down-338b8e17 LIVE Assisted Bookkeeping for $50/month            https://x.com/love2travel/status/1704553402393403648?s=12 If You Resold Taylor Swift Tickets, the IRS Is Watching       https://gizmodo.com/irs-begins-taxing-concert-ticket-resale-taylor-swift-1850865265 Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Looking for the best cities to launch your accounting career? This top 10 countdown will highlight the metro areas with the highest demand, abundant jobs, and the most competitive salaries for accountants. Forbes Advisor compiled this list. See the full list here: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/education/top-cities-for-accountants/ Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe Get in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail; we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040 Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Sharon Lassar, Ph.D., CPA, and Director of the School of Accountancy at the University of Denver, shares concerns and perspectives on CPA licensure, including the resistance to changing the 150-hour requirement, the challenges of online learning and potential cheating, the impact on the value of the CPA designation, and the need for leadership and action from organizations like the AICPA and NASBA to address these issues and improve the profession.Meet Our Guest:Sharon Lassar, Ph.D., CPALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-lassar/Website: https://daniels.du.edu/directory/sharon-lassar/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David cover a plethora of topics including positive customer experiences, legal rulings, top cities for accountants, and the pressure on Intuit from major banks. They also dig into the discovery of a large sum of cash at a senator's home, how Trump defrauded the banks, another potential government shutdown, and the accounting talent crisis. All this, and more, right here, right now!SponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/OnPayRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayOhMyFraud - https://ohmyfraud.comChapters (00:58) - Blake shares a good customer experience at a parking garage (04:33) - CPACharge adds invoice payment directly through app (07:17) - Donald Trump defrauded banks and insurers (13:51) - Intuit pressured by credit card companies and banks to not support gun stores (19:23) - Throwback to Burger King first accepting credit card payments (23:23) - Top cities to be an accountant (28:33) - Bob Menendez and how much cash an average person should keep at home (34:44) - Government shutdown update and predictions (38:49) - Kelly Richmond Pope on the accountant talent crisis (46:47) - The IRS revolving door (51:17) - PCAOB announces new audit rule (54:44) - What accountants can learn from Smucker's hybrid work model (57:54) - Amazon invests $4 billion in Anthropic's Claude (59:49) - The Pentagon is using AI to navigate its own bloated policies (01:01:49) - Deloitte CEO says he doesn't deserve his pay (01:03:48) - We need more practical application in accounting classes (01:06:59) - Wrap up and where to reach us Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesNow the Profession Is Losing Experienced Accountants Toohttps://www.goingconcern.com/accountants-leaving-the-profession/ Nearly 1,000 millionaires haven't filed tax returnshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/nearly-1-000-millionaires-havent-filed-tax-returns Jayapal, Warren Call on IRS to Address Revolving Door Between ...https://jayapal.house.gov/2023/09/28/jayapal-warren-call-on-irs-to-address-revolving-door-between-irs-and-giant-accounting-firms-after-troubling-inspector-general-findings/ What CPAs can learn from Smucker's       https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/smuckers-sweet-recipe-for-rto-a-blend-of-flexibility-and-focus The top cities in the U.S. to be an accountant       https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/the-top-cities-in-the-u-s-to-be-an-accountant Intuit Reverses Ban On Gun-Related Businesses   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/intuit-reverses-ban-gun-related-businesses JPMorgan Chase Caught Trying to Block Gun Purchases   https://catholicvote.org/jpmorgan-caught-trying-block-gun-purchases/ CPACharge Announces Automated Invoicing, Streamlining Customer Billing Cycle For Accounting Professionals      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cpacharge-announces-automated-invoicing-streamlining-150000639.html As Government Shutdown Appears More Likely, Treasury Releases IRS Contingency Planhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/09/28/as-government-shutdown-appears-more-likely-treasury-releases-irs-contingency-plan/ The last government shutdown was the longest in more than 40 yearshttps://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/politics/last-federal-government-shutdown-longest-dg/index.html Audit Firms Face Stiffer Mandate to Verify Client Details Under New Rulehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/audit-firms-face-stiffer-mandate-to-verify-client-details-under-new-rule-679e30cd The top cities in the U.S. to be an accountant | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/the-top-cities-in-the-u-s-to-be-an-accountant The Right Amount of Cash to Keep at Home for Emergencies. Hint: Not $480,000. – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/emergency-fund-cash-on-hand-b04136d1 Judge rules Donald Trump defrauded banks and insurers while building real estate empire | AP News        https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-letitia-james-fraud-lawsuit-1569245a9284427117b8d3ba5da74249 Pentagon’s Budget Is So Bloated That It Needs an AI Program to Navigate It            https://theintercept.com/2023/09/20/pentagon-ai-budget-gamechanger/ Amazon bets $4 billion on Anthropic’s Claude, the chatbot platform rivaling ChatGPT and Google's Bard | VentureBeat                https://venturebeat.com/ai/amazon-bets-4-billion-on-anthropics-claude-the-chatbot-that-rivals-chatgpt-and-googles-bard/ Deloitte CEO Says He Doesn't Deserve His Pay - Going Concern     https://www.goingconcern.com/monday-morning-accounting-news-brief-deloitte-ceo-says-he-doesnt-deserve-his-pay-the-accountant-shuffle-7-17-23/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Classifieds Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Ben Richmond, Xero's Country Manager for the United States, joins us to discuss new Xero product features like improved inventory management and AI integration, plans for the upcoming XeroCon 2024 conference, the future of the accounting profession, and Xero's sponsorship of the FIFA Women's World Cup. Ben provides an insider's look into Xero's roadmap and vision for transforming accounting with technology. (00:00) - Intro and XeroCon Conference Plans (02:15) - New Xero Product Features (07:15) - AI in Accounting Software (14:30) - Rebranding the Accounting Profession (21:45) - Advice for Accounting Firms (25:30) - Activating Brand Sponsorships (30:15) - Xero's Small Business Fund (37:00) - Diversity and Inclusion in Accounting Meet Our Guest, Ben RichmondLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-richmond-ca-b8794220/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenRichmond1Learn more about Xerohttps://www.xero.com/us/Show Notes: Xero Beautiful Business Fund (applications close Oct. 6)AI guideXero's 2023 Money Matters Report Future Focus: Xero’s AI Guide for Accountants and Bookkeepers Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The recent moratorium on Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims has big implications for accounting and tax professionals. In this episode, we break down what the ERC moratorium means and the key things you need to know as an accountant or tax preparer. We discuss how it will impact tax preparation and the diligence required to avoid invalid/fraudulent ERC claims, the bookkeeping and accounting changes to accommodate the moratorium, and the effects on audits. Tune in to understand what the ERC moratorium means for you and your work. Meet Our Guest:Reynaldo E. Arellano, CPA PFS CGMALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reynaldoarellano/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David discuss the potential for AI to replace CEOs of CPA firms. They also dive into the increasing trend of remote work in accounting firms, contrasting the reservations expressed by some CEOs with the benefits of remote work for employees and the environment. Then, on to cryptocurrency scams and criticisms of the 150-hour rule for becoming a CPA, with listener emails sharing personal experiences and concerns about the rule.Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay FreshBooks - http://accountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksChapters (00:34) - Blake is back from San Diego (03:18) - Accountant rejects partnership offer to open daycare franchise (04:57) - ChatGPT makes a YouTube video (09:58) - IRS walks back promise to stay open during government shutdown (14:19) - AICPA says IRS source thinks 95% of new ERC claims are ineligible (15:44) - AICPA Town Hall spends 4x on M&A vs pipeline issues (20:53) - IRS posts 3,700 new jobs (22:28) - Check out the Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast (23:47) - Will AI replace managing partners? (27:13) - The real reason Jamie Dimon is so against remote work (33:07) - Deloitte study demonstrates the benefits of remote work for employees (37:56) - Study reveals remote workers cut greenhouse gas emissions by 54% (39:53) - Mark Cuban lost $870k in a crypto scam (43:12) - Tether is once again lending out their stablecoins - reversing earlier promise not to (48:19) - The wild courses CPAs take to get their 150 hours (51:23) - The accounting backgrounds of Republican presidential candidates (53:57) - The IRS plans to use AI to audit large partnerships (59:01) - Paulita is inspired by the podcast to get back into accounting (01:02:57) - Final listener email and wrap-up Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesPeople who work from home all the time ‘cut emissions by 54%’ against those in office | Greenhouse gas emissions                https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/18/people-who-work-from-home-all-the-time-cut-emissions-by-54-against-those-in-office IRS to hire 3,700 agents to pursue wealthy tax dodgers    https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/irs-seeks-to-hire-3-700-agents-to-pursue-wealthy-tax-dodgers California Companies Defer Billions in Taxes, Interest-Free, as Borrowing Costs Rise             https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-companies-defer-billions-in-taxes-interest-free-as-borrowing-costs-rise-8aea409f Experienced Accountants Sought by IRS for New Large Corp ...     https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/experienced-accountants-sought-by-irs-for-new-large-corp-partnership-auditor-positions/ US government shutdown: What is it and who would be affected?              https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-government-shutdown-what-closes-what-stays-open-2023-09-21/ IRS to remain ‘fully operational’ if Congress triggers government shutdown            https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2023/09/irs-to-remain-fully-operational-if-congress-triggers-government-shutdown/ IRS to ‘partially close’ if government shutdown happens, reversing earlier plans, union says            https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2023/09/irs-to-partially-close-if-government-shutdown-happens-reversing-earlier-plans-union-says/ IRS Activities Following the Shutdown     https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-activities-following-the-shutdown America's tax collectors may escape a possible government shutdown     https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americas-tax-collectors-may-escape-a-possible-government-shutdown-111211477.html Representative Introduced Bill Halting Legislator Pay During Shutdownhttps://www.businessinsider.com/bill-for-halting-legislator-pay-mccarthy-shutdown-act-2023-9 JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon delivers a stern warning to remote workers - TheStreet https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/jpmorgans-jamie-dimon-delivers-a-stern-warning-to-remote-workersGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Accounting has long been viewed as a stable career, but in recent years, droves of accountants have been leaving the profession. Blake Oliver dives into a recent Wall Street Journal article highlighting the factors driving experienced accountants away, from burnout and boredom to the threat of automation.Show NotesJob Security Isn’t Enough to Keep Many Accountants From Quittinghttps://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-quit-job-security-675fc28f Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe Get in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let The Accounting Podcast listeners know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The government shutdown threat looms as Congress scrambles to pass funding bills. The IRS previously said it could stay open during a shutdown by relying on Inflation Reduction Act funds. But now the agency says those funds can't sustain operations. According to its union, the IRS is preparing for furloughs and partial closures if a shutdown hits. This reversal surprised IRS employees and could spell delays for taxpayers and CPAs.Show NotesIRS plans possible furloughs in case of shutdownhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-plans-possible-furloughs-in-case-of-a-government-shutdownIRS to ‘partially close’ if government shutdown happens, reversing earlier plans, union sayshttps://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2023/09/irs-to-partially-close-if-government-shutdown-happens-reversing-earlier-plans-union-says/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook, and if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website: accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let The Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Buckle up for a wild ride covering everything from brazen ERC scams to cutting-edge AI. Join Blake and David as they expose the rampant fraud sucking billions from the federal coffers. You'll hear an unbelievable voicemail scam promising gangbusters refunds—could it really be Snoop Dogg or is your mind playing tricks?Fast forward to the bleeding edge of technology with jaw-dropping examples of AI voice and face swapping. Think real-time translation opening global markets. But not so fast—can emerging tech replace human accountants offshore? We tackle the automation debate head-on.Strap on your justice caps as the crew champions entrepreneurial accountants breaking free from the shackles of the timesheet. But will AI be the death knell of the billable hour? Tune in to find out!Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Forwardly - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/forwardly Aero Workflow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/aeroChapters (00:45) - David got a voicemail from Snoop Dogg! (08:01) - Mark Cuban and Warren Buffett talk about why accounting is important (12:09) - Couple gets married in the accounting classroom where they met (14:10) - Purdue accounting professors invite accounting students and alumni to tailgate together at football games (15:10) - AICPA drops the ball on member survey (18:30) - Vegas gets hit by cyber attacks (22:49) - Square outage causes problems for small businesses (24:51) - The Doberman dog breed is named after a German tax collector (25:52) - JP Morgan partners with Gusto to offer online payroll (27:55) - American Express & Walmart expand small business offerings (31:06) - AI real-time language translation for video and audio is not far away (38:20) - The future of voice assists and integration with LLM's (43:17) - 29-year-old accountant quits firm to open her own (48:53) - Offshoring vs. automation (54:45) - Blake's new lawyer charges by the hour...sometimes (56:58) - Thanks for listening and how to earn free CPE Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesJPMorgan to offer online payroll services                https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/09/14/jpmorgan-to-offer-online-payroll-services.html I.R.S. Freezes Pandemic-Era Tax Credit Amid Fraud Fears  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/us/politics/irs-pandemic-employee-credit-fraud.html The Cyberattack That Sent Las Vegas Back in Time              https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/las-vegas-mgm-cyberattack-casinos-6ca43dcf Caesars Paid Ransom After Suffering Cyberattack – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/caesars-paid-ransom-after-suffering-cyberattack-7792c7f0 Meet a 29-year-old accountant whose ‘resentment’ only climbed after her firm raised her salary from $60k to $90k as she made millions for them. She has her own firm nowhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/meet-29-old-accountant-whose-110000532.html Mark Cuban on Accounting via Hector Garciahttps://youtube.com/watch?v=VT_SCYbkmd8&si=3fLUqsQbqIlCzkgAGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The IRS has announced an immediate moratorium on new Employee Retention Tax Credit claims through the end of the year amidst a surge of questionable submissions. Tune in for details on the ERC crackdown, including new criminal probes, longer processing times, and options for withdrawing improper claims.Show NotesEmployee Retention Credit Eligibility Checklist: Help understanding this complex credithttps://www.irs.gov/newsroom/employee-retention-credit-eligibility-checklist-help-understanding-this-complex-creditRed flags for Employee Retention Credit claims; IRS reminds businesses to watch out for warning signs of aggressive promotion that can mislead people into making improper ERC claimshttps://www.irs.gov/newsroom/red-flags-for-employee-retention-credit-claims-irs-reminds-businesses-to-watch-out-for-warning-signs-of-aggressive-promotion-that-can-mislead-people-into-making-improper-erc-claimsNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook, and if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website: accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let The Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

This week we dive into the pipeline shortage and the need for more accounting candidates, and discuss Intuit's groundbreaking use of AI in TurboTax and its potential impact on accounting professionals. Guest Jack Castonguay sheds light on FASB's recent announcement on accounting standards for digital assets and how it affects companies holding crypto assets. We also explore positive aspects of the accounting profession and address the need for critical changes like higher salaries and re-evaluating the audit process.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowFreshBooks - http://accountingpodcast.promo/freshbooks South Carolina Association of CPAs (SCACPA) - http://accountingpodcast.promo/SCACPAChapters (00:47) - Welcome Jack Castonguay to the show (02:00) - Jack is quoted: "Shrinking CPA Pipeline Fuels Calls to Relay Education Mandate" (04:18) - Intuit introduces 'Intuit Assist' an AI chatbot for tax (13:20) - The new AI in QuickBooks is ... less impressive (15:21) - 6 in 10 Americans live paycheck to paycheck (15:51) - FASB announcement on accounting standards for digital assets (18:12) - Listener voicemail: Accounting teaches you to be a BS detector (22:09) - Listener voicemail: Does the accounting profession cover too much? (30:40) - Why more people should become accountants (33:23) - The problem with ELE programs to reach 150 (38:27) - ADP study shows why and when people change jobs (41:10) - How can starting salaries increase in accounting? (46:33) - Why accounting students should double major (53:01) - Checking back in on the live chat with questions (58:48) - We get a one-star review! Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesIntuit reveals new A.I. assistant after major investment   https://fortune.com/2023/09/06/intuit-ai-virtual-assistant-major-investment-ceo-sasan-goodarzi/ Intuit Assist - Your AI Accounting Assistant            https://quickbooks.intuit.com/ai-accounting/ Intuit Mailchimp Launches New Global Campaign to Help Marketers Untangle Their Clustomer Problemhttps://investors.intuit.com/news/news-details/2023/Intuit-Mailchimp-Launches-New-Global-Campaign-to-Help-Marketers-Untangle-Their-Clustomer-Problem/default.aspx Introducing Intuit Assist: The Generative AI-Powered Financial Assistant for Small Businesses and Consumers         https://investors.intuit.com/news/news-details/2023/Introducing-Intuit-Assist-The-Generative-AI-Powered-Financial-Assistant-for-Small-Businesses-and-Consumers/default.aspx Promoting an employee may lead them to leave https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/adp-examines-impact-of-promotions-on-employee-motivation-and-retention Transformative Tax Preparation: Gen-AI Powered Intuit Apollohttps://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/breaking-news/tax-preparation-powered-by-gen-ai-59318/ Intuit Assist Poised To Boost Competitive Moat, Gets A Price Target Boost From Analystshttps://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/23/09/34327992/intuit-assist-poised-to-boost-competitive-moat-gets-a-price-target-boost-from-analy Intuit cut hundreds of jobs and spent at least $20 billion in a massive bet on AI. Today the company is revealing its new virtual assistant https://finance.yahoo.com/news/intuit-cut-hundreds-jobs-spent-120000980.html Google to charge big businesses $30 per user per month for AI in Gmail and work appshttps://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/29/google-will-charge-enterprises-30-a-month-for-duet-ai-in-workspace.html Meet our guest, Jack CastonguayWebsite: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Pg5p99EAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sraLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-castonguay-phd-cpa/Twitter: https://twitter.com/profjackc?lang=enInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/profjackscout/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Join us for an in-depth conversation with Jerry Maginnis, a retired Big Four audit partner, about the value and criticisms of financial statement audits.Jerry draws on his decades of experience auditing public companies to respond to issues around audit quality, staff work conditions, complexity in accounting standards, and whether audits truly protect investors. He provides perspective on PCAOB inspections, the pass/fail system, and deficient audits.Blake and David ask tough questions about audit fees increasing while staff salaries stagnate, whether accounting and auditing standards should be simplified, and whether audits provide usefulness to average investors.Jerry argues audits still provide an invaluable service in capital markets despite imperfections but also sees opportunities for improvement through leveraging technology. He gives advice on maintaining a value-creation mindset and shares his motivation behind writing a book for young accountants.Meet Our Guest:Jerry MaginnisLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-maginnis-18a47813/Read Jerry's book, Advice for a Successful Career in the Accounting Profession: How to Make Your Assets Greatly Exceed Your Liabilities: https://a.co/d/6SWvDwm Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We’ve got an AI-packed episode this week! Ryan Lazanis demonstrates how AI and voice cloning technology can be utilized to streamline the analysis of financial statements. Blake and David examine various applications of AI in accounting, including tools for extracting key information from emails and documents, an AI-powered tax analysis tool, and the potential for AI to enhance advisory services. They also dig into some issues related to spam and scams in QuickBooks support, emphasizing the need for more granular requirements for accounting services and specialized education in areas like tax and much much more!SponsorsLiveflow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Zoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zoho Forwardly - http://accountingpodcast.promo/forwardlyChapters (00:00) - TAP 348 (00:21) - Preview: Why we need more CPAs (01:04) - David finally gets with the TSA Pre program (02:39) - Using ChatGPT to write a Medicare appeal letter (04:00) - Chad took Beginning Walk/Jog to finish out his 150 hours (09:22) - Reflecting on the Unique CPA Bridging The Gap 2023 Conference (12:17) - Blake renewed his CPA license with 3 minutes to spare! (18:08) - Professor pumps accounting on Wheel of Fortune (23:33) - Accounting can make for a flexible lifestyle (24:26) - ABC News investigates the Big Four in Australia (33:40) - Is there a revolving door between Intuit employees and the IRS? (38:13) - Using AI to automate a P&L walkthrough video (48:00) - Doing tax research with AI (51:45) - Annoucing the "Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast" (53:19) - QuickBooks support scammer caught and punished (56:39) - Sean asks: "Is it a CPA shortage, or a resource allocation problem?" (01:02:05) - The CPAs education requirement for taxes is too low (01:06:03) - Wrap up and remember to subscribe so you don't miss an episode Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes“Tax prep giants are terrified. Their lobbyists are working overtime to try to keep the federal government from finally providing an easy, free way to file taxes. But we’re at a historic moment where we can get this done—so let’s keep pushing.” Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 17, 2023https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1692232917806698820 Democrats are increasingly optimistic about the IRS' plan to offer free tax prep software and break TurboTax and H&R Block's strangleholdhttps://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-optimistic-about-irs-plans-to-offer-free-tax-filing-services-2023-8      Democrats accuse tax prep firms of undermining new IRS effort on electronic free file tax returns https://apnews.com/article/irs-free-file-tax-returns-391ded1dbd73444bada5e946e962d70c Danielle Booker, Ph.D., CPA on LinkedIn: #accountants #accounting #cpa #patsajak #vannawhite #wheeloffortune…                https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danielle-booker-ph-d-cpa-05142238_accountants-accounting-cpa-activity-7097604071477362688--U2u ‘The World’s Fastest Accountant’ Is Running Away From the ‘Boring Stiff Squares’ Stereotypehttps://www.goingconcern.com/the-worlds-fastest-accountant-is-running-away-from-the-boring-stiff-squares-stereotype/ The 'revolving door' between accounting and the IRShttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/hundreds-of-irs-employees-worked-for-accounting-firms IRS agents are getting paid by private accounting firms: watchdoghttps://thehill.com/business/4176786-irs-agents-are-getting-paid-by-private-accounting-firms-watchdog/ No Cubicles Here! The Shockingly Sun-Kissed Life of Digital Nomad Accountantshttps://hbculifestyle.com/digital-nomad-accountants/ MACPA Chair Christine Aspell looks to combat accounting ...https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/profiles-strategies/2023/08/accounting-misconceptions.html?page=all Passaic County Man Charged in $13 Million Technology Support ...             https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/passaic-county-man-charged-13-million-technology-support-scam-targeting-over-seven Hundreds of IRS employees worked for accounting firmshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/hundreds-of-irs-employees-worked-for-accounting-firms I took "Intro to Philosophy" to finish out my 150 credits. I thought that was ridiculous. But this guy has me beat!   https://www.linkedin.com/posts/blaketoliver_cpa-activity-7103070376422735872-JZkC 'The World's Fastest Accountant' Is Running Away From the 'Boring Stiff Squares' Stereotypehttps://www.goingconcern.com/the-worlds-fastest-accountant-is-running-away-from-the-boring-stiff-squares-stereotype/ Jennifer Wilson on LinkedIn: Love this. Accounting is a cool, tech-forward, difference-making…https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jenniferwilsonprofile_accountants-accounting-cpa-activity-7098413369098919936-vRqf Tax Genii 1 4 Demohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-SXc1V58gQ How a sleeper issue inside the big four accounting giants could topple the economyhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-14/australia-big-four-audit-decline-quality-fear-corporate-collapse/102718744Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/FutureFirm - https://www.futurefirmaccelerate.com/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Blake and David discuss issues relating to the accounting profession's talent pipeline, including a high school student's negative experience in her first accounting class and efforts by state CPA societies to reduce licensing barriers. They move on to tech topics, like the slow adoption of AI tools such as ChatGPT among accountants and new product features announced by Intuit and Xero. Wrapping things up, they share listener feedback on finding resources to learn new accounting software and workflows and provide commentary on app subscription price increases and the need for accountants to price their services properly.Sponsors OnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay CCH Access - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/axcess Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:00) - Preview: Accountants need to charge more (01:02) - Welcome to The Accounting Podcast : Blake talks to high school senior in an accounting class (10:41) - The South Carolina Accociation of CPAs introduces new changes to 150 rule (20:02) - Air traffic controllers are understaffed and narrowly avoiding disaster (23:51) - The number of EA's in The NAEA is down 23% over the last 5 years (26:10) - Comparing air traffic controller shortage to accounting shortage (31:26) - Attestation reports are not audits (34:09) - Listener mail from a bookkeeper asking for recommendations on how to learn QuickBooks better (40:36) - What should firms do when accounting software raise their prices? (46:26) - LegalZoom launches LegalZoom Books (49:02) - How many Ohio CPAs have tried ChatGPT at all? (51:57) - Intuit released their year end earnings (55:07) - Some new Xero AI news & Xerocon is back in the US for 2024 (59:15) - Relay ups FDIC insurance to $2.5 million and Stripe offers sales tax calculations (01:01:25) - Wrap up and where to reach us Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesProduct wrap from Xerocon Sydney 2023 | Xero Blog        https://www.xero.com/blog/2023/08/product-wrap-from-xerocon-sydney-2023/ 150 Hours is a Barrier – Really! - Going Concern  https://www.goingconcern.com/150-hours-is-a-barrier-really/ Jacob Schroeder: 86% of OSCPA Town Hall attendees have not used ChatGPT at allhttps://x.com/jacobbschroeder/status/1694748226904060157?s=12 SCACPA Proposing Legislation to Address Pipeline Challenges – SCACPAhttps://www.scacpa.org/scacpa-proposing-legislation-to-address-pipeline-challenges/ Airline Close Calls Happen Far More Often Than Previously Knownhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/21/business/airline-safety-close-calls.html Please join the Arizona State Society of Enrolled Agents “Town Hall”          https://aztaxpros.org/images/meeting/082323/Town_Hall/azsea_invite_to_town_hall_on_aug_23__2023.pdf Question from a bookkeeperhttps://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7094151084134338560/Upcoming changes to QuickBooks Desktop pricing + FAQshttps://www.firmofthefuture.com/product-update/quickbooks-desktop-pricing-changes/ Dext pricing change from today https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/any-answers/dext-pricing-change-from-today Introducing Ramp Plus   https://ramp.com/blog/introducing-ramp-plus Fintech Ramp is Raising Capital at $5.5 Billion Valuation, Down 30%           https://www.theinformation.com/articles/fintech-ramp-is-raising-capital-at-5-5-billion-valuation-down-30 Accountants face up to the cost of cloud app stacks          https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/tech-pulse/accountants-face-up-to-the-cost-of-cloud-app-stacks Stripe Unveils “Tax for Platforms” to Streamline Tax Compliance for Small Businesses         https://smallbiztrends.com/2023/08/stripe-unveils-tax-for-platforms-to-streamline-tax-compliance-for-small-businesses.html Intuit (INTU) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript      https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2023/08/24/intuit-intu-q4-2023-earnings-call-transcript/ Why Students Opt for Accounting (or Don’t)         https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/08/20/why-students-opt-for-accounting-or-dont/ CPA Exam Changes and Pipeline Woes Are a Perfect Storm of Problems For the Profession               https://www.goingconcern.com/cpa-exam-changes-and-pipeline-woes-are-a-perfect-storm-of-problems-for-the-profession/ Stop calling them auditshttps://blockworks.co/news/blockchain-audits-ey FTX Bankruptcy Burning Through $1.5M in Legal Costs Every Dayhttps://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/08/23/ftx-bankruptcy-burning-through-15m-in-legal-costs-every-day/ 150 Hours is a Barrier - Really!    https://www.goingconcern.com/150-hours-is-a-barrier-really/ SCACPA Proposing Legislation to Address Pipeline Challenges – SCACPAhttps://www.scacpa.org/scacpa-proposing-legislation-to-address-pipeline-challenges/ Xerocon Returns to the US           https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/education-hub/training-center/xerocon-returns-to-the-us/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The requirements to become a licensed CPA differ across states, yet CPAs maintain mobility to practice in multiple jurisdictions. How does this work? David Knoble, Chair of the South Carolina Association of CPAs (SCACPA), joins the show to bust myths around substantial equivalency and mobility rules for CPAs and discuss the SCACPA's proposed changes to licensure requirements in the state to encourage more accountants to become CPAs.Knoble clarifies how states have flexibility in setting licensing requirements under existing standards while still enabling cross-border practice privileges. With an in-depth look at the Uniform Accountancy Act, including real examples of alternative pathways, we shed light on this complex topic to provide an accurate understanding of what substantial equivalency and mobility mean for you as an accounting professional. Tune in as we separate fact from fiction around these critical concepts impacting the CPA profession.Meet Our Guest, David KnobleLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmknoble/Twitter: https://twitter.com/knoblecpaLearn more about Knoble Ingle CPAshttps://www.knobleingle.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

In this episode, Blake and David talk app integration frustrations, Gusto's new payroll feature, increased fees for tax professionals, a tragic accident involving an IRS agent, low job fulfillment among accountants, and an employee stock ownership plan at BDO. They also dive into Amazon's new product review feature and the appointment of a former Intuit executive as the new CEO of PayPal. Rounding things out, they speculate on Alex Chriss' move to PayPal and the potential benefits for accountants and bookkeepers.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowAero Workflow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/aeroKeeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:04) - Preview: BDO's new equity model (00:55) - Welcome to The Accounting Podcast (02:35) - Every app for accountants should have a spreadsheet view (05:59) - We have reached peak user interface: How AI will simplify app design (07:22) - Why Bob from accounting could soon be a bot (12:30) - NATP study shows tax pros raised prices by over 20% in 2023 (20:57) - IRS agent accidentally killed by fellow agent at gun range (24:12) - Sam Bankman Fried sent to jail (25:19) - 60% of accountants rate their job fulfillment at C or lower (27:20) - BDO USA borrows $1.3 billion to create an employee stock ownership plan (32:05) - How to solve the accounting talent crisis (35:50) - Amazon using AI to summarize customer reviews (37:25) - PayPal's names new CEO: How Intuit, PayPal, and X are all connected (47:24) - Wrap up, where to reach us, and checking in on the live chat Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesPayPal Names Alex Chriss as Next President and CEO        https://newsroom.paypal-corp.com/2023-08-14-PayPal-Names-Alex-Chriss-as-Next-President-and-CEO Alex Chriss Succeeds Dan Schulman as the new CEO of PayPal       https://ceoworld.biz/2023/08/17/alex-chriss-succeeds-dan-schulman-as-the-new-ceo-of-paypal/ IRS agent accidentally shot, killed by fellow agent during training at Phoenix gun rangehttps://www.azfamily.com/2023/08/17/irs-agent-accidentally-shot-killed-by-fellow-agent-during-training-phoenix-gun-range/ AICPA, NASBA Team to Help Ease Path to CPA Licensure   https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/in-the-news/people-and-business/aicpa-nasba-team-to-help-ease-path-to-cpa-licensure/ Withum and Seton Hall launch CPA apprenticeshiphttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/withum-and-seton-hall-launch-cpa-apprenticeship Large firm shakes up business model with employee stock ownership planhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2023/aug/large-firm-shakes-up-business-model-employee-stock-ownership-plan.html Intuit Names Marianna Tessel General Manager of Small Business and Self-Employed Grouphttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230814601878/en/Intuit-Names-Marianna-Tessel-General-Manager-of-Small-Business-and-Self-Employed-Group/ Can PayPal’s incoming CEO jump-start profitable growth?https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/paypal-ceo-checkout-venmo-smb-payments/690928/ BDO to create ESOP with $1.3B credit deal            https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/bdo-to-create-esop-with-1-3b-credit-deal Former eBay CEO Still Wields Influence over PayPal as It Names New CEOhttps://www.ecommercebytes.com/2023/08/14/former-ebay-ceo-still-wields-influence-over-paypal-as-it-names-new-ceo/ Elon Musk's 25-year obsession with 'X' explains what he did to Twitterhttps://mashable.com/article/musk-x-twitter-paypal With plans to hire 200, a former PayPal CEO launches new digital bank in Miamihttps://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article251326533.html Outspoken: Bill Harris, Founder and Chairman of Personal Capital and former CEO of Intuit and Paypal       https://www.jsbarefoot.com/podcasts/2017/5/21/outspoken-bill-harris-ceo-of-personal-capital-and-former-ceo-of-intuit-and-paypal 5 things to know about Intuit’s small business guru Alex Chriss—PayPal’s incoming CEO https://www.fastcompany.com/90938418/paypal-ceo-alex-chriss-dan-schulman-what-to-know X.com names former Intuit brass its CEOhttps://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/x-com-names-former-intuit-brass-its-ceo/ 5 ways the IRS funding boost is paying offhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/17/irs-funding-tax-season-wait-times/ How Amazon continues to improve the customer reviews experience with generative AIhttps://www.aboutamazon.com/news/amazon-ai/amazon-improves-customer-reviews-with-generative-ai BDO partners in line for windfall after $1.3bn debt deal with Apollo Global Management | Financial Times               https://www.ft.com/content/78f60830-57a2-4671-b3dd-d3c3fed8c24f Sam Bankman-Fried Sent to Jail After Judge Revokes Bailhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/technology/sam-bankman-fried-jail.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShareGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Royalwise - https://royalwise.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We discuss whether the economy is headed for a soft landing or hard fall with Gusto's Chief Economist Liz Wilke. Topics include: Recession outlook and key indicators like interest rates and inflation Labor shortage impacts on the economy Commercial real estate risks for banks Impacts of bank mergers on small business lending Liz evaluates recession odds, labor trends, and lending risks - offering nuanced outlooks on potential impacts for businesses, workers, banks, and more. It's a timely discussion providing an expert economic perspective on uncertainties ahead.Meet Our Guest, Liz Wilke, PhD LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizwilke/Learn more about GustoWebsite: https://gusto.com/Show NotesListen to the Gustonomics podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-gustonomics-podcast/id1700748603The Economy Explained - August edition: https://gusto.com/partner-resources/the-economy-explained-august2023Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Jen Cryder, CEO of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, joins Blake and David to discuss the accounting profession's pipeline problems, including the decline in accounting majors and the difficulties of replacing retiring CPAs. Join the discussion on solutions like work-and-learn models and redefining education requirements. Discover strategies to attract and retain talent, prioritizing the preferences of younger generations and aligning company culture with marketing efforts. Tune in to learn how accounting firms can refresh their image and flourish.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowForwardly - http://accountingpodcast.promo/forwardlySouth Carolina Association of CPAs (SCACPA) - http://accountingpodcast.promo/SCACPAChapters (00:00) - Preview: Not getting a Big 4 offer was the best thing to ever happen to me (00:48) - Welcome Jen Cryder to the show and her overall thoughts on the accounting talent shortage and pipeline problem (06:19) - What are your thoughts on Tulane's new professional advancement program? (13:28) - Are substantial equivalency and mobility really a roadblock? (18:45) - Smaller firms are the ones really impacted by this talent shortage (20:04) - PCAOB says 40 percent of 2022 audits are deficient (24:35) - What are the things younger accountants are really complaining about? (30:34) - CPA firms hike starting salaries 14% (32:32) - How do we encourage young people to go into the accounting profession? (38:55) - Does accounting have more of a retention problem than a pipeline problem? (47:12) - Accounting firms need to think of more creative ways to recruit (50:23) - Remember to subscribe to The Accounting Podcast and where to reach Jen Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesUnveiling CalCPA’s New Brand     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diGVHSgDpU0 Tax and Accounting Pay Advancing at 5.9% Pace  https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/08/08/tax-and-accounting-pay-advancing-at-5-9-pace/ AICPA, NASBA team with Tulane to ease CPA licensing | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-nasba-team-with-tulane-to-ease-cpa-licensing CPA firms facing talent shortage hike starting salaries 14% | CFO Divehttps://www.cfodive.com/news/cpa-firms-facing-talent-shortage-hike-starting-salaries-accounting-accountants/689913/ Pennsylvania CPAs try out work-and-learn model for young accountants | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pennsylvania-cpas-try-out-work-and-learn-model-for-young-accountantsConnect with Our Guest, Jen CryderLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jencryder/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Today, we have a special bonus episode from our sister podcast, Oh My Fraud. Hosts Caleb Quist and Greg Kite speak with Nathan Mueller in this episode. As a young person, Nathan was hyper-focused on wanting to make money, which led him to perpetuate an $8 million embezzlement scheme in the mid-2000s. Caleb and Greg questioned Nathan about the fraud, his time in prison, and his new job as... an accountant! Want to hear more Oh My Fraud episodes? Listen and subscribe at ohmyfraud.comFollow Oh My Fraud on Social Media:twitter.com/ohmyfraudfacebook.com/OhMyFraud  linkedin.com/oh-my-fraud EARN FREE CPELaunch the course on EarmarkCPE to get free CPE/CE for listening to this episode.Download the app:Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/earmark-cpe/id1562599728Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.earmarkcpe.app

Blake and David delve into the use of AI in detecting plagiarism in students' papers and its implications for the ongoing debate on AI's impact on employment. They also shed light on the increasing cost of audits and the alarming decline in audit quality. Shifting the focus to remote work, they analyze a study's findings on productivity and emphasize the importance of considering the nature of the work. The conversation takes a concerning turn as they address the shortage of accounting staff and the urgent need to address overwork and its detrimental effects. The episode wraps up with an intriguing discussion on the IRS's transition to paperless operations and recent incidents involving lost tax information. As a bonus, they share amusing anecdotes of fraudsters and a heartwarming story of an accountant being inducted into a water ski hall of fame.SponsorsLiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - http://accountingpodcast.promo/zohoSouth Carolina Association of CPAs (SCACPA) - http://accountingpodcast.promo/SCACPAChapters (00:04) - Preview: Where did Hunter Biden's income come from? (00:59) - Welcome to the show and a few quick AI stories (04:49) - Leaders split on whether AI will reduce or expand headcount (06:44) - The price of audits has doubled over the last 20 years (12:54) - Remote workers are less productive? (21:02) - The cost of forcing employees back to the office (29:07) - Less than 1% of accounting firms can find enough staff (34:58) - EY Oceania survey shows problems with work hours and culture at firm (40:12) - The IRS is going paperless? (45:37) - The IRS is losing track of tax info during shipments (47:05) - Some new details on the Hunter Biden story (48:58) - Tax preparer arrested after seeking over $124 million in phony tax credits (51:56) - A Chinese accountant stole the equivalent of $677,000 USD in an attempt to keep her boyfriend (54:30) - Blake reads some listener mail on ways to get the extra 30 hours required for a CPA license, and if getting a CPA license is the right choice (01:00:14) - How to reach David and Blake and subscribe to us on YouTube Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesIRS loses track of tax info during shipments between processing centers | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-loses-track-of-tax-info-during-shipments-between-processing-centers Leaders split on whether AI will reduce or expand headcount | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/leaders-split-on-whether-ai-will-reduce-or-expand-headcount Hunter Biden plea deal outlines tax and accounting problems | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/hunter-biden-plea-deal-outlines-tax-and-accounting-problems Less than 1% of accounting firms can find enough staff | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/less-than-1-of-accounting-firms-can-find-enough-staff IRS will finally let most Americans file taxes online next yearhttps://www.theverge.com/2023/8/3/23818531/irs-paperless-tax-filings-2024 Audit fees triple in 20 years | Accounting Today  https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/audit-fees-triple-in-20-years We're now finding out the damaging results of the mandated return to the office–and it's worse than we thoughthttps://fortune.com/2023/08/01/research-damaging-results-mandated-return-to-office-worse-than-we-thought-rto-remote-work-careers-leadership-gleb-tsipursky/ Students can use AI on applications, Arizona State law school says | Reutershttps://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/students-can-use-ai-applications-arizona-state-law-school-says-2023-07-28/ EY Finally Admits It Has Some Serious Culture and Overwork Problems After Someone Died at the Officehttps://www.goingconcern.com/ey-finally-admits-it-has-some-serious-culture-and-overwork-problems-after-someone-died-at-the-office/ JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon chides managers who work from home: ‘I don’t know how you can be a leader and not be completely accessible to your people’     https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-chides-184750015.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

In this episode, Blake and David cover the downfall of Mattel's co-founder and Barbie inventor, Intuit's new ad network that allows businesses to target specific audiences using data from QuickBooks Online, and the increasing rate of deficiencies in public company audits. They also discuss the detrimental effect of the 150-hour rule on students pursuing careers in accounting, the availability of a malicious code-writing tool called Fraud GPT on the dark web, and the use of AI in customer support and sales calls. Sponsors OnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayForwardly - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/forwardlyChapters (00:04) - Be prepared for higher prices because of AI (01:05) - What does Barbie have to do with accounting? (05:03) - Intuit is launching an ad network (11:58) - As much as 40% of audits in 2022 could be deficient (20:48) - Why are students switching majors away from accounting? (25:57) - IRS will no longer do any unannounced visits (27:14) - Hunter Biden saga update (28:54) - Sage announces latest earnings (30:34) - FraudGPT - dark web service (32:08) - Real-life example of AI use case for a company (36:53) - New conversational AI Air demo sales call (41:40) - ChatGPT introduces custom instructions (42:26) - Plaid announces deal with Cross River Banks (44:19) - Blake reads some Youtube comments on the TurboTax video (48:56) - A few quick final stories (52:53) - Wrap up and where to reach us Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes22 years after the $63 billion Enron collapse, a key audit review board finds the industry in a 'completely unacceptable' statehttps://fortune.com/2023/07/26/pcaob-audit-completely-unnacceptable-error-rate-enron-big-4-consulting/ 150-hour requirement seen as a significant barrier to accounting by young peoplehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/150-hour-requirement-seen-as-a-significant-barrier-to-accounting-by-young-people The Sage Group plc (SGGEF) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcripthttps://seekingalpha.com/article/4620753-sage-group-plc-sggef-q3-2023-earnings-call-transcript Plaid Taps Cross River to Offer Real-Time Payments           https://www.pymnts.com/real-time-payments/2023/cross-river-teams-with-plaid-to-offer-real-time-payments/ Sage sees solid growth in Q3https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2023/07/28/sage-sees-solid-growth-in-q3/ Intuit Launches B2B Ad Network Targeting Small Business Owners              https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/387583/intuit-launches-b2b-ad-network-targeting-small-bus.html Unannounced IRS revenue officer visits discontinued        https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/tax-law-and-news/unannounced-irs-revenue-officer-visits-discontinued/ U.S. Accounting Watchdog Flags 'Unacceptable' Increase in Audit ...           https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2023-07-25/u-s-accounting-watchdog-flags-unacceptable-increase-in-audit-deficiencies IRS good at addressing cyberthreats, but not documenting themhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/report-says-irs-good-at-addressing-cyberthreats-but-not-at-documenting-them-later Exclusive: Mailchimp Owner Intuit Launches Media Network for Small Businesseshttps://www.adweek.com/programmatic/exclusive-mailchimp-owner-intuit-launches-media-network-for-small-businesses/ New AI Tool 'FraudGPT' Emerges, Tailored for Sophisticated Attackshttps://thehackernews.com/2023/07/new-ai-tool-fraudgpt-emerges-tailored.html Accounting Watchdog Expects Deficiencies in 40% of Public-Company Audits in 2022 - WSJ             https://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-watchdog-expects-deficiencies-in-40-of-public-company-audits-in-2022-badfcda All About Barbie Inventor Ruth Handler: Where She Is Todayhttps://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a44610455/ruth-handler-barbie/ How Vector Media transformed its customer support with AI | Zapierhttps://zapier.com/blog/nations-largest-ad-transit-company-transformed-customer-support-with-ai/ theCAQ.org | Significant Barriers Deter Students from Pursuing a Degree in Accounting, According to CAQ Report https://www.thecaq.org/pipelineresearch2023 IRS whistleblowers accuse Hunter Biden during congressional hearing | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-whistleblowers-accuse-hunter-biden-during-congressional-hearing Want to Search PCAOB Inspection Reports By How Many Screw-Ups an Audit Firm Made? You Can Now Do That - CPA Practice Advisor https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/07/20/new-online-tools-pcaob-inspection-reports/82128/ Custom instructions for ChatGPT               https://openai.com/blog/custom-instructions-for-chatgpt Taxfyle Announces Industry-Leading Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Solution - EIN Presswirehttps://www.einnews.com/pr_news/643347250/taxfyle-announces-industry-leading-generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-solution Opening Remarks - The CPA Journal         https://www.cpajournal.com/2023/07/17/opening-remarks-munter-jones/ Eric Vyacheslav on LinkedIn: This is incredible 🤯 An AI doing sales calls and customer support. Air is… | 1,001 comments           https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eric-vyacheslav-156273169_this-is-incredible-an-ai-doing-sales-calls-activity-7086328622348697600-LlI_?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios Original Hype Man and Coffee Enthusiast Peter "Sugar Bear" Olinto is Leaving Becker - Going Concern        https://www.goingconcern.com/peter-olinto-leaving-becker/ Geni Whitehouse named as new president of IT Alliance | Accounting Today         https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/geni-whitehouse-named-as-new-president-of-it-alliance Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

In this episode of The Accounting Podcast, Blake and David discuss the economic impact of Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour," Microsoft's CoPilot price with AI, the SEC vs Ripple case decision, the launch of FedNow, and a bill proposed by two senators to ban lawmakers from owning stocks. They also dig into stories about Apple's work on AppleGPT, software spending rising 25% over the last 12 months, the 150-hour rule, and the lack of black accountants in the profession. They dive into a case study for good marketing in accounting, ClientEarth warning Big 6 audit firms to protect the planet, a WSJ editorial board blaming accounting shortage on Biden, and close with a few fast QuickBooks stories, and much more! SponsorsLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoAccruer - http://accountingpodcast.promo/accruerChapters (00:04) - Preview: Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" economic impact (00:53) - Welcome to The Accounting Podcast and a quick overview of topics for this episode (03:16) - Microsoft announces CoPilot price with AI (10:24) - SEC vs Ripple case decision (19:08) - FedNow finally launched (25:16) - Two senators are proposing bill on ban of lawmakers owning stocks (27:50) - Blake checks in on the live chat (28:30) - Apple working on AppleGPT (30:46) - Software spending rose 25% over the last 12 months (33:12) - Article on the 150-hour rule and lack of black accountants in the profession (35:54) - Blake and David look at a case study for good marketing in accounting (39:11) - Taylor Swift's billion-dollar impact on the economy (42:15) - ClientEarth warning Big 6 audit firms to protect the planet (44:31) - WSJ editorial board blames accounting shortage on Biden (51:04) - Bench Accounting (51:41) - 3 fast QuickBooks stories (54:01) - Accounting startup Dougs raises $27 million (55:06) - Shopify builds in a Zoom cost calculator (56:59) - Shopify releases AI update (01:00:49) - Blake reads some listener mail (01:04:01) - Wrap up and where to reach David and Blake Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesSens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Josh Hawley to unveil a bill to bar executive-branch members and lawmakers from owning stock in individual companies      https://www.wsj.com/articles/senators-to-propose-ban-on-u-s-lawmakers-executive-branch-members-owning-stock-6db6411 New comment on "339. 15-Year-Old Passes CPA Exam; NY Requires Independent Audits of AI Hiring Processes"     https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtwCxwDBHndZBtfKHkBgCgXhpr Taylor Swift's Economic Impact Has Caught the Eye of the Fedhttps://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/taylor-swifts-economic-impact-catches-attention-federal-reserve-hotel-revenue-2023-7 After bootstrapping for 8 years, accounting startup Dougs raises $27 million | TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2023/07/04/after-bootstrapping-for-8-years-accounting-startup-dougs-raises-27-million/ Shopify's crusade against Zoom meetings now includes a cost calculator: 'Most of the modern work environment is broken' https://fortune.com/2023/07/12/remote-work-zoom-meeting-shopify-cost-calculator-modern-work-broken/ Shopify Sidekick video    https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1679114154756669441?s=20 Bridging the Gap: Between the Generations          https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/education-hub/training-center/bridging-the-gap-between-the-generations/ ☕️ NOW, FED ☙ Friday, July 21, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠 https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/now-fed-friday-july-21-2023-c-and KPMG Rolls Out Generative AI to Tax Pros, Launches Audit Pilothttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/kpmg-rolls-out-generative-ai-to-tax-pros-launches-audit-pilot QuickBooks Checking Simplifies Bank Feeds Matchinghttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/general-ledger/quickbooks-checking-simplifies-bank-feeds-matching/ Big Six senior leadership missing in action on climate reporting and ...https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press/big-six-senior-leadership-missing-in-action-on-climate-reporting-and-audit/ FedNow launch: Fed's new instant payment system, goes live July 20https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/07/20/fednow-launch-fed-instant-pay-service/70434964007/ Accounting firms accused of missing climate risks in company auditshttps://www.ft.com/content/befa329f-43bb-42fb-baeb-e0ae22d68acf The Biden Accounting Jobs Boom - WSJ  https://www.wsj.com/articles/tax-accounting-jobs-boom-biden-economy-taxes-internal-revenue-service-8db189ae QuickBooks Time Now QuickBooks Workforce     https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/general-ledger/quickbooks-time-now-quickbooks-workforce/ Why the CPA qualification’s 150-hour college credit rule is outdated–and inequitablehttps://fortune.com/2023/07/14/why-cpa-exams-150-hour-college-credit-rule-outdatedand-inequitable-guylaine-saint-juste/ Bench Accounting Launches Breakthrough Solution for Business Owners Blending Personal and Business Finance  https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/23/07/n33270300/bench-accounting-launches-breakthrough-solution-for-business-owners-blending-personal-and-business Microsoft Unveils AI-Infused Bing Chat Enterprise and Reveals Microsoft 365 Copilot Pricinghttps://smallbiztrends.com/2023/07/microsoft-unveils-ai-infused-bing-chat-enterprise-and-microsoft-365-copilot-pricing.html Better Late Than Never: Federal Reserve Platform Will Finally Bring Instant Payments To More Banks-And Customers                https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilymason/2023/07/20/better-late-than-never-federal-reserve-platform-will-finally-bring-instant-payments-to-more-banksand-customers/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The Accounting Podcast (formerly the Cloud Accounting Podcast) is the world's #1 accounting, bookkeeping, and tax podcast! Join us weekly for a roundup of accounting news, analysis, and interviews. Plus, earn free NASBA-approved CPE credits for listening with the Earmark app. Learn more at earmarkcpe.com.SponsorsZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zoho Forwardly - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/forwardlyAccruer - http://accountingpodcast.promo/accruerChapters (00:00) - Preview: Owning your own accounting firm is a path to the upper middle class (01:19) - Welcome to The Accounting Podcast (03:24) - Jirav raises $20 million in series B round (04:29) - How likely a startup is to fail based on their funding round (10:05) - Is this the end of Evernote? (12:20) - Codat removing desktop API support from some plans (17:05) - Pilot lays off 13% of its workforce (20:01) - Collective raises $50 million (21:40) - Are tax prep companies giving customers' personal information to social media giants? (32:35) - Even the IRS website sends your data to Google Analytics! (38:03) - WSJ article on the accounting shortage (44:00) - Blake checks in on the live chat (53:43) - Accountests ChatGPT challenge (57:57) - Claude.AI as a ChatGPT alternative (01:01:17) - Wrap up and please check out our TurboTax Live Business Tax Return experience video on our YouTube channel Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesJirav raises $20M in Series B | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/jirav-raises-20m-in-series-b 3 tax prep firms shared 'extraordinarily sensitive' data about taxpayers with Meta, lawmakers sayhttps://apnews.com/article/irs-taxpayer-tax-preparation-meta-congress-9315cfca7a0942ab89f765d183fbf822 Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds | CNN Business               https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/tech/tax-prep-companies-taxpayer-data-google-meta/index.html The dearth of accountants has now become visible in several financial reports, with companies pleading difficulty in finding and retaining skilled people.         https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-accountant-shortage-is-showing-up-in-financial-statements-b14a6b94 ChatGPT Does Accountests Debits & Credits Test https://www.accountests.com/blogs/news/chatgpt-does-accountests-debits-credits-test Pilot lays off 13% of workforce – 45 Employees - LayoffsTracker    https://layoffstracker.com/pilot-lays-off-13-of-workforce-45-employees/?expand_articleChatGPT scores 90% on debits & credits test        https://www.blakeoliver.com/blog/chatgpt-scores-90-on-debits-amp-credits-test Some Chicago Restaurants Are Still Adding Surcharges Of Up to 20% to Checks. Should They?https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/some-chicago-restaurants-are-still-adding-surcharges-of-up-to-20-to-your-bill-should-they/3055697/ 2023-10-10: Change in pricing for some accounting integrations  https://docs.codat.io/updates/231010-deprecation-onprem-erp-premium Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds          https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/tech/tax-prep-companies-taxpayer-data-google-meta/index.html Attacks%20on%20Tax%20Privacy_Final.pdfhttps://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Attacks%20on%20Tax%20Privacy_Final.pdf Jirav Announces $20M Series B Round Led By Cota Capital              https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/in-the-news/people-and-business/jirav-announces-20m-series-b-round-led-by-cota-capital/ The U.S. Tax Code Is Too Complex for Direct eFile to Work              https://taxfoundation.org/irs-efile-prefilled-tax-returns/ IRS renews cybersecurity push for tax pros            https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-renews-cybersecurity-push-for-tax-pros The Accountant Shortage Is Showing Up in Financial Statements https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-accountant-shortage-is-showing-up-in-financial-statements-b14a6b94 Collective, a financial management platform for freelancers, raises $50M https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/11/collective-a-financial-management-platform-for-freelancers-raises-50m/ Bay Area tech firm relocating to Europe, lays off most staff https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/evernote-layoffs-moving-to-europe-18190083.phpGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Join Blake Oliver, CPA, and David Leary as they review using TurboTax Live Full Service for their business taxes. See their candid reactions and feedback as they go through the process of filing their 2022 taxes with TurboTax for the first time.Blake and David walk through the steps of getting matched with a tax expert, gathering documents, communicating with their preparer, and finally filing their partnership return. You'll look at the portal used for document exchange, see the questions asked during onboarding, and find out what last-minute items held up their return filing.See if the "tax expert" delivers and how the return process compares to working directly with a CPA or EA. If you're on the fence about trying TurboTax Live Full Service for your business taxes, this candid review will showcase the pros and cons to help you decide.Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Learn how Meryl built a 30-headcount bookkeeping firm in eight years that can operate without her. We also get Meryl's take on the PwC scandal in Australia. Earn free NASBA-approved CPE credits for listening with the Earmark app. Learn more at earmarkcpe.com.SponsorsRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayFinDaily - https://accountingpodcast.promo/findailyEarmark for Teams - https://accountingpodcast.promo/freeshirtChapters (00:04) - Preview: Why can't the US tax deadlines be as relaxed as Australia's (00:50) - Welcome Meryl Johnston to the show and some background on Bean Ninjas (05:49) - Tell us a little about the growth of Bean Ninjas, remote work, and taking a step back from day-to-day operations (10:26) - How does Meryl track employees' work when they're remote? (12:13) - Can you tell us about Bean Ninja's journey of niching? (22:46) - How do you deal with communication challenges with remote work and different schedules (28:31) - What is the current size of your firm, and what type of work do you now do? (35:16) - What do you tell accountants who are afraid to niche? (39:20) - Is the accounting talent crisis also happening in Australia? (41:19) - Meryl gives her take on the PwC scandal in Australia (47:38) - Are 2 new Australian tech companies coming for Xero's throne? (55:25) - Is software plus a service the future of accounting tech? (59:02) - Wrap up and how people can listen to Meryl's podcasts Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesFuel Up the Bus, PwC Australia Has Named and Shamed Eight Partners Tied to the Tax Leak Scandalhttps://www.goingconcern.com/fuel-up-the-bus-pwc-australia-has-named-and-shamed-eight-partners-tied-to-the-tax-leak-scandal/ PwC Sold Off Its Scandal-Plagued Government Consulting Business For 67 Cents - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/pwc-sold-off-its-scandal-plagued-government-consulting-business-for-67-cents/ PwC Sold a Part of Its Australian Business for $1 Because of Tax Leak Scandal - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/06/29/pwc-sold-a-part-of-its-australian-business-for-67-cents-because-of-tax-leak-scandal/81609/ A new threat to Xero? The rise of Hnry: a one-stop shop for sole traders, ft. Karan Anandhttps://www.raskmedia.com.au/2023/06/27/xero-risk-hnry-accounting-karan-anand/ Exclusive: PwC Australia ties Google to tax leak scandal – sourceshttps://www.reuters.com/technology/pwc-australia-ties-google-tax-leak-scandal-sources-2023-07-05/ Thriday swings at big accounting platforms with AI expense toolhttps://www.smartcompany.com.au/finance/tax/thriday-business-expense-bank-ai-artificial-intelligence/Meet Our Guest, Meryl JohnstonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meryl-johnston-3a483728/Website: https://beanninjas.com/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The Accounting Podcast (formerly the Cloud Accounting Podcast) is the world's #1 accounting, bookkeeping, and tax podcast! Join us weekly for a roundup of accounting news, analysis, and interviews. Plus, earn free NASBA-approved CPE credits for listening with the Earmark app. Learn more at earmarkcpe.com.SponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayForwardly - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/forwardlyChapters (00:04) - Preview: Accounting firms will transition to corporations (01:00) - Blake and David are back from their trips (05:03) - A 15-year-old in Mississippi has passed the CPA exam (07:00) - Jennifer asks about TAP's TurboTax Live Business experience (10:05) - Mackenzie's voicemail re: accounting shortage (18:37) - BDO USA is shifting from a partnership to a corporation (20:55) - EY officially announces it has called off "Project Everest" but is still the number one US audit firm for public companies (24:25) - M365 Co-Pilot updates (29:50) - Thomson Reuters announces $100 million per year AI investment (32:04) - Avalara launches a sales tax calculator in ChatGPT (36:17) - Gusto hires former head of data science and analytics from Google (37:09) - Taxfyle releases AI tax-prep bot (39:04) - New York announces new AI law for hiring (44:15) - A few more quick tech stories and the problems with client portals (47:06) - Wrapbook wrap-up (51:45) - Where to reach David and Blake Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesTech News: TaxFyle releases AI tax prep bot          https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/tech-news-taxfyle-releases-generative-ai-tax-prep-bot Why everyone is mad about New York’s AI hiring lawhttps://www.technologyreview.com/2023/07/10/1076013/new-york-ai-hiring-law/ Mississippi youth passes CPA Exam – at Age 15https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2023/jun/mississippi-youth-passes-cpa-exam-at-age-15.html BDO USA is Shifting From a Partnership to a Corporation - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/06/26/bdo-usa-is-shifting-from-a-partnership-to-a-corporation/81445/ Gusto hires former Google exec to add AI to products | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/gusto-hires-former-google-exec-to-add-ai-to-products KPMG cuts 5% of U.S. workforce | Accounting Today        https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/kpmg-cuts-5-of-u-s-workforce KPMG’s Big Four Dominance on Bank Audits Shaken by Failureshttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/kpmgs-big-four-dominance-on-bank-audits-shaken-by-failures Thomson Reuters adding AI to tax software | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/thomson-reuters-adding-ai-to-tax-software EY Tops Rival Audit Firms in Public Company Clients - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/06/20/ey-tops-rivals-in-public-company-audit-clients/81193/ Shopify vows to fight CRA request to hand over records from more than 121,000 Canadian businesseshttps://www.ctvnews.ca/business/shopify-vows-to-fight-cra-request-to-hand-over-records-from-more-than-121-000-canadian-businesses-1.6454822 Accounting firm EY calls off ‘Project Everest’ to break up firm ...https://www.dailymirror.lk/business/Accounting-firm-EY-calls-off-Project-Everest-to-break-up-firm/215-261867 Finance Automation Platform Ramp Acquires AI Startup Cohere.iohttps://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2023/finance-automation-platform-ramp-acquires-ai-startup-cohere-io/ BDO USA is Shifting From a Partnership to a Corporation https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/06/26/bdo-usa-is-shifting-from-a-partnership-to-a-corporation/81445/  M365 Copilot, Microsoft’s generative AI tool, explainedhttps://www.computerworld.com/article/3700709/m365-copilot-microsofts-generative-ai-tool-explained.html Intuit Supercharges Intuit GenOS with OpenAI’s Large Language Models to Bring GenAI Experiences to Customershttps://investors.intuit.com/news/news-details/2023/Intuit-Supercharges-Intuit-GenOS-with-OpenAIs-Large-Language-Models-to-Bring-GenAI-Experiences-to-Customers/default.aspx Wrapbook Expands its Payroll Platform to Enable Seamless ...https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230629819270/en/Wrapbook-Expands-its-Payroll-Platform-to-Enable-Seamless-Collaboration-Across-Production-and-Accounting-Teams Kraken ordered to turn over its users' information to the IRShttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/kraken-ordered-to-turn-over-its-users-information-to-the-irs Some Chicago Restaurants Are Still Adding Surcharges Of Up to 20% to Checks. Should They?https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/some-chicago-restaurants-are-still-adding-surcharges-of-up-to-20-to-your-bill-should-they/3055697/ As Thomson Reuters Explains Its Acquisition of Casetext, Some Investors Seem Uncertainhttps://www.lawnext.com/2023/06/as-thomson-reuters-explains-its-acquisition-of-casetext-some-investors-seem-uncertain.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The Accounting Podcast (formerly the Cloud Accounting Podcast) is the world's #1 accounting, bookkeeping, and tax podcast! Join us weekly for a roundup of accounting news, analysis, and interviews. Plus, earn free NASBA-approved CPE credits for listening with the Earmark app. Learn more at earmarkcpe.com.SponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay Helcim - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/helcimChapters (00:23) - Preview: CPAs are pricing themselves too low (01:13) - Welcome Roger to the show and a little background on what he does (03:20) - What topics we'll cover in this episode (04:25) - Hunter Biden takes plea deal in tax charges (09:20) - Pentagon overestimates supplies sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion (12:27) - Who will win: Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg (16:07) - CPA Ontario and CPA Quebec sever ties with CPA Canada (20:56) - The SEC charges Marcum with quality control failures (31:52) - Yahoo Finance article on how much people should expect to pay for a CPA (38:33) - Sports bettors losing more money as parlays gain popularity (43:59) - Roger's 5 pricing strategies (48:53) - Some updates on AI in accounting (57:18) - Wrap up and where to reach Roger Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeMeet Our Guest, Roger Knecht:Website: https://universalaccounting.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerknecht/Twitter: https://twitter.com/universalacctFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/universalaccountingschoolInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rogerknecht/Show NotesEven by the standards of billionaire-versus-billionaire tiffs, the proposed cage fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg stands out    https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-cage-fight-b71fa4ff Marcum, the SEC said, audited nearly half of the roughly 860 SPAC IPOs in 2020 and 2021. The firm agreed to pay the SEC $10 million in fines for widespread failures in its audits.          https://www.wsj.com/articles/marcum-to-settle-sec-pcaob-claims-over-widespread-failures-in-spac-audits-bb8f3d48 Accounting Mistake Caused Pentagon to Overestimate Cost of Weapons Sent to Ukraine by $6.2B - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/06/21/accounting-error-caused-pentagon-to-overestimate-cost-of-weapons-sent-to-ukraine-by-6-2b/81322/ I'm a Small Business Owner. How Much Will a CPA Cost Me?         https://finance.yahoo.com/news/im-small-business-owner-much-130149992.html 4 in 5 Australians want PwC banned from new government work  | Accountants Daily       https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/regulation/18685-four-in-five-australians-want-pwc-banned-from-new-government-work CPA Quebec, Ontario bodies sever ties with national organizationhttps://financialpost.com/fp-finance/cpa-quebec-ontario-sever-ties-national-organization Hunter Biden expected to plead guilty to tax-related misdemeanor crimes as part of a plea agreement       https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna90144 How much did Congress lose by defunding the IRShttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2023/irs-enforcement-costs-congress-funding/ Parlay bets are becoming a bigger part of online sports betting—which is good news for the house              https://www.wsj.com/articles/sports-better-win-lose-ddcaae24 BDO to Convert to a Corporation, Replacing US Partnership (2)https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/bdo-to-convert-to-a-corporation-replacing-its-us-partnership New bookkeeping platform Thriday says AI is on its way to save you from taxes and accountantshttps://stockhead.com.au/tech/new-bookkeeping-platform-thriday-says-ai-is-on-its-way-to-save-you-from-taxes-and-accountants/ CLA launches high school summer intern program             https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cla-launches-high-school-summer-intern-program Jeff Seibert, CEO and Co-Founder of Digits – Interview Series         https://www.unite.ai/jeff-seibert-ceo-and-co-founder-of-digits-interview-series/ KPMG's Banking Troubles Give Accounting a Black Eye (Podcast)https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/kpmgs-banking-troubles-give-accounting-a-black-eye-podcast Digits AI Debuts as World's First Secure, Accurate, Business Finance AIhttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digits-ai-debuts-as-worlds-first-secure-accurate-business-finance-ai-301857407.html Pentagon's Ukraine accounting error revised up to US$6.2 billionhttps://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-pentagon-ukraine-accounting-error-62-billion-3576286 CPA Canada remains committed to a unified Canadian accounting professionhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/cpa-canada-remains-committed-unified-222200923.html Pentagon Says a $6 Billion Accounting Error Allows More Arms for ...https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-20/pentagon-says-a-6-billion-accounting-error-allows-more-arms-for-ukraine Rumor: BDO USA Is Switching From a Partnership to a Corporation on July 1https://www.goingconcern.com/rumor-bdo-usa-is-switching-from-a-partnership-to-a-corporation-on-july-1/ Pentagon says Ukraine accounting error revealed last month is much bigger than previously statedhttps://www.cnn.com/2023/06/20/politics/pentagon-ukraine-accounting-error/index.html Ontario, Quebec accounting bodies announce planned split from CPA Canada       https://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/profession/ontario-quebec-split-from-cpa-canada Digits AI Debuts as World’s First Secure, Accurate Business Finance AI       https://aithority.com/natural-language/chatgpt/digits-ai-debuts-as-worlds-first-secure-accurate-business-finance-ai/ Tech News: Digits launched AI product    https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/tech-news-digits-launched-ai-product Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The Accounting Podcast (formerly the Cloud Accounting Podcast) is the world's #1 accounting, bookkeeping, and tax podcast! Join us weekly for a roundup of accounting news, analysis, and interviews. Plus, earn free NASBA-approved CPE credits for listening with the Earmark app. Learn more at earmarkcpe.com.SponsorsLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowAccountests - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/accountestsClient Hub - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters (00:00) - PREVIEW: Lack of audits is hurting the accounting profession (01:07) - Welcome to The Accounting Podcast (02:39) - Listener mail: Audits are just checking a box (06:56) - Listener mail: David asks for alternatives to tracking hours (14:39) - Listener mail: Courtney asks if they should pursue a CPA or EA (25:04) - Listener mail: William asks how new accountants should approach their starting salary at firms (28:14) - Is QBO starting to integrate AI into Mailchimp? (30:37) - FedNow is launching in July (35:50) - The ROI of IRS audits (46:41) - UK's Making Tax Digital rollout is struggling (52:10) - Latest on remote work (55:41) - ESG startup Omnevue secures $3 million in funding (58:41) - Xero announces third price increase in two years and Intuit's response (01:00:19) - Some final thoughts and where to reach David and Blake Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesHow much did Congress lose by defunding the IRS? Way more than we thought.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2023/irs-enforcement-costs-congress-funding/ Elon Musk Calls Remote Work Morally Wrong 'Bullshit'    https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-remote-work-morally-wrong-get-off-high-horse-2023-5 ESG accounting startup Omnevue secures $3.1 million in Seed fundinghttps://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/97225/esg-accounting-startup-omnevue-secures-31-million-in-seed-funding Credit Unions Gear Up to Build Instant Payments Ecosystems as FedNow Loomshttps://www.pymnts.com/credit-unions/2023/credit-unions-prepare-build-instant-payments-ecosystems-fednow-looms/ FedNow’s Rollout Will Spur ‘Major Shift’ for Businesses and Digital Wallets, Says Trustlyhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/faster-payments/2023/fednows-rollout-will-spur-major-shift-for-businesses-and-digital-wallets-says-trustly/ Fintech ForwardAI, An Aggregated Direct Data Access Provider To Accounting And ERP Platforms, Launcheshttps://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2023/06/208515-fintech-forwardai-an-aggregated-direct-data-access-provider-to-accounting-and-erp-platforms-launches-forwardly/ Rethinking the CPA 150-hour requirement: There must be a changehttps://www.firmofthefuture.com/training-and-certification/rethinking-150-hour-requirement/ Government execution of MTD ‘out of control’ as costs spiralhttps://www.accountancyage.com/2023/06/16/government-execution-of-mtd-out-of-control-as-costs-spiral/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Benchmark Growth - https://marketingforaccountingfirms.com/mastermind/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Welcome to the new era of "The Accounting Podcast," formerly known as "The Cloud Accounting Podcast." Why the name change? This show was born out of a passion for technology's role in accounting, and over the last five years, as cloud-based tools became the norm, we broadened our scope to cover a wide range of topics. We're now delving into everything from PPP and the talent crisis to artificial intelligence, fraud, the business models of accounting firms, the IRS, politics, and much more. Our aim is to provide the best audio-based news and analysis in the accounting profession.Celebrating an incredible milestone of 1 million downloads, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all our listeners and guests who have supported us over the years. As we step into this exciting new phase, we encourage you to engage with us - whether you're a longtime listener or just tuning in. Please send us your feedback, story ideas, or even a voicemail that we might play on the air at [email protected], you can earn free CPE for listening with the Earmark app. Visit earmarkcpe.com for more information. We're thrilled to have you on this journey with us, and we look forward to bringing you quality content for many more years to come! Enjoy the show.Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let The Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We're back from the AICPA Engage conference sharing takeaways. Also, we're talking about all the latest generative AI developments in accounting, plus the recent PwC scandal in Australia.SponsorsLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zoho Helcim - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/helcimChapters (00:00) - PREVIEW: The PwC scandal (00:46) - Blake and David are back from AICPA Engage (02:08) - Blake shares his mom's tax return horror story (10:13) - Thoughts on the AICPA's 100th Town Hall podcast episode (16:10) - How can AICPA grow Engage to be an even bigger event (21:03) - It was great to see everyone at AICPA Engage (27:11) - Advanced Auto Parts misses 10-Q deadline because they couldn't staff position (30:37) - Accounting firms are getting sued for improper ERC returns (35:31) - Checking in on the live chat (37:31) - Intuit's AI announcement (43:33) - CPA.com announces their own generative AI initiative (44:50) - Spreadsheet company Equals launches AI Assist (45:29) - ChatGPT makes up court cases in federal briefing (47:59) - Ikea buys warehouse management SaaS company (48:58) - Google DeepMind can create its own algorithms (51:23) - Crypto scams are 5x more costly than other cyber crimes (52:09) - Let's talk about PwC Australia (01:01:25) - Wrap up and where to reach Blake and David Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesGoogle DeepMind’s game-playing AI just found another way to make code faster | MIT Technology Review              https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/06/07/1074184/google-deepmind-game-ai-alphadev-algorithm-code-faster/ Crypto scams five times as costly as other cybercrimes says study | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/crypto-scams-five-times-as-costly-as-other-cybercrimes-says-study A Man Sued Avianca Airline. His Lawyer Used ChatGPT. - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShareEquals Launches the First Native AI Assistant for Spreadsheetshttps://www.newswire.com/news/equals-launches-the-first-native-ai-assistant-for-spreadsheets-22045667 Intuit introduces proprietary large language models for fintech with GenOShttps://cointelegraph.com/news/intuit-introduces-proprietary-large-language-models-for-fintech-with-genos Intuit (INTU) Introduces Generative AI Operating Systemhttps://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2105195/intuit-intu-introduces-generative-ai-operating-system?cid=CS-ZC-FT-analyst_blog|company_news_tech_sector-2105195 Intuit Unveils Generative AI Operating System and Finance LLMs for TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp Developers    https://voicebot.ai/2023/06/07/intuit-unveils-generative-ai-operating-system-and-finance-llms-for-turbotax-credit-karma-quickbooks-and-mailchimp-developers/ Intuit Introduces Generative AI Operating System with Custom Trained Financial Large Language Modelshttps://financialpost.com/pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/intuit-introduces-generative-ai-operating-system-with-custom-trained-financial-large-language-models Intuit Launches GenOS: AI Operating System for Financial Datahttps://medium.com/@cryptomarket06/intuit-launches-genos-ai-operating-system-for-financial-data-6bf8f161ef3a IKEA Parent Ingka Acquires Supply Chain Software Solutions Provider Made4nethttps://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2023/ikea-parent-ingka-acquires-supply-chain-software-solutions-provider-made4net/ Landscaping Business Sues Accounting Firm Over Alleged COVID ...https://www.law.com/dailyreportonline/2023/05/30/landscaping-business-sues-accounting-firm-over-alleged-covid-19-scheme/ Intuit Expert BrandVoice: How Intuit Is Leveraging AI To Catapult The Role Of Tax And Bookkeeping Experts To Deliver Confidence Inspiring Customer Experiences           https://www.forbes.com/sites/intuit-expert/2023/05/23/how-intuit-is-leveraging-ai-to-catapult-the-role-of-tax-and-bookkeeping-experts-to-deliver-confidence-inspiring-customer-experiences/  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Benchmark Growth - https://marketingforaccountingfirms.com/mastermind/Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

David is a lifelong programmer who founded Expensify in 2008 and built it into the most popular "pre-accounting" platform on the planet. Hear David's vision for the New Expensify, in which every payment is a conversation.Meet Our Guest:David Barrett, CEO of Expensifyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmbarrett/Learn more about Expensifyhttp://expensify.comNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Why AICPA's 12-point plan won't solve the CPA crisis; Earnings reports from Intuit, Sage, and Xero; Ramp adds AI features to spend management platform; why grads are ditching jobs at the Big Four; 70% of Gen Z employees would switch jobs for better tech, and more!SponsorsLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowTech Guru - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/techguruClient Hub - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters (00:00) - IRS Loses $10 Billion In Debt Ceiling Deal & Proof ChatGPT Massively Increases Productivity (00:52) - Welcome to the show (04:52) - Potential debt-ceiling deal cuts IRS funding by $10 billion (07:38) - Chat GPT made workers 37% faster at completing tasks (11:44) - Accounting Today has ChatGPT retake the CPA exam (16:36) - Number of people taking accountancy exams drops to lowest level in 17 years (19:23) - WSJ article on the accounting industry’s low starting pay problem (23:35) - The AICPA's 12-point plan to solve the accountant shortage (35:13) - Thetab.com article on why grads are ditching jobs at Big Four firms (38:13) - Update on the IRS's Free File tax system (41:18) - Let's talk about the Intuit earnings call (46:38) - Sage had their earnings call (48:43) - Ramp announces "Ramp Intelligence" (53:31) - Employee satisfaction reached an all-time high last year (55:33) - Gen Z employees would change jobs for better tech (01:01:34) - Wrap up and where to reach us. See you at AICPA Engage! Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesNew MIT Research Shows Spectacular Increase In White Collar Productivity From ChatGPT – JOSH BERSINhttps://joshbersin.com/2023/03/new-mit-research-shows-spectacular-increase-in-white-collar-productivity-from-chatgpt/ ChatGPT retakes CPA Exam as v4.0, passes | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/chatgpt-retakes-cpa-exam-as-v4-0-passes AICPA Council approves CPA pipeline plan | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-council-approves-cpa-pipeline-plan 70% of Gen Z Employees Say They Would Switch Jobs for Better Tech: Weekly Stathttps://www.cfo.com/human-capital/workforce-management/2023/05/gen-z-gen-x-baby-boomer-millennials-technology-work-environments-productivity-work-life-balance/ AICPA details plans to boost CPA pipeline | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-details-plans-to-boost-cpa-pipeline Overworked and underpaid: Why grads are ditching jobs at the Big Fourhttps://thetab.com/uk/2023/05/10/big-four-grad-scheme-whats-it-like-306634 The Future of AI in Finance is Here | Ramp Intelligencehttps://ramp.com/intelligence Numbers taking US accountancy exams drop to lowest level in 17 years | Financial Timeshttps://www.ft.com/content/e8dc2264-6b8d-4ed5-8bbd-e4a67e7d1e46 Avii Announces Significant Uplifts to Financial Modules In Avii ...https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230508005420/en/Avii-Announces-Significant-Uplifts-to-Financial-Modules-In-Avii-WorkspaceTM-Platform-for-Accounting-Firms Overworked and underpaid: Why grads are ditching jobs at the Big Fourhttps://thetab.com/uk/2023/05/10/big-four-grad-scheme-whats-it-like-306634 Sage Intact Launches Native AP Bill Automation to Cut Down on ...https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/news/pr-zen/sage-intact-launches-native-ap-bill-automation-to-cut-down-on-invoice-processing-time Intuit Inc. (INTU) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript              https://seekingalpha.com/article/4606883-intuit-inc-intu-q3-2023-earnings-call-transcript Intuit (INTU) Reports Q3 Earnings: What Key Metrics Have to Sayhttps://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2098768/intuit-intu-reports-q3-earnings-what-key-metrics-have-to-say ChatGPT retakes CPA Exam as v4.0, passes            https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/chatgpt-retakes-cpa-exam-as-v4-0-passes Xero reports 28% year-over-year growth https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/xero-reports-28-year-over-year-growth Pentagon Says Accounting Mistake Leaves U.S. With $3 Billion ...https://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-error-leaves-pentagon-with-3-billion-more-in-arms-for-ukraine-u-s-says-6d6f4576 AICPA details plans to boost the CPA pipeline                https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-details-plans-to-boost-cpa-pipeline AICPA releases expanded plan for addressing CPA pipeline ...https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2023/may/aicpa-releases-expanded-plan-addressing-cpa-pipeline-challenges.html IRS to pilot free tax prep system in January            https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-to-pilot-free-tax-prep-system-in-january Why Graduates Aren't Hot on Accounting Careers: Low Starting Pay ...https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-graduates-arent-hot-on-accounting-careers-low-starting-pay-onerous-testing-c05bf267 Software giant Sage strikes deal for US construction platform Coreconhttps://www.business-live.co.uk/technology/software-giant-sage-strikes-deal-26883546 Plan to accelerate talent pipeline solutions | Resources   https://www.aicpa-cima.com/resources/article/draft-plan-to-accelerate-talent-pipeline-solutions QuickBooks Connect Returning to Las Vegas in 2023https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/education-hub/training-center/quickbooks-connect-returning-to-las-vegas-2023/ AICPA Council approves CPA pipeline plan              https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-council-approves-cpa-pipeline-plan Intuit's (INTU) Q3 Earnings Beat Expectations, Sales Miss (Revised)https://finance.yahoo.com/news/intuits-intu-q3-earnings-beat-080700418.html The Sage Group plc (SGGEF) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcripthttps://seekingalpha.com/article/4605500-sage-group-plc-sggef-q2-2023-earnings-call-transcript Financial results announcements | Sage Investor Relationshttps://www.sage.com/investors/financial-information/results/ Sage Group 1H Revenue Beat Consensus as Underlying ARR Rose -- Earnings Reviewhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/sage-group-1h-revenue-beat-consensus-as-underlying-arr-rose-earnings-review-daf93f65Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Benchmark Growth - https://marketingforaccountingfirms.com/mastermind/  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We're joined by Ashley the CPA (@seattle_tax) to talk about artificial intelligence coming soon to Microsoft products plus all the news you can use at the intersection of accounting and technology.SponsorsShareFile - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/sharefileTech Guru - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/techguruHelcim - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/helcimChapters (00:00) - ChatGPT is only the beginning (01:17) - Introduction and welcome Ashley to the show (03:06) - Microsoft Copilot updates (09:02) - A new Microsoft Teams is coming (11:05) - Report from Microsoft says meetings are the #1 productivity killer (16:21) - A very small percentage of accountants are using these tools (20:52) - How is consistency with AI? (23:04) - Personalized training for these AI's (33:50) - ChatGPT ads plugins (37:22) - TurboTax is adding AI (42:20) - Why should you learn AI now? (48:18) - Tell us about your newsletter Ashley (58:13) - Blake asks ChatGPT to book him a flight (01:01:47) - Wrap up and where to reach us Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesMicrosoft Crunches Some Data to Find Out Teams is the Biggest Productivity Killer at Workhttps://www.goingconcern.com/microsoft-crunches-some-data-to-find-out-teams-is-the-biggest-productivity-killer-at-work/ The No. 1 workplace distraction that kills productivity, according to Microsofthttps://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/09/the-no-1-workplace-distraction-that-kills-productivity-according-to-microsoft.html Meet our Guest, Ashley Francis, CPALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-francis-0115073/Website: https://kitchentableautomations.substack.com/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/ Benchmark Growth - https://marketingforaccountingfirms.com/mastermind/ Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We're back from ExpensiCon in Italy with thoughts on Expensify's future and the future of spend management; a report from Kristen Keats at Accounting Today's Firm Growth Forum conference; ChatGPT coming soon to a Wendy's drive-thru near you!SponsorsCCH Access - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/axcessSuiteFiles - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/suitefilesClient Hub - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters (00:25) - Every Payment Is A Conversation (01:11) - Blake and David are back from Italy (05:01) - Let’s talk about ExpensiCon (10:09) - The original Expensify and ExpensiCon (12:36) - The new Expensify they're building (18:12) - Expensify is adding great tech support (25:14) - The future of Expensify (30:13) - How much do we think this event cost and playing the long game (41:24) - Some general observations on Italy (49:04) - Kristen Keats checks in from Accounting Today's conference (56:34) - Let's hear some listener reviews of CAP (57:16) - Is AI encouraging or discouraging for accountants and jobs? (01:01:45) - Wendy's Fresh AI (01:04:13) - ChatGPT 4 passes CPA exam (01:05:36) - Wrap up and where to reach us Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesExpensify Launches Transactional Chat for Accountants - Business Wirehttps://stocks.apple.com/ATL9AZYOSSKO_4jLMtB30pA Wendy’s to Launch AI-Powered Drive-Thru Service             https://smallbiztrends.com/2023/05/ai-drive-thru-wendys-google-cloud.html What if AI could rebuild the middle class? : Planet Money : NPRhttps://www.npr.org/sections/money/2023/05/09/1174933574/what-if-ai-could-rebuild-the-middle-classGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Accounting Today said ChatGPT failed the CPA Exam — here's why that's misleading; a WSJ reporter clones herself with AI and tricks her bank and family; TurboTax tops the TV ads for tax year 2022; Audit firms remove partners who fault clients' internal controls; 80 percent of BDO Alliance partners vote to eliminate or modify the 150-hour ruleSponsorsShareFile - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/sharefileCCH Axcess - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/axcessSuiteFiles - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/suitefilesChapters (00:00) - ChatGPT Was Set Up To Fail The CPA Exam (00:30) - Does the accounting profession give your life meaning? (01:00) - Welcome to the show, David is on the road this week (04:49) - Accounting Today says ChatGPT completely failed CPA exam (07:48) - Blake ran some of his own tests with GPT-4 and takeaways people should get from this article (13:23) - WSJ article on the potential of AI and fraud (15:09) - Blake plays clips of Joanna's voice cloned compared to her actual voice (18:28) - TechCrunch article on Intuit's AI journey (23:35) - Accounting Today article on firms removing audit partners from engagements where they found internal control problems (28:41) - Accounting Today: PCAOB turns up the heat on auditing firms (32:20) - Three failed banks all had KPMG in common (38:26) - Which brands spent the most money on ads around tax day 2023? (41:30) - TurboTax starts sending out checks as part of "free free free" settlement (42:58) - Listener email about the 150 hour rule and underpaid CPAs (46:57) - BDO Alliance poll results on the 150 hour requirement (50:29) - Blake buys MedEvac insurance for the first time (53:09) - Some quick app news roundup (58:33) - Wrap up and where to reach us Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesKPMG pens deal with MindBridge to apply AI to digital audits | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/kpmg-pens-deal-with-mindbridge-to-apply-ai-to-digital-audits We ran the CPA exam through ChatGPT and it failed miserably | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/we-ran-the-cpa-exam-through-chatgpt-and-it-failed-miserably I Cloned Myself With AI. She Fooled My Bank and My Family.        https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-cloned-myself-with-ai-she-fooled-my-bank-and-my-family-356bd1a3 Audit firms remove partners who fault clients' internal controls | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/audit-firms-remove-partners-who-fault-clients-internal-controls BDO Alliance poll of managing partners on 150-hour rulehttps://twitter.com/BlakeTOliver/status/1654553693830914048 TurboTax customers to receive checks for $141M settlement        https://apnews.com/article/turbotax-inuit-settlement-checks-mail-0c01cf25aa34693163886d135f7a6560Accounting automation developer Gappify scores $10mhttps://fintech.global/2023/05/02/accounting-automation-developer-gappify-scores-10m/             Intuit’s shifthttps://techcrunch.com/2023/04/27/intuit-ai-shift/ Hundreds Of Tax Prep Services Hit The Airwaves Before April https://www.insideradio.com/free/hundreds-of-tax-prep-services-hit-the-airwaves-before-april-18/article_b59beb46-e5a2-11ed-a08f-d7b730e240b8.html We had ChatGPT take the CPA exam — and it failed           https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/we-ran-the-cpa-exam-through-chatgpt-and-it-failed-miserably ChatGPT Just Failed This Accounting Examhttps://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2023/04/chatgpt-just-failed-this-accounting-exam.html Accounting clerk created original art on billing statements to help a patient healhttps://www.cbsnews.com/video/accounting-clerk-created-original-art-on-billing-statements-to-help-a-patient-heal/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Matt Rissell of TSheets dead in apparent murder-suicide; a review of the AI features you can use right now in Client Hub, Canopy, Karbon, Financial Cents and... Sturppy?; This week's guest: Giles Pearson, CEO of AccountestsSponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayTech Guru - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/techguruChapters (00:00) - Have your AI contact my AI (00:21) - Introduction and thoughts on the horrible news of Matt Rissell
 (06:18) - Some of the history of TSheets
 (12:36) - Practical application of Chat GPT and AI
 (20:10) - Giles was a partner at PwC
 (25:46) - Blake check on the live chat discussion (00:50) - David has used ChatGPT to create and organize his calendar appointments
 (30:43) - Let's look at Client Hub using their AI integration to help create tasks
 (35:09) - Lets see how Canopy can help you draft emails
 (37:51) - What Karbon has done with email
 (44:48) - Is Giles using AI for anything?
 (45:42) - Financial Sense integrates with ChatGPT
 (47:52) - Expensify's genius AI blog post
 (49:40) - Sturppy's AI virtual CFO (00:30) - Wrap up and where to reach everyone
 (57:07) - Congressional letter written about AI to create tax scams
 (58:56) - Where to learn more about Accountest and follow Giles Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesKarbon AI | Karbon         https://karbonhq.com/feature/ai/ Founder of TSheets Dies in Self-Inflicted Shootinghttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/05/04/founder-of-tsheets-dies-in-self-inflicted-shooting/79360/ Senators want IRS to stop AI-generated tax scamshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/senators-want-irs-to-stop-chatgpt-generated-ai-tax-scams “What is the Best Expense Management App?” according to ChatGPT?https://blog.expensify.com/2023/05/02/what-is-the-best-expense-management-app-according-to-chatgpt/ TSheets founder Rissell dead after what police call attempted murder/suicide in Eagle homehttps://boisedev.com/news/2023/05/04/matt-rissell-dead/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/FinDaily - https://findaily.io/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

In this episode, Pat White and Rafael Casas interview Mackenzie Patel, CEO of Hash Basis, a crypto-native accounting firm based in San Francisco. Mackenzie shares her accounting background and how she got into crypto accounting. They also discuss the challenges of revenue accounting in crypto and the emerging trend of specialized crypto accounting.Get NASBA Approved CPE or IRS Approved CELaunch the course on EarmarkCPE to get free CPE for listening to this episode.Checkout the Bitwave channel on Earmark to get even more CPEChapters (00:00) - Preview: What does Hash Basis do? (00:50) - Introduction and welcome Mackenzie to the show (02:04) - A little bit of Mackenzie's background (04:24) - Did you instantly love accounting? (10:39) - What did you do after college? (11:47) - What does revenue accounting look like in crypto? (13:58) - Are you seeing more accountants who specialize in crypto accounting? (18:32) - How did you get into crypto specifically? (20:40) - Can you walk us through some fundamentals of crypto accounting? (28:31) - What is streaming payroll and payments? (31:53) - What resources do you do to stay up to date on crypto and crypto accounting? (34:51) - FASB guidance has come out (35:31) - What do you think about wrapped tokens now being counted as impaired? (42:08) - Tell us about your new company, Hash Basis (44:14) - Mackenzie will be speaking at EDAS (46:13) - Thanks for listening and please subscribe for new episodes Connect with our guest, Mackenzie Patellinkedin.com/in/mackenziepatel/twitter.com/maccbasisConnect with Patlinkedin.com/in/patwhitetwitter.com/patwhiteConnect with Rafaellinkedin.com/in/rafaelcasastwitter.com/RafaelCasasBWFollow the Crypto With Accountants Podcastfacebook.com/CryptoAcctsPodtwitter.com/CryptoAcctsPodlinkedin.com/showcase/cryptoacctspodLeave a review on Apple Podcasts or PodchaserSubscribe to the Crypto With Accountants Podcast in your favorite podcast app!This podcast is a production of the Earmark Media

Raising prices is a priority; NASBA extends time to complete CPA exam; Canopy now writes emails with AI; PwC to invest $1 billion in AI; staff not allowed to go to conferencesSponsorsCCH Axcess - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/axcessZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoKeeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:05) - Preview: Accounting is in a bad place (02:58) - We launched the Federal Tax Updates Podcast with Padgett and welcome to our guests (07:27) - Amanda, why was this tax season harder than last? (09:13) - Tell us more about the Padgett REtreat (10:41) - What are some ways to think about raising your prices? (13:44) - The accounting shortage is affecting cities getting credit scores (22:36) - NASBA extends the time to take the CPA exam to 30 months (24:48) - AI and its future in accounting (27:09) - Canopy integrates ChatGPT into their suite (29:09) - PWC to invest $1 billion over the next 3 years in AI (33:10) - How long do you think until smaller and midsize firms will be using AI (35:14) - Lili Bank promises one-button accounting (46:17) - Listener mail about staff not being given chances to go to conferences (49:02) - Are accounting students set up only for the benefit of the Big 4 firms? (53:16) - Wrap up and thanks for listening Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesChatGPT Fails When It Comes to Accounting, Finds Major Studyhttps://www.latestly.com/technology/chatgpt-fails-when-it-comes-to-accounting-finds-major-study-5078092.htmlKPMG Joins MindBridge in Global Launch of AI-Assisted Audit Techhttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/kpmg-joins-mindbridge-in-global-launch-of-ai-assisted-audit-techWhat Microsoft’s Dynamics GP Announcement Means for the User Communityhttps://dynamicscommunities.com/ug/dynamics-gp-ug/what-microsofts-dynamics-gp-announcement-means-for-the-user-community/ ChatGPT is still no match for humans when it comes to accounting             https://phys.org/news/2023-04-chatgpt-humans-accounting.html Lili Claims Super App Status With New Accounting Platformhttps://www.pymnts.com/smbs/2023/lili-claims-super-app-status-with-new-accounting-platform/ Leading Financial Platform, Lili, Launches 'Lili Smart' to Integrate ...https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230418005500/en/Leading-Financial-Platform-Lili-Launches-%E2%80%98Lili-Smart%E2%80%99-to-Integrate-and-Consolidate-Accounting-Services-into-Small-Business-Banking KPMG signs AI deal to improve audit transparency            https://www.accountancydaily.co/kpmg-signs-ai-deal-improve-audit-transparency NASBA extends time to complete the CPA exam to 30 monthshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/nasba-extends-time-to-complete-the-cpa-exam-to-30-months Accounting Bachelors Degree Requirements: What You Need to Knowhttps://seaver.pepperdine.edu/blog/posts/accounting-bachelors-degree-requirements-what-you-need-to-know.htm ChatGPT: How AI will change law, finance, accounting and property ...       https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/how-chatgpt-will-change-these-four-industries-20230328-p5cvzx Canopy Launches ChatGPT AI in Accounting Practice Management Softwarehttps://www.einnews.com/pr_news/629260399/canopy-launches-chatgpt-ai-in-accounting-practice-management-software Accountant shortage hurts city credit scores         https://fortune.com/2023/04/21/accountant-shortage-affecting-city-credit-scores/ Technology News | ⚡Study Finds ChatGPT No Match for Human When It Comes to Accountinghttps://www.latestly.com/quickly/technology/study-finds-chatgpt-no-match-for-human-when-it-comes-to-accounting-5078092.html PwC Stakes $1 Billion on AI Investments in Tax, Consulting Workhttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/pwc-us-partners-with-microsoft-in-1-billion-ai-investmentGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

FTX had 80,000 transactions in Ask My Accountant; the crazy cost accounting behind EY's failed breakup; using ChatGPT for financial statement analysis; what the tech world thinks AI will automate in accounting and more!SponsorsLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowChapters (00:00) - CAP 329 (00:39) - PREVIEW: How ChatGPT saved Erica (01:09) - Introduction (07:48) - FTX had 80,000 transactions in Ask My Accountant (12:04) - Blake plays a clip from the All-In podcast on AI accounting (17:25) - ChatGPT vs real accountants and students on tests (25:48) - Hector Garcia's example of using ChatGPT for analysing financial statements (31:24) - Is Erica using ChatGPT at all in her firm? (36:18) - EY breakup news (42:13) - Donna's voicemail on her sons college tour and accounting majors (48:18) - Deloitte kicks off program for high school students to earn accounting credits (49:29) - Can AI help save education? (52:48) - The IRS shows customer service improvements in 2023 (54:22) - Are accountants actually experiencing a better tax season? (01:01:49) - Crazy MYOB commercial (01:03:41) - Wrap up and where to reach everyone Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesBlake Oliver on Twitter: "My speaking session was selected for #Expensicon”https://twitter.com/BlakeTOliver/status/1649440639355097088 SURVEY: Busy Season Looking Good - CPA Trendlines         https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/04/10/survey-busy-season-looking-good/ EY Confronts Slowing Growth After Breakup Deal Fails - WSJ          https://www.wsj.com/articles/ey-confronts-slowing-growth-after-breakup-deal-fails-9442c85d Magic Workflow: AI-Powered Workflow and Process Generator   https://clienthub.app/blog/new-feature-magic-workflowai-powered-workflow-and-process-generator/ Ernst & Young has axed its plan for a split of its auditing and consulting arms, marking a dramatic and costly retreat                https://www.wsj.com/articles/ernst-young-halts-breakup-plan-bd2e2fa0Is that the IRS with your refund? No, it's a ChatGPT scamhttps://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-tax/2023/04/17/is-that-the-irs-with-your-refund-no-its-a-chatgpt-scam-00092169 Taylor Swift avoided $100 million FTX deal with securities question: lawyer https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-avoided-100-million-ftx-deal-with-securities-question-2023-4 ChatGPT less than 50% accurate in accounting exams, study finds https://www.accountancyage.com/2023/04/21/chatgpt-less-than-50-accurate-in-accounting-exams-study-finds/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFuture Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The M-Score is warning that the chance of fraud is the highest in over 40 years; Did KPMG fail to issue a critical audit matter for Silicon Valley Bank?; The spreadsheet apocalypse, revisited; Former startup founder charged by prosecutors for defrauding JPMorgan Chase; EY split fails; watch out for AI voice cloning scams; and more!SponsorsOh My Fraud - https://ohmyfraud.com/Relay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayClient Hub - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters (00:00) - Preview: Incentives to allow fraudulent users (00:52) - Introduction and welcome to the show (03:51) - WSJ reports fraud indicator "M" score is up (08:52) - Should KPMG have issued a critical audit matter for SVB? (16:13) - EY no longer to split off auditing (18:36) - JPMorgan defrauded for $175 million by startup founder (23:10) - CPA in Bakersfield stole $355,000 from investors (24:20) - Block accused of allowing fake accounts to boost their user growth numbers (27:37) - Square is changing their refund policy to not refund processing fees (28:52) - A few new Intuit announcements (31:55) - Security risks with AI and voice cloning is happening in real life (35:42) - Microsoft Loop (40:23) - Nicholas asks for recs for CPAs who want to start their own small firm (46:54) - Michael's email about barriers to CPA (48:26) - Corey from Minnesota CPA Society shares message and website with resources (49:31) - Will AI attract or detract more people to the accounting profession? (57:54) - Blake co-wrote an article for CPA Practice Advisor (01:02:35) - Wrap up and where to reach us Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesIntuit QuickBooks Launches Rest-of-World App Store - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/04/11/intuit-quickbooks-launches-rest-of-world-app-store/78582/ EY’s leaders missed a brewing revolt at the firm’s biggest operation. Soon, their deal was scuttledhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ey-breakup-plan-doomed-by-miscalculations-and-powerful-opponents-61b7e02d ‘I’ve got your daughter’: Scottsdale mom warns of close call with AI voice cloning scamhttps://www.azfamily.com/2023/04/10/ive-got-your-daughter-scottsdale-mom-warns-close-encounter-with-ai-voice-cloning-scam/ Bond losses such as those at Silicon Valley Bank could have been raised as “critical audit matters”—a measure designed to help investors decode risks and uncertainties buried in financial statementshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/auditors-didnt-flag-risks-building-up-in-banks-6506585c Former Start-Up Founder Charged by Prosecutors for Defrauding JPMorgan Chasehttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/business/charlie-javice-jpmorgan-fraud.html The Spreadsheet Apocalypse, Revisited [Chart]https://twitter.com/johnnosta/status/1641586085640695810?s=12 The M-Score is warning that the chance of fraud at major companies is the highest in over 40 years, writes Numbers columnist @JoshZumbrunhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-fraud-indicator-signals-coming-economic-trouble-506568a0 New Microsoft Loop app is built for co-creation | Microsoft 365 Bloghttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/03/22/new-microsoft-loop-app-is-built-for-modern-co-creation/ Shares of the payments company formerly known as Square fell more than 20% in early trading Thursday after a short seller questioned the company’s user numbers and accused it of predatory tacticshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/short-seller-hindenburg-says-jack-dorseys-payments-company-inflates-user-numbers-f3216466 Startup CEO charged in $175 million fraud case        https://abcnews.go.com/Business/startup-ceo-charged-175-million-fraud-case/story?id=98363900 Our Obsession with Hours Is Destroying the Accounting Professionhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/04/12/our-obsession-with-hours-is-destroying-the-accounting-profession/78643/ Accounting firm EY calls off 'Project Everest' to break up firmhttps://www.bbc.com/news/65247525 Intuit QuickBooks Launches Rest-of-World App Storehttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/04/11/intuit-quickbooks-launches-rest-of-world-app-store/78582/ Intuit Mailchimp Launches Email Content Generatorhttps://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=158086 Mailchimp’s new GPT-powered AI tool can write marketing emailshttps://www.fastcompany.com/90877547/mailchimp-gpt-powered-tool-can-write-marketing-emailsGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We’re joined by Heidi Henderson, EVP at Engineered Tax Services, for our weekly roundup of news at the intersection of accounting and technology. Topics include: How the IRS plans to spend $80 billion over the next 10 years; the top five TikTok tax myths; security issues with AI chatbots; CLA voices support for MNCPA’s 150-hour alternative; why revenue is up 20% in the top 100 firms, and more!SponsorsZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowClient Hub - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters (00:00) - CAP 327 (00:24) - PREVIEW: Breast implants are a tax write off? (01:08) - Welcome Heidi Henderson to the show and some background (06:36) - How did you get into tax credits? (08:32) - Heidi's take on ERC mills (11:56) - How will the IRS spend their $80 billion? (13:59) - Breakdown on how the IRS plans to spend that money (24:01) - Tax advice from TikTok (34:39) - What is the accounting pro's role in advising a client on taxes (37:47) - Accounting Today's April Fools Day post (39:40) - Minnestoa CPA Society gets a big supporter in CLA on the 150 rule (45:39) - Should we move the tax deadlines? (49:56) - SBF student fund for improving humanity has run dry (51:06) - Revenue for the top 100 firms was up almost 20% (54:54) - What impact will AI make on accounting? (01:01:11) - What are the potential risks of AI for accountants (01:05:38) - Wrap up and where to reach everyone Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesThe accounting pipeline: 'Above all, try something'https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/the-accounting-pipeline-above-all-try-something ChatGPT Took Our CPA Public Accounting Test – Accountests Australiahttps://www.au.accountests.com/blogs/news/chatgpt-took-our-cpa-public-accounting-test The IRS reveals how it will spend its $80B               https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/the-irs-reveals-how-it-will-spend-its-80b GPT Predicts Which Jobs the AI will replacehttps://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/128xl05/gpt_predicts_which_jobs_the_ai_will_replace/ CLA backs changes in 150-hour CPA requirement              https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cla-backs-changes-in-150-hour-cpa-requirement File your taxes in 10 minutes? TurboTax says it’s possible with AI-powered ‘express lanes’https://www.fastcompany.com/90875480/turbotax-irs-ai-file-taxes-phone-fast-lane Collapse of FTX deprives academics of grants, stokes fears of forced repaymenthttps://www.reuters.com/technology/collapse-ftx-deprives-academics-grants-stokes-fears-forced-repayment-2023-04-06/ The Problem With the IRS Vow to Avoid Stepping Up Audits of Earners Under $400,000https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-problem-with-the-irs-vow-to-avoid-stepping-up-audits-of-earners-under-400-000-6ffa5185 Healthy Wealthy & Wise Accountants     https://healthywealthywise.show/5 Three ways AI chatbots are a security disaster  | MIT Technology Reviewhttps://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/03/1070893/three-ways-ai-chatbots-are-a-security-disaster/ Accounting firm sets retirement age at 85 to avert staffing crisis | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/accounting-firm-sets-retirement-age-at-85-to-avert-staffing-crisis CLA backs changes in 150-hour CPA requirement | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cla-backs-changes-in-150-hour-cpa-requirement The IRS reveals how it will spend its $80B | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/the-irs-reveals-how-it-will-spend-its-80b ChatGPT Took Our CPA Public Accounting Test – Accountests Australiahttps://www.au.accountests.com/blogs/news/chatgpt-took-our-cpa-public-accounting-testConnect with Heidi HendersonWebsite: http://engineeredtaxservices.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidihendersonets/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Using ChatGPT to audit; accounting salaries on the rise; misclassification of expenses at heart of Trump indictment; church sued for forcing employees to tithe; here's what you can do to help the accountant shortage; a dating sim that does your taxes; half of U.S. workers earn money from a side gig; CEOs quietly backtracking on remote work; where all the SVB depositor money wentSponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoKeeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:00) - CAP 326 (00:23) - Preview: Where does hush money go on the GL? (00:57) - Welcome Adrienne to the show (03:14) - What impact will ChatGPT have on accounting? (08:39) - Accountant salaries are rising (11:17) - Blake checks in on the live stream chat (14:06) - CFO Dive study with Open AI on productivity boost and some of tech concerns with AI in general (17:54) - WSJ article on jobs most exposed to ChatGPT (22:31) - Adrienne saved 150 hours automating a task for Going Concern (25:35) - Intuit survey of accountants (29:18) - The Trump indictment (33:32) - Kirkland Chruch forced employees to donate 10% of salary to chruch (36:24) - Back to AGI talk and will it take our jobs? (47:24) - Going Concern article on dating sim game for taxes (53:58) - Automating your job and having a side gig (55:36) - CEO's are starting to backtrack on remote work (59:22) - Follow up with Silicon Valley Bank (01:03:08) - Relay is now the official banking partner of Profit First (01:04:56) - Wrap up and where to reach everyone Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe Show NotesA dating sim that does your taxes: https://taxheaven3000.com/ The Accountant Shortage is So Bad Anime Waifu Girlfriends Are Taking Up Tax Prep Now - Going Concern               https://www.goingconcern.com/anime-dating-sim-tax-prep-game/Accountants are using technology to level up their businesses     https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/small-business-data/accountant-tech-survey-2023/ Where Did Startups Put Their SVB Cash?  At JP Morgan Chase      https://www.saastr.com/where-did-startups-put-their-svb-cash-at/ Want to Do Your Part to Help the Accountant Shortage? Here’s What You Can Do Right Nowhttps://www.goingconcern.com/want-to-do-your-part-to-help-the-accountant-shortage-heres-what-you-can-do-right-now/ Meta, Microsoft, and Disney are reversing their bets on the metaversehttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-microsoft-disney-reversing-bets-123000778.html Math Teachers Stage a Calculated Protesthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/04/04/math-teachers-stage-a-calculated-protest/c003ddaf-b86f-4f2b-92ca-08533f3a5896/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040 Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/ Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

The Federal Tax Updates podcast is a recent addition to the Earmark Media network of accounting-focused podcasts. In this episode, Roger and Annie discuss the most recent IRS updates and recommendations for tax preparers dealing with the surge of inaccurate ERC claims. They also provide some detailed insights into filing extensions for clients.Want to hear more Federal Tax Updates episodes? Listen and subscribe at federaltaxupdates.com Follow the Federal Tax Updates podcast on Social Media:twitter.com/FedTaxPodfacebook.com/FedTaxPodlinkedin.com/showcase/fedtaxpod

This Week's Guest: Terrell Turner, CPA; 85% of MNCPA members working in public accounting support an alternative to 150 hours; The Silicon Valley Bank Balance Sheet Time Bomb "Sitting In Plain Sight"; Senator Warren complains to PCAOB about sham crypto "audits"; JPMorgan Chase’s nickel bags turn out to be full of stones; PwC introduces AI chatbot for 4,000 lawyers to speed up work; Xero kills WorkflowMaxSponsorsSuiteFiles - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/suitefilesZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoKeeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters (00:00) - Cloud Accounting Podcast Episode 325 (00:26) - Preview: Accountants aren't eating their own dog food (01:10) - Introduction and welcome Terrell Turner to the show (03:31) - What does Terrell's practice do and who do they serve? (05:11) - South Carolina's comptroller resigns due to $3.5 billion error (11:30) - Blake and David talked to Linda about alternative CPA pathway (15:37) - Blog Post on NASBA website on CPA pipeline problem (19:11) - Are salaries the bigger issue? (21:24) - Clip from the Financial Executive podcast (27:15) - A little bit about Sillicon Valley Bank (43:07) - The issue with non-profits finding auditors and throwing accountants under the bus (48:02) - Elizabeth Warren writes letter to PCAOB about scam crypto "audits" (49:32) - JPMorgan Chase's nickel bags turn out to be full of stones (51:33) - OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to the internet (01:02:11) - Xero kills WorkflowMax (01:03:54) - PwC introduces AI chatbot for 4,000 lawyers to speed up work (01:10:23) - Wrap up and where to reach Terrell, Blake, & David Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comEarn CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeTranscriptThe transcript of this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page.Show NotesTexas Close to Allowing CPA Candidates to Test with 120 Creditshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/03/22/texas-close-to-allowing-cpa-candidates-to-test-with-120-credits/78123/ South Carolina's Top Accountant to Step Down After $3.5 Billion Errorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/03/23/south-carolinas-top-accountant-to-resign-after-3-5-billion-error/78209/ MNCPA to Educators: "We Do Not Need New CPAs Who Have Additional College Credits; We Need More CPAs, Period."               https://www.goingconcern.com/mncpa-to-educators-we-do-not-need-new-cpas-who-have-additional-college-credits-we-need-more-cpas-period/ Banks and investors are reviving a push for changes to securities accounting after the SVB collapsehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/banks-investors-revive-push-for-changes-to-securities-accounting-after-svb-collapse-99caa9ce PwC introduces AI chatbot for 4,000 lawyers to speed up workhttps://gulfbusiness.com/pwc-introduces-ai-chatbot-for-4000-lawyers/ The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Addressing the CPA Pipeline Crisis | NASBAhttps://nasba.org/blog/2023/03/14/addressing-the-cpa-pipeline-crisis/ QuickBooks leans into AI in 2023 | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/quickbooks-plans-to-go-all-in-on-ai-in-2023 SVB's balance-sheet time bomb was 'sitting in plain sight' https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/svbs-balance-sheet-time-bomb-was-sitting-in-plain-sight-short-seller-saysGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd 

Join us for an exclusive interview with Linda Wedul from the MNCPA! We'll dive deep into the pressing issues surrounding the 150-hour rule, the talent shortage facing CPA firms in Minnesota, and how MNCPA is exploring alternative pathways to licensure. Tune in as we explore innovative solutions for keeping the CPA career path competitive and bridging the gap for aspiring professionals.Broadening Pathways to the CPA Credential: https://www.mncpa.org/involvement/legislative/broadening-pathways-to-cpa/Meet Our Guest, Linda WedulLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindawedul/Learn more about the Minnesota Society of CPAshttp://mncpa.orgNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Matt Foreman explains what tax lawyers do; KPMG in the spotlight for signing off on SVB's books; digital bank apps benefit from SVB collapse; CLA launches paid high school accounting internships; Zoho's 10 most-installed CRM extensions of 2022; accounting talent shortage may cause city credit ratings to dropSponsorsSoftledger - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/softledgerLiveFlow - https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowKeeper - https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - CAP 324 (00:17) - Preview: The job of a lawyer in setting up businesses (00:49) - Introduction and welcome Matt to the show (04:18) - What does a tax lawyer do? (09:08) - What do you do for me as a client? (13:26) - What is the biggest mistake you see businesses make? (18:15) - The IRS is underfunded (23:08) - How often and when are clients meeting with Matt? (25:28) - How will the IRS ever agree how to spend their $80 billion (31:19) - Digital bank apps have benefited from SVB collapse (35:46) - Auditors under scrutiny for SVB collapse (39:16) - Blake's take on why auditors aren't the ones to blame (45:11) - Ron Baker's audit insurance idea (50:19) - CLA launches paid high school accounting internships (51:34) - Zoho lists their 10 most installed CRM extensions of 2022 (53:58) - Accounting talent shortage can cause city credit ratings to drop (01:00:17) - Wrap up and how to reach everyone Show Notes10 most-installed Zoho CRM extensions of 2022 https://www.zoho.com/blog/marketplace/10-most-installed-Zoho-CRM-extensions-of-2022.htmlSVB and Signature Bank Passed KPMG Audits Days Before Collapses https://www.pymnts.com/digital-first-banking/2023/svb-and-signature-bank-passed-kpmg-audits-days-before-collapses/CLA Launches Paid High School Accounting Internships in 15 ...https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/03/14/cla-launches-paid-high-school-accounting-internships-in-15-locations/77932/For Banks, Guaranteeing 100% of Everyone’s Money Threatens Moral Hazard https://www.pymnts.com/news/regulation/2023/for-banks-guaranteeing-100percent-of-everyones-money-threatens-moral-hazard/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/cap Uncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We're talking about the release of GPT-4 and Microsoft's Copilot built into Office 365. Both will have a huge impact on accountants in the near future. Tune in to learn how!Show Notes:  Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft 365 Bloghttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/03/16/introducing-microsoft-365-copilot-a-whole-new-way-to-work/GPT-4 Developer Livestream - YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=outcGtbnMuQOpenAI releases GPT-4, artificial intelligence that can 'see' and do taxeshttps://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-gpt-4-rcna74916Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd 

Join us for a conversation with Ken Bishop, President and CEO of NASBA, as he shares his insights into the shrinking CPA pipeline. We'll be discussing the controversial 150-hour rule and possible solutions to the growing accounting talent shortage.Meet Ken BishopLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-l-bishop-5a142414/Learn more about NASBAWebsite: http://nasba.orgNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

Guest: Paul Barnhurst, The FP&A Guy; Corporate frauds go undetected; Xero lays off 800; IRS process had a 20X improvement, and more!SponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Relay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayClient Hub - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - E323 (00:23) - State regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank (00:52) - Introduction and some thoughts on their Ken Bishop interview (04:33) - Some background on Paul (09:29) - Silicon Valley Bank is in trouble (13:45) - How banks work and make money (16:50) - Blake shares a tweet from a listener (18:04) - Almost all corporate fraud goes undetected (23:21) - News breaks that SVB has been shut down (27:43) - Fireball sued for whiskey fraud (30:51) - Ramp raises $5 million to build expense tracking (37:10) - ChatGPT used to recover over $100k in unpaid invoices (43:11) - FinTech failures and Xero's layoffs (47:29) - Startup CFO used Chat GPT to create FP&A tool (52:41) - Which GL will embed AI first? (55:24) - Randomly assigning auditors to companies improves their quality (57:58) - The IRS has already scanned 20 times more documents than all of 2022 (59:15) - New commissioner of IRS approved (59:46) - Wrap up and where to reach everyone Show NotesXero to lay off up to 800 staff as tech downturn spreads to accountinghttps://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/xero-to-lay-off-up-to-800-staff-as-tech-downturn-spreads-to-accounting IRS expands digital processinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-expands-digital-processing Senate approves Werfel as IRS chiefhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/senate-approves-werfel-as-irs-chief Reshaping Xero to enable disciplined growth and focushttps://www.xero.com/blog/2023/03/reshaping-xero-to-enable-growth/ Bill.com Holdings: QuickBooks Flips From Asset To Serious Threat ...https://seekingalpha.com/article/4585422-billcom-holdings-quickbooks-flips-from-asset-to-serious-threat Ramp Raises $5 Million for User and Revenue Forecasting Platformhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2023/ramp-raises-5-million-for-user-and-revenue-forecasting-platform/ The Week That Broke the Bank for Crypto             https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2023/the-week-that-broke-the-bank-for-crypto/ FinTech Cash Burn Totaled $12 Billion in 2022      https://www.pymnts.com/news/fintech-investments/2023/fintech-cash-burn-totaled-12-billion-in-2022/ What’s going on at Silicon Valley Bank?! https://newsletter.dtrh.co/p/whats-going-on-at-silicon-valley Silicon Valley Bank shoots self in foot      https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/09/silicon-valley-bank-shoots-self-in-foot/ Most corporate fraud goes undetected  https://www.cfobrew.com/stories/2023/01/26/most-corporate-fraud-undetected-new-studyGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFuture Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/ Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Bank Collapse App Information: https://bankcollapseapp.info/Meet Our Guests:Matthew MayLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thetechcpa/Twitter: @TheTechCpaWebsite: Acuity.coMike MoïseLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemoise/ Twitter: @mavidormike Website: https://www.leadwithvalue.team/ Rey Arellano, CPA PFS CGMALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reynaldoarellano/ Akshay ShrimankerLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaycpa/Twitter: @ShayCPA Website: Shaycpa.com Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Majority of CAS practices support 3+ general ledgers; KPMG may have turned a blind eye to deforestation; Intuit to replace QuickBooks Desktop POS with Shopify; Startup accelerators from Intuit and AICPASponsorsTri-Merit - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/trimeritLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowPatriot - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/patriotNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe  (00:00) - Catching Up On AccounTech News (00:47) - Introduction and why we are doing this extra episode (01:42) - Voice authentication in the banking industry (04:45) - ESG update from David (14:02) - Deloitte's Australia becomes a victim of fraud (16:45) - Armanino crypto team has now started a new firm (17:49) - CAAS by the numbers (28:07) - Why switching from QuickBooks to Xero or vice versa is so difficult (32:05) - Accounting conferences entry fees excludes average CPA from going (39:32) - Listener mail on pricing (45:52) - QuickBooks POS system is partnering with Shopify (49:43) - AICPA and CPA.com new startup accelerator cohort (53:23) - Intuit cohort of startups (55:55) - Revolut struggles (01:02:23) - How to contact Blake or David  Show NotesRevolut auditor concerned over £477m in late accounts https://www.accountancydaily.co/revolut-auditor-questions-ps477m-late-accounts Intuit Announces 2023 Cohort of Toronto Startup Accelerator Program   http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230302005347/en/Intuit-Announces-2023-Cohort-of-Toronto-Startup-Accelerator-Program/?feedref=JjAwJuNHiystnCoBq_hl-SP7CEH_PxTjduXJ0SDrbU6qcp-o_pnudlUwsb5apQ1S4gUE65BTfjH3-pSuqdv0gW3cb3F4oTIgUqCPafFkgu67Ap_pA_yJ1XPgPy1DuJnY The Dishonest Accounting of Net-Zero Emissions               https://capitalandmain.com/the-dishonest-accounting-of-net-zero-emissions AICPA and CPA.com Announce 2023 Startup Accelerator Cohort https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/02/28/aicpa-and-cpa-com-announce-2023-startup-accelerator-cohort/77261/ Say Goodbye to QuickBooks Desktop Point-of-Sale           https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/general-ledger/say-goodbye-to-quickbooks-desktop-point-of-sale/ AICPA & CIMA Sponsor Inaugural 'IFRS Sustainability Symposium'              https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/in-the-news/people-and-business/aicpa-cima-sponsor-inaugural-ifrs-sustainability-symposium/ Professional accountants fall out of favour on ESG assurance       https://www.responsible-investor.com/professional-accountants-fall-out-of-favour-on-esg-assurance/ ESG Reporting Now Common at Large Companies, But Report ... https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/02/28/esg-reporting-now-common-at-large-companies-but/77221/ Voice Cloning: A Blessing or a Curse for the Voice Banking Industry?         https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/23813/voice-cloning-a-blessing-or-a-curse-for-the-voice-banking-industry Revolut User Base Grows Alongside Auditor Warnings     https://www.pymnts.com/news/digital-banking/2023/revolut-user-base-grows-alongside-auditor-warnings/ How auditing giant KPMG became a global sustainability leader while serving companies accused of forest destruction - ICIJ      https://www.icij.org/investigations/deforestation-inc/audit-firms-kpmg-environmental-sustainability-logging/ AICPA and CPA.com announce new startup accelerator cohort for 2023 | Accounting Today          https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-and-cima-announce-new-startup-accelerator-cohort-for-2023 Xero Announces New Chief Product Officer - CPA Practice Advisor             https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/02/28/xero-announces-new-chief-product-officer/77265/ IRS Processing Returns as Fast as It Gets Them - CPA Trendlines  https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/02/27/irs-processing-returns-as-fast-as-it-gets-them/ Tweet from Ryan Elblein re: cost of ENGAGE        https://twitter.com/relblein/status/1631125387005640704?s=12&t=bI7JWUng6zVr0Ei5O2Qv3g [CAP] Accounting / Finance as a percentage of Revenue https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#inbox/FMfcgzGrcjRMDlRGJhxfWPBrwJQzLxWQ CAS by the numbers | Accounting Today                https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/cas-by-the-numbers Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFuture Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Guest: Dr. Josh McGowan, CPA from Troy University; Blake calculates the cost of the 150-hour rule; Minnesota says AICPA & NASBA are not the regulators; Accounting department budgets at riskSponsorsUncat - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/uncatLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowFirst Republic Bank - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/firstrepublic Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - Preview: The struggle is finding students who want to be an accounting major (01:08) - Josh McGowan joins the show (02:27) - Why should a student choose to be an accounting major (09:35) - How is accounting enrollment trending at your University? (12:25) - David asks Josh survey questions from a CPA Journal article (23:39) - How do we fix the work/life balance image of bigger firms (27:33) - Josh tell us your personal accounting journey (37:27) - Blake shares some listener mail (42:08) - Are students with accounting exposure in high school better prepared for college accounting classes? (43:26) - Lets talk about the 150 hour rule with Josh (58:20) - Is the branding of the accounting profession the bigger problem? (01:09:08) - What if we change the 150 requirement and still have a pipeline issue? (01:13:25) - Should accountants even need a bachelor's degree? (01:22:40) - Wrap up and where to find Josh online Show NotesThe Beef Between the AICPA and Minnesota Over the 150 Hour Rule Heats Uphttps://www.goingconcern.com/the-beef-between-the-aicpa-and-minnesota-over-the-150-hour-rule-heats-up/ An Update on the Future of Accounting Education             https://www.cpajournal.com/2022/11/14/an-update-on-the-future-of-accounting-education/ The cost of the 150-hour rule: $2 billion https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/the-cost-of-the-150-hour-rule-2-billion Former Accounting Team of FTX US Auditor Armanino Sets Up Shop as The Network Firmhttps://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/03/01/former-accounting-team-of-ftx-us-auditor-armanino-sets-up-shop-as-the-network-firm/ Entigrity Honored with 'Dream Companies to Work For' and 'Best ...         https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/entigrity-honored-with-dream-companies-to-work-for-and-best-employer-brand-award-by-world-hrd-congress-301751496.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFuture Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/cap Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

IRS stuck on 1970's technology; Twitter poll says change back to 120 hours; Photos prove accounting thought leaders met; Intuit's 2023 Q2 ResultsSponsorsRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoClient Hub - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - China Tells State Firms to Drop Big Four (00:25) - Preview: "The IRS is broken" (01:09) - Blake and David recap the CPA Educators Conference (08:27) - Some quick listener feedback and Blake interviewed a guest earlier in the week (10:44) - China is telling firms to drop their Big 4 auditors (14:30) - Some updates from Intuit's latest earnings report (19:27) - Blake gives live Chat GPT demo on email responses (24:19) - Vanderbilt University is getting criticized for using Chat GPT to write sympathy email to Michigan State (25:42) - The IRS is using 60 year old technology and won't upgrade it (30:42) - Open Secrets article on Intuit's lobbying money (34:29) - Blake checks in on some live viewer chat (36:15) - The Big 4 and their purpose statements (39:11) - Interview with Jimmy Corley and the 150 hour rule (55:18) - Blake shares a poll from Twitter on 150 hour requirement (57:01) - Criticism on CPA Practice Advisors photo op and article on future of profession (59:22) - Join us next week and where to reach Blake and David Show NotesOpinion | Badly outdated technology plagues the IRS - The Washington Posthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/22/outdated-technology-irs/ China urges state firms to drop Big Four auditors on data risk | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/china-urges-state-firms-to-drop-big-four-auditors-on-data-risk Twitter Poll: Should 150 college credits be required or 120 to be a CPA?https://twitter.com/mikesyl36625988/status/1626946277127729155?s=12&t=ETTs0WOvobuoMmjCN8GztQWhat You Should Know About Changing the 150 Hour Rule Before You Debate For or Against Ithttps://www.goingconcern.com/150-hour-rule-changes-issues/ Accounting Thought Leaders Discuss Future of the Profession, Advisory Services, and Taxhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/02/21/accounting-thought-leaders-discuss-future-of-advisory-and-tax/76941/ Opinion | The IRS should not be running on 60-year-old technologyhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/22/outdated-technology-irs/ Intuit's (INTU) Q2 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimateshttps://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2058809/intuit-s-intu-q2-earnings-and-revenues-beat-estimates?cid=CS-ZC-FT-analyst_blog|earnings_article-2058809 China to shift away from Big Four accounting firms           https://asiatimes.com/2023/02/china-to-shift-away-from-big-four-accounting-firms/ Intuit Inc. (INTU) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript              https://seekingalpha.com/article/4581444-intuit-inc-intu-q2-2023-earnings-call-transcript Intuit Reports Strong Second Quarter Results and Reiterates Full Year Guidancehttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230223005037/en/Intuit-Reports-Strong-Second-Quarter-Results-and-Reiterates-Full-Year-Guidance How CPA Firms Are Engaging the Next Tax and Accounting Pros  https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/how-cpa-firms-are-engaging-the-next-tax-and-accounting-pros TurboTax parent company Intuit is pouring more money than ever into lobbying amid push for free government-run tax filing               https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/02/turbotax-parent-company-intuit-is-pouring-more-money-than-ever-into-lobbying-amid-push-for-free-government-run-tax-filing/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFuture Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Guest Randy Crabtree of The Unique CPA podcast; the UK has an accountant turnover crisis, too; should accountants unionize? Field service app Jobber raises $100 million and more! SponsorsSuiteFiles - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/suitefilesLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowAnchor - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/anchorNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - Thank you to our sponsor, SuiteFiles (00:26) - Preview: Why Saas businesses look horrible on paper (01:08) - Introduction and welcome Randy Crabtree to the show (03:04) - Some background on Randy and his firm (05:14) - NASBA votes on keeping the 150 hour requirement (08:56) - Will CPAs and audits even be necessary in the future? (11:48) - Did Randy have to get 150 hours? (15:54) - Accounting as an AP class and how to reach more high school students (21:59) - Thank you to our sponsor, SuiteFiles (23:25) - Checking in on the live chat (27:10) - Losing accountants isn't just a United States problem (29:47) - The University of Arizona partners with Deloitte for an accounting scholarship program (30:35) - Blakes plays a clip from Planet Money (35:08) - Thank you to our sponsor, LiveFlow (36:25) - Jobber raises $100 million and the SaaS business model (42:03) - Client Hub launches a free recategorized plan (43:35) - Google Calendar now fights calendar spam (45:23) - Thank you to our sponsor, Anchor (47:02) - CFO's vow to boost their tech influence in 2023 (47:48) - New Zealand company Hnry, raises $35 million in series B (49:03) - Chat CPA website (53:16) - Zapier blog post on best AI productivity tools (56:27) - Randy has to run, and another check on the chat (01:00:02) - Hinge Research put out a high growth study for 2023 (01:01:26) - Would accountants support a type of "union" for better working conditions? (01:06:49) - A few listener emails (01:11:58) - Wrap up and where to reach Blake and David (01:13:36) - Client Hub (01:14:12) - RightTool (01:14:35) - Future Firm Accelerate (01:15:22) - How to advertise in these classifieds Show NotesThe best AI productivity tools in 2023 | Zapier     https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-productivity-tools/ The Accountant Shortage Isn't Bad Enough For NASBA to Entertain Dropping the 150 Hour Requirement - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/nasba-150-hour-rule-accountant-shortage/ HF 1749 as introduced - 93rd Legislature (2023 - 2024)https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF1749&session=ls93&version=list&session_number=0&session_year=2023&keyword_type=all&keyword=Accountancy ChatCPA - Chat with an A.I. trained by a CPA        https://www.chatcpa.io/ Google adds a new way to block calendar spam. Here’s how to use ithttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/20/how-to-block-google-calendar-spam-with-a-new-feature-that-stops-it.html Client Hub Launches a Free Recategorize Plan - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/02/13/client-hub-launches-a-free-recategorize-plan/76782/ NASBA upholds 150-hour education requirement for CPA licensure - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2023/feb/nasba-upholds-150-hour-education-requirement-for-cpa-licensure.html CFOs Vow to Boost Tech Influence in 2023https://www.cfo.com/technology/2023/02/tech-spending-2023-finance-team/ LinkedIn poll: Should accountants unionize?https://www.linkedin.com/posts/blaketoliver_accountants-activity-7016853793652838402-2_cC?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios Self-employed bookkeeping platform Hnry books $35 million Series Bhttps://www.startupdaily.net/topic/funding/self-employed-bookkeeping-platform-hnry-books-35-million-series-b/ Jobber fixes on $100M as its platform for home services pros hits ...https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/07/jobber-fixes-on-100m-as-its-platform-for-home-services-pros-hits-200k-users/ Eller College scholarship aims to promote diversity in accountinghttps://azbigmedia.com/business/eller-college-scholarship-aims-to-promote-diversity-in-accounting/ KPMG becomes first Big Four accounting firm to cut staff in US: Reporthttps://www.indiatoday.in/business/story/kpmg-becomes-first-big-four-accounting-firm-to-cut-staff-in-us-2335430-2023-02-16 The Impact of AI on the Accounting Profession   https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/02/13/the-impact-of-ai-on-the-accounting-profession/76772/ Accounting: uncovering the hidden gem of the math departmenthttps://www.inklingsnews.com/opinions/2023/02/10/accounting-uncovering-the-hidden-gem-of-the-math-department/ Third of accountants consider changing jobs        https://www.accountancydaily.co/third-accountants-consider-changing-jobsGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFuture Firm Accelerate: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

We dissect the AICPA's plan; Short seller Hindenburg Research reports that Adani Group had 23 and 24 year-old auditors sign off on financials. WSJ asks: "How can we make accounting cool?"; Biden vows to veto GOP plan to abolish the IRS; CPA exam takers down 25% since 2018; IRS too busy to replace old computers, suspends projectSponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayFirst Republic Bank - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/firstrepublicNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - Thank you to our sponsor, OnPay (00:19) - Preview: (01:01) - Introduction and some of what we'll cover this episode (03:13) - NPR Marketplace interview with Adrienne Gonzalez and the struggle to find accountants (10:30) - AICPA's town hall (16:43) - Thank you to our sponsor, OnPay (18:01) - Checking in on our live chat (21:12) - Matt asks for ideas on how he should obtain his 150 hours (27:47) - Thank you to our sponsor, Relay (29:55) - Accounting Today article on CPA exam pass rates falling in 2022 (35:59) - GAO says IRS gave up on computer systems upgrade (39:49) - Thank you to our sponsor, First Republic Bank (40:35) - Republican bill to abolish the IRS (43:15) - Lets talk about Adani Group's auditors (46:20) - Tether releases latest attestation report (48:51) - Nikole's voicemail and the Accounting High bracket (51:32) - Company holds "funeral" for QuickBooks (53:35) - Blake reads some listeners comments and feeback (58:05) - Wrap up and the CAP is going ti Expensicon! (59:46) - Classifieds (59:48) - Client Hub (01:00:24) - RightTool (01:00:46) - Federal Tax Updates Podcast (01:01:59) - How to advertise in these classifieds Show NotesHow Can We Make Accounting Cool? - WSJ          https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-can-we-make-accounting-cool-11675973909 If You Let 23-Year-Olds Sign Off on Audits, You're Gonna Have a Bad Timehttps://www.goingconcern.com/adani-group-auditors/ Why there's a national shortage of accountants https://www.marketplace.org/2023/02/07/as-tax-season-approaches-accounting-firms-are-short-on-staff/ Biden Vows to Veto GOP Plan to Abolish the IRS https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/02/02/biden-vows-to-veto-gop-plan-to-abolish-the-irs/76458/ Controller - National Women's Soccer League (New York · NY)     https://www.teamworkonline.com/soccer-jobs/nwslsoccer/nwsl-league-office/controller-2034269 What’s New in FreshBooks – 2023             https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/product-updates-2023 Self-employed bookkeeping platform Hnry books $35 million Series Bhttps://www.startupdaily.net/topic/funding/self-employed-bookkeeping-platform-hnry-books-35-million-series-b/ McDonalds Presidents Says California FAST Act Will Kill Restaurantshttps://smallbiztrends.com/2023/01/mcdonalds-presidents-says-california-fast-act-will-hurt-small-business.html New York Requires Disclosure in Small Businesses Financinghttps://www.pymnts.com/news/regulation/2023/new-york-requires-disclosure-in-small-businesses-financing/ Almost 70K ‘questionable’ Social Security numbers used for $5.4B in pandemic-related loans: watchdog  https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3837329-almost-70k-questionable-social-security-numbers-used-for-5-4b-in-pandemic-related-loans-watchdog/ The 15 largest banks in the US    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-largest-banks-us-160040404.html Football, lifeguarding, college and accounting      https://hoganstand.com/article/index/326378 Password Managers – An Insightful Accountant Software Comparisonhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/vendor-news/password-managers-an-insightful-accountant-software-comparis/ IRS more likely to audit Black taxpayers https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-more-likely-to-audit-black-taxpayers Press Release- February 1, 2023: Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris Adopts Updated Regulation For Disclosure Requirements For Commercial Financinghttps://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releases/pr202302011 Crypto’s One-Time Favorite Bank Faces Federal Probe Into FTX Relationshiphttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2023/cryptos-one-time-favorite-bank-faces-federal-probe-into-ftx-relationship/ US Bank launches automated direct deposit switchinghttps://bankautomationnews.com/allposts/payments/us-bank-launches-automated-direct-deposit-switching/ Chase to Expand Small Business Banking Workforce by 20%          https://www.pymnts.com/digital-first-banking/2023/chase-to-expand-small-business-banking-workforce-by-20-pct/ How Can We Make Accounting Cool? - WSJ          https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-can-we-make-accounting-cool-11675973909 Passing or failing? Pass rates for CPA exam fell in 2022https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/passing-or-failing-pass-rates-for-cpa-exam-fell-in-2022 How inclusive is your accounting firm?   https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/how-inclusive-is-your-firm AICPA proposes extensive tax changes to Congresshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-proposes-extensive-tax-changes-to-congress Tether Releases Attestation Report Showing $960M Excess Reserveshttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2023/tether-releases-attestation-report-showing-960m-excess-reserves/ The Quickbooks And The Deadhttps://www.realclearmarkets.com/2023/02/09/the_quickbooks_and_the_dead_880636.html Tax Policy in Biden’s 2023 State of the Union Address      https://taxfoundation.org/biden-state-of-the-union-tax-proposals/ Watch for accidental fraud, forensic accounting expert says          https://www.cfodive.com/news/watch-accidental-fraud-author-says/642358/ Accounting Services: The Talent War       https://www.lanereport.com/162724/2023/02/accounting-services-the-talent-war/ Most accounting professionals want more mental health help: studyhttps://www.cfodive.com/news/most-accounting-professionals-want-more-mental-health-help-study/642315/ Finzly Launches API Giving Developers Access to FedNow Servicehttps://www.pymnts.com/news/faster-payments/2023/finzly-launches-api-giving-developers-access-to-fednow-service/ Growblocks Raises $6M to Help Businesses Forecast Revenueshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2023/growblocks-raises-6m-to-help-businesses-forecast-revenues/ Gusto lays off 5% of staff              https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/gusto-lays-off-5-of-staff Students learn all about accounting at High School Leaders Conference at UM-Dearbornhttps://www.pressandguide.com/2023/02/08/students-learn-all-about-accounting-at-high-school-leaders-conference-at-um-dearborn Don’t Let Clients Dictate Tax Workflow   https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/02/07/dont-let-clients-dictate-tax-workflow/ Center Your Firm Around Your Client       https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/02/03/center-your-firm-around-your-client/ How Marketing in Accounting Has Evolved           https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/02/03/how-marketing-in-accounting-has-evolved/ Jobber fixes on $100M as its platform for home services pros hits ...https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/07/jobber-fixes-on-100m-as-its-platform-for-home-services-pros-hits-200k-users/ Are SMBs invited to the business intelligence (BI) party? https://www.cio.com/article/453900/are-smbs-invited-to-the-business-intelligence-bi-party.html H&R Block went through 6 CEOs in a decade. Its latest chief exec is a marketing whiz with plans to claw back market share: ‘We were kind of that dusty place on the corner’https://fortune.com/2023/02/03/hr-block-ceo-taxes-growth-gig-workers-freelance-small-business/ IRS tells taxpayers in some states to wait to file taxes       https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-tells-taxpayers-in-states-like-california-to-wait-to-file-taxes There’s a surprising culprit behind mass layoffs, says a prominent management professor at Whartonhttps://fortune.com/2023/02/08/surprising-culprit-behind-mass-layoffs-says-management-professor-wharton/ Americanas' $4B Accounting Scandal Puts More Scrutiny on PwC's ...https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2023/02/08/706637.htm AICPA publishes audit risk guide https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-publishes-audit-risk-guide CoinTracker unveils real-time crypto tax advice from live expertshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cointracker-unveils-real-time-crypto-tax-advice-from-live-experts IRS dropped plans to modernize some of its outdated systemshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-dropped-plans-to-modernize-some-of-its-outdated-systems Accounting students provide volunteer income tax filing services to ...https://www.psu.edu/news/scranton/story/accounting-students-provide-volunteer-income-tax-filing-services-community/ Intuit study reveals Gen Z doesn't want to talk about financeshttps://www.atmmarketplace.com/news/intuit-study-reveals-gen-z-doesnt-want-to-talk-about-finances/ The past and future of accounting             https://www.accountingtoday.com/podcast/the-past-and-future-of-accounting Senators demand an accounting of how ServSafe fees are used  https://restaurantbusinessonline.com/operations/senators-demand-accounting-how-servsafe-fees-are-used Talent acquisition: AICPA chair hears student voices, shares strategieshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2023/feb/talent-acquisition-aicpa-chair-hears-student-voices-shares-strategies.html Inkle Raises $1.5M to Power Tax & Accounting for US Cross-border ...https://financialit.net/news/fundraising-news/inkle-raises-15m-power-tax-accounting-us-cross-border-companies Does ChatGPT have any of the answers for accounting?https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/technology/18115-does-chatgpt-have-any-of-the-answers-for-accounting OakNorth set to close Fluidly following 2021 acquisition https://www.altfi.com/article/10379_oaknorth-set-to-close-fluidly-following-2021-acquisition Lawyers wanted at the IRS           https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/lawyers-wanted-at-the-irs Fluidly to close its doors in April https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/fluidly-to-close-its-doors-in-april Simu Liu praised for giving advice on accounting, burnout and ... https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/simu-liu-twitter-advice-b2275858.html  Eller College scholarship aims to promote diversity in accountinghttps://azbigmedia.com/business/eller-college-scholarship-aims-to-promote-diversity-in-accounting/ iwocaPay Becomes the First Invoice Checkout Integration with Buy Now, Pay Later Option for Businesses that Integrate with QuickBooks           https://financialit.net/news/e-invoicing/iwocapay-becomes-first-invoice-checkout-integration-buy-now-pay-later-option Tax And Accounting SaaS Startup Inkle Raises $1.5 Million              https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/tax-and-accounting-saas-startup-inkle-raises-dollar15-million/ar-AA179Y50 AICPA Town Hall: AICPA’s 8-point human capital pipeline plan      https://townhall.libsyn.com/ath/aicpas-8-point-human-capital-pipeline-plan US Bank launches automated payroll deposit feature for new accountshttps://www.fintechfutures.com/2023/02/us-bank-launches-automated-payroll-deposit-feature-for-new-accounts/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFederal Tax Updates podcast - https://federaltaxupdates.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Guest: Intuit Accountants leader Ted Callahan; The latest on QuickBooks Connect 2023; How to defend against ChatGPT stealing your job; Crypto lender Celsius used QuickBooks, too!SponsorsRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowClient Hub- https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - Thank you to our sponsor, Relay (00:26) - Intuit's "Prosperity Ladder" (01:04) - Introduction: Welcome Ted Callahan to the show (02:23) - Earmark launched "Crypto With Accountants" (03:35) - What is Ted's job title and what does he do day to day at Intuit (07:33) - What will Chat GPT and AI change in the accounting industry (09:28) - Will some of Intuit's own internal technology be available for customers to use? (12:08) - Thank you to our sponsor, Relay (13:19) - The Intuit message has changed re: taxes (18:44) - How do you respond to people who say Intuit is now an accountants competitor? (22:53) - Are intuit accounting employees part time? Full time? Get benefits? (26:45) - Thank you to our sponsor, LiveFlow (28:02) - Expanding more on Intuit's accounting employees (33:53) - What should a young owner of a small accounting firm focus on? Where is the opportunity? (38:06) - Let's talk a little about pricing (41:38) - Blake checks in on the live chat (44:40) - Thank you to our sponsor, 3 (46:03) - Some thought on QuickBooks Connect 2022 and plans for QB Connect 2023 (50:17) - FTX and Celsius were on QuickBooks... should they have been? (55:33) - ChatGPT article in Medium using accountants as examples (01:04:25) - David reads a job posting and wrap up (01:07:22) - Client Hub (01:07:59) - RightTool (01:08:21) - Federal Tax Updates Podcast (01:09:35) - How to advertise in these classifieds Show NotesCelsius Was Using QuickBooks for Its Accounting—Just Like FTX – Decrypthttps://decrypt.co/120284/celsius-quickbooks-accounting-ftxCelsius tosses scraps to victims, Alex Mashinsky thought himself infalliblehttps://coingeek.com/celsius-tosses-scraps-to-victims-alex-mashinsky-thought-himself-infallible/ Celsius Network: Final report from the examiner — lies, incompetence and Ponzi schemeshttps://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2023/02/01/celsius-network-final-report-from-the-examiner-lies-incompetence-and-ponzi-schemes/ Intuit Supercharges Virtual Expert Platform with AI Enhancements to Streamline Expert-Assisted Tax Filinghttps://aithority.com/machine-learning/intuit-supercharges-virtual-expert-platform-with-ai-enhancements-to-streamline-expert-assisted-tax-filing/ Will ChatGPT replace you?           https://medium.com/@theo.seeds/will-chatgpt-replace-you-36b05cebe160 AI is not a threat to the accounting profession: as written by an AIhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/ai-is-not-a-threat-to-the-accounting-profession-as-written-by-an-ai Will ChatGPT replace you?. How to tell if you’re gonna lose your… | by Theo Seeds | Jan, 2023      https://medium.com/@theo.seeds/will-chatgpt-replace-you-36b05cebe160 QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping Pricing - Quickbooks           https://quickbooks.intuit.com/live/pricing/ QuickBooks Connect FAQhttps://quickbooksconnect.com/faq/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFederal Tax Updates podcast - https://federaltaxupdates.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Recession needed to increase accounting grads; Amber Setter on improving the CPA pipeline; 2023 tax season officially starts; tech layoffs hit accounting techSponsorsKeeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowAnchor - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/anchorNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - Thank you to our sponsor, Keeper (00:20) - Preview : Accountants are prestressed for busy season (00:56) - Blake is in Tucson; Welcome Amber to the show (04:29) - Who is your ideal customer for coaching? (06:42) - Remote workers save an average of 72 minutes per day (14:49) - Thank you to our sponsor, Keeper (16:22) - YouTube Live comment from Sam on working from home (18:07) - WSJ says the job market for remote workers is shrinking — but the demand is still high (19:37) - Will tech layoffs lead college students to accounting? (22:17) - Is it realistic for someone in tech to transition into accounting? (25:43) - Thank you to our sponsor, LiveFlow (27:03) - George Santos was involved in an alleged $17 million Ponzi scheme in Florida (29:46) - Moody's is working on a scoring system for stable coins (31:09) - Wash sales represent up to 77% of trades on unregulated crypto exchanges (32:56) - The IRS released guidance on crypto check mark on 1040s (33:56) - Are accountants more optimistic for the 2023 tax season (37:53) - Thank you to our sponsor, Anchor (39:42) - The IRS has opened an online portal where businesses can file 1099s (42:08) - A few QuickBooks updates (43:45) - AccountingWED article summarizing all the accounting tech layoffs (46:42) - ChatGPT updates (48:41) - Rocket Lawyer has launched Rocket Tax (53:15) - Listener mail from Greg on his firm actually looking for more clients (58:39) - Message from Jared about Right Tool (01:01:33) - Wrap up, where to reach Amber, and one new review (01:04:17) - Client Hub (01:04:54) - RightTool (01:05:16) - Federal Tax Updates Podcast (01:06:30) - How to advertise in these classifieds Show NotesNew Xero data sees US small business sales slow as consumer spending tightenshttps://www.xero.com/us/media-releases/xero-small-business-insights-usa-january-2023/ KPMG Vice Chair Hopes All the Tech Layoffs Will Scare College Kids Into Accountinghttps://www.goingconcern.com/kpmg-vice-chair-hopes-all-the-tech-layoffs-will-scare-college-kids-into-accounting/ TurboTax Tax Trends Report    https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/life/turbotax-tax-trends-report-tax-year-2021-53767/ The Argument for Accounting   https://merrimacknewspaper.com/the-argument-for-accounting/ Accounting Software Maker IRIS Sees 30% Growthhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/01/24/accounting-software-maker-iris-sees-30-growth/76127/ IRS clarifies crypto question on tax formhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-clarifies-crypto-question-on-tax-form This forensic accounting startup in Seattle is helping lawyers solve ...      https://www.geekwire.com/2023/this-forensic-accounting-startup-in-seattle-is-helping-lawyers-solve-fraud-investigations/ Bookkeeper Job Description      https://www.executivepastoronline.com/bookkeeper-job-description/ The Largest Accounting Firm in Kentucky Thinks a Tower Will Win the Talent Warhttps://www.goingconcern.com/the-largest-accounting-firm-in-kentucky-thinks-a-tower-will-win-the-talent-war/ Important Changes to QuickBooks Related 1099 Filing and Billing for 2023https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/general-ledger/important-changes-to-quickbooks-related-1099-filing-and-bill/ Over 2 in 3 small business owners already feel burnt out in first week of 2023 Intuit QuickBooks research shows  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/over-2-3-small-business-090000132.html IRS opens 2023 tax filing seasonhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-opens-2023-tax-filing-season Small businesses lament Sage's monthly subscription changes amid rising costs   https://www.itpro.co.uk/software/369796/small-businesses-lament-sages-monthly-subscription-changes-amid-rising-costs Rocket Lawyer Launches Tax Prep Tool for Small Business Ownershttps://smallbiztrends.com/2023/01/rocket-tax-software-for-small-business.html State Corporate Income Tax Rates and Brackets for 2023 https://taxfoundation.org/state-corporate-income-tax-rates-brackets-2023/ 3.4m still need to file tax return https://www.accountancydaily.co/34m-still-need-file-tax-return Melio Launches Integration To Sync Payments Data with Xero   https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/melio-launches-integration-to-sync-payments-data-with-xero-301728971.html Firms Hope to Win With Receipt Data Solutions but Implementation Issues Aboundhttps://www.pymnts.com/innovation/2023/firms-hope-to-win-with-receipt-data-solutions-but-implementation-issues-abound/ Moody’s Developing Scoring System for Stablecoins Based on Attestationshttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2023/moodys-developing-scoring-system-for-stablecoins-based-on-attestations/ The Decline of Voicemail         https://ritakeller.com/blog/2023/01/the-decline-of-voicemail.html Remote work saves 72 minutes a day     https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/average-time-saved-by-remote-workers-72-minutes-per-day?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter TurboTax Tax Trends Report - The TurboTax Blog        https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/life/turbotax-tax-trends-report-tax-year-2021-53767/ The CPA pipeline includes the present   https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/the-cpa-pipeline-includes-the-present Connect with Amber SetterWebsite: http://conscious.cpaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambersetter/Twitter: https://twitter.com/intentionsetter?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConsciousPublicAccountants/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amber_setter_coaching/?hl=enGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFederal Tax Updates podcast - https://federaltaxupdates.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Meet Our Guest, Lea BriscoeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lea-briscoe-0765418/Learn more about Purple Wavehttps://www.purplewave.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsKeeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayFirst Republic Bank - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/firstrepublicNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - Thank you to our sponsor, Keeper (00:20) - Preview: Will AI replace accountants in audits (01:04) - Introduction and quick recap of Blake's week in Park City (03:43) - Earmark has launched a new Federal Tax Updates podcast (07:15) - Source says Square is launching their own GL (10:46) - Some final takeaways from skiing trip (13:18) - Thank you to our sponsor, Keeper (14:55) - Article about a high school student who wants to become an accountant (17:56) - IRS audit rates declined further in 2022 (19:10) - The Tax Foundation made a graphic on the IRS backlog (21:54) - Accountants need to narrow their scope in 2023 (23:13) - Canadian accounting firm sues employee for overbilling on timesheets (28:46) - Thank you to our sponsor, Relay (30:04) - "Office Space" inspired sofrware engineering scam (32:40) - Are mid-career CPAs happy in your firm? (36:25) - David's first reaction to Chat GPT (41:28) - Thank you to our sponsor, First Republic Bank (42:31) - Blake uses Chat GPT live to demonstrate what it can do (47:33) - Chad Davis uses Chat GPT to write fake CAP episode intro (49:46) - Somebody used Chat GPT to try to pass a chartered accountant exam in England (54:45) - Paula's message and idea about a national CPA license (58:38) - Tori's email on how a radical step is needed to change the AICPA (59:53) - Deanna asks for best apps to import journal entries into QBO Advanced (01:01:47) - Accounting firms might want to look into hiring some of these laid off tech employees (01:02:26) - Checking in on the live chat discussion on ChatGPT (01:04:09) - Wrap up and reminder to subscribe to our YouTube channel (01:07:29) - Classifieds (01:07:31) - Client Hub (01:08:08) - RightTool (01:08:30) - Federal Tax Updates Podcast (01:09:44) - How to advertise in these classifieds Show NotesGeorge Clooney to be Headline Speaker at ExpensiCon 2023 - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/01/18/george-clooney-to-be-headline-speaker-at-expensicon-2023/75905/ AI chatbot falls just short on accounting exam | AccountingWEBhttps://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/tech-pulse/ai-chatbot-falls-just-short-on-accounting-exam IRS audit rates declined further in 2022 | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-audit-rates-declined-further-in-2022 Are midcareer CPAs happy in your firm? | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/are-mid-career-cpas-happy-in-your-firm 2023 Tax Filing Season: Tax Season Delays & Complexity | Tax Foundationhttps://taxfoundation.org/2023-tax-filing-season/ Canadian accountant is ordered to repay employer for 'time theft' : NPRhttps://www.npr.org/2023/01/13/1148985075/time-tracking-software-canadian-woman-reach-cpa-court 'Office Space' Inspired Software Engineer's Scam, Prosecutors Say - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/01/06/office-space-inspired-software-engineers-theft-scheme-prosecutors-say/75515/?_ga=2.116447811.479438550.1673332096-1770167994.1673332096 3 Game-Changing Accounting Trends to Look Out for in 2023 https://www.spiceworks.com/finance/accounting/guest-article/3-game-changing-accounting-trends-to-look-out-for/ Facing Busy Season ’23: 99% of Accountants Suffer Burnouthttps://cpatrendlines.com/2023/01/12/facing-busy-season-23-99-of-accountants-suffer-burnout/ Basecamp details 'obscene' $3.2 million bill that caused it to quit the cloudhttps://www.theregister.com/2023/01/16/basecamp_37signals_cloud_bill/ Accountant must repay employer after software shows ‘time theft’https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/practice-software/accountant-must-repay-employer-after-software-shows-time-theft George Clooney to Headline Expensicon 2023      https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/education-hub/training-center/george-clooney-to-headline-expensicon-2023/ U.S. accounting watchdog faces lawsuit over its 'secretive ...        https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-accounting-watchdog-faces-lawsuit-over-its-secretive-disciplinary-process-2023-01-20/ TaxBit Announces Acquisition of Digital Asset Accounting Startup ...https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/taxbit-announces-acquisition-of-digital-asset-accounting-startup-tactic-301723033.html The IRS names the top tax crooks of 2022https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/the-irs-names-the-top-tax-crooks-of-2022 5 ideas to watch out for in accounting in 2023https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/5-ideas-to-watch-out-for-in-accounting-in-2023 CryptoCFOs Launch App to Access Crypto Tax & Accounting Communityhttps://www.einnews.com/pr_news/611880610/cryptocfos-launch-app-to-access-crypto-tax-accounting-community TurboTax, QuickBooks owner slammed after MailChimp data breachhttps://nypost.com/2023/01/17/turbotax-quickbooks-owner-slammed-for-mailchimp-data-breach/ What Small Business Owners Should Look For in a Bankhttps://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/banks/what-small-business-owners-should-look-for-in-a-bank/ Former President of FTX US breaks silence, says SBF was insecure, volatile and spiteful, threatened to “destroy my professional reputation”         https://www.kitco.com/news/2023-01-16/Former-President-of-FTX-US-breaks-silence-says-SBF-was-insecure-volatile-and-spiteful-threatened-to-destroy-my-professional-reputation.html Ally looks to tech industry layoffs for potential hireshttps://bankautomationnews.com/allposts/retail/ally-looks-to-tech-industry-layoffs-for-potential-hires/ Bean aims to change accounting industry's 'stodgy' reputationhttps://www.bizjournals.com/cleveland/inno/stories/fundings/2023/01/20/bean-aims-to-change-accountings-stodgy-reputation.html Just How Common Is Corporate Fraud?https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/14/business/dealbook/how-common-is-corporate-fraud.html How CPA firms can get focused in the next 30 dayshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/how-cpa-firms-can-get-focused-in-the-next-30-days MDU Resources Teen of the Week: Glen Ullin volleyball player is set ...https://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/teen-of-the-week/mdu-resources-teen-of-the-week-glen-ullin-volleyball-player-is-set-on-accounting-career/article_5ded06f2-8ba0-11ed-b69a-8b4bd5905da8.html Sage Affiliate Program   https://www.craigcampbellseo.com/sage-affiliate-program/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFederal Tax Updates podcast - https://federaltaxupdates.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Meet Our Guests:Bonnie ForssellLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnie-l-forssell-3534535a/Jennifer HerbertLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-herbert-a87919a5/Learn more about Vitamin Angelshttps://www.vitaminangels.org/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowAnchor - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/anchorNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe (00:00) - Thank you to our sponsor, Zoho (00:27) - Preview: We need to make accountants aware of accounting career paths with real work life balance (01:11) - Introduction and quick overview of Blake's week and FAA meltdown (11:22) - What logic did the firm give David for letting him go? (21:15) - Thank you to our sponsor, Zoho (22:40) - Not enough firms are offering remote work (25:38) - Accountants don't need help getting clients (27:56) - Blake shares a story about his friend switching firms (29:44) - Blake shares a chart from CPA Trendlines (33:35) - What is the starting salary for a CPA at a medium to large firm? (37:16) - Thank you to our sponsor, LiveFlow (38:25) - Quick follow up on the story of a recent accounting graduate choosing the military over a Big 4 firm (40:06) - What is Profit First? And what do you do? (46:20) - Parkinson's Law (49:53) - Thank you to our sponsor, Anchor (52:39) - Jennifer's voicemail about her networking event for students (56:19) - Going over some comments in our live chat (01:02:47) - Linda's message about Illinois lowering the CPA hours requirement from 150 to 120 hours to sit for the exam (01:06:26) - Bernard's feedback on the Ron Baker episode (01:10:25) - David makes a new 2023 prediciton (01:11:08) - Rusty's message about North Carolina's CPA license requirements (01:13:54) - Wrap up and where to reach Blake and David (01:15:14) - Classifieds (01:15:16) - Client Hub (01:15:53) - RightTool (01:16:15) - Federal Tax Updates Podcast (01:17:27) - How to advertise in these classifieds LinksMore remote workers than workhttps://www.linkedin.com/news/story/more-remote-workers-than-work-5073937/http://btaxgo.com/ufadlli            SEC Charges Genesis and Gemini Following Crypto Collapse Contagion https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2023/sec-charges-genesis-and-gemini-following-crypto-collapse-contagion/IRS Provides Tax Relief for California Storm Victims   https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-news/irs-provides-tax-relief-for-california-storm-victims-53808/AICPA Unveils Plans for Redesigned CPA Exam in 2024 ...https://insidepublicaccounting.com/2023/01/aicpa-unveils-plans-for-redesigned-cpa-exam-in-2024/2023: The Year of Crypto Compliance      https://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/2023-crypto-predictions/Quickbooks missed a golden opportunity to market itself with the FTX sagahttps://medium.com/coinmonks/quickbooks-missed-a-golden-opportunity-to-market-itself-with-the-ftx-saga-d381c373af05?source=rss----721b17443fd5---4The Financial Future: The Impact of AI on Finance and Accountinghttps://medium.com/@businessbreakthrough/the-financial-future-the-impact-of-ai-on-finance-and-accounting-d8d350edcb1dMost companies pay $11 or more per expense reporthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/most-companies-pay-11-or-more-per-processed-expense-reportTerry Smith fires darts at Meta, Apple, Unilever and accounting ...https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/1002893/terry-smith-fires-darts-at-meta-apple-unilever-and-accounting-practices-after-fundsmith-underperforms-1002893.htmlIntuit Plans To Launch Crypto-Related Software’shttps://thecryptobasic.com/2023/01/10/intuit-plans-to-launch-crypto-related-softwares/IRS audit rates declined further in 2022https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-audit-rates-declined-further-in-2022Addressing the accounting hiring crisis  https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/addressing-the-accounting-hiring-crisisIRS Cultivating Ties With Crypto Companies to Combat Fraud https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2023/irs-cultivating-ties-with-crypto-companies-to-combat-fraud/Sam Bankman-Fried Tweets From Parent’s Basement, Denies Moving Funds From Alameda Researchhttps://beincrypto.com/sam-bankman-fried-tweets-parents-basement-denies-moving-funds-alameda-research/Chewy CFO Seeks Labor Cost Savings via Automated Fulfillmenthttps://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2023/chewy-cfo-seeks-labor-cost-savings-via-automated-fulfillment/AICPA Says It Was Not Hacked, Refutes Reporthttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/01/12/aicpa-says-report-about/75816/Attackers steal AICPA emails passwords https://cybernews.com/news/attackers-steal-aicpa-emails-passwords/Connect with Ron SaharyanWebsite: https://profitfirstprofessionals.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-saharyan-3846a8/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ronsaharyanGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/RightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appFederal Tax Updates podcast - https://federaltaxupdates.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Meet Our Guest:Matthew Woodcockhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-woodcock-230a1210/Learn more about Sprague Pest SolutionsWebsite: https://www.spraguepest.com/ Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040 Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowPatriot Software - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/patriotNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes16:03 – Zero100 Supply Chain Predictions For 2023https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinomarah/2022/12/29/zero100-supply-chain-predictions-for-2023/ 19:45 – 200262 top 10 fintech predictions for 2023https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2022/12/200262-top-10-fintech-predictions-for-2023/ 36:50 – AccountingWEB quotes of the year 2022https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/hmrc-policy/accountingweb-quotes-of-the-year-2022Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

Meet Our Guest:Cameka SmithLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camekasmith/ Learn more about The Boss NetworkWebsite: https://www.thebossnetwork.org/ Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040 Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd   Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guests: Aaron Harris, Global CTO at SageWebsite: https://www.sageintacct.com/leadership/aaron-harrisLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-harris-7407b2/ Walid Abu-Hadba, Chief Product and Development Officer at SageLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/walida/ Steve HareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-hare/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/stevehare Learn more about SageWebsite: https://www.sage.com/en-us/Website: https://www.sageintacct.com/ Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040 Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes7:30 – Larry Lonero - What happened to Southwest Airlines?https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0yKYoWfoFnjNZcCBP4fz1M6nSEiaW2CqKE2E5ZGCWEHRqPretS3LVvWfqsZMkjvwml&id=1315600950&mibextid=qC1gEa 17:00 – Why So Many Accountants Are Quittinghttps://www.wsj.com/articles/why-so-many-accountants-are-quitting-11672236016 25:00 – What's the Lowest Pay US Workers Would Accept for a New Job? Almost $74,000 – Bloomberghttps://trib.al/P7ACxdI 30:00 – FW: Promoting and Growing the CPA Profession TogetherGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

SponsorsLiveFlow - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe Show NotesBuy Ron's book, "Time's Up!: The Subscription Business Model for Professional Firms": https://a.co/d/afwLczp14:27 – FTX US auditor Armanino defends work for failed crypto exchangehttps://www.ft.com/content/42087255-92ad-45b7-b5ad-3b8457e0c1f8Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoLiscio - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioCanopy - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes14:24 – Accountant that vetted Binance's reserves halts all crypto work | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/accountant-that-vetted-binances-reserves-halts-all-crypto-work 15:00 – Auditor Mazars Pauses All Work For Binance, Other Crypto Clientshttps://www.investopedia.com/mazars-suspends-crypto-clients-6931106 Binance says the accounting firm it used to verify its reserves has paused all work for crypto clientshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/binance-says-accounting-firm-pauses-work-for-its-crypto-clients-11671200654 Binance Shows 'Proof' It Has All Your Bitcoin — Critics Aren't Sold – Blockworkshttps://blockworks.co/news/binance-shows-proof-it-has-all-your-bitcoin-critics-arent-sold Twitter: What’s going on with Binance?https://twitter.com/grdecter/status/1603786519445135360?s=12&t=sLzsirYQevPrZ7y6qVSYBw 21:30 – Tether has increasingly been lending its own coins, adding risks to the stablecoin that is an important cog in the crypto systemhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/rising-tether-loans-add-risk-to-stablecoin-crypto-world-11669875590 36:39 – Intuit announces enhancements to tax productshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-tax-advisor-boosted-with-bevy-of-new-features 40:50 – Wayne Chang on LinkedIn: What an *incredible* last 5 years!https://www.linkedin.com/posts/waynechang_what-an-incredible-last-5-years-activity-7008861925388275712-330c?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios 42:53 – Xero establishes a technology base in India | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2022/11/xero-establishes-technology-base-in-india/ 45:27 – U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase are creating a plan to refund victims of scams on the Zelle payment networkhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/jpmorgan-other-banks-in-talks-to-reimburse-scammed-zelle-customers-11669608886 45:55 – Build connections in Microsoft Teams with Games for Work, a new Microsoft Teams app| Microsoft 365 Bloghttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2022/11/16/build-connections-with-games-for-work-a-new-microsoft-teams-app/ 50:53 – Voicemail from Kate Johnson, re: education – Thank you! 54:56 – Crypto.com proof of reserve agreed upon procedureshttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGrbRZxbsrFFpflZqfdGLCtwTTl 56:20 – Luke Templin purchased FinDaily.io from Jason StaatsGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayCanopy - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyFreshBooks - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeWatch More Highlights from QuickBooks Connect 2022 here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLumDOwSc4oNqbL8OmegkyuFiyIK8KgerZShow Notes6:11 – Blake Oliver on Twitter: "3 things I learned at #qbconnecthttps://twitter.com/BlakeTOliver/status/1601675538656919552 20:10 – Intuit QuickBooks' Latest Innovations to Help Support and Drive Business Successhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/vendor-news/intuit-quickbooks-latest-innovations-to-help-support-and-dri/ 22:27 – Intuit rolls out new features for QuickBooks Online Accountanthttps://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFjY291bnRpbmd0b2RheS5jb20vbmV3cy9pbnR1aXQtcm9sbHMtb3V0LW5ldy1mZWF0dXJlcy1mb3ItcXVpY2tib29rcy1vbmxpbmUtYWNjb3VudGFudNIBAA?oc=5 36:00 – 3000+ Accounting Pros Attend Live QB Connect Conference in Vegas: Intuit Announces Big New Featureshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2022/12/08/intuit-announces-new-tech-at-qbc-conference/74149/ 52:55 – Congressional report: Scottsdale startup facilitated ‘massive’ amounts of pandemic-related fraudhttps://www.azfamily.com/2022/12/02/congressional-report-scottsdale-startup-facilitated-massive-amounts-pandemic-related-fraud/ 58:01 – Uplinq Raises $5.6M in Seed Fundinghttps://www.finsmes.com/2022/12/uplinq-raises-5-6m-in-seed-funding.html 1:03:18 – AICPA offers $1M in scholarships for 2023https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiTWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFjY291bnRpbmd0b2RheS5jb20vbmV3cy9haWNwYS1vZmZlcnMtMW0taW4tc2Nob2xhcnNoaXBzLWZvci0yMDIz0gEA?oc=5 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCanopy - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayLiscio - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes3:45 – Employers Rethink Need for College Degrees in Tight Labor Markethttps://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-rethink-need-for-college-degrees-in-tight-labor-market-11669432133 8:23 – Building a Stronger Pipeline: Stacking Pre-CPA Accounting Licenses on the Way to CPAhttps://www.cpajournal.com/2022/11/23/building-a-stronger-pipeline/ 31:30 – Decimal acquires KPMG Spark | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/decimal-acquires-kpmg-spark Accounting FinTech Decimal Buys Bookkeeping Service KPMG Sparkhttps://www.pymnts.com/back-office/2022/accounting-fintech-decimal-buys-bookkeeping-service-kpmg-spark/ KPMG Sells Its Spark Business to Accounting Fintech Decimalhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2022/11/30/kpmg-sells-its-spark-business-to-accounting-fintech-decimal/73901/ 38:00 – Deloitte Walking Dead Adhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/z0xtx9/deloitte_walking_dead_ad/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf 41:50 – The Best Tax System on Earthhttps://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2022/11/29/the-best-tax-system-on-earth/ 45:46 – Comey and McCabe weren't targeted for tax audits, TIGTA finds | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/comey-and-mccabe-werent-targeted-for-tax-audits-tigta-finds 46:48 – Intuit Inc. (INTU) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcripthttps://seekingalpha.com/article/4561259-intuit-inc-intu-q1-2023-earnings-call-transcript Intuit Reports Strong First Quarter Results and Reiterates Full Year Operating Income and Earnings Per Share Guidancehttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221129005009/en/Intuit-Reports-Strong-First-Quarter-Results-and-Reiterates-Full-Year-Operating-Income-and-Earnings-Per-Share-Guidance/?feedref=JjAwJuNHiystnCoBq_hl-Q-tiwWZwkcswR1UZtV7eGe24xL9TZOyQUMS3J72mJlQ7fxFuNFTHSunhvli30RlBNXya2izy9YOgHlBiZQk2LOzmn6JePCpHPCiYGaEx4DL1Rq8pNwkf3AarimpDzQGuQ== 50:21 – AuditClub addresses CPA talent shortage with the launch of the AuditClub academy | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/auditclub-addresses-cpa-talent-shortage-with-the-launch-of-the-auditclub-academy 53:41 – Intuit to Acquire Financial Health Startup SeedFihttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221201005348/en/Intuit-to-Acquire-Financial-Health-Startup-SeedFi/?feedref=JjAwJuNHiystnCoBq_hl-SP7CEH_PxTjduXJ0SDrbU6qcp-o_pnudlUwsb5apQ1S4gUE65BTfjH3-pSuqdv0gW3cb3F4oTIgUqCPafFkgu67Ap_pA_yJ1XPgPy1DuJnYGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsJirav - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/jiravZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes6:35 – SURVEY: Tax Software Favorite Keeps Crown - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2022/11/22/survey-tax-software-favorite-keeps-crown/ 18:05 – Top Trends ’23: Look Who’s Making Money Nowhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2022/11/18/outlook-2023-look-whos-making-money-now/ 34:05 – Editing active serviceshttps://support.ignitionapp.com/en/articles/6713627-editing-agreed-services 38:45 – Texas startup has laid off most employees after failing to secure more fundinghttps://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-woke-bank-glorifi-to-shut-down-11669051554 51:30 – Ramp on Twitter: "NEW for Accountants & Bookkeepers: Ramp’s Advisor Console.https://twitter.com/tryramp/status/1592899081495613440?s=20&t=Eg_35_92Q13VVNjzgFcLWQ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest, Shana VealeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shana-veale-cpa-822b2aa/Learn more about PharmChem, Inc.Website: http://www.pharmchek.comThe PharmChek® Sweat Patch (or Drug Patch) by PharmChem, Inc. is worn on the skin for up to 10 days or longer and uses sweat as the specimen source. PharmChek® not only acts as a deterrent to continued drug use, but also offers the following advantages:- Increased window of detection- Can be used as both a reward or a sanction- Detects parent drug and drug metabolite- Variable removal date- Quick application & removal- No urine collections- No undetected substitution, dilution, or adulteration- Gender indifferent Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRelay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayLiscio - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioCanopy - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeRegister to attend the Cloud Accounting Podcast Party during QuickBooks Connect 2022 in Las Vegas: https://cloudacctpod.link/partyShow NotesRegister to attend the Cloud Accounting Podcast Party during QuickBooks Connect 2022 in Las Vegas: https://cloudacctpod.link/party 9:16 – FTX’s Balance Sheet Was Badhttps://archive.ph/2022.11.16-034331/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-14/ftx-s-balance-sheet-was-bad?leadSource=uverify%20wall 13:00 – Twitter: How bad were FTX’s internal controls?https://twitter.com/grdecter/status/1593272102047580161?s=12&t=Ar7b4TGm8sY-JyEkPV85DQ 23:00 – Meet the Metaverse Nightclub–Loving Audit Firm That Presided Over FTX’s Financialshttps://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/11/meet-the-metaverse-night-clubloving-audit-firm-that-presided-over-ftxs-financials/ 35:29 – Imagine McDonald’s makes its own moneyhttps://twitter.com/lynaldencontact/status/1590063257158811648?s=12&t=KR_1sPxxABmrNI70Y8SoGgGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest, Connor WrayLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connorwray/Learn more about JonnyPopsWebsite: https://www.jonnypops.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest:Michael CardLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcardcertus/Learn more about Crumbl CookiesWebsite: https://crumblcookies.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayFreshBooks - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksLiscio - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeRSVP for the Cloud Accounting Podcast Party!DECEMBER 7TH7 PM to 9 PMChandelier Lounge Cosmopolitan Hotel Las Vegashttps://cloudacctpod.link/partyShow NotesRSVP for the Cloud Accounting Podcast PartyDECEMBER 7TH7 PM to 9 PMChandelier Lounge Cosmopolitan Hotel Las Vegashttps://cloudacctpod.link/party 1:55 – r/Accounting - Happy International Accounting Dayhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/yrj5ev/happy_international_accounting_day/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf 6:37 – FTX founder blames crypto meltdown on ‘poor labeling’ of bank accountshttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/10/bitcoin-plunge-80pc-jp-morgan-warns-crypto-cascade/ 18:00 – SURVEY: Workflow Is a Problem. So Why Aren't Firms Buying Solutions? - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2022/11/08/survey-workflow-is-a-problem-but-firms-arent-buying-solutions/ 24:49 – Caleb L. Jenkins, EA, CQP on LinkedIn: TurboTax Live Business Full Service | TurboTax FS Businesshttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/calebjenkins1994_turbotax-live-business-full-service-turbotax-activity-6995591412155129857-HNhh?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios 47:31 – Kanye’s Former Accountant Sues For $4.5M in Unpaid Feeshttps://www.billboard.com/pro/kanyes-former-accountant-sues-unpaid-fees/ 50:05 – Xero Shares Hit Lowest Level Since March 2020 After CEO Announces Retirementhttp://www.wsj.com/articles/xero-shares-hit-lowest-level-since-march-2020-after-ceo-announces-retirement-151668040514Connect with Joe WoodardLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quickbooksadvisor/Twitter: https://twitter.com/joewoodardWebsite: http://woodard.comRegister for Scaling New Heights 2023: https://www.woodard.com/2023-scaling-new-heightsGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Onilne - https://righttool.appuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guests:Patrick White,  Co-founder and CEO of BitwaveLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patwhite/Twitter: https://twitter.com/patwhiteRafael Casas, Vice President of Business Development at BitwaveLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafaelcasas/Twitter: https://twitter.com/RafaelCasasBWLearn more about Bitwavehttps://www.bitwave.io/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsFreshBooks - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksLiscio - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioCanopy - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes28:33 – Accountants and auditors in Iowa no longer need a four-year degreehttps://www.3newsnow.com/news/local-news/accountants-and-auditors-in-iowa-no-longer-need-a-four-year-degree 17:42 – The CPA pipeline and changes to the exam — AICPA Town Hall — Overcasthttps://overcast.fm/+oCOxvU3PM/41:20Join the Focused Firm email list: https://go.earmarkcpe.com/the-focused-firmGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Onilne - https://righttool.appuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest, Jason Sheehan CPA, Director of Finance, Griid LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sheehan-cpa/Learn more about GriidWebsite: https://www.griid.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request: [email protected]

SponsorsCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyZoho: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoLiscio: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes14:30 – Matt Foreman on Twitter: "Say you don’t know how “ordinary and necessary” is defined by tax law without saying you don’t know how “ordinary and necessary” is defined by tax law.https://twitter.com/ForemanTaxLaw/status/1583131258514997255?s=20&t=15n3x7F2ZI0zGb12LXLuSg 29:46 – Matt Foreman on Twitter: "Tell me you’re taking incredibly aggressive tax positions that won’t withstand audit without saying you’re taking incredibly aggressive tax positions that won’t withstand audit. I’m looking at you @sweatystartuphttps://twitter.com/ForemanTaxLaw/status/1585230135086747648?s=20&t=15n3x7F2ZI0zGb12LXLuSg 49:12 – How the FedNow(SM) Service will workhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le8Me8AfK8k Federal Reserve Gov. Waller speaking at Money 20/20 on FedNow. He tells industry to start investing in the build now to be ready to go in 6-8 months at launch, to help ensure full adoption. pic.twitter.com/iVuRmYfFDW— Nick Catino (@CatinoNick) October 25, 2022 https://twitter.com/CatinoNick/status/1584965995084779520 #Money2020USA attendees: Stop by our booth (3022) and the Federal Reserve's Suite at the conference to engage with #Fed representatives and learn more about our progress in #payments modernization! More info: https://t.co/2blzbYCrjP #FedNow #paymentsindustry #fintech pic.twitter.com/l3UHm4OTim— FRB Services (@FRBservices) October 25, 2022 https://twitter.com/FRBservices/status/1584983595306962947 54:06 – Tyler Perry revealed he once fired his accounting team after learning the IRS owed him $9 millionhttps://twitter.com/dionnegrant/status/1583160930778902530?s=12&t=jlkslMylyY6-Hz_nKVrHDw Tyler Perry Fires Entire Accounting Team After Finding Out the IRS Owes Him N3.9b Due to Overpaymenthttps://briefly.co.za/entertainment/celebrities/142975-tyler-perry-fires-entire-accounting-team-finding-irs-owed-r164m-due-overpayment/ 56:37 – This Big 4 Accounting Firm Launches Metaverse Client Experiencehttps://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiPWh0dHBzOi8vY29pbmdhcGUuY29tL2NyeXB0by1uZXdzLWVybnN0LXlvdW5nLW1ldGF2ZXJzZS13ZWItMy_SAQA?oc=5 58:15 – Wolters Kluwer plants its flag in the Metaverse | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/wolters-kluwer-plants-its-flag-in-the-metaverse 1:00:27 – IRS to require speech recognition to reach Practitioner Priority Service | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-to-require-speech-recognition-to-reach-practitioner-priority-service Meet Jeremy Wells, PhD, CPA, EAWebsite: http://jwellscfo.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwellscfo/Twitter: https://twitter.com/JWellsCFOGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Onilne: https://righttool.appuCollect: https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest:Evan Goldberg, Executive Vice President and Founder, NetSuiteLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-netsuite/Learn more about NetSuiteWebsite: https://www.netsuite.comNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsLiscio: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyRelay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes2:40 – Alright #TaxTwitter, I'm calling it. After 961 painful days of March 2020, #Marchternity is over. (Except in FL/NC/SC/AK.) Though our profession will never be the same after all this shit, we're very likely done with enormous tax bills in Congress for at least a few years. 1/— Adam Markowitz (@adammarkowitzEA) October 18, 2022 https://twitter.com/adammarkowitzEA/status/1582400309024153600 4:44 – Remote Work Drove Over 60% of US House-Price Surge, Fed Study Finds – Bloomberghttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-26/remote-work-drove-over-60-of-house-price-surge-fed-study-finds 6:51 – Would You Take a Pay Cut in Exchange For a 40-Hour Workweek in a Beachside Locale? - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/citigroup-malaga-spain-analyst-program/ 14:02 – Art of Accounting: Importance of being or appearing calm | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/art-of-accounting-importance-of-being-or-appearing-calm 19:55 – National Fire Some Clients Day – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Accounting Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/national-fire-some-clients-day/id1631008207?i=1000581829385 20:47 – 70% of Accountants Find Clients are Usually More Responsive than Coworkershttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2022/10/18/70-of-accountants-find-clients-are-usually-more-responsive-than-coworkers/71865/ 25:08 – Three ways to be more productive from an Amazon engineerhttps://twitter.com/BlakeTOliver/status/1569014786368872448?s=20&t=Jd43_ZqXO-eJNDglERx7HA 29:00 – All my self-employed accountants - how many hrs per day do you work (assume 5-day work week)?https://twitter.com/lorilynwilson/status/1567150457377951744?s=12&t=MzhoXfdIFdLkoRdV6POdGA 33:05 – Fat Joe is Suing BDO - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/fat-joe-is-suing-bdo/ 39:32 – Fan who caught Aaron Judge historic homer may catch big tax bill | Fox Businesshttps://www.foxbusiness.com/sports/fan-who-caught-aaron-judge-historic-homer-catch-big-tax-bill 45:47 – One month after entering the spend management space, Rippling goes after global payrollhttps://techcrunch.com/2022/10/20/one-month-after-entering-the-spend-management-space-rippling-goes-after-global-payroll/ 47:59 – Bookkeep Advances Mission to Eliminate Manual Data Entry in the Accounting Industry with a $6.6 Million Investment Led by Fin Capitalhttps://www.prweb.com/releases/2022/10/prweb18967596.htm https://www.bookkeep.com/blog/bookkeep-advances-mission-to-eliminate-manual-data-entry-in-the-accounting-industry-with-a-6-6-million-investment-led-by-fin-capital/?utm_source=social_organic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=20221020_social 51:10 – Microsoft Excel update will give power users plenty to dig their teeth into | TechRadarhttps://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-excel-update-will-give-power-users-plenty-to-dig-their-teeth-into 53:43 – Shopify adds tax support to product | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/shopify-adds-tax-support-to-product 56:17 – Outmin raises €1.5 million to scale accounting solutionhttps://tech.eu/2022/10/20/outmin-raises-eur15-million-to-scale-accounting-solution/ 1:00:51 – Xero Announces Price Changes for North Americahttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/vendor-news/xero-announces-price-changes-for-north-american-users/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsRightTool for QuickBooks Online - https://righttool.appuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest:Miguel Otchere-Marshall, Founder and CEO of NelopyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miguel-otchere-marshall-58520451/Learn more about Nelopyhttps://www.nelopy.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our GuestBen Richmond, CA, Country Manager, United States at XeroLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-richmond-ca-b8794220/Twitter: https://twitter.com/benrichmond1Learn more about Xerohttps://www.xero.com/us/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoFreshBooks -  https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes5:48 – Sage becomes official partner of Major League Baseball in tech brand’s first North American sports partnershiphttps://www.sage.com/en-us/news/press-releases/2022/10/sage-becomes-official-partner-of-major-league-baseball/ Sage announces key acquisition, product enhancements and strategic sports partnership deal at Transform 2022 https://www.sage.com/en-us/news/press-releases/2022/10/sage-announces-key-acquisition-product-enhancements-and-strategic-sports/ 7:49 – Sage acquires Spherics to help SMBs measure and cut their carbon emissionshttps://www.sage.com/en-us/news/press-releases/2022/10/sage-acquires-spherics-to-help-smbs-measure-and-cut-their-carbon-emissions/ Sage buys carbon accounting software solution from Sphericshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-buys-carbon-accounting-software-solution-from-spherics 9:35 – Climatiq: Climate Tech Startup Raises $5.8 Million Seed Roundhttps://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-climatiq-the-google-analytics-carbon-accounting-2022-10 London-Based Carbon Accounting Startup Emitwise Cuts Jobshttps://www.businessinsider.com/london-based-carbon-accounting-startup-emitwise-cuts-jobs-2022-10 11:28 – Sage announces new product integrations with Microsoft to make life easier for SMBshttps://www.sage.com/en-us/news/press-releases/2022/10/sage-announces-new-product-integrations-with-microsoft/ Sage Adds SMB-Focused Integrations with Microsofthttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2022/10/12/71613/71613/ 13:55 – Sage expands into new markets and capabilities to boost SMBs’ productivityhttps://www.sage.com/en-us/news/press-releases/2022/10/sage-expands-into-new-markets-and-capabilities/ 27:37 – David's tweet about digital accounting networks : https://twitter.com/davidleary/status/1580658965012443137 41:51 – Voicemail from Michael Alman – Thank you!https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGqQvxlCnqZLHBSFWvrpqPKtFMM 48:00 – QuickBooks named as most puzzling app to navigate according to Google searches | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/quickbooks-named-as-most-puzzling-app-to-navigate-according-to-google-searches 50:04 – SURVEY: How Many Monitors on Your Desk? - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2022/10/11/survey-double-the-monitors-double-the-fun/ 54:20 – It's Lonely in the Metaverse: Decentraland’s 38 Daily Active Users in a $1.3B Ecosystemhttps://www.coindesk.com/web3/2022/10/07/its-lonely-in-the-metaverse-decentralands-38-daily-active-users-in-a-13b-ecosystem/ 58:35 – Intuit launches pilot growth program for application developershttps://blogs.intuit.com/blog/2022/10/12/intuit-launches-pilot-growth-program-for-application-developers/ 1:00:17 – Donald Trump Jr. Admits He Doesn't Get Basic Accountinghttps://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-jr-admits-he-doesnt-get-basic-accounting-2022-10 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest, Chris VanoverLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisvcpa/Learn more about AuditClubWebsite: https://auditclub.cpa/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Chad Davis, CPA, CMALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaddavis1/Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaddavisLearn more about LiveCAWebsite: https://www.liveca.ca/Learn more about the AutomationTown podcast:Website: https://automationtown.transistor.fm/Twitter: https://twitter.com/automationtownTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@automationtownNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsJirav - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/jiravCanopy - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyZoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes7:04 – RightTool for QuickBooks Onlinehttps://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/righttool-for-quickbooks/ocgmjfcfjilnmobeocoklcbpcanilpjd 7:46 – Intuit Inc. - Intuit Investor Day 2022https://investors.intuit.com/events-and-presentations/event-details/2022/Intuit-Investor-Day-2022/default.aspx 43:42 – Big Bet 2: Connect people to experts – YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?t=315&utm_campaign=What%27s+Next+for+Accounting%3F&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue+newsletter&v=QazBHW1jrdU&feature=youtu.be 56:31 – Kabbage Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcyhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2022/10/kservicing-kabbage-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy.html 57:52 – More than a gig: Uber's new card targets professional drivershttps://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/more-than-a-gig-ubers-new-card-targets-professional-driversSign up for Hector and Blake's 8-part free CPE practice management series, Focused Firm:https://go.earmarkcpe.com/the-focused-firm=Get notified when we go live! Subscribe to the Cloud Accounting Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/cloudaccountingpodcastGet Right Tool for QuickBooks Online: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/righttool-for-quickbooks/ocgmjfcfjilnmobeocoklcbpcanilpjdGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsuCollect - https://ucollect.biz/capWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guests:Jamie BeresfordLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-beresford/Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamie_beresford Website:  https://practiceprotect.com/Andrew LassiseLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lassise/ Website: https://www.rushtechsupport.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Jason Richelson: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonrichelson/Twitter: https://twitter.com/JrichelsonLearn more about Bookkeephttps://www.bookkeep.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsZoho: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zohoLiveFlow: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes12:23 – How Republicans Are ‘Weaponizing’ Public Office Against Climate Actionhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/climate/republican-treasurers-climate-change.html How an Organized Republican Effort Punishes Companies for Climate Actionhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/climate/republicans-blackrock-climate.html 27:58 – PwC launches 'work for credit' program for aspiring accountants | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pwc-launches-work-for-credit-program-for-aspiring-accountants 30:23 – A Bunch of Auditors at RSM F*cked Up - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/a-bunch-of-auditors-at-rsm-fcked-up/ RSM to pay $3.75M to SEC for improper auditshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/rsm-to-pay-3-75m-penalty-to-sec-for-improper-audits 33:29 – SEC advisory committee recommends revamp of FASB | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sec-advisory-committee-recommends-revamp-of-fasb 39:35 – SEC charges Friedman with improper professional conduct in audits | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sec-charges-friedman-with-improper-professional-conduct-in-audits 41:35 – How Creative Accounting Camouflages Weak Corporate Profitshttps://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-09-28/how-creative-accounting-camouflages-weak-corporate-profits 43:11 – Fewer people seek US unemployment aid amid solid hiring - ABC Newshttps://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fewer-people-seek-us-unemployment-aid-amid-solid-90690648 45:01 – Why Worker Productivity Is So Important to the Economyhttps://www.wsj.com/video/series/wsj-explains/why-worker-productivity-is-so-important-to-the-economy/B7425A68-2F71-4DF7-BCB8-29A05C2FF657 52:20 – NetSuite Announces Accounts Payable Automation to Increase the Accuracy and Speed of Processing Bills and Making Paymentshttps://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/netsuite-announces-accounts-payable-automation-to-increase-the-accuracy-and-speed-of-processing-bills-and-making-payments.shtml 54:25 – NetSuite Introduces Configure, Price, Quote Solution to Help Organizations Accelerate and Simplify the Sales Processhttps://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/netsuite-introduces-configure-price-quote-solution-to-help-organizations-accelerate-and-simplify-the-sales-process.shtml 55:21 – NetSuite Launches Ship Central to Help Organizations Improve Warehouse Operationshttps://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/netsuite-launches-ship-central-to-help-organizations-improve-warehouse-operations.shtml NetSuite Enhances Analytics Warehouse to Help Customers Maximize the Value of Datahttps://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/netsuite-enhances-analytics-warehouse-to-help-customers-maximize-the-value-of-data.shtml 1:02:29 – BlackLine unveils "Hyperautomation" capabilities for taxeshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/blackline-unveils-hyperautomation-capabilities-for-taxes 1:04:01 – LPL Launches Dedicated Bookkeeping Service for Financial Advisorshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2022/lpl-launches-dedicated-bookkeeping-service-for-financial-advisors/ 1:05:24 – Voicemail from Geraldine Carterhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/QgrcJHrnvrhZWsnpDNHCdCCTrKGSMSdXwNVGet in TouchSarah Work, CPA for South Carolina Treasurer: https://workforsc.org/Thanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Connect with Our Guest, Vanessa VasquezLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quickbooksenespanol/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsesoraVanessaVFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanessavasquezproLearn more about Vanessa's company: QuickBooks En Español: https://quickbooksenespanol.com/Other resourcesConferencia F.I.T.: https://conferenciafit.com/Latino Tax Fest: https://latinotaxfest.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsLiveFlow: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowuCollect: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ucollectLiscio: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes4:31 – Email from Stuart – Thank you! College Student Question - [email protected] - Earmark Mailhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGqQctTPHtxgLVLqVlXfzZDTwXq 7:51 – Email from Britney – Thank you! 8:28 – The robots are here. And they are making you fries.https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/20/robots-automating-restaurant-industry/ 20:58 – A federal watchdog said $45.6 billion may have been stolen from a U.S. unemployment insurance program meant to help people laid off during the Covid-19 pandemichttps://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-unemployment-fraud-may-have-topped-45-billion-watchdog-estimates-11663876814 21:38 – U.S. Attorney Announces Federal Charges Against 47 Defendants in $250 Million Feeding Our Future Fraud Schemehttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-attorney-announces-federal-charges-against-47-defendants-250-million-feeding-our-future 22:13 – 'Crypto King' Has Luxury Cars Seized After $35 Million Vanisheshttps://gizmodo.com/crypto-king-bitcoin-price-luxury-cars-seized-35-million-1849561634 23:02 – SEC charges tech company with revenue manipulationhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sec-charges-tech-company-vmware-with-license-key-based-accounting-scheme-to-manipulate-revenue 25:48 – Watch Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecardhttps://www.netflix.com/title/81404807 30:54 – Voicemail from Joe – Thank you! 32:09 – Message from John Pearce via CloudAccountingPodcast.com - [email protected] - Earmark Mailhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGqQcnkkBXXWrFMjRzlDcxbMJGc 33:42 – Message from Jeff Guldenschuh (Gold-N-Shoe) via CloudAccountingPodcast.com - [email protected] - Earmark Mailhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGqQSPxzQSPkRBMZKHfmnhStjnH?compose=new 45:33 – Email from Sarah – Thank you! Colorado now accepts cryptocurrency for tax payments | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/colorado-now-accepts-cryptocurrency-for-tax-payments 51:23 – Trump’s Former Accounting Firm Begins Turning Over Documents to Congresshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/17/us/politics/mazars-accounting-trump-documents.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare 52:06 – Trump Is Sued for Fraud By New York State A.G. Letitia Jameshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/nyregion/trump-fraud-lawsuit-ny.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsLiveFlow: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes3:14 – The billionaire founder of Patagonia gave up the company to protect the planet. He may have skirted a $700 million tax bill in the process https://t.co/tUfG40ubQq— Bloomberg (@business) September 15, 2022 https://twitter.com/business/status/1570523789485801477 3:28 – Patagonia Founder Avoids $700 Million Tax Hit By Donating Companyhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-15/patagonia-billionaire-who-gave-up-company-skirts-700-million-tax-hit DealBook: Taxagoniahttps://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20220916&instance_id=72090&nl=dealbook&productCode=DK&regi_id=103928575&segment_id=107219&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2F1972582f-ea55-5a42-a974-fb0c427aca1d&user_id=238a5e61c9e3ba1f8e99bcc06b505749 17:59 – Quiet Quitters Make Up Half the U.S. Workforce, Gallup Says – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/quiet-quitters-make-up-half-the-u-s-workforce-gallup-says-11662517806 22:30 – Remote Workers Are Wasting More Than an Hour a Day on Productivity Theater, New Report Finds | Inc.comhttps://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/productivity-asynchronous-remote-work.html 26:51 – Tips for managing remote workers - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/jun/tips-managing-remote-workers.html 29:27 – The AICPA Has Written a Strongly-Worded Letter to the Treasury Department on Remote Workhttps://www.goingconcern.com/the-aicpa-has-written-a-strongly-worded-letter-to-the-treasury-department-on-remote-work/ 31:39 – Email from Ray – Thank you! 33:51 – Employers can track electronically much of what their workers do. But should they?https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-track-workers-technology-11660935634 36:08 – Why Rural Americans Keep Waiting for Fast Internet, Despite Billions Spent – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-broadband-internet-fcc-11655300008 36:55 – Hybrid Work Meetings Are Hell. Tech Is Trying to Fix Them.https://www.wsj.com/articles/meetings-are-broken-tech-is-trying-to-fix-them-11655292666 39:44 – Roofr Raises $12M to Advance SaaS Platform for Roofershttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2022/roofr-raises-12m-to-advance-saas-platform-for-roofers/ 41:25 – Email from David Barrett – [Expensify] Automated payroll, taxes, and filings built into your subscription - [email protected] - Earmark Mailhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGqQSTbhvmcsxBhxtbhwxlpfrph 48:13 – Summit Hosting Acquires Tech Commandoshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/summit-hosting-acquires-tech-commandos-301623302.html 49:40 – That agent who sounds like they’re from Paris, Texas? Try Paris, France | TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2022/06/22/that-agent-who-sounds-like-theyre-from-paris-texas-try-paris-france/ 51:06 – Adyen to Become First FinTech Platform to Add Block’s Cash Apphttps://www.pymnts.com/news/mobile-payments/2022/adyen-to-become-first-fintech-platform-to-add-blocks-cash-app/ 52:38 – Visa, Mastercard, AmEx to start categorizing gun shop sales | AP Newshttps://apnews.com/article/gun-violence-shootings-new-york-city-politics-4aae50c67e40f9683f604a8683acc391 59:43 – Drunk Ethics – Greg Kyte – on Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/drunk-ethics/id1640305820Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayCanopy https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyFreshBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes2:57 – Inside Bed Bath & Beyond, Concerns Over Mounting Stress for CFOhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-bed-bath-beyond-concerns-over-mounting-stress-for-cfo-11662589539 Bed Bath & Beyond names interim CFO after Arnal's death | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/bed-bath-beyond-names-interim-cfo-after-arnals-death Bed Bath & Beyond appoints accounting head as interim CFOhttps://kfgo.com/2022/09/06/bed-bath-beyond-appoints-accounting-head-as-interim-cfo/ Bed Bath & Beyond taps chief accounting officer as interim CFO after executive's suicidehttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/06/bed-bath-beyond-taps-chief-accounting-officer-as-interim-cfo-after-executives-death.html 9:17 – The Comedy Store Sues Moss Adams Over Missed $8.5 Million in COVID Relief Fundshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2022/08/31/the-comedy-store-sues-moss-adams-over-missed-8-5-million-in-covid-relief-funds/70245/ 13:22 – EY Leaders Green Light Split Plan – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ey-to-announce-breakup-plan-for-audit-and-advisory-businesses-11662639241 EY to Split Accounting and Consulting Businesseshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/business/ey-ernst-young-split.html?partner=IFTTT 17:00 – Sex Worker Makes $300k A Year After Ditching Accounting Career For Work In A Brothelhttps://www.outkick.com/sex-worker-makes-300k-a-year-after-ditching-accounting-career-for-work-in-a-brothel/ 18:25 – EY Staffers Feel Left in the Dark After Death of Their Colleague Last Weekend - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/ey-staffers-feel-left-in-the-dark-after-death-of-their-colleague-last-weekend/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ey-staffers-feel-left-in-the-dark-after-death-of-their-colleague-last-weekend 19:41 – KPMG sued for $830mn over ‘appalling’ Chinese audithttps://www.newsncr.com/business/kpmg-sued-for-830mn-over-appalling-chinese-audit/#:~:text=KPMG%20has%20been%20accused%20of,High%20Court%20heard%20on%20Monday. 23:10 – PwC sees audit quality improving | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pwc-sees-audit-quality-improving 28:10 – Paycheck-to-paycheck Consumers Most Willing to Invest in Cryptohttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/paycheck-to-paycheck-consumers-most-willing-to-invest-in-crypto/ 29:59 – ‘Far too easy’ — Crypto researcher’s fake Ponzi raises $100K in hourshttps://cointelegraph.com/news/far-too-easy-crypto-researcher-s-fake-ponzi-raises-100k-in-hours 33:51 – US SEC Chair Gensler reiterates crypto stance, frustrating those seeking clarity | TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2022/08/23/us-sec-chair-gensler-reiterates-crypto-stance-frustrating-those-seeking-clarity/ Gary Gensler's gross SEC overreach | Fox Businesshttps://www.foxbusiness.com/features/gary-gensler-gross-sec-overreach The SEC Treats Crypto Like the Rest of the Capital Marketshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sec-treats-crypto-like-the-rest-of-the-capital-markets-disclosure-compliance-security-investment-mutual-fund-protections-blockfi-bankruptcy-bitcoin-11660937246 36:06 – Email from Ron Baker – Thank you! 40:48 – TriNet acquires Clarus R+D | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/trinet-acquires-clarus-r-d 44:32 – Credit Karma will pay $3 million to users targeted with false preapproved offershttps://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/1121246081/credit-karma-false-ftc-preapproved-credit-card 46:20 – Accountants try to avoid awkward conversations with clients and it costs them | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/accountants-try-to-avoid-awkward-conversations-with-clients-and-it-costs-them 51:39 – Sage and Square® partner to help small businesses take morehttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/09/08/2512593/0/en/Sage-and-Square-partner-to-help-small-businesses-take-more-control-of-their-finances.html Sage, Square Combine Accounting, POS Softwarehttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2022/sage-square-combine-their-accounting-and-pos-software/ Square Strengthens Partnership with Amaka to Launch Sage Accounting Integrationhttps://www.accesswire.com/715331/Square-Strengthens-Partnership-with-Amaka-to-Launch-Sage-Accounting-Integration 53:12 – Intuit QuickBooks introduces new 1099 solution for contractor payments | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-quickbooks-introduces-new-1099-solution-for-contractor-payments 54:43 – France catches tax-dodging swimming pool owners with AI | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/france-catches-tax-dodging-swimming-pool-owners-with-ai 56:14 – It’s not just you. People are actually using Apple Pay now.https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-pay-iphone-wallet-apps-11660780139Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsThe Ambitious Bookkeeper https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/bkworkshopsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsJirav: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/jiravLiscio: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioRelay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes2:02 – Review from Scott Michael Collier – Thank you! 4:49 – PwC Manager is Suing the Firm After He Lost a Chunk of His Skull at a Drunken Work Event - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/pwc-manager-is-suing-the-firm-after-he-lost-a-chunk-of-his-skull-at-a-drunken-work-event/ 8:04 – Ernst and Young employee, 33, found dead at Sydney office after Friday night work drinkshttps://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/ernst-and-young-employee-33-found-dead-at-sydney-office-after-friday-night-work-drinks/news-story/53f85fe1c0d9d96c461e9963f662a040 10:26 – Top House Intel Republican downplays Trump's records-handling: 'More of a bookkeeping issue'https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/politics/house-intelligence-gop-trump-docs-not-security-threat 12:16 – Crypto.com mistakenly sent a customer $7.2 million instead of a $68 refund - The Vergehttps://www.theverge.com/2022/8/31/23330458/crypto-dot-com-typo-mistake-refund-audit 17:41 – PCAOB, China sign agreement opening door for inspections - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/aug/pcaob-china-sign-agreement-opening-door-inspections.html PCAOB observed problems during audits of SPACshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pcaob-observed-problems-during-audits-of-spacs 19:27 – California Passes Radical AB 257 Fast-Food Legislationhttps://www.uschamber.com/employment-law/unions/california-passes-radical-ab-257-fast-food-legislation California Fast Food Wages Would Be Set by Government Under Bill Passed by State Legislaturehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/california-fast-food-wages-would-be-set-by-government-under-bill-passed-by-state-senate-11661811509 California QSRs Push Back Against Wage Billhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/regulation/2022/california-qsrs-push-back-against-wage-bill/ 21:39 – As prices rise, CFOs turn toward automation to control costs | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/as-prices-rise-cfos-turn-towards-automation-to-control-costs 26:45 – Wassia Kamon, CPA, CMA, MBA on LinkedIn: Top 10 Accounting and Finance Certifications | 177 commentshttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/wassiakamon_top-10-accounting-and-finance-certifications-activity-6962807548219445248-Y35M 29:43 – Email from Joseph – Thank you! 34:16 – Voicemail from Elliot – Thank you! 43:04 – Intuit unveils new logo design | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-unveils-new-logo-design It’s a brand new day for Intuit!https://www.intuit.com/blog/news-social/unveiling-our-new-intuit-logo/ 45:22 – Intuit's (INTU) Earnings and Revenues Surpass Estimates in Q4 (Revised)http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/1972710/intuit-s-intu-earnings-and-revenues-surpass-estimates-in-q4-revised?cid=CS-ZC-FT-analyst_blog|earnings_article-1972710 Intuit's (INTU) Earnings and Revenues Surpass Estimates in Q4http://www.zacks.com/ Intuit Inc. (INTU) CEO Sasan Goodarzi on Q4 2022 Results - Earnings Call Transcripthttps://seekingalpha.com/article/4536551-intuit-inc-intu-ceo-sasan-goodarzi-on-q4-2022-results-earnings-call-transcript Intuit (INTU) Q4 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimateshttps://www.zacks.com/stock/news/1971565/intuit-intu-q4-earnings-and-revenues-beat-estimates Intuit Reports Strong Full Year Results and Sets Fiscal 2023 Guidance | Business Wirehttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220823005060/en/Intuit-Reports-Strong-Full-Year-Results-and-Sets-Fiscal-2023-Guidance 48:34 – MyCase Rolls Out Built-In Accounting and Integrated Document Automationhttps://www.lawnext.com/2022/08/mycase-rolls-out-built-in-accounting-and-integrated-document-automation.html MyCase Announces Release of Accounting and Robust Document Automation Integration, Further Enhancing Legal Tech Platformhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220831005177/en/MyCase-Announces-Release-of-Accounting-and-Robust-Document-Automation-Integration-Further-Enhancing-Legal-Tech-Platform 49:56 – Intuit releases automated tax advisory solution in move towards CAS support | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-releases-automated-tax-advisory-solution-in-move-towards-cas-support Intuit Accountants Launches Intuit Tax Advisor Integrating Tax Prep and Advisoryhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/vendor-news/intuit-accountants-launches-intuit-tax-advisor-integrating-t/ Intuit® Accountants launches Intuit Tax Advisor, integrating tax prep and advisoryhttps://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/proconnect/intuit-accountants-launches-intuit-tax-advisor-integrating-tax-prep-and-advisory/ 51:16 – Watch Intuit Tax Advisor Video – Tax prep + advisory tools, together at lasthttps://proconnect.intuit.com/tax-advice-planning-for-professionals/ 57:52 – Bookkeeper360 raises $3.5M Seed Round to Scale Platform and Operations | Business Wirehttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220818005114/en/Bookkeeper360-raises-3.5M-Seed-Round-to-Scale-Platform-and-Operations 59:32 – Fathom acquired by UK's Access Group | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/fathom-acquired-by-uks-access-group 1:00:56 – Karbon Client Portal is here! | Karbon Communityhttps://community.karbonhq.com/product-updates/karbon-client-portal-is-here-1612Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsThe Ambitious Bookkeeper https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/bkworkshopsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRelay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayuCollect: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ucollectCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:58 – Xero announces new initiatives, partnerships at Xerocon user conferencehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/xero-announces-new-initiatives-partnerships-at-xerocon-user-conference          Xero Small Business Insights expands to the United States and Canada, providing timely updates on state of small business https://www.xero.com/blog/2022/08/xsbi-expands-to-us-and-canada/ Product wrap from Xerocon New Orleans 2022 | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2022/08/xerocon-new-orleans-product-wrap/ Avalara partners with Xero to make automated sales tax solution | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/avalara-partners-with-xero-to-make-automated-sales-tax-solution That’s a wrap for Xerocon New Orleans 2022https://www.xero.com/blog/2022/08/xerocon-new-orleans-wrap/ 21:31 – Biden to forgive $10K in student debt, double for Pell grant recipients | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/biden-to-forgive-10k-in-student-debt-double-for-pell-grant-recipients Biden to cancel up to $10K in student loan debt for borrowers making under $125K : NPRhttps://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/1118879917/student-loan-forgiveness-biden 24:08 – White House shines light on Republicans who are criticizing student debt cancellation after getting their PPP loans forgivenhttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-shines-light-republicans-are-criticizing-student-debt-canc-rcna44904 What the student debt forgiveness plan would mean for taxpayers and the U.S. economy | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/what-the-student-debt-forgiveness-plan-would-mean-for-taxpayers-and-the-u-s-economy 34:12 – Secret Service returns $286 million in fraudulent pandemic loans to the Small Business Administrationhttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/26/secret-service-returns-fraudulent-pandemic-loans-to-small-business-administration.html 36:22 – Cross River Bank’s PPP Lending Practices Raise Questionshttps://www.pymnts.com/loans/2022/cross-river-banks-ppp-lending-practices-raise-questions/ 37:11 – The IRS could be on the verge of changing the way Americans file their taxes | The Hillhttps://thehill.com/homenews/3607174-the-irs-could-be-on-the-verge-of-changing-the-way-americans-file-their-taxes/ 40:53 – Ex-BDO IT Audit Manager Raissa Kengne Charged in Deadly Atlanta Shooting (UPDATE) - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/atlanta-shooting-suspect-bdo-usa/ Former BDO audit manager shot and killed ex-boss | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/former-bdo-audit-manager-shot-and-killed-ex-boss r/Accounting - Ex-BDO Auditor Kills One, Injures Two in Atlantahttps://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/wv6jdw/exbdo_auditor_kills_one_injures_two_in_atlanta/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Ex-BDO IT Audit Manager Raissa Kengne Charged in Deadly Atlanta Shooting (UPDATE)https://www.goingconcern.com/atlanta-shooting-suspect-bdo-usa/ 43:06 – Atlanta Shooting Suspect Gave Cybersecurity Talk About ‘Fraud in Accounting,’ Accused Victims of Committing Accounting Fraud on LinkedInhttps://www.vice.com/en/article/v7v7vj/atlanta-shooting-suspect-raissa-kengne-linkedin-lawsuit-cybersecurity-talk 46:12 – IRS will wipe away $1.2B in late fees from pandemic | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/irs-will-wipe-away-1-2b-in-late-fees-from-pandemic IRS relieves penalties for 2019 and 2020https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/aug/irs-relieves-penalties-for-2019-2020.html 47:23 – KPMG to relocate NYC HQ as it downsizes office space | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/kpmg-to-relocate-nyc-hq-as-it-downsizes-office-space 48:39 – Voicemail from Tyler Otto – Thank you! (1) davidleary on Twitter: "YES, YOU NEED TO FIND A NEW #Accountant!!! Craziest shit I've seen about #QuickBooks Desktop I've seen in a decade! https://t.co/cqxDUL3jRf"https://twitter.com/davidleary/status/1562093434801819650 53:30 – ▪David Leary▪ on LinkedIn: #Accountant #QuickBooks | 95 commentshttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidleary_accountant-quickbooks-activity-6967859181139750912-smH1 54:55 – Email from Jessica – Thank you! 55:18 – Disney’s New Pricing Magic: More Profit From Fewer Park Visitors – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/disneys-new-pricing-magic-more-profit-from-fewer-park-visitors-11661572819 1:02:13 – Fwd: This Just In: How to fix the leaky CPA pipeline - [email protected] - Earmark Mailhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGqPphPdwdxVWVcmwMBNcDXNRhPConnect with Liz Mason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonliz/Connect with Heather Smithhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/Connect with Anna Curzonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/annacurzon/Connect with Hamish Cookhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishcook/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsThe Ambitious Bookkeeper https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/bkworkshopsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsFreshBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksRelayFI https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayLiscio https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:46 – 🚀Big news from David Leary and Blake Oliver! 🚀https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/big-news-from-david-leary-blake-oliver-david-leary-/ 2:14 – Dotcom Pioneer AccountingWEB Shuts Down - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2022/08/18/dotcom-pioneer-accountingweb-shuts-down/ 3:43 – Sift to Close AccountingWEB US Divisionhttps://www.sift.co.uk/blog/sift-closes-accountingweb-us/ 5:58 – IRS issues immediate guidance for EV credits under Inflation Reduction Acthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/irs-issues-immediate-guidance-for-ev-credits-under-inflation-reduction-act 7:24 – Yellen sets six-month timeline for IRS plan to target tax cheats | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/yellen-sets-six-month-timeline-for-irs-plan-to-target-tax-cheats Yellen: These are the 4 priorities for the $80 billion in IRS fundinghttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/18/yellen-these-are-the-4-priorities-for-the-80-billion-in-irs-funding.html IRS Funding: Inflation Reduction Act IRS Tax Enforcement Provisionshttps://taxfoundation.org/inflation-reduction-act-irs-funding/ 11:21 – Inflation Reduction Act potentially doubles R&D tax credit | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/inflation-reduction-act-potentially-doubles-r-d-tax-credit 15:00 – Prosecutors Struggle to Catch Up to a Tidal Wave of Pandemic Fraudhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/16/business/economy/covid-pandemic-fraud.html COVID Fraud Could Hit $163B, Experts Sayhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2022/covid-fraud-could-hit-163b-experts-say/ Bills extend statute of limitation for prosecuting PPP, EIDL fraud - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/aug/bills-extend-statute-limitation-prosecuting-ppp-eidl-fraud.html 18:06 – A Plethora of Pandemic PPP Fraud – Oh My Fraudhttps://ohmyfraud.com/episodes/ppp-placeholder 19:28 – Trump Organization, CFO tax-fraud trial to begin Oct. 24 | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/trump-organization-cfo-tax-fraud-trial-to-begin-oct-24 Ex-finance chief of the Trump Organization Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to tax crimeshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/former-trump-organization-finance-chief-pleads-guilty-to-tax-crimes-11660834259 23:32 – Tether said it switched the accounting firm that signs off on its attestation reports to BDO Italiahttps://www.wsj.com/articles/biggest-stablecoin-issuer-tether-switches-accounting-firm-to-bdo-italia-11660795062 Bankrupt Crypto Brokerage Voyager Ordered to Cease False Promises About U.S. Banking Insurance – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/bankrupt-crypto-brokerage-voyager-ordered-to-cease-false-promises-about-u-s-banking-insurance-11659044094 Voyager customers beg New York judge for money back after bankruptcyhttps://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/08/15/voyager-customers-beg-new-york-judge-for-money-back-after-bankruptcy.html 32:41 – Revenue from crypto scams down 65%, crypto hacks up 58% | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/revenue-from-crypto-scams-down-65-crypto-hacks-up-58 34:21 – IRS expands crypto question on draft version of 1040 | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-expands-crypto-question-on-draft-version-of-1040 36:51 – TikTok: Mid range-entry level pay bands for Deloittehttps://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRyYgTKT/ 40:47 – Request Finance Introduces ‘Salaries’ Feature to Automate Crypto Payrollhttps://ffnews.com/newsarticle/request-finance-introduces-salaries-feature-to-automate-crypto-payroll/ 44:41 – Latest product news — August 2022 | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2022/08/product-news-august-2022/ 48:16 – Sage Launches Canadian Sage Payroll Versionhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/in-the-news/people-and-business/sage-launches-canadian-sage-payroll-version/ Sage acquires accounting software provider Lockstep | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-acquires-accounting-software-provider-lockstep Sage to acquire Lockstephttps://www.sage.com/investors/investor-downloads/press-releases/2022/08/sage-to-acquire-lockstep/ Sage's Lockstep acquisition to accelerate its digital networkhttps://www.techmarketview.com/ukhotviews/archive/2022/08/16/sages-lockstep-acquisition-to-accelerate-its-digital-network 50:21 – Introducing: Trada by QuickBooks – Articlehttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/growing-a-business/introducing-trada-by-quickbooks/ davidleary on Twitter: "See this yet? "Trada by @QuickBooks" https://t.co/d8Jks0QzFD What is @intuit's play here? They launch a B2B resellers/supplier e-commerce marketplace... and they don't even use Intuit Payments on it? Was this an existing Mailchimp product? so confusing... so many questions https://t.co/DYHglhSmC9"https://twitter.com/davidleary/status/1559606295589634048 54:58 – AuditBoard touts new third party risk management solution for professionals | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/auditboard-touts-new-third-party-risk-management-solution-for-professionals 56:21 – AuditClub Breaks the Mold with Auditors-as-a-Service for CPA Firmshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2022/08/15/auditclub-breaks-the-mold-with-auditors-as-a-service-for-cpa-firms/69448/ 59:17 – Microsoft Excel update solves one of your biggest workplace problems | TechRadarhttps://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-excel-update-solves-one-of-your-biggest-workplace-problemsGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsThe Ambitious Bookkeeper https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/bkworkshopsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayFreshBooks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes2:25 – davidleary on Twitter: "How come @amazon can do this with a $20 picture frame ...but @Ford can't do it with a $50k automobile? How do you lose a Mustang #MachE?!?!!?!? I find it hard to believe that a company puts millions $$$ of automobiles on train cars ...and can't track them. cc @jimfarley98 https://t.co/YmHTXsbqlR"https://twitter.com/davidleary/status/1558108425724108801 9:04 – How will the IRS use $80B in funding it could receive from the Inflation Reduction Act?https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/IRS-funding-80-billion-inflation-reduction-act 14:01 – Tax Compliance:Trends of IRS Audit Rates and Results for Individual Taxpayers by Incomehttps://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104960#:~:text=From%20tax%20years%202010%20to,0.9%20percent%20to%200.25%20percent. 22:10 – Twitter: What % of individual income tax returns should the IRS audit?https://twitter.com/blaketoliver/status/1557876501789286400?s=12&t=QCA6FrS6BD8_eXrAlVoxMA 27:29 – IRS Deletes Job Posting Seeking Applicants Willing to ‘Use Deadly Force’ | National Reviewhttps://www.nationalreview.com/news/irs-deletes-job-posting-seeking-applicants-willing-to-use-deadly-force/ 29:26 – Tweet by Adam Markowitzhttps://twitter.com/adammarkowitzea/status/1555548397389635587?s=12&t=XCaiAZbt78Tt-0fan9Qbzw 31:15 – Hyperbolic GOP claims about IRS agents and audits - The Washington Posthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/11/hyperbolic-gop-claims-about-irs-agents-audits/ 53:09 – Opinion | Inside the IRS ‘Pipeline’ used to process tax returns - Washington Posthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2022/irs-pipeline-tax-return-delays/ 57:57 – AICPA demands IRS answer calls on 'plummeting' practitioner priority phone linehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-demands-irs-answer-calls-on-plummeting-practitioner-priority-phone-line 59:59 – AICPA weighs in on Inflation Reduction Acthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-weighs-in-on-inflation-reduction-act Private-equity lobbyists have won their latest battle to preserve the carried-interest tax break.https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-private-equity-lobby-wonagain-11659834467 1:03:59 – Avalara To Go Private With $8.4B Acquisition By Vista Equityhttps://www.crn.com/news/applications-os/avalara-to-go-private-with-8-4b-acquisition-by-vista-equity Avalara to be bought by private investment firmhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/avalara-to-be-bought-by-private-investment-firm-vista 1:05:40 – Mailchimp Bans Crypto Companies Againhttps://thedigitalsanctuary.org/mailchimp-bans-crypto-companies-again/ 1:06:05 – Mark Cuban, Mavericks in hot water over Voyager 'Ponzi scheme'https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/11/mark-cuban-mavericks-face-lawsuit-over-crypto-voyager-ponzi-scheme/ 1:08:49 – Letter from Tom Herbert – Thank you! 1:10:00 – Message from Aileen Asche via CloudAccountingPodcast.com - [email protected] - Earmark Mailhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGqPpcnhlBpXnRkSWrVbWgxNFTq 1:11:58 – Message from Brian – Thank you!Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyLiscio: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioLiveFlow: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes03:41 – Firms big and small are facing a crisis. There's not enough accountants (CPAs) : The Indicator from Planet Money : NPRhttps://www.npr.org/2022/08/04/1115790852/if-the-world-had-no-accountants The Indicator from Planet Money : NPRhttps://www.npr.org/2022/08/04/1115790852/if-the-world-had-no-accountants The Indicator from Planet Moneyhttps://pca.st/tLRP 06:03 – How to fix the leaky CPA pipelinehttps://www.mncpa.org/resources/publications/footnote/august-september-2022/how-to-fix-the-leaky-cpa-pipeline/ 17:04 – U.S. job growth seen slowing in July; but far from recession levels | Reutershttps://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-job-growth-seen-slowing-july-far-recession-levels-2022-08-05/ Despite a drop in June, job openings remain well above the number of people unemployed but looking for workhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/job-openings-hiring-economy-june-2022-11659388973 22:05 – DealBook: A tax loophole’s powerful defenderhttps://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20220805&instance_id=68516&nl=dealbook&productCode=DK&regi_id=103928575&segment_id=100533&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2Fc8714674-e316-52c1-bf11-83af763fd4a7&user_id=238a5e61c9e3ba1f8e99bcc06b505749 DealBook: The new power brokers on taxeshttps://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20220804&instance_id=68424&nl=dealbook&productCode=DK&regi_id=103928575&segment_id=100423&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2F01624dbe-566d-5ac1-8a90-419f9a88508c&user_id=238a5e61c9e3ba1f8e99bcc06b505749 25:02 – Two SEC Commissioners Frown on Accounting Rules for ESG Issueshttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/two-sec-commissioners-frown-on-accounting-rules-for-esg-issues Comment on the Financial Accounting Foundation Draft Strategic Planhttps://www.sec.gov/news/statement/peirce-uyeda-statement-draft-financial-accounting-foundation-strategic-plan-072222 30:05 – Founder of My Big Coin Convicted of Fraudhttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/founder-of-my-big-coin-convicted-of-fraud/ Titanium Blockchain CEO Pleads Guilty in $21M Crypto Fraud Casehttps://www.pymnts.com/legal/2022/titanium-blockchain-ceo-pleads-guilty-in-21m-crypto-fraud-case/ SEC insider trading case against Coinbase holds larger implicationshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sec-insider-trading-case-against-coinbase-holds-larger-jurisdictional-implications Millions Drained in Solana Wallet Hackhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2022/millions-drained-in-solana-wallet-hack/ Two settle with Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged $300 million cryptocurrency Ponzi schemehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/two-settle-with-securities-and-exchange-commission-over-alleged-300-million-cryptocurrency-ponzi-scheme 31:44 – Web3 network Helium claims rideshare company Lime is one of its biggest clients. Lime says that's not true. | Mashablehttps://mashable.com/article/helium-lime-web3-crypto 35:58 – Hackers Force a $4B Question: Can DeFi Ever Be Safe?https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/hackers-force-a-4b-question-can-defi-ever-be-safe/ 37:59 – Georgia residents can claim an embryo as a dependent on tax returnshttps://twitter.com/thehill/status/1554491493569667073?s=12&t=vkja1dbRfIlSLC16YvOusg 39:34 – Tesla’s Bitcoin dump leaves accounting mystery in its wake | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/teslas-bitcoin-dump-leaves-accounting-mystery-in-its-wake Tesla Records $170 Million Impairment Charge on Bitcoin – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-records-170-million-impairment-charge-on-bitcoin-11658751201 40:50 – Ernst & Young Split Plan Held Up by Debt Issues – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ernst-young-split-plan-held-up-by-debt-issues-11659059736 44:54 – Revenues climb at Sage thanks to success of cloud productshttps://www.business-live.co.uk/technology/revenues-climb-sage-thanks-success-24646394 Sage FY revenues seen at top end of guidance | Financial Newshttps://www.lse.co.uk/news/sage-fy-revenues-seen-at-top-end-of-guidance-igymbyuegptc4uu.html 47:02 – Taxpayer advocate appeals IRS decision to delay scanning tech | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/taxpayer-advocate-appeals-irs-decision-to-delay-scanning-tech 50:59 – Voicemail from Alison Reiff-Martin re: CAP 289 – Thank you! 56:39 – Voicemail from Kenji Kuramoto on August 5, 2022 – Thank you! 1:01:27 – Message from Kathryn Bishop – Thank you!https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGqPpcmlrVpXHrhPLJkhScmKDvh 1:03:08 – Message from Sandy – Thank you! 1:10:00 – Message from Tom Cook via CloudAccountingPodcast.com – Thank you!https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGpHHKDKqzslcGSvvmqWJRTgRJD 1:11:57 – Message from Julie Sigety – Thank you!https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#inbox/FMfcgzGpHHPnvHskmvNsFppHSBKPPPMRGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGetW9: getw9.taxWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsLiveFlow: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyLiscio: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeMeet Billy DeClercqLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/declercqwbWebsite: https://declercq.law/about.phpShow NotesThe Invite: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11Jere06NPnSziLqGONdqflqQCov6a1In/viewGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGetW9: getw9.taxRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyLiscio: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioRelay: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:11 – Accountants are voted the best kissers in Britain ahead of doctors and nurses | Daily Mail Onlinehttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10953579/Accountants-voted-best-kissers-Britain-ahead-doctors-nurses.html 4:34 – How Will ESG Impact be Measured?https://www.cfo.com/accounting-tax/disclosure/2022/07/esg-disclosures-impact-accounting-regulation/ 8:19 – Tesla sells 75% of its bitcoin as profits slump due to production challengeshttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jul/20/tesla-second-quarter-earnings-elon-musk 9:09 – FBI warns $42.7 million stolen via fake crypto trading appshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/fbi-warns-42-7-million-stolen-via-fake-crypto-trading-apps 11:14 – FASB Scraps Project on Goodwill Accounting, Disclosure – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/fasb-scraps-project-on-goodwill-accounting-disclosure-11655317940 15:05 – Inflation Puts Spotlight on Companies’ Use of Last-In, First-Out Accounting – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/inflation-puts-spotlight-on-companies-use-of-last-in-first-out-accounting-11656322200?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f 19:07 – EY suffers payroll problem | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ey-suffers-payroll-problem 21:16 – Is remote work effective: We finally have the data | McKinseyhttps://www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights/americans-are-embracing-flexible-work-and-they-want-more-of-it 92 million US workers now have the opportunity to work remotely: survey - The Vergehttps://www.theverge.com/2022/6/28/23186112/us-flexible-remote-hybrid-work-survey-mckinsey 25:50 – Cherry Bekaert receives private equity funding from Parthenon Capital | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cherry-bekaert-receives-private-equity-funding-from-parthenon-capital 26:37 – Two U.S. Attorneys are investigating Kabbage’s PPP lending | Miami Heraldhttps://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article263376788.html 31:47 – Xerocon London updates – Recorderhttps://recorder.google.com/share/424be2ce-ba19-4fc6-8377-a6fd5b149552 Xero releases Xero Go app to provide basic accounting to small business owners, freelancershttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/xero-releases-xero-go-app-to-provide-basic-accounting-to-small-business-owners-freelancers Announcing Xero Go: Our new app for UK-based sole tradershttps://www.xero.com/blog/2022/07/xero-go-for-uk-based-sole-traders/ 38:02 – Xero reveals future of accountinghttps://gadget.co.za/xero-reveals-future-of-accounting/ 38:48 – Announcing Excel Live - Transform Microsoft Teams meetings with real-time collaboration - Microsoft Tech Communityhttps://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/announcing-excel-live-transform-microsoft-teams-meetings-with/ba-p/3573371 41:28 – Sage deepens Microsoft partnership and “unveils” Sage Active –https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2022/07/20/sage-deepens-microsoft-partnership-and-unveils-sage-active/ 43:46 – Accountants: How to Manage Your Clients’ Chart of Accounts in FreshBooks | FreshBooks Bloghttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/manage-client-chart-of-accounts 47:16 – NetSuite rolls out new Smart Count solution plus improvements to Analytics Warehouse | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/netsuite-rolls-out-new-smart-count-solution-plus-improvements-to-analytics-warehouse 49:07 – Why did Intuit decide to stop offering QuickBooks in India?https://www.mmcconvert.com/blog/intuit-stop-offering-quickbooks-in-india/ Discontinuation of QuickBooks in Indiahttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/in/notice/ Zoho to hire 2,000 people, expand operations in India, abroadhttps://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/zoho-plans-to-hire-2000-workers-for-indian-and-global-expansion/articleshow/92940061.cms 52:06 – Voicemail from Donnie Shimamoto – Thank you! Email from Keith – Thank you!Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGetW9: getw9.taxRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsLiscio: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscioLedgerGurus: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ledgergurusCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:06 – David Picture with Lucahttps://twitter.com/davidleary/status/1546767184541761536/photo/1 8:30 – Celsius Owes $4.7 Billion to Users But Lacks the Money to Payhttps://gizmodo.com/celsius-bankrupt-billion-money-crypto-bitcoin-price-cel-1849181797 Crypto Lender Celsius Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcyhttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/crypto-lender-celsius-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/ 13:21 – Where in the world are the Three Arrows Capital founders? | Fortunehttps://fortune.com/2022/07/13/three-arrows-capital-crypto-su-zhu-kyle-davies-location-dubai/ EU officials agreed on rules that would regulate the crypto market in the bloc, forcing platforms to seek authorization to operate and providing safeguards to usershttps://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-sets-first-rules-to-regulate-cryptocurrencies-11656682089 18:01 – CFTC charges bitcoin firm for operating $1.7 billion crypto scam - Business Insiderhttps://stocks.apple.com/A6yX2Uny3TUeN1vZkMLF00Q 20:43 – Fintech execs convicted in US after $160 million sent to Nigeriahttps://bankautomationnews.com/allposts/risk-security/fintech-execs-convicted-in-us-after-160-million-sent-to-nigeria/ Report Alleges Wirecard Forged Client Data to Obtain €900M SoftBank Investmenthttps://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2022/report-alleges-wirecard-forged-client-data-to-obtain-e900m-softbank-investment/ 23:57 – Bad lesson: Accounting professor at Drexel University charged with allegedly using creative bookkeeping to evade millions in taxes – MarketWatchhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/bad-lesson-accounting-professor-at-drexel-university-charged-with-allegedly-using-creative-bookkeeping-to-evade-millions-in-taxes-11652389459 27:37 – CPA Firms That Referred Clients to Alliantgroup Have Been Subpoenaed, Asked to Turn Over 11 Years of Client Datahttps://www.goingconcern.com/alliantgroup-federal-grand-jury-subpoena/ Leann on Twitter: "I’m hearing that the IRS Criminal Investigation raid on alliantgroup allegedly has to do with the 179D racketeering lawsuits filed years ago. Pending confirmation. /14https://t.co/wTqKwk9JSa"https://twitter.com/LAFinTexas/status/1527709177036021763 Alliantgroup LP v The University Of Texas System And The University Of Houston System – Global Legal Chroniclehttps://globallegalchronicle.com/alliantgroup-lp-v-the-university-of-texas-system-and-the-university-of-houston-system/ alliantgroup Comments from Women | InHerSighthttps://www.inhersight.com/company/alliantgroup/comments Strategic Advisory Board | alliantgrouphttps://www.alliantgroup.com/strategic-advisory-board/ DOJ suing Lane Grigsby and wife over ‘erroneous’ $750,000 tax refundhttps://www.1012industryreport.com/legal/doj-suing-lane-grigsby-and-wife-over-erroneous-750000-tax-refund/ Bloomberg blows the whistle on the IRShttps://archives.cjr.org/the_audit/bloomberg_blows_the_whistle_on.php 36:57 – Neal: Odds of selecting Comey and McCabe for audits were like winning the lottery | The Hillhttps://thehill.com/policy/finance/3560143-neal-odds-of-selecting-comey-and-mccabe-for-audits-were-like-winning-the-lottery/ IRS audited former FBI directors Comey and McCabehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-audited-former-fbi-directors-comey-and-mccabe 41:01 – Senator Warren Leads 22 Colleagues in Introducing the Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2022https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-warren-leads-22-colleagues-in-introducing-the-tax-filing-simplification-act-of-2022 Americans spend 13 hours and $240 on average to file their taxes—while corporations like @Intuit rake in billions. That’s outrageous. Today I;m leading 22 colleagues on legislation to make filing taxes free and easy for taxpayers. The IRS itself can and should adopt my plan; Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 13, 2022 https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1547260220551806976 45:10 – AICPA recommends additional IRS backlog measures - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/jul/aicpa-recommends-additional-irs-backlog-measures.html 49:43 – Obviously most CPAs are against the 150 hr rule. But what if those extra 30 hours were beneficial?https://twitter.com/jmcgowan3838/status/1536865439761981440?s=12&t=o4NXUgPpdhP_BFttwPv7bA 55:33 – AICPA and CIMA name global head of ESGhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-and-cima-name-global-head-of-esg A sharper focus on ESG | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/a-sharper-focus-on-esg 1:00:01 – Rising Social Unrest Over Energy, Food Shortages Threatens Global Stabilityhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2022/07/10/rising-social-unrest-over-energy-food-shortages-threatens-global-stability/ 1:04:48 – Message from Donald W LaCroix, CPA via CloudAccountingPodcast.comhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGpGwlRsxhblmhGJwxRlRFmzrpl Message from Lauren M via CloudAccountingPodcast.comhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#inbox/FMfcgzGpGwjBJbCmPLZSMgGSDLSljDnH Message from Sean Birdsell via CloudAccountingPodcast.com - [email protected] - Earmark Mailhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGpGnNrbRcthhdSMzKmrlRlKHXr Message from Liz R via CloudAccountingPodcast.comhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGpGnDfkNMGTRFblPrbJGCHHbzh Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayFreshbooks: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooks LedgerGurus: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ledgergurusNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes5:47 – Karbon’s 2022 Practice Excellence Reporthttps://karbonhq.com/resources/2022-practice-excellence-report/ 17:59 – 76 Fake Charities Shared a Mailbox. The I.R.S. Kept Approving More. - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/us/politics/irs-fake-charities.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share%20https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/us/politics/irs-fake-charities.html?referringSource=articleShare 76 Fake Charities Shared a Mailbox. The I.R.S. Approved Them All.https://www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/us/politics/irs-fake-charities.amp.html 22:01 – Crypto Lender Voyager Seeks Chapter 11 Protectionhttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/crypto-lender-voyager-seeks-chapter-11-protection/ Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals as Customers Yanked $200Mhttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/crypto-lender-vauld-suspends-withdrawals-as-customers-yanked-200m/ Behind the Celsius Sales Pitch Was a Crypto Firm Built on Risk – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-the-celsius-sales-pitch-was-a-crypto-firm-built-on-risk-11656498142 26:33 – Crypto crash halts plans by statehouses to accept Bitcoin tax payments | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/crypto-crash-halts-plans-by-statehouses-to-accept-bitcoin-tax-payments 28:51 – A FinTech horror story: How one company prioritizes cybersecurityhttps://www.darkreading.com/edge-articles/a-fintech-horror-story-how-one-company-prioritizes-cybersecurity 35:14 – World-wide, venture-capital funding for AI accounting startups hit a total of $233.3 million between January and the end of March, surpassing the $210.2 million in funding for all of 2021, according to PitchBookhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/vcs-target-ai-accounting-startups-as-companies-look-to-control-spending-in-uncertain-economy-11655151883 38:52 – Clients Would Switch for Portals - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2022/06/26/clients-would-switch-for-portals/ 42:11 – Toast Serves up Expanded Restaurant Solutions with Sling Acquisitionhttps://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2022/toast-serves-up-expanded-restaurant-solutions-with-sling-acquisition/ 44:39 – Voicemail from Tony Novac – Thank you! Voicemail from Erin Millie Smith – Thank you! Email from Paul – Thank you!Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDigits: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/digitsLedgerGurus: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ledgergurusuCollect: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ucollectNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes8:35 – EY fined $100m over US audit exam cheatinghttps://www.accountancydaily.co/ey-fined-100m-over-us-audit-exam-cheating How Exactly Did EY Auditors Cheat on CPE Exams? Details From the SEC Orderhttps://www.goingconcern.com/how-exactly-did-ey-auditors-cheat-on-cpe-exams-details-from-the-sec-order/ Top accounting firm fined $100 million after employees cheated on CPA examshttps://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/business/ernst-and-young-sec-cheating-fine/index.html 25:16 – Broken enQ blog posthttps://blog.callenq.com/urgent-update-changes-at-the-irs-impacting-enq-service-levels/?utm_source=pocket_mylist CallEnQ on Twitter: "We’ve listened to our customers and are re-evaluating the next steps due to the recent drop in IRS level of service (and thus enQ level of service). @taxtherapist505 @PKubeyEA"https://twitter.com/callenqinc/status/1541833877186318336 28:59 – IRS Delayed on Tax Refunds Partly Due to Massive Backloghttps://smallbiztrends.com/2022/06/irs-delayed-tax-refunds.html Taxpayer advocate sees much larger backlog than IRS reportedhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/taxpayer-advocate-sees-much-larger-tax-return-backlog-than-irs-reported National Taxpayer Advocate report targets IRS servicehttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/jun/national-taxpayer-advocate-report-targets-irs-service.html 36:36 – GOP lawmaker proposes to double R&D tax credithttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/gop-lawmaker-proposes-to-double-r-d-tax-credit-in-new-bill Senators Reintroduce Bill to Preserve Freedom of Payment Choicehttps://www.pymnts.com/news/regulation/2022/senators-reintroduce-bill-to-preserve-freedom-of-payment-choice/ 50:44 – The promise and peril of crypto for black investors – NPRhttps://www.npr.org/2022/06/28/1108413738/the-promise-a The Indicator from Planet Money : NPRhttps://www.npr.org/transcripts/1108413738 58:18 – Intuit pulls QuickBooks from India, uncomfortably quickly • The Registerhttps://www.theregister.com/2022/07/01/intuit_quickbooks_quits_india/ 59:32 – Email from Jonathan Reed – Thank you!Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comResolve Works: https://www.resolve-works.com/careersWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsSynder: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderRelay: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes11:25 – Abortion statistics in the United States – Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_statistics_in_the_United_States?wprov=sfti1 21:16 – Abortions Increase in the U.S., Reversing a 30-Year Decline, Report Findshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/health/abortion-rate-increase.html?referringSource=articleShare 26:32 – This is how much child care costs in 2022https://www.care.com/c/how-much-does-child-care-cost/ Future costs of raising a childhttps://www.concordmonitor.com/getattachment/ab3e8593-195d-460d-9e7f-700c26c20c26/kidcost-cmlife-012217-ph03 The Cost of Raising a Childhttps://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/cost-raising-childGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comResolve Works: https://www.resolve-works.com/careersWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyA2X: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/a2x Synder: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes4:18 – Listener mail on Clearspend shutdown 10:11 – Brex, which started out serving startups, now says it is ‘less suited to meet the needs of smaller customers’ | TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2022/06/17/brex-which-started-out-serving-startups-now-says-it-is-less-suited-to-meet-the-needs-of-smaller-customers/ Brex | Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?https://www.brex.com/support/why-am-i-no-longer-qualified-to-be-a-brex-customer/ 15:25 – Lili Adds Third-Party Integrations for SMBshttps://www.pymnts.com/smbs/2022/lili-adds-third-party-integrations-smbs/ 16:16 – Voicemail from Heather Smith – Thank you! 21:02 – Internet Explorer Is Shutting Down in a Burst of Nostalgiahttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/business/internet-explorer-shutting-down.html?referringSource=articleShare 30:38 – New: Introducing Fathom’s integration with Google Sheetshttps://blog.fathomhq.com/google-sheets-integration 34:02 – Voicemail from Byron Patrick – Thank you! 37:12 – EY invests $1B in new audit technology | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ey-invests-1b-in-new-audit-technology EY plans $1bn investment in audit technologyhttps://www.accountancydaily.co/ey-plans-1bn-investment-audit-technology EY Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is on Audit Quality With a Technology Investmenthttps://www.goingconcern.com/ey-puts-its-money-where-its-mouth-is-on-audit-quality-with-a-technology-investment/ 41:41 – Nuula launches in Canada to support small businesses, entrepreneurshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nuula-launches-in-canada-to-support-small-businesses-entrepreneurs-301566984.html 42:59 – Decimal Raises $9.2mm Seed to Automate Accounting Operations for SMBshttps://www.wfmz.com/news/pr_newswire/pr_newswire_technology/decimal-raises-9-2mm-seed-to-automate-accounting-operations-for-smbs/article_b675dc95-f7c4-5d54-afcf-e27df29b7b65.html 46:31 – Bill Gates says crypto and NFTs are based on 'greater fool theory'https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/15/bill-gates-says-crypto-and-nfts-are-based-on-greater-fool-theory.html 49:12 – Celsius Is Crashing, and Crypto Investors Are Spooked – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/celsius-is-crashing-and-crypto-investors-are-spooked-11655371801 Crypto Lender Celsius Under Investigation by Several US State Regulatorshttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/crypto-lender-celsius-under-investigation-by-several-us-state-regulators/ Who Pays for Crypto’s Collapse? – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/who-pays-for-crypto-collapse-class-action-lawsuits-bitcoin-ethereum-losses-investors-coinbase-luna-xrp-11655056359 54:08 – Sen. Cynthia Lummis pumps cryptohttps://twitter.com/means_tv/status/1534894872271929344?s=12&t=ChIXLXFTq7uE3xzW2ZnNJg 58:24 – Software Company MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Losses Almost $1Bhttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/software-company-microstrategys-bitcoin-losses-almost-1b/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comResolve Works: https://www.resolve-works.com/careersWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest, Lee Frederiksen:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leefrederiksen/Accounting Today contributions: https://www.accountingtoday.com/author/lee-frederiksenLearn more about Hingehttps://hingemarketing.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guests:James Robnett, Deputy Chief, Criminal InvestigationLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-robnett-b5697445/Darren Guillot, Deputy Commissioner, IRS Small Business DivisionLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-john-guillot-b7262351/Learn more about IRS Criminal Investigationhttps://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigationLearn more about IRS Small Business Divisionhttps://www.irs.gov/about-irs/small-business-self-employed-division-at-a-glanceNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest, Penny BreslinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penny-breslin-0228b81Learn more about MoneyPenny, LLChttps://moneypennyllc.com/about-us/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpaySynder: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderFreshbooks: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes8:24 – Obviously most CPAs are against the 150 hr rule. But what if those extra 30 hours were beneficial?https://twitter.com/jmcgowan3838/status/1536865439761981440?s=12&t=o4NXUgPpdhP_BFttwPv7bA 14:06 – Be Great. Be American. Easier Accounting Commercialhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-muWpOqx61E 34:04 – CohnReznick charged with improper auditing conduct by SEChttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cohnreznick-charged-with-improper-auditing-conduct-by-sec 38:53 – Listener mail – Thank you, Dan! 43:19 – Reality TV stars convicted of $30m fraud and tax evasionhttps://www.accountancydaily.co/reality-tv-stars-convicted-30m-fraud-and-tax-evasion 46:33 – Wolters Kluwer, KPMG collaborate across content platformshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/wolters-kluwer-kpmg-collaborate-across-content-platforms 1:01:25 – IRS Raising 2022 Standard Mileage Deduction Rate As Gas Prices Soarhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2022/06/irs-raising-2022-standard-mileage-deduction-rate-for-business.html Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxAmbitious Bookkeeper: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcastRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comResolve Works: https://www.resolve-works.com/careersAdvisors For Change: advisorsforchange.com/join-our-teamWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest:Eric Green, Founder of Tax Rep Network LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-green-b63a546Learn more about Tax Rep Networkhttps://taxrepllc.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest:Seth Fineberg, Editorial Manager/US Team Lead at AccountingWEB.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-fineberg-86aa8663Learn more about AccountingWEBhttps://www.accountingweb.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDigits: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/digitsA2X: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/A2XCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes3:27 – Val Kilmer's Dialogue in "Top Gun: Maverick" Was Read by AI Because He Can't Speak Anymorehttps://futurism.com/the-byte/val-kilmer-dialogue-ai-top-gun How The Book of Boba Fett Tricked Fans With Luke Skywalker's Voicehttps://thedirect.com/article/book-boba-fett-luke-skywalker-voice 23:52 – Listener Mail – Thank you, Alison! 34:03 – The Frontier: For efficiency to live, email must diehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/the-frontier-for-practice-efficiency-to-live-email-must-die 41:17 – Accounting Firm EY Considers Split of Audit, Advisory Businesseshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-firm-ey-considers-splitting-audit-and-advisory-businesses-11653592588?mod=realestate_trending_now_article_pos2 54:41 – Podcast Reviews 52:49 – Melio Intros International Payments for SMBshttps://www.pymnts.com/smbs/2022/melio-intros-international-payments-for-smbs/ Melio Launches International Payments To Over 70 Countrieshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/melio-launches-international-payments-to-over-70-countries-301556489.html 55:39 – Lightspeed Commerce Launches B2B Platformhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2022/lightspeed-commerce-launches-b2b-platform/ Lightyear and Sage partner for end-to-end offeringhttps://ecommercenews.com.au/story/lightyear-and-sage-partner-for-end-to-end-offering 57:49 – Jotform Store Builder launches as a no-code solution to build a store in minuteshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jotform-store-builder-launches-as-a-no-code-solution-to-build-a-store-in-minutes-301559218.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxAmbitious Bookkeeper: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcastRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopySynder: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderA2X: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/A2XNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes3:23 – Adam Neumann's blockchain-based redemption story now sponsored by a16zhttps://techcrunch.com/2022/05/24/flowcarbon-wework-adam-neumann-blockchain-crypto-carbon-credit-startup-raises-funding-from-a16z/ 6:46 – Kicking off the AICPA ESG Symposiumhttps://twitter.com/kaceebop/status/1528891278876102657?s=12&t=RyUCB_1HHZjo8PXBkf94lA 13:51 – Bolt lays off employees in company restructuringhttps://www.protocol.com/bulletins/bolt-layoff-employees-company-restructuring FinTech Startup Bolt Financial Plans Layoffshttps://www.pymnts.com/checkout-conversion/2022/fintech-startup-bolt-financial-plans-layoffs/ 16:03 – IRS raids alliantgroup officeshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-raids-alliantgroup-offices The IRS Is Paying an Unwelcome Visit to Alliantgroup (NEW UPDATE) Dhaval Finally Emailed His Troops - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/the-irs-is-paying-an-unwelcome-visit-to-alliantgroup/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-irs-is-paying-an-unwelcome-visit-to-alliantgroup 20:23 – Accounting Giant EY Created A Chief Wellbeing Officer To Uplift And Empower Their Peoplehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/05/27/accounting-giant-ey-created-a-chief-wellbeing-officer-to-uplift-and-empower-their-people/ 23:56 – U.K. Regulator Fines KPMG Over Shortfalls in Rolls-Royce Audit – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-regulator-fines-kpmg-over-shortfalls-in-rolls-royce-audit-11653416467 25:03 – Accounting giant EY to spin off audit division from advisory businesshttps://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-10858715/Accounting-giant-EY-spin-audit-division-advisory-business.html Accounting Firm EY Considers Split of Audit, Advisory Businesseshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-firm-ey-considers-splitting-audit-and-advisory-businesses-11653592588 Accounting Firm EY Considers Split of Audit, Advisory Businesses – WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-firm-ey-considers-splitting-audit-and-advisory-businesses-11653592588?mod=hp_lead_pos4 27:03 – Top 100 Accounting Firm Now Accepts $SHIB, $DOGE and Others as Payment for Its Serviceshttps://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2022/05/top-100-accounting-firm-now-accepts-shib-doge-and-others-as-payment-for-its-services/ 48:21 – Listener mail – Thank you, Christopher! 49:27 – Introducing the Xero Stripe App in the new Stripe App Marketplace | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2022/05/introducing-xero-stripe-app/ 54:27 – Qonto adds invoice accounting to business finance platformhttps://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/92720/qonto-adds-invoice-accounting-to-business-finance-platform 56:19 – ADP Makes Enhancements to Accountant Connecthttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/adp-makes-enhancements-to-accountant-connect 58:05 – Austin St. John charged in multimillion-dollar PPP Covid relief fraud schemehttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/red-power-ranger-actor-charged-multimillion-dollar-ppp-covid-relief-fr-rcna29813 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxAmbitious Bookkeeper: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcastRoyalwise Solutions: learn.royalwise.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDigits: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/digitsCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopySynder: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synder Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes14:38 – KPMG Audit Kickstart CPA program will pay new hires to studyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/kpmg-audit-kickstart-cpa-program-will-pay-new-hires-to-study Walmart has created a program to recruit and train college graduates to become store managers, promising a starting wage of at least $65,000 a yearhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-cant-find-enough-store-managers-even-at-200-000-a-year-11652619602 Walmart Struggles to Add Store Managers at $210K+https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2022/walmart-struggles-add-store-managers-210000-dollars/ 18:10 – Apple softens its stance on remote work amid return-to-office delays | Engadgethttps://www.engadget.com/apple-delays-return-to-office-allows-remote-work-194324892.html Apple Reverses Remote Work Policy, Exec Goes To Alphabethttps://gizmodo.com/apple-return-to-work-policy-alphabet-machine-learnin-1848942742 Apple is sticking with two days back in the office each week, for nowhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-pauses-plans-to-go-from-two-days-to-three-days-a-week-in-the-office-11652829935 43% of Remote Workers Miss the Water Cooler Chats with Co-workershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmallBusinessTrends/~3/twaU6wF6Xlw/remote-workers-miss-water-cooler-chats-happy-hour.html 29:32 – Email from listener – Thank you, Catherine! 33:00 – IRS audit rates decreased most for wealthy, GAO findshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/may/irs-audit-rates-decreased-most-wealthy-gao-finds.html IRS audit rates plummet, especially for wealthy | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-audit-rates-plummet-especially-for-wealthy IRS may start collecting more demographic info on taxpayershttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-may-start-collecting-more-demographic-info-on-taxpayers 39:56 – After TerraUSD’s spectacular collapse, another stablecoin has lost its peg – Fortunehttps://fortune.com/2022/05/19/terrausd-dei-crypto-collapse-stablecoin-dollar-peg/ 43:08 – Dorsey outlines Block's bitcoin-centric future at first investor day in five years: 'No longer just a payments company'https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/18/jack-dorsey-outlines-blocks-bitcoin-centric-future-no-longer-just-a-payments-company.html 44:51 – The Frontier: Train accountants on tech, or technologists in accounting? https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/training-accountants-on-technology-or-training-technologists-in-accounting-which-is-better 52:32 – Reckon sells accounting division for $100mhttps://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/business/17021-reckon-sells-accounting-division-for-100m 53:30 – Audit and accounting software company Caseware rebrandshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/audit-and-accounting-software-company-caseware-rebrands 54:22 – This Seattle startup backed by American Express wants to be the 'LinkedIn of accounting' – GeekWirehttps://www.geekwire.com/2022/this-seattle-startup-backed-by-american-express-wants-to-be-the-linkedin-of-accounting/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxAdvisors for Change: https://www.advisorsforchange.comAmbitious Bookkeeper: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcastOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayFreshBooks: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes2:57 – Tether (USDT) stablecoin drops below $1 peghttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/12/tether-usdt-stablecoin-drops-below-1-peg.html Bitcoin plunged to its lowest level since December 2020 as a cryptocurrency selloff gathered steamhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-falls-to-26-000-as-crypto-selloff-intensifies-11652340653 10:46 – Crypto investors likely pay less than half the taxes they owehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/crypto-investors-are-likely-paying-less-than-half-the-taxes-they-owe 12:05 – Web3 accounting firm officially launches on Tactic.comhttps://domainnamewire.com/2022/05/09/web3-accounting-firm-officially-launches-on-tactic-com/ 22:59 – KPMG UK Somehow Won't Be Getting a Record Fine From the Financial Reporting Council For Carillion Messhttps://www.goingconcern.com/kpmg-uk-somehow-wont-be-getting-a-record-fine-from-the-frc-for-carillion-mess/ 25:22 – Listener mail from Chris – Thank you! 35:22 – Logan Graf YouTube Video – How Much Money I made In 2021 As A First Year CPA Firm Ownerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIcH2Zv_JyE 38:38 – Listener mail from Tyler – Thank you! 41:20 – Listener mail from Sarah – Thank you! 45:26 – IRS destroyed 30M paper information returns due to backloghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-destroyed-30m-paper-information-returns-due-to-backlog Report: IRS Destroyed 30 Million Paper Tax Documentshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21267104/report-irs-destroyed-30-million-paper-tax-documents 51:08 – Rippling raises $250M in series D fundinghttps://www.rippling.com/blog/rippling-raises-250m-in-series-d-funding 53:40 – Fueled by the remote work revolution, Deel more than doubles valuation to $12B with new raise – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2022/05/11/fueled-by-the-remote-work-revolution-deel-more-than-doubles-valuation-to-12b-with-new-raise/ 55:08 – Deluxe Announces Collaboration with Codat to Embed Accounting Integrations Directly into Deluxe Payroll + HR Solutions Platformhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220510005018/en/Deluxe-Announces-Collaboration-with-Codat-to-Embed-Accounting-Integrations-Directly-into-Deluxe-Payroll-HR-Solutions-Platform 57:18 - Avalara releases tax compliance automation tool for property managershttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/avalara-releases-tax-compliance-automation-tool-for-property-managers 58:06 – Xero’s full year 2022 financial resultshttps://www.xero.com/blog/2022/05/full-year-2022-financial-results/ 59:06 – Millions of Americans May Qualify for Free Broadband Internet Programhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21267032/millions-of-americans-may-qualify-for-free-broadband-internet-programGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxAdvisors for Change: https://www.advisorsforchange.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsFreshBooks: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyRelay: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:46 – Intuit owes customers $141 million after it 'cheated' them out of free tax serviceshttps://www.engadget.com/intuit-owes-consumers-141-million-after-it-cheated-them-out-of-free-tax-services-090115518.html Intuit Will Refund $141 Million to Low-Income TurboTax Users - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/business/turbotax-intuit-settlement.html 4:36 – Study: Nearly half of returns could be automatically populatedhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/study-says-nearly-half-of-tax-returns-could-be-automatically-pre-populated 8:09 – In-Person BNPL Coming Soon as Block Connects Seller, CashApp Ecosystemshttps://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2022/in-person-bnpl-coming-soon-as-block-connects-seller-cashapp-ecosystems/ 9:43 – H&R Block Wins Injunction Against Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc.https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-tax-report/h-r-block-wins-injunction-against-jack-dorseys-block-inc 11:23 – Fireside chat with IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettighttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/fireside-chat-with-irs-commissioner-chuck-rettig 19:00 – Marcum merges in Friedman to create $1B megafirmhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/marcum-merges-in-friedman-to-create-1b-megafirm 19:54 – Klean Books Offering Free Business Bookkeeping Services With New Promotionhttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/05/04/2435980/0/en/Klean-Books-Offering-Free-Business-Bookkeeping-Services-With-New-Promotion.html 21:18 – PwC US announces $2.4B employee investmenthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pwc-us-announces-2-4b-employee-investment 28:05 – Let's Mesh Other Business Buzzwords to Form the Next Big Accounting Firm Namehttps://www.goingconcern.com/lets-mesh-other-business-buzzwords-to-form-the-next-big-accounting-firm-name/ 31:11 – In KPMG Australia Cheating Scandal, Apparently Cheaters *Do* Winhttps://www.goingconcern.com/in-kpmg-australia-cheating-scandal-apparently-cheaters-do-win/ 32:58 – Why the Metaverse matters to youhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/podcast/why-the-metaverse-matters-to-you 37:49 – What It Will Take for Augmented Reality to Become Our Realityhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/what-it-will-take-for-augmented-reality-to-become-our-reality-11651844452 Law firm says employees can work from home full-time – but only if they take a 20% pay cuthttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/05/workers-at-uk-law-firm-to-take-20percent-pay-cut-to-work-from-home-full-time.html 46:38 – Back In My Day, Accountants Had to Walk Uphill Both Ways In the Hot Sun to Get to Work, Says Crotchety Old British Guyhttps://www.goingconcern.com/back-in-my-day-accountants-had-to-walk-uphill-both-ways-in-the-hot-sun-to-get-to-work-says-crotchety-old-british-guy/ 51:41 – Pizza accountant to pay $2M for insider tradinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ex-dominos-accountant-to-pay-2m-for-insider-trading 55:34 – Stripe Offers Businesses Customer-Account Verification Toolshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2022/stripe-offers-businesses-customer-account-verification-tools/ 56:29 – Experiment finds RPA is 745% faster than manual processeshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/experiment-finds-rpa-is-745-faster-than-manual-accounting-processesGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxAdvisors for Change: https://www.advisorsforchange.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRelay: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayCanopy: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyScrutinize: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/scrutinizeNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes17:43 – Clients left in the dark after not hearing from tax preparer, missing tax deadlinehttps://www.13abc.com/2022/04/26/clients-left-dark-after-not-hearing-tax-preparer-missing-tax-deadline/ 20:12 – Taxpayer advocate calls on IRS to expand online serviceshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/taxpayer-advocate-calls-on-irs-to-expand-online-services 30:52 – QuickBooks Online Advanced Now Syncs with Excelhttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/quickbooks-online-advanced-now-syncs-with-excel Centage Announces Premium App for QuickBooks Online Advancedhttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/centage-announces-premium-app-for-quickbooks-online-advanced-301534214.html 45:36 – Formations Raises $8M Series A | Formationshttps://formationscorp.com/formations-raises-8-million-dollar-series-a/ 52:02 – Sage announces rebranding https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-announces-rebrand-to-better-align-with-needs-of-smes Sage announces rebrand to better align with needs of SMEshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-announces-rebrand-to-better-align-with-needs-of-smes 54:25 – Sage acquires Mateo cloud savings and loan software, so nonprofit and faith-based organizations can maximize donationshttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/04/22/2427562/0/en/Sage-acquires-Mateo-cloud-savings-and-loan-software-so-nonprofit-and-faith-based-organizations-can-maximize-donations.html Sage acquires Mateo cloud savings and loan softwarehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-acquires-mateo-cloud-savings-and-loan-software 55:50 – Thomson Reuters acquires Gesttahttps://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2022/april/thomson-reuters-acquires-gestta.html 58:18 – Stripe Launches Stripe Partner Ecosystemhttps://www.pymnts.com/partnerships/2022/stripe-launches-stripe-partner-ecosystem/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxFirmsta: firmsta.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAdvisors for Change: https://www.advisorsforchange.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDigits: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/digitsSynder: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderRelay: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes4:35 – Accounting Twins Podcasthttps://www.accountingtwins.com/ 7:37 – What is Disney World's 'special district'? - The Fulcrumhttps://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/-2657192873 18:35 – Details on New Hires, Most In-Demand Service Lines, CPA Exam Numbers, and More From the Latest AICPA Trends Report - Going Concernhttps://www.goingconcern.com/details-on-new-hires-most-in-demand-service-lines-cpa-exam-numbers-and-more-from-the-latest-aicpa-trends-report/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=details-on-new-hires-most-in-demand-service-lines-cpa-exam-numbers-and-more-from-the-latest-aicpa-trends-report 45:21 – Scuffle sparked at Accounting Act reform meetinghttps://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2022/04/22/2003777037Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxFirmsta: firmsta.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest, Wayne ChangLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynechang/Twitter: https://twitter.com/wayne?lang=enLearn more about DigitsWebsite: https://digits.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDigits: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/digitsScrutinize: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/scrutinizeSynder: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes4:41 – Art of Accounting: Energizing staff for last-minute returnshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/art-of-accounting-energizing-staff-for-last-minute-tax-returns 11:30 – Email from Listener – Thank you! 13:52 – Letter from Osidon 20:17 – Email from Trevor – Thank you! 24:08 – Voicemail from Ray – Thank you! 37:29 – PE investment fuels M&A at Citrin Coopermanhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pe-firm-buys-majority-stake-in-citrin-cooperman 38:52 – Man who paid $2.9m for NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet set to lose almost $2.9mhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/14/twitter-nft-jack-dorsey-sina-estavi 48:07 –Marvel Star Simu Liu Thanks Accounting Firm For Laying Him Off 10 Years Agohttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/simu-liu-accounting-laid-off-anniversary_n_62575762e4b0be72bff23dad?ncid%3DNEWSSTAND0001Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxFirmsta: firmsta.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayFreshBooks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksScrutinize: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/scrutinizeNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes13:09 – Legislation introduced in Senate to recognize accounting as a STEM field in K-12 educationhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/newsletters/extra-credit/legislation-introduced-recognize-accounting-as-stem-k-12-education.html 17:16 – Diverse accounting hires on the rise, AICPA report finds | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/diverse-accounting-hires-on-the-rise-aicpa-report-finds CPA firms show progress in diversity amid pipeline challenges - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/apr/cpa-firms-show-progress-diversity-pipeline-challenges.html  25:26 – Fake bank records are readily available as U.S. hunts for fraud | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/fake-bank-records-are-readily-available-as-u-s-hunts-for-fraud  33:12 – Walmart Stops $4M in Gift Cards From Reaching Scammers Targeting Older Victimshttps://www.pymnts.com/walmart/2022/walmart-stops-4m-in-gift-cards-from-reaching-scammers-targeting-older-victims/ 35:25 – Elon Musk delayed filing a form and made $156 millionhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/06/musk-twitter-sec/ 41:07 – Block Confirms Cash App Breach by Former Employee https://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2022/block-confirms-cash-app-breach-by-former-employee/ 42:34 – Mailchimp says an internal tool was used to breach hundreds of accountshttps://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEC4n0jBa41XPsQx-Of5_IEsqFAgEKg0IACoGCAowlIEBMLEXMOc_?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen 46:33 – After Raising, Burning Through $120M+, Fast Fades Fast in One-Click Battlehttps://www.pymnts.com/startups/2022/after-raising-burning-through-120m-fast-fades-fast-in-one-click-battle/ Fast, the checkout startup, shuts down: NPRhttps://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1091077398/checkout-startup-fast-is-shutting-down-after-burning-through-investors-money 50:38 – Bolt to Purchase Crypto Startup Wyre for $1.5Bhttps://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2022/bolt-to-purchase-crypto-startup-wyre-for-1-5b/ 53:22 – Palantir alums raise $25M from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and other VCs for their finance startup, Mosaic | TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2022/03/30/palantir-finance-alums-raise-25m-for-mosaic-in-founders-fund-peter-thiel-led-series-b/ Clockwork.ai Closes $2 MM Seed Funding to Automate Financial Planning and Analysis and Help Businesses 'Know Their Numbers'https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/clockwork-ai-closes-2-mm-seed-funding-to-automate-financial-planning-and-analysis-and-help-businesses-know-their-numbers Docyt raises $11.5M Series A for its AI-powered accounting automation service | TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2022/04/06/docyt-raises-11-5m-series-a-for-its-ai-powered-accounting-automation-service/?guccounter=1 56:31 – Thryv Hosts Investor Day, Announces SaaS Revenue Target of $1 Billion in 2027https://finance.yahoo.com/news/thryv-hosts-investor-day-announces-100000925.html 59:58 – Xero appoints Chris O’Neill as Chief Growth Officer | Xero UShttps://www.xero.com/us/media-releases/xero-appoints-chief-growth-officer/ 1:02:09 – Spreadsheets Are Hot—and Cranking Out Complex Codehttps://www.wired.com/story/spreadsheets-are-hot-and-cranking-out-complex-code/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise:  learn.royalwise.comFuturefirm: futurefirmaccelerate.comGetW9: getw9.taxFirmsta: firmsta.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDigits: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/digitsScribe: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/scribeNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes00:59 – Taxpayer advocate urges IRS to use scanners to cut backloghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/taxpayer-advocate-urges-irs-to-use-scanners-to-cut-backlog  IRS Says Paper Income Tax Returns are Major Cause of Logjamhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21262251/irs-says-paper-income-tax-returns-are-major-cause-of-logjam 14:07 – FTC says TurboTax free filing not as free as advertised, Intuit vows to fighthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/federal-trade-commission-complaint-says-turbotax-overstated-free-file-options-intuit-vows-to-fight-back FTC Sues Intuit Over Deceptive TurboTax “Free” Filing Campaignhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2022/03/ftc-sues-intuit-over-deceptive-turbotax-free-filing.html ‘False Claims and Buried Disclosures’: FTC Says TurboTax Tricks People Into Thinking They Can File for Freehttps://money.com/turbotax-free-file-ftc-complaint/  18:32 – Five insights gleaned from PCAOB audit committee chair reporthttps://www.complianceweek.com/accounting-and-auditing/five-insights-gleaned-from-pcaob-audit-committee-chair-report/31507.article  22:02 – House Bill Calls for Creation of Crypto-Less, Privacy-First Digital Dollarhttps://www.pymnts.com/cbdc/2022/house-bill-calls-for-creation-of-crypto-less-privacy-first-digital-dollar/  24:58 – Voicemail from Ryan Pearcy – Thank you! 27:02 – Hedge funds are betting against a cryptocurrency whose price shouldn’t move. Tether says the short sellers are part of a ‘clever scheme to raise capital from those less knowledgeable’https://www.wsj.com/articles/short-sellers-bet-tether-cryptos-central-bank-is-vulnerable-to-a-run-11648978202 29:14 – Hackers heist $600M in crypto from blockchain networkhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/hackers-steal-600-million-in-crypto-from-ronin-blockchain-network  Crypto Gaming's Biggest Success Story Scammed Out Of $600 Millionhttps://kotaku.com/crypto-axie-infinity-scam-exploit-blockchain-ethereum-n-1848721147 34:12 – Accounting software: MCA yet again defers mandatory audit trail norm by 1 more yearhttps://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/accounting-software-mca-yet-again-defers-mandatory-audit-trail-norm-by-1-more-year/article65282052.ece  35:49 – Ask These 3 Interview Questions to Hire the Best Accountant for Your Firmhttps://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/ask-these-3-interview-questions-to-hire-the-best-accountant-for-your-firm  Former School of Medicine administrator pleads guilty to stealing $40 million from the University - Yale Daily Newshttps://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/03/28/former-school-of-medicine-administrator-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-40-million-from-the-university%EF%BF%BC/  46:51 – Email from Tony – Thank you! 54:40 – Builder.ai Raises $100M Series C Funding Led by Global Software Investor Insight Partnershttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/builderai-raises-100m-series-c-funding-led-by-global-software-investor-insight-partners-301513079.html  55:22 – Trullion tackles applying AI to accounting workflows | VentureBeathttps://venturebeat.com/2022/03/25/trullion-tackles-applying-ai-to-accounting-workflows/  56:43 – Finally, SMB Accounting Startup, Raises $95M | PYMNTS.comhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2022/finally-a-small-business-accounting-automation-startup-raises-95m/amp/  Finally, a Small Business Accounting Automation Startup, Raises $95Mhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2022/finally-a-small-business-accounting-automation-startup-raises-95m/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/GetW9: https://getw9.tax/Oh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDark Horse: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/darkhorseSynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderRelay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes03:29 – Mister Car Wash Finding Loyalty Among Increasing Customer Base            https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2022/mister-car-wash-finding-loyalty-among-increasing-customer-base/ 05:51 – Voicemail from Nikole – Thank you! 13:08 – Intuit Rate Survey: COVID-19’s impact on accounting professionals and their clients           https://www.firmofthefuture.com/content/intuit-rate-survey-covid-19s-impact-on-accounting-professionals-and-their-clients/ 18:00 – Half of Remote Professionals Say They Would Quit if Required to Go Back to Office            https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/payroll/news/21261548/half-of-remote-professionals-say-they-would-quit-if-required-to-go-back-to-office 20:27 – As more companies begin their return to the office, Facebook parent Meta Platforms is becoming more remote than ever before           https://www.wsj.com/articles/mark-zuckerberg-and-metas-leadership-take-remote-work-to-the-extreme-11648040580 24:30 – Rick Scott touts importance of 'bookkeeping' classes when asked about financial literacy bill          https://floridapolitics.com/archives/510781-bookkeeping-scott/ 26:24 – Who stands to make and lose money if the SEC climate rule becomes lawhttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/23/sec-climate-rule-winners-and-losers.html New SEC proposal would ramp up climate-change disclosureshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/mar/new-sec-proposal-ramp-up-climate-change-disclosures.html 34:09 – Advisory Services Continue to Grow in Accounting Firms https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/firm-management/article/21261215/advisory-services-continue-to-grow-in-accounting-firms 35:54 – Madonna Becomes Latest Celeb Aboard Bored Ape          https://www.pymnts.com/nfts/2022/madonna-becomes-latest-celeb-aboard-bored-ape-yacht-club/ 39:32 – Six months in, El Salvador’s bitcoin gamble is crumbling - Rest of World   https://restofworld.org/2022/el-salvador-bitcoin/?utm_source=pocket-newtab 42:52 – Digits books $65M on a $565M valuation to bring a more dynamic, automated approach to legacy accounting tools – TechCrunch        https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/24/digits-books-65m-on-a-565m-valuation-to-bring-a-more-dynamic-automated-approach-to-legacy-accounting-tools/ 59:47 – Podcast 350: Wayne Chang of Digits - LendIt Fintech News            https://www.lendacademy.com/podcast-350-wayne-chang-of-digits/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/GetW9: https://getw9.tax/ Oh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsKeeper: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeperSynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderScribe https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/scribeNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes01:02 – Talking Disney and Bars ...  15:37 – Commissioner to Congress: IRS will clear backlog by year’s end https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/mar/commissioner-congress-irs-will-clear-backlog-years-end.html 16:18 – IRS plans to hire thousands likely to fall short      https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-plans-to-hire-thousands-more-employees-likely-to-fall-short 19:50 – IRS Struggles Allow Secret Election Spending To Flourishhttps://campaignlegal.org/update/irs-struggles-allow-secret-election-spending-flourish 20:43 – IRS Starts Using Chatbots for Calls             https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21260152/irs-starts-using-chatbots-for-calls 21:46 – PCAOB confirms talks with China on audit firm accesshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pcaob-confirms-talks-with-china-on-audit-firm-access 25:19 – The SEC is investigating the Big Four accounting firms for potential conflicts of interest that could influence their audits, people familiar sayhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/big-four-accounting-firms-come-under-regulators-scrutiny-11647364574 28:12 – Accounting Faces Reckoning After Years of Sluggish Pay Growth https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/accounting-faces-reckoning-after-years-of-sluggish-pay-growth Big Four Accounting Firms Reportedly Probed by SEC       https://www.businessinsider.com/big-four-accounting-firms-sec-probe-conflict-of-interest-report-2022-3 32:14 – Workers Care More About Flexible Hours Than Remote Work - WSJ           https://www.wsj.com/articles/workers-care-more-about-flexible-hours-than-remote-work-11643112004 33:20 – 58% of Consumers Check on Work While Not in Office, Outside Normal Working Hours    https://www.pymnts.com/connectedeconomy/2022/consumers-check-on-work-while-not-in-office-outside-working-hours/ 35:30 – Tucson woman accused of gambling away $5M in embezzled fundshttps://tucson.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/tucson-woman-accused-of-gambling-away-5m-in-embezzled-funds/article_b010f994-a70c-11ec-9940-7fa3aaccf602.html37:01 – Botkeeper Upgrades Bookkeeping Task Platform               https://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/botkeeper-upgrades-bookkeeping-task-platform 39:09 – Stamped AI closes $2 million to simplify financial statement prep for SMBs            https://betakit.com/stamped-ai-closes-2-million-to-simplify-financial-statement-prep-for-smbs/ 40:19 – FISKL introduces modern API-driven accounting for small businesses        https://www.wfmz.com/news/pr_newswire/pr_newswire_technology/fiskl-introduces-modern-api-driven-accounting-for-small-businesses/article_9626addf-cd8b-5324-b3a0-3725c43ad8e8.html 42:06 – AuditBoard rolls out new automation and analytics features         https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/auditboard-releases-auditboard-automation-and-analytics-tool 46:35 – Coinbooks raises $3.2 million to build accounting software for DAOs         https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/138356/coinbooks-raises-3-2-million-to-build-accounting-software-for-daos  46:51 – Coinbooks Gathers $3.2 Million For Developing Accounting Software To Serve DAOs         https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/03/19/coinbooks-gathers-3-2-million-for-developing-accounting-software-to-serve-daos/ 48:20 – Xerocon Sydney: Xerocon returns to Australia     https://www.xero.com/blog/2022/03/xerocon-returns-to-australia/ 49:17 – Xero’s position on Ukraine and Russia     https://www.xero.com/blog/2022/03/our-position-on-ukraine-and-russia/ 50:52 – The Ukraine crypto connection 52:00 – Bitcoin Price Surges on Biden’s Crypto Executive Orderhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-to-order-study-of-cryptocurrency-risk-creation-of-u-s-digital-currency-11646823600 52:37 – Tether Slashes Commercial Paper Holdings by 21%            https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/02/22/tether-slashes-commercial-paper-holdings-by-21/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Oh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayFreshBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksScribe https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/scribeNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes01:37 – Top Firms 2022: What Great Resignation?             https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/top-firms-2022-what-great-resignation 03:19 – 2022 State of Accounting Firms Trends Reporthttps://insights.caseware.com/caseware-2022-state-of-accounting-firms-trends-report 05:58 – The fastest-growing firms in the U.S. — 2022        https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/the-fastest-growing-firms-in-the-u-s-2022 08:00 – YPTC Scores Second Place on Accounting Today’s 2021 List of Best Accounting Firms to Work Forhttps://www.yptc.com/yptc-scores-second-place-on-accounting-todays-2021-list-of-best-accounting-firms-to-work-for/ 12:20 – Cloud computing expected to skyrocket in accounting firmshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/caseware-survey-finds-two-thirds-plan-to-increase-use-of-cloud-computing-solutions 12:30 – Vast Majority of Accounting Firms Plan to Tap into Cloud Technology Due to Pandemic: Global Surveyhttps://www.cfodive.com/press-release/20220309-vast-majority-of-accounting-firms-plan-to-tap-into-cloud-technology-due-to/ 14:25 – Email from Tyler – Audit at a Big Four – Thank you!  21:33 – DoorDash Partners with Office Depot to Offer Business and Learning Essentials On Demandhttps://doordash.news/consumer/doordash-partners-with-office-depot-to-offer-business-and-office-essentials-on-demand/ 25:27 – A bit about surge pricing 27:24 – IRS budget increase slashed in latest spending bill              https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-budget-increase-slashed-in-latest-spending-bill 28:23 – IRS proposes to raise fees for enrolled agentshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-proposes-to-raise-fees-for-enrolled-agents 28:44 – IRS going on a hiring spreehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-looking-to-hire-10-000-people-fast IRS to fast-track 10,000 hirings to address backloghttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/mar/irs-fast-track-10000-hirings-address-backlog.html IRS direct-hiring 5,000 in service centers https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/mar/irs-direct-hiring-in-service-centers.html 29:25 – IRS audits poorest families five times as much as others  https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-audits-poorest-families-five-times-as-much-as-others IRS audits the poor at 5 times the rate of everyone else, analysis findshttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-audit-eitc-five-times-as-likely-to-get-audited/ 31:51 – Why underfunding the IRS hurts the accounting profession 37:18 – Practice Ignition becomes ‘Ignition’         https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/practice-ignition-becomes-ignition-enhances-platform 38:17 – Contabilizei Receives Investment of $60M Led by Softbankhttps://www.pymnts.com/smbs/2022/contabilizei-receives-investment-of-60m-led-by-softbank/ 40:30 – Patriot Software patents dual-ledger featurehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/patriot-software-successfully-patents-dual-ledger-accounting-solution-as-software-feature 44:35 – Chargebee acquires collections management platformhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/chargebee-adds-accounts-receivable-services-by-acquiring-collections-management-platform-numberz 45:14 – MarginEdge & Intuit Launch Unified Restaurant Solutionhttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/marginedge--intuit-launch-unified-restaurant-solution-301485003.html 50:35 – Fieldguide raises $17M in new funding   https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/fieldguide-raises-20-million-in-series-a-funding-at-100-million-valuation 52:55 – Tax and audit software reaching the clouds?  56:01 – Exclusive: Found raises $60 million for self-employed business bankinghttps://www.axios.com/exclusive-found-raises-60-million-for-self-employed-business-banking-944d74ad-d2e6-4c4a-b953-1b0a34cd7301.html  Careers https://found.com/careers 58:08 – Banks turning into software; software becoming banks 59:15 – Biden takes big step toward government-backed digital currencyhttps://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/us-government-digital-currency-rcna19248 59:58 – World's Largest Accounting Firms Withdraw from Russiahttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/accounting-audit/news/21259561/big-4-accounting-firms-cease-operations-in-russia 60:23 – AICPA and CIMA suspend services in Russia and Belarushttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-and-cima-suspend-services-in-russia-and-belarusGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsONCE Accounting: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/oncea2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/A2XLiveFlow: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes02:33 – David’s QBO Troll             https://twitter.com/davidleary/status/1499514128435531800 08:26 – Are the big firms falling apart?  09:59 – The Big Firm Biz Model 13:03 – Is this model sustainable?  14:29 – Why Blake moved to tech 17:06 – Remote work changed everything 18:21 – Can accounting jobs be more meaningful?  20:27 – Accounting standards haven’t changed in 100 years  22:52 – Companies and investors don't care about the financial numbers like they used to. The metrics are changing.  26:39 – People want a meaningful job 28:45 – Lifestyle spending accounts - what are they? 31:45 – Schools aren't teaching accounting students about other opportunities 35:18 – ‘I spent 5 hours on the phone’: Woman exposes TurboTax for taking thousands of her tax return in viral TikTokhttps://www.dailydot.com/debug/tiktok-tax-return-turbotax/ 36:38 – TPG refund         https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/after-you-file/discussion/tpg-refund/00/2511328 39:56 – DIY vs. tax pro: How taxpayers choosehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/study-finds-tax-software-users-prioritize-cost-and-paid-preparer-users-prioritize-accuracy 41:53 – Working with tax organizers needs to be easier - bad customer experience 44:11 – Companies need to raise their prices and focus on customer experience instead of speed 46:29 – AICPA & CIMA stand with the people of Ukrainehttps://www.fm-magazine.com/news/2022/mar/aicpa-cima-ukraine-statement.html 49:11 – Ex-Big 4 Partner On Why the Big 4 Firms Should Pull Out of Russia: 'It's the Right Thing to Do and You Know It'https://www.goingconcern.com/ex-big-4-partner-why-big-4-firms-should-leave-russia/ 50:31 – Visa and Mastercard Suspend Russian Operations             https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-04/card/visa-and-mastercard-suspend-russian-operations-LAhp94TyXAXrNzaILwz5 51:05 – Spoils of War? Ukraine Says No Taxes Due on Captured Russian Tankshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21259037/spoils-of-war-ukraine-says-no-taxes-due-on-captured-russian-tanks 52:51 – KPMG set to drop some clients over Russian sanctionshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/kpmg-set-to-drop-some-clients-over-russian-sanctions 53:05 – Grant Thornton Drops Its Russian Affiliate Over Conflict In Ukrainehttps://www.goingconcern.com/grant-thornton-drops-its-russian-affiliate-over-conflict-in-ukraine/ Big 4 Firms Condemn Russia's Invasion of Ukraine, But Will They Sever Relationships With Any Russian Clients? (UPDATE)https://www.goingconcern.com/big-4-firms-condemn-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-but-will-they-sever-relationships-with-any-russian-clients/ 54:09 – Voicemail from Jack Thiel – Talking startups, etc. in accounting 57:06 – Voicemail from Joe Cangelosi – Leaving accounting ‎01:02:05 – Jacob I. Oberlander, CPA on Twitter: "@BlakeTOliver We're not charging by the hour and not billing by the hour. But we're still tracking time.https://twitter.com/JacobOberlander/status/1498320967331983361 01:04:01 - Technology has changed the way time is measurable for work successGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsorsa2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/A2XCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopySynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes00:24 – We make snow-shoveling fun! Thanks, Jonathan!  02:20 – Countries consider suspending Russia from the world’s main payment infrastructurehttps://twitter.com/i/events/1497079584633745408?s=12 03:50 – What is SWIFT?  06:10 – Will Russia just flip to crypto?  07:23 – Lightspeed Leads Deal for Brex Rival Payhawk at $1 Billion Valuation https://www.theinformation.com/articles/lightspeed-leads-deal-for-brex-rival-payhawk-at-1-billion-valuation 07:37 – Brex Debuts Mobile Cash Flow Management Tools https://www.pymnts.com/mobile-applications/2022/brex-debuts-mobile-cash-flow-management-tools/  10:18 – Amex, Airbase Team on Accounting Automation https://www.pymnts.com/partnerships/2022/amex-airbase-team-on-automation-of-accounting-approvals-for-virtual-cards/  12:48 – Intuit beta tests revenue sharing program with accountants https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-beta-tests-revenue-sharing-program-with-pro-advisor-accountants  16:00 – Intuit Revenue Share - Are You Eligible?  https://report.woodard.com/articles/intuit-revenue-share-are-you-eligible-ocawr ProAdvisor Revenue Share Program https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/products-solutions/pricing-promotions/papp/revenue-share/  20:35 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: January 2022 – QuickBookshttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-january-2022/ 24:15 – Intuit Inc. (INTU) Second Quarter Earnings Show QuickBooks, MailChimp Revenue Growth - InvestorsObserver https://www.investorsobserver.com/news/stock-update/intuit-inc-intu-second-quarter-earnings-show-quickbooks-mailchimp-revenue-growth  28:00 – The Future of QuickBooks with Hector Garcia – Earmark Accounting Podcasthttps://share.transistor.fm/s/60ebf866 32:45 – Blake’s interview with Ben Taylor of SoftLedger https://share.transistor.fm/s/3edead94 Intuit cuts sales forecast on ‘slower forming’ tax season | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/intuit-cuts-sales-forecast-on-slower-forming-tax-season Intuit Reports Second Quarter Results and Reiterates Full Year Guidance; Organic Online Ecosystem Revenue Grew 37 Percent https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220224005433/en/Intuit-Reports-Second-Quarter-Results-and-Reiterates-Full-Year-Guidance-Organic-Online-Ecosystem-Revenue-Grew-37-Percent  Intuit Corp (INTU) Q2 2021 Earnings Call Transcript @themotleyfool #stocks $INTU https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/02/23/intuit-corp-intu-q2-2021-earnings-call-transcript/  35:30 – Xero’s new App Launcher: Bringing apps closer to Xero small businesses and their advisors | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2022/02/xero-app-launcher/ New Xero App Launcher helps get more apps to small businesses https://itbrief.com.au/story/new-xero-app-launcher-helps-get-more-apps-to-small-businesses Introducing the new Xero App Launcher | by Xero Developer | Feb, 2022 | Xero Developer https://devblog.xero.com/introducing-the-new-xero-app-launcher-ab6a21a650be  38:50 –Introducing Xero Product Ideas | Xero Blog            https://www.xero.com/blog/2022/02/introducing-xero-product-ideas/ 42:50 – Dallas Accounting Platform Rebrands as Once, Then Gets Selected by Industry Accelerator Program » Dallas Innovates https://dallasinnovates.com/dallas-accounting-platform-rebrands-as-once-then-gets-selected-by-aicpa-accelerator-program/  43:43 – Bench strength: Shopify hires accounting software entrepreneur Ian Crosby to oversee banking products | Ottawa Business Journal    https://www.obj.ca/article/techopia/bench-strength-shopify-hires-accounting-software-entrepreneur-ian-crosby-oversee 48:00 – Feedback on our compilations discussion – Thank you, Chris!  48:45 – Now Trump Says His Accounting Firm Was 'Broken' By 'Radical Leftist' Racists https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-radical-leftist-racists-mazars-usa_n_6212e537e4b08ee35ee43b3c  50:28 – Email from Eric Fraint, President, and Founder of YPTC weighs in on timesheets. Thank you, Eric!  56:58 – Ford Baker, creator of BaCoTech – now Once - gives his take on billing 60:43 – PCAOB penalizes PwC Canada for sharing training exam answers | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pcaob-penalizes-pwc-canada-for-sharing-training-exam-answers 61:15 – Baxter to Pay $18 Million to Settle SEC Accounting Allegations https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/baxter-to-pay-18-million-to-settle-sec-accounting-allegations  62:04 – Sling TV to Accept Crypto Payments Via BitPay https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/sling-tv-to-accept-crypto-payments-for-subscriptions-through-bitpay/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsSynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopya2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/A2XNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes04:55 – Another listener weighs in on the timesheet issue 08:42 – Logan L. George, CPA on LinkedIn: #ditchhourly #nomoretimesheetshttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/logan-l-george-cpa-09166a112_ditchhourly-nomoretimesheets-activity-6897759335934492672-xJLY 12:05 – Years after calling Bitcoin ‘rat poison,’ Warren Buffett just invested $1 billion in a crypto-friendly bankhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-just-invested-1-163230481.html 16:05 - Colorado’s Plans To Accept Tax Payments in Crypto Could Be Rocky for Investors - Blockworks https://blockworks.co/colorados-plans-to-accept-tax-payments-in-crypto-could-be-rocky-for-investors/ 18:14 – Celebrities and NFTs: why your favourite stars are trying to sell you cryptocurrency https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2022/02/13/celebrities-and-nfts-why-your-favourite-stars-are-trying-to-sell-you-cryptocurrency/ 20:40 – Accountant Shortage, Resignations Fuel Financial Reporting Risks https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/accountant-shortage-resignations-fuel-financial-reporting-risks  21:30 – 'Limited pipeline' biggest challenge in advancing DE&I, survey finds | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/limited-pipeline-biggest-challenge-in-advancing-de-i-survey-finds 25:15 – Public accountants are deducting themselves from their jobshttps://www.theverge.com/2022/1/31/22903016/public-accountants-big-quit-memes-reddit 25:40 – r/Accounting - News story featuring r/Accountinghttps://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/sh35dk/news_story_featuring_raccounting/ 26:38 – Forwarded from Will Hill (linkedin.com/in/wghill)             Accountant Shortage, Resignations Fuel Financial Reporting Riskshttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/accountant-shortage-resignations-fuel-financial-reporting-risks 32:00 – The decreasing value of accounting 33:40 – Digging into the Trump Dump - Trump's Long-Time Accounting Firm Cuts Ties Over Financial Statementshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/nyregion/mazars-trump-organization-financial-statements.html 36:20 – Letter from Mazars on Donald Trump’s 2011-2020 financial statements - The Washington Posthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/context/letter-from-mazars-on-donald-trump-s-2011-2020-financial-statements/05c11ff2-b2e2-4d95-bcf4-cdffee6454bf/ 41:50 – Trump’s accountants, Mazars, just quit. What took so long? | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/trumps-accountants-just-quit-what-took-so-long 44:21 – Why Mazars accounting firm ditched Trump - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/15/why-trumps-accounting-firm-ditched-him/ 49:30 – Does Any Blame Lie With Mazars USA In Trump Organization Financial Statement Mess?https://www.goingconcern.com/does-any-blame-lie-with-mazars-usa-in-trump-organization-financial-statement-mess/ 50:46 – Why It’s No Surprise Trump’s Accounting Firm Is Saying His Financial Statements Are Unreliable https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2022/02/16/why-its-no-surprise-trumps-accounting-firm-is-saying-his-financial-statements-are-unreliable/ 56:43 – Why Blake thinks compilations are garbage 59:50 – Trump Makes New Claims About His Wealth After Accountants Drop Himhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/business/trump-wealth-mazars.html SEC accounting and auditing enforcement plunged in 2021, but PCAOB enforcement increased https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sec-accounting-and-auditing-enforcement-plunged-in-2021-but-pcaob-enforcement-increased Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsThe Ambitious Bookkeeper: bkworkshops.onlineRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpaySynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderFreshBooks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes ... We've also got updates on the IRS "facelift" that fell flat, some big raises, some app news, and much more! 02:44 – IRS backs away from facial recognitionhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/feb/irs-backs-away-from-facial-recognition.html 04:26 – IRS To Ditch Biometric Requirement for Online Accesshttps://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/02/irs-to-ditch-biometric-requirement-for-online-access/ 06:33 – A Guide to Completing Your Organizer This Tax Seasonhttps://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/a-guide-to-completing-your-organizer-this-tax-season 11:00 –  Listener Mail – A Tale of Two Timesheet Stories  14:20 – The first Rule of Timesheet Club ...  17:42 – Listener Mail – Big 4 Timesheet Racket   20:11 – Listener Mail - Letters from Outside Alcatraz 23:49 – Deloitte audit chief sees profession evolving amid pandemic | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/deloitte-audit-chief-sees-profession-evolving-amid-pandemic 27:35 – The Real Reason America Doesn’t Have Enough Truck Drivershttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/business/truck-driver-shortage.html 34:09 – Payroll Employee Quits on the Spot After Finding Potential Wage Theft, Exposes Company with Viral TikToks, Sparks Controversyhttps://amp.cheezburger.com/473351/payroll-employee-quits-on-the-spot-after-finding-potential-wage-theft-exposes-company-with-viral 38:34 – The Timesheet Lies Coffee Table Book Needs You!  39:59 – The Crypto Bowl is the beginning of a blockchain advertising bonanzahttps://www.protocol.com/fintech/super-bowl-crypto-bowl 41:59 – Crypto paychecks have more appeal outside the U.S. | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/crypto-paychecks-have-more-appeal-outside-the-u-s 44:53 – Accounting Standards Are Key to Getting Digital Assets on Corporate Balance Sheetshttps://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/02/07/accounting-standards-are-key-to-getting-digital-assets-on-corporate-balance-sheets/ 46:54 – Uber CEO: Crypto Payments Are Coming…Somedayhttps://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/uber-ceo-crypto-payments-are-coming-someday/ 47:37 – ­­KPMG Canada Latest Firm to Add Bitcoin, Ether to Balance Sheet – Blockworkshttps://blockworks.co/kpmg-canada-adds-bitcoin-ether-to-balance-sheet/ Accounting Giant KPMG Invests in Bitcoin and Ethereumhttps://www.investopedia.com/kpmg-invests-in-bitcoin-and-ethereum-5218436 48:40 – More Listener Mail – Modern Treasury 50:21 – $66 million to give accounting firms the practice management solution they deserve | Karbon resourceshttps://karbonhq.com/resources/66million-to-give-accounting-firms-the-practice-management-solution-they-deserve/ Next Xero? Aussie accounting tech firm worth $402m after $93m raisehttps://www.afr.com/technology/next-xero-aussie-accounting-tech-firm-worth-402m-after-93m-raise-20220204-p59tv0 50:59 – GoCardless Valued at $2.1B After Series Ghttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2022/gocardless-valued-at-2-1b-after-series-g/ 51:15 – Neat Inks Deal With Document Scanner Maker Ravenhttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/neat-inks-deal-with-document-scanner-maker-raven 51:42 – Taxfyle raises $20M Series B round, plans to grow its team by 100+https://www-refreshmiami-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.refreshmiami.com/taxfyle-raises-20m-series-b-round-plans-to-grow-its-team-by-100/ 53:08 – One More Listener Mail – Gaming the Accounting System54:15 - Accounting Games - They're a Thing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBXV1feuKSsGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsThe Ambitious Bookkeeper: bkworkshops.onlineRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsFreshBooks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksCanopy: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/canopyRelay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes... We'll also get into some app news, conference updates, and talk more tax, as we wander through the land of IRS troubles. 02:10 – Listener Mail: On the Sovietness of Timesheeting  06:34 – Listener Message: Squarely Tax – Cash App gets in the tax game Taxes Helphttps://taxeshelp.cash.app/s/article/What-forms-and-situations-does-Cash-App-Taxes-support 07:16 – TurboTax and Coinbase Team Up to Help You Invest Your Refund in Cryptocurrencyhttps://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/turbotax-news/turbotax-and-coinbase-team-up-to-help-you-invest-your-refund-in-cryptocurrency-50791/ TurboTax: Deposit your tax refund into your Coinbase account       https://rb.gy/azugh5 09:24 – New bill would change tax rules for cryptocurrency purchaseshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/lawmakers-introduce-virtual-currency-tax-fairness-act 10:01 – Intuit CEO warns of tax bill shock for Bitcoin, NFT traders   https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/intuit-ceo-warns-of-tax-bill-shock-for-bitcoin-nft-traders 13:38 – Why Is Matt Damon Shilling for Crypto?       https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/magazine/matt-damon-crypto.html?referringSource=articleShare 15:59 – Listener Voicemail: Anti-Crypto Boo!  18:58 – Blake responds ...  23:38 – ACH Network up to 29.1B Payments Valued at $72.6T in 2021https://www-pymnts-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.pymnts.com/news/faster-payments/2022/ach-network-up-to-29-1b-payments-valued-at-72-6t-in-2021/amp/ 24:06 - Crypto, NFTs are rife with ‘mountains’ of fraud, IRS says      https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/crypto-nfts-are-rife-with-mountains-of-fraud-irs-says 26:24 – Deluxe Reports 6% YoY Growth in Checks Segmenthttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2022/deluxe-reports-6-percent-yearly-growth-checks-segment/ 26:59 – Deluxe Corporation (DLX) CEO Barry McCarthy On Q4 2021 Results - Earnings Call Transcripthttps://seekingalpha.com/article/4483948-deluxe-corporation-dlx-ceo-barry-mccarthy-on-q4-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript 27:24 – More Listener Mail: Splitting Bad Haircuts 29:41 – When you log in to your IRS account this tax season you'll likely have to use ID.me to verify your identity. The service scoops up a huge pool of personal data that police and other authorities could tap into.https://www.businessinsider.com/irs-partner-idme-logs-inferred-citizenship-all-users-data-privacy-2022-2?utm_source=pocket_mylist 31:00 – GOP lawmakers move to stop IRS facial recognition technologyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/gop-lawmakers-move-to-stop-irs-facial-recognition-technology 32:25 – IRS to add 1,200 employees as agency confronts delays, backlog   https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/irs-to-add-1-200-employees-as-agency-confronts-delays-backlog 33:10 – What’s the IRS Hiding?          https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/02/01/whats-the-irs-hiding/ 35:22 – Even More Listener Mail: The Prometric Remote-Testing Faux Pas 36:41 – You guessed it – Listener Message: Another Disgruntled CPA looking for Work-Study Credit 37:45 – Weeks after a ransomware attack, some workers still worry about paycheckshttps://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/weeks-ransomware-attack-workers-still-worry-paychecks-rcna14186 38:53 – Intuit warns of phishing emails threatening to delete accountshttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/intuit-warns-of-phishing-emails-threatening-to-delete-accounts/ 41:15 – Important update - Xerocon date change - Xero Blog          https://www.xero.com/blog/2022/02/xerocon-new-orleans-date-change/ 43:15 – Keri Gohman new CEO @ Abacus Next         https://twitter.com/kerigohman/status/1488242061811744768?s=12 45:48 – Pennylane wants to overhaul the accounting tech stack in France  https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/30/pennylane-wants-to-overhaul-the-accounting-tech-stack-in-france/ 48:39 – Lendio’s Sunrise Financial Platform Delivers Small Businesses Premier Tools Built To Save Time and Moneyhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220203005302/en/Lendio%E2%80%99s-Sunrise-Financial-Platform-Delivers-Small-Businesses-Premier-Tools-Built-To-Save-Time-and-Money 50:24 – SURGENT ACCOUNTING & FINANCIAL EDUCATION LAUNCHES "MAX THE TAX" GAMIFIED COURSES DESIGNED TO MAKE EARNING CE CREDIT MORE FUN & ENGAGINGhttps://curated.tncontentexchange.com/partners/pr_newswire/subject/new_products_services/surgent-accounting-financial-education-launches-max-the-tax-gamified-courses-designed-to-make-earning-ce/article_d9610c20-1a99-5d05-ae3e-d13f4bce6c38.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsThe Ambitious Bookkeeper: bkworkshops.onlineRoyalwise: learn.royalwise.comOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRelay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relaySynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/syndera2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/A2XNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes... We're also covering assorted listener mail around our Tether talk from Episode 263, why it may be wise to avoid that Prometric remote testing, and how bosses can also be less than honest when it comes to timesheets. We've got app news, fintech news, and so much more. Enjoy! 03:35 - You know that portal you are sending clients to...https://twitter.com/davidleary/status/1486426809054887939?s=12 07:39 – The logic of Typeform 12:56 – Saying goodbye to TurboTax  16:44 - USDC audited     https://twitter.com/jacobbschroeder/status/1487470168246784009?s=12 18:13 - Tether's New Accounting Firm Is the Old One, With Baggagehttps://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/01/26/tethers-new-accounting-firm-is-the-old-one-with-baggage/ 19:16 – The Case of the Missing Billable Hours  21:30 - Avoid Prometric Remote Tests!  23:13 - NFL star's massive tax bill highlights problems with BTC salarieshttps://cointelegraph.com/news/nfl-star-s-massive-tax-bill-highlights-problems-with-btc-salaries/amp 26:15 - IRS kicks off challenging tax seasonhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-kicks-off-challenging-tax-season 27:22 - IRS Child Tax Credit letters may have wrong informationhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-child-tax-credit-letters-may-have-wrong-information 29:05 - AICPA notes IRS announcement on notices, asks Service to do more - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2022/jan/aicpa-notes-irs-announcement-on-notices-asks-more.html 31:47 - Announcing Plaid Portal: An ongoing commitment to data privacyhttps://plaid.com/blog/data-privacy-week-2022/ Plaid Debuts Data Privacy Tool Plaid Portalhttps://www.pymnts.com/digital-payments/2022/plaid-debuts-data-privacy-tool-plaid-portal/ 35:52 - The IRS is reportedly looking for ID.me alternatives amid privacy concernshttps://www.theverge.com/2022/1/29/22907853/irs-idme-facial-recognition-alternatives-privacy-concerns 38:43 - PPP and IRS Disappointmenthttps://www.nber.org/papers/w29669 40:20 - Here’s where billions in PPP cash meant for workers actually ended up goinghttps://www.dallasnews.com/business/banking/2022/01/21/heres-where-billions-in-ppp-cash-meant-for-workers-actually-ended-up-going/ 46:35 - Apple (AAPL) to Let iPhones Accept Credit Cards in Threat to Square – Bloomberghttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-27/apple-to-let-iphones-accept-credit-cards-without-extra-hardware Apple Makes New Moves to Turn iPhones into Payment Terminalshttps://www.pymnts.com/apple/2022/apple-iphones-will-soon-serve-as-payment-terminals-in-jolt-to-square/ 48:59 - Expensify Releases First-Ever Corporate Card for CPAs and Accounting Firmshttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220124005167/en/Expensify-Releases-First-Ever-Corporate-Card-for-CPAs-and-Accounting-Firms 55:29 - Walmart’s FinTech Hazel Acquires Even and One to Build Finance Super Apphttps://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2022/walmarts-fintech-hazel-acquires-even-and-one-to-build-finance-super-app Walmart-Backed Fintech Startup Is Acquiring Two Firms and a New Namehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-backed-fintech-startup-is-acquiring-two-firms-and-a-new-name-11643199601 55:54 - QuickBooks Launches 2 New SMB Toolshttps://www.pymnts.com/smbs/2022/quickbooks-launches-2-new-smb-tools/ 57:09 - Play Wordle in Google Sheets | Zapier     https://zapier.com/blog/wordle-in-google-sheets/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsThe Ambitious Bookkeeper: bkworkshops.onlineOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsorsa2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/A2XRelay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relaySynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes01:37 – FBI says crooks are using fake QR codes to steal moneyhttps://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/fbi-qr-codes-cybercrime/index.html 06:31 – Managers are now quitting during busy season: what is going on? https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/s8nq0r/managers_are_now_quitting_during_busy_season_what/ 06:55 – You Quit. I Quit. We All Quit. And It’s Not a Coincidence.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/business/quitting-contagious.html Great Resignation repositions accountantshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/great-resignation-repositions-accountants 08:23 – Blake gets an Oculus!  13:02 – Cryptocurrency Is a Giant Ponzi Scheme https://jacobinmag.com/2022/01/cryptocurrency-scam-blockchain-bitcoin-economy-decentralization 18:45 – Crypto Mystery: Where’s the $69 Billion Backing the Stablecoin Tether? – Bloomberghttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-10-07/crypto-mystery-where-s-the-69-billion-backing-the-stablecoin-tether 28:10 – MicroStrategy Plummets as SEC Rejects Its Bitcoin Accounting (3)https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/sec-rejects-microstrategys-bitcoin-accounting-strategy 34:00 – Fed opens debate over a U.S. central bank digital currency with long-awaited report.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/business/fed-digital-currency.html?referringSource=articleShare Crypto firms gear up for battles over new rules in Washington | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/crypto-firms-gear-up-for-battles-over-new-rules-in-washington 35:06 – Eric Adams, a Bitcoin Booster, Is Taking First Paycheck in Cryptohttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/nyregion/eric-adams-bitcoin-cryptocurrency.html 35:51 – IRS begins requiring new ID system for accessing online accounts | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-begins-requiring-new-id-system-for-accessing-online-accounts IRS will require taxpayers to sign up with ID.me to access their online accountshttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-tax-file-2022-id-me/ 40:37 – H&R Block launches the challenger bank it teased last year | Accounting Todayhttps://www.americanbanker.com/news/h-r-block-launches-the-challenger-bank-it-teased-last-year 41:30 – Digital Bank Chime Looks to Go Public With $40B IPOhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/ipo/2022/digital-bank-chime-looks-to-go-public-with-40b-ipo/ 41:51 – NetSuite Cash 360 Helps Organizations Effectively Manage Cash Flow | NetSuitehttps://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/netsuite-cash-360-helps-organizations-effectively-manage-cash-flow.shtml 43:05 – HoneyBook, jaris Team on Managing Client, Cash Flowhttps://www.pymnts.com/partnerships/2022/honeybook-jaris-team-on-managing-client-cash-flow/ 43:42 – AI-powered tax platform April launches after $10M seed round | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ai-powered-tax-platform-april-launches-after-10m-seed-round Israeli startup April raises $10 million in Seed funding for U.S tax platformhttps://m.calcalistech.com/Article.aspx?guid=3927452 48:02 – When it comes to billing clients, what is your current process?https://twitter.com/ignitionapp/status/1483481623916351492?s=12 53:10 – Tally Street is now part of Rootworkshttps://tallystreet.com/2022/tally-street-rootworks/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayFreshBooks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooks LiveFlow: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveflowNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes02:23 – IRS opens Free File program for 2022https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-opens-free-file-program-for-2022 04:06 – Online tax filing. You’ve got this.https://earmark.link/a1j 06:26 – Let’s find the right tax solution for youhttps://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/online/live/ 08:51 – Jackson Hewitt offers $25 flat fee for DIY tax prep | Accounting Today      https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/jackson-hewitt-offers-25-flat-fee-for-diy-tax-prep 10:00 – IRS targets your side hustle in crackdown on transactions over $600 | Accounting Today            https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/irs-targets-your-side-hustle-in-crackdown-on-transactions-over-600 12:06 – IRS to Start Accepting Tax Returns on Jan. 24, 2022 | CPA Practice Advisor       https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21252603/irs-to-start-accepting-tax-returns-on-jan-24-2022 12:18 – IRS adds new members to Advisory Councilhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-adds-new-members-to-advisory-council 12:51 – AICPA CEO Melancon concerned about IRS bottleneck ahead of tax season | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-ceo-melancon-concerned-about-irs-bottleneck-ahead-of-tax-season 15:41 – IRS is in crisis, Taxpayer Advocate warnshttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-crisis-taxpayer-advocate-warns/ 23:17 – Listener email - Illinois CPA 150 to 120 hours and a request for advice          27:33 – CAP Listener Dan Luthi’s thoughts on the educational gap   33:24 – After $1B Fundraise, Checkout CEO Says Company Is 100% Enterprise Focusedhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2022/after-1b-fundraise-checkout-ceo-company-100-pct-enterprise-focused/ 34:33 – Coinbase Buys Crypto Futures Platform FairX - CFO https://www.cfo.com/ma/2022/01/coinbase-buys-crypto-futures-platform-fairx/ 36:24 – GoFundMe Acquiring Nonprofit Software Firm Classyhttps://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2022/gofundme-acquiring-nonprofit-software-firm-classy/ 37:31 – Tax leaders looking for better tech skills | Accounting Today            https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-leaders-looking-for-better-tech-skills 38:13 – Edmonton-based Jobber raises $76 million CAD growth equity roundhttps://betakit.com/edmonton-based-jobber-raises-76-million-cad-growth-equity-round/ 39:26 – Wagepoint acquires Timesheet Mobile to expand line of powerful, friendly small business techhttps://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/wagepoint-acquires-timesheet-mobile-to-expand-line-of-powerful-friendly-small-business-tech-869887442.html 40:23 – IMA offers remote testing for CMA and CSCA exams | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ima-offers-remote-testing-for-cma-and-csca-exams 43:49 – Deloitte Launches Unlimited Reality: An Experience and Impact Offering for Virtual Worldshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deloitte-launches-unlimited-reality-an-experience-and-impact-offering-for-virtual-worlds-301460142.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsEarmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe.com/Cloud Accounting Podcast: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/yourappOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes01:47 – Another reconciliation issue for David  03:56 – Shortbread | Encyclopedia.com         https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/asia/indian-political-geography/shortbread 06:03 – Accounting firms face the Great Resignation | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/accounting-firms-face-the-great-resignation 06:37 ­– Tips for recruiting and retention in a 'Great Resignation' world | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/tips-for-recruiting-and-retention-in-a-great-resignation-world 10:18 – You guys weren’t joking about busy season. : Accountinghttps://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/rxudnu/you_guys_werent_joking_about_busy_season/ 16:48 – 50 Accounting Puns for CPAs, Accountants, and Anyone Who Needs a Laugh During Tax Seasonhttps://parade.com/1316855/jessicasager/accounting-puns/ 19:29 – Elizabeth Holmes and her Big 4 audit firm buddies at Theranoshttps://thedig.substack.com/p/elizabeth-holmes-and-her-big-4-audit Timing of auditor firings raises questions | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/timing-of-auditor-firings-raises-questions 27:15 – California’s $1 billion accounting program delayed again, could affect state’s credithttps://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article257054247.html 30:01 – Bank accidentally deposits $176 million into people's accounts on Christmas Dayhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/31/santander-accidentally-put-millions-into-random-accounts-on-christmas-day.html 31:03 – Kronos outage latest: Attackers crippled backup accesshttps://thestack.technology/kronos-outage-latest-ransomware-backups/ Kronos outage latest: back-ups hit; Log4j not involved.        https://thestack.technology/kronos-outage-latest-ransomware-backups/ 34:32 – Confessions of an ex-partner | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/confessions-of-an-ex-partner 38:34 – QuickBooks to air first Super Bowl spot for its own brandhttps://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/super-bowl-commercials-quickbooks-air-spot-own-brand/2391066 40:04 – PayPal Explores Launch of Own Stablecoin in Crypto Pushhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-07/paypal-is-exploring-launch-of-own-stablecoin-in-crypto-push 43:23 – LinkedIn is taking on Zoom and Microsoft Teams with a new audio and video events platformhttps://www.techradar.com/news/linkedin-is-taking-on-zoom-and-microsoft-teams-with-a-new-audio-and-video-events-platform 45:08 – Ready for Tech Transformation?https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/01/06/are-cpas-ready-for-accounting-to-transform/ 48:08 – Ted on Tech: Time for a home office update? | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ted-on-tech-time-for-a-home-office-update 54:26 – The 2021 Controller Awards: Call for Applicants    https://controllerscouncil.org/the-2021-controller-awards-call-for-applicants/ 55:56 – Controller and Corporate Accounting/Finance Statisticshttps://controllerscouncil.org/controller-and-corporate-accounting-finance-statistics/ 57:59 – Accounting Firms Scoop Up Virtual Land in the Metaversehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-firms-scoop-up-virtual-land-in-the-metaverse-11641599590 61:25 – Tax pros should prepare for ‘grueling’ year: NATP | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-pros-should-prepare-for-grueling-year-natpGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Recorded weekly from the OnPay studioNeed Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayTallyfor: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/tallyforCloud Accounting Podcast: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/yourappNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes02:05 - QuickBooks Saves David’s Day 05:12 - 9 Valley people indicted in PPP fraud scheme totaling more than $23 million https://www.abc15.com/news/state/9-valley-people-indicted-in-ppp-fraud-scheme-totaling-more-than-23-million  06:09 - How a Relief Fund for Restaurants Picked Winners and Losers https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/business/restaurant-revitalization-fund-problems.html  07: 51 - All West Virginia state employees will get paid Friday, even after Kronos ransomware attack https://www.wowktv.com/news/west-virginia/all-west-virginia-state-employees-will-get-paid-friday-even-after-kronos-ransomware-attack/  12:35 - Nancy Bagranoff, CPA, DBA https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2022/jan/nancy-bagranoff-cpa-dba.html  14:55 - Why I quit an accountancy career to be a prison officer https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59691026  17:14 - Audit profession unattractive to new recruits, says PwC boss | Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/a8c60322-3e56-4889-b346-e34d3c5f1e97  20:16 - Big Four Accounting Firm Enters the Metaverse With Purchase of Virtual Land in The Sandbox (SAND) https://dailyhodl.com/2021/12/24/big-four-accounting-firm-enters-the-metaverse-with-purchase-of-virtual-land-in-the-sandbox-sand/  22:09 - A DoorDash employee making $400K a year complained about a company-wide initiative requiring that he personally make one delivery a month https://www.businessinsider.com/doordash-employee-making-400k-complains-about-one-delivery-a-month-2021-12  25:34 - Elon Musk says his wealth not a 'deep mystery,' my taxes are super simple  https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/22/elon-musk-says-his-wealth-isnt-a-deep-mystery-his-taxes-are-simple.html  29:19 - Can the IRS be trusted with your data? | Accounting Today  https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/can-the-irs-be-trusted-with-your-data  33:56 - What's new in QuickBooks Online: December 2021 – QuickBooks https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-december-2021/  38:02 - What’s new in Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax 2022 https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/proconnect/whats-new-in-intuit-proconnect-tax-2022/  40:26 - IRIS Software Group Acquires AccountantsWorld to Help North American CPAs and Accountants Expand Their Client Accounting Services and Improve Practice Management Efficiencies With Cloud-Based Payroll https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211230005026/en/IRIS-Software-Group-Acquires-AccountantsWorld-to-Help-North-American-CPAs-and-Accountants-Expand-Their-Client-Accounting-Services-and-Improve-Practice-Management-Efficiencies-With-Cloud-Based-Payroll  41:34 - LiveFlow raises $3.5M in seed funding for fintech | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/liveflow-raises-3-5m-in-seed-funding-for-fintech  43:58 - Expensify reports 72% revenue jump in Q3 | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/expensify-reports-72-revenue-jump-in-q3  48:26 - VCs say Web3, party rounds, and New York's resurgence are among the tech trends to watch in 2022 https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-trends-venture-capital-startups-predictions-2022  All the Trends, and Predictions Reading:   5 ways the Metaverse will change accounting | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/5-ways-the-metaverse-will-change-accounting  Data Technology Trends That Will Reshape the Future of Accounting https://www.smartdatacollective.com/data-technology-trends-that-will-reshape-future-of-accounting/  In Firm: 2022 IT Predictions and 2021 Results https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/accounting-audit/article/21250348/in-firm-2022-it-predictions-and-2021-results  Importance of Payroll Service and Top HR Trends to Know About in 2022 https://factstea.com/payroll-service-hr-trends-know-2022/  5 Small Business Trends to Expect in 2022 https://www.paycheckcity.com/insights/5-small-business-trends-to-expect-in-2022  Accounting Industry Predictions for 2022 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/accounting-industry-predictions-2022-joe-tarasco/  13 Emerging Trends in Accounting for 2021 and Beyond https://www.softwaresuggest.com/blog/emerging-trends-in-accounting/  6 accounting predictions for 2022 https://www.gogravity.com/blog/6-accounting-predictions-for-2022 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayTallyfor: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/tallyforFactorAE: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/factoraeNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes01:38 - Elon Musk says he will pay over $11 billion in taxes this yearhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/20/elon-musk-says-he-will-pay-over-11-billion-in-taxes-this-year.html 03:49 - Earmark (the Apple version) Lives!  05:18 - Just how does Earmark CPE work?   10:22 - CPA Exam Stats  14:52 - 150 hours required for non-CPA partner in CPA firm17:54 - In re QuickBooks Desktop25:07 - Relationships with clients - Greg Bayramian29:22 - Blake’s take on handling client communications     35:25 - Trump Fraud Inquiry’s Focus: Did He Mislead His Own Accountants? - The New York Times              https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/14/nyregion/trump-fraud-inquiry.html?searchResultPosition=136:00 - Our initial discussion of the Trump fraud inquiry in Episode 235https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/235 40:37 - Thieves Nab $100M in Pandemic Relief Funds - CFO           https://www.cfo.com/fraud/2021/12/thieves-nab-100m-in-pandemic-relief-funds/ Criminals have stolen nearly $100 billion in Covid relief funds, Secret Service sayshttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/21/criminals-have-stolen-nearly-100-billion-in-covid-relief-funds-secret-service.html White House downplays Secret Service estimate of COVID fraudhttps://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-jen-psaki-small-business-b41e0ac90640a943e5c664e3a1781ee5 45:24 - Comparing pandemic shrink to retail shrink 46:16 - IRS seized $3.5 billion in cryptocurrency this past year, agency says            https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/irs-seized-35-billion-cryptocurrency-year-agency-says-rcna6157 48:12 - Sage to acquire cloud-based retail management system | Accounting Today          https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-to-acquire-cloud-based-retail-management-system Sage to acquire Brightpearlhttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/12/21/2356173/0/en/Sage-to-acquire-Brightpearl.html Sage snaps up retail management company Brightpearl for £225 millionhttps://www.techradar.com/news/sage-snaps-up-retail-management-company-brightpearl-for-pound225-million 49:55 - Xero to acquire Canadian tax software provider, TaxCycle | Xero Blog        https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/12/xero-to-acquire-taxcycle/ Xero (ASX:XRO) snaps up TaxCycle on $75.7m spreehttps://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au/archives/finance_news_network350595.html Xero to acquire Canadian tax software provider, TaxCyclehttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/12/xero-to-acquire-taxcycle/ 52:48 - Tax Change Hits Payment Apps - CPA Trendlines  https://cpatrendlines.com/2021/12/21/tax-change-hits-payment-apps/ 55:42 - Ekos raises $21 million Series B to digitally connect the craft supply chainhttps://www.goekos.com/blog/ekos-raises-21-million-series-b-to-digitally-connect-the-craft-supply-chain/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsOh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindTallyfor: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/tallyforClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes01:18 – David’s early Christmas present  - interns! 04:03 – Blake’s early Christmas present – Earmark is almost live! 04:55 – Some Kronos Customers Face Payroll, Scheduling Disruptions From Hack – CFOhttps://www.cfo.com/cyber-security-technology/2021/12/firms-face-disruption-from-kronos-hack/ Cyberattack on Payroll Provider Sets Off Scramble Ahead of Holidayshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/cyberattack-on-payroll-provider-sets-off-scramble-ahead-of-holidays-11639778286?mod=flipboard 06:04 – Kronos Warns Cyberattack May Knock HR Software Offline for Weekshttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-14/kronos-warns-cyberattack-may-knock-hr-software-offline-for-weeks 06:23 – Communications sent to impacted Kronos Private Cloud (KPC) customers beginning December, 13 at 12:45AM EThttps://community.kronos.com/s/feed/0D54M00004wJKHiSAO?language=en_US More Kronos reading:  Payroll Service Kronos Offline After Ransomware Attackhttps://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2021/payroll-service-kronos-offline-after-ransomware-attack/ Kronos Securityhttps://www.kronos.com/security?utm_source=pocket_mylist Jonathan Feldman Tweethttps://twitter.com/_jfeldman/status/1470372667236618240 12:27 – Update on Hubdoc fetchhttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/12/hubdoc-importing-docs-changing/ 16:08 – H&R Block is suing Block, formerly Square, over its new namehttps://www.theverge.com/2021/12/17/22841182/square-block-hr-block-trademark-lawsuit-jack-dorsey H&R Block sues Square to drop the name 'Block' | PaymentsSource | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/payments/news/h-r-block-sues-square-to-drop-the-name-block 22:07 – Just 30% of SMBs Have Taken Steps to Automate AP | PYMNTS.comhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/30-percent-smbs-automate-ap-processes/ 22:53 – Even Same-Day ACH Too Slow for Consumers as Instant Payouts Rewrite the Ruleshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/faster-payments/2021/same-day-ach-too-slow-consumers-instant-payouts-rewrite-rules/ 23:33 – Jan Roberg Tweethttps://twitter.com/RobergTax/status/1470811448133795852 Intuit is going after your staff for TurboTax Livehttps://twitter.com/davidleary/status/1471085593794805761?s=20 27:37 – Intuit’s culture of positivity and inclusion enables tax and bookkeeping experts to help consumers and small businesses in navigating stressful financial decisionshttps://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/2021/12/intuits-culture-of-positivity-and-inclusion-enables-tax-and-bookkeeping-experts-to-help-consumers-and-small-businesses-in-navigating-stressful-financial-decisions-sc 30:09 – No time off policy             https://twitter.com/brianwolfe6/status/1466030268230348807?s=12 33:08 – FloQast opens entertainment studio, teases upcoming accountant comedy series | Accounting Today       https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/floqast-opens-entertainment-studio-teases-upcoming-accountant-comedy-series 38:27 – At tech company Expensify, workers vote on each other's pay raiseshttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/expensify-employee-wages-vote-raises/ 44:50 – DiviPay Gets $20M in Series A Roundhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2021/divipay-gets-20m-in-series-a-round/ 45:48 – OakNorth deepens support for SMEs with its first acquisition – and says there will be morehttps://www.oaknorth.co.uk/oaknorth-in-the-news/oaknorth-deepens-support-for-smes-with-its-first-acquisition-and-says-there-will-be-more/ 46:21 – Affirm spinout Resolve raises $25M in Insight Partners-led round to grow B2B buy now, pay later offeringhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/12/09/affirm-spinout-resolve-raises-25m-in-insight-partners-led-round-to-grow-b2b-buy-now-pay-later-offering/ 46:51 – Built Technologies Debuts Built Pay Digital Payment Solutionhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/built-technologies-debuts-built-pay-digital-payment-solution/  47:22 – Software start-up Airtable hits $11 billion valuation in latest funding, adds Salesforce, Michael Dell as investorshttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/13/low-code-software-start-up-airtable-worth-11-billion-in-new-funding.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Oh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes00:52 – Blake’s got a new Mac! 02:27 – David’s Bank-Feed Debacle 05:58 – The Threshold of Hell  – Watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? 06:57 – Blake's Takeaways from Almost Inside Digital CPA 08:46 – It’s Time to Get Rid of the IT Department              https://www.wsj.com/articles/get-rid-of-the-it-department-11637605133 15:33 – The AICPA's Melancon: ‘The profession that constantly reinvents itself’ | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/the-aicpas-melancon-the-profession-that-constantly-reinvents-itself 19:35 – Accounting 4.0: Don’t become Blockbuster Videohttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/accounting-industry-4-0-is-happening-dont-become-blockbuster-video 22:45 – Are You Under-Pricing Your Client Accounting Services? - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/10/21/are-you-under-pricing-your-client-accounting-services/ 29:49 – Voices Art of Accounting: Timesheet dispute redux | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/art-of-accounting-timesheet-dispute-redux 30:35 – A Timesheet Debate & Why Work Takes So Longhttps://podcast.earmarkcpe.com/episodes/the-great-timesheet-debate-with-ed-mendlowitz 33:05 – Blake’s Timesheet Use Case 35:35 – What Is a “Reasonable” Number of Work Hours? - CPA Trendlineshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/10/11/what-is-a-reasonable-number-of-work-hours/ 38:39 – New QuickBooks research reveals the impact of late payments on mid-sized businesseshttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/growing-complex-businesses/midsize-payments-research/ 44:08 – Majority of Mid-Sized Businesses Outgrow Technology or Overpay for Unused Featureshttps://investors.intuit.com/news/news-details/2021/Majority-of-Mid-Sized-Businesses-Outgrow-Technology-or-Overpay-for-Unused-Features/default.aspx 46:00 – Here’s How You Zoomed Over the Past Year - Zoom Bloghttps://blog.zoom.us/how-you-zoomed-over-the-past-year-2021/ 51:07 – H&R Block names Xero a preferred solution providerhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/h-r-block-names-xero-a-preferred-solution-provider 51:22 – Twitter comment from Zachary Owen, re: H&R Blockhttps://twitter.com/ZachJOwen/status/1469429680348479491 52:37 – Canopy raises $35M in latest funding round | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/canopy-raises-35m-in-latest-funding-round Canopy’s Accounting Practice Revolution Receives $35M Injectionhttps://aithority.com/it-and-devops/cloud/canopys-accounting-practice-revolution-receives-35m-injection/ 53:51 – Intuit QuickBooks Canada and Dataswitcher join forces to automate conversion to a cloud-based accounting solutionhttp://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/partner-posts/intuit-quickbooks-canada-and-dataswitcher-join-forces 54:22 – Oracle Gains After Sales Top Estimates on Cloud Performancehttps://news.yahoo.com/oracle-gains-sales-top-estimates-215221263.html 54:48 – FreshBooks, Sensibill Bolster Small Business Expense Managementhttps://www.pymnts.com/smbs/2021/freshbooks-sensibill-bolster-small-business-expense-management/ 54:58 – Kabbage® from American Express Launches Kabbage Funding™ to Help Simplify Funding for U.S. Small Businesseshttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211208005617/en/Kabbage%C2%AE-from-American-Express-Launches-Kabbage-Funding%E2%84%A2-to-Help-Simplify-Funding-for-U.S.-Small-Businetransactions55:16 – Accounts payable automation startup Tipalti raises $270M, quadruples valuation to $8.3Bhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/12/08/accounts-payable-automation-startup-tipalti-raises-270m-quadruples-valuation-to-8-3b/ 55:35 – CPA funding portal expands with loan-financing option for small biz clients | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cpa-funding-portal-expands-with-loan-financing-option-for-small-biz-clients 57:29 – Facebook Message from Cathy Volk – Thank you!https://business.facebook.com/CloudAccountingPodcast/inbox/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindReach Reporting: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/reachNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes01:50 – NASBA stops giving universities info on CPA Exam performance | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/nasba-stops-giving-universities-info-on-cpa-exam-performance 02:57 – How to Prepare Students Now for the CPA Evolutionhttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/how-to-prepare-students-now-for-the-cpa-evolution 05:57 – I finished my accounting degree, but the entry level pay is too low.https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/r9fekz/i_finished_my_accounting_degree_but_the_entry/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf 07:58 – Grant Thornton adds benefits to entice and retain employeeshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/grant-thornton-adds-benefits-to-entice-and-retain-employees 12:50 – A 4,000-year-old tale of trade and contraband I Curator's Corner – YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIBf7eeXG8 15:38 – TikToks on how to use Excel spreadsheets are getting billions of views and building one of the best communities on the platformhttps://www.yahoo.com/news/tiktoks-excel-spreadsheets-getting-billions-170843117.html 19:29 – Disgruntled HR executive trashed personnel files and deleted 17,000 resumes after being fired — now faces up to 15 years in prison – MarketWatchhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/ex-hr-exec-convicted-of-trashing-companys-personnel-records-and-deleting-17-000-resumes-after-being-fired-11629230357 21:45 – New Data Finally Shows Why People Are Quitting Their Jobs. It's Definitely Not Because They're Lazyhttps://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/new-data-finally-shows-why-people-are-quitting-their-jobs-its-definitely-not-because-theyre-lazy.html 25:03 – Thomson Reuters makes plans for new products | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/thomson-reuters-makes-plans-for-new-products 29:14 –Square Inc. is Now Block; Brand to Remainhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/merchant-innovation/2021/square-inc-is-now-block-brand-to-remain/ 29:24 – SCOTT GALLOWAY: Jack Dorsey has finally stepped down — and a new era of 'superapps' is dawninghttps://www.businessinsider.com/scott-galloway-jack-dorsey-resignation-new-era-superapps-dawning-2021-12 31:26 – Intuit updates tax prep tools | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-updates-tax-prep-tools 32:46 – Let a Tax Expert Do Your Taxes for You With TurboTax Live Full Service!https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/turbotax-news/let-a-tax-expert-do-your-taxes-for-you-with-turbotax-live-full-service-50467/ 35:25 – NoCode Developmenthttps://www.liveca.ca/nocode-development 37:50 – H&R Block Selects Xero as Cloud Accounting Solution Provider for Assisted Bookkeepinghttps://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2021/12/183701-hr-block-selects-xero-as-cloud-accounting-solution-provider-for-assisted-bookkeeping/ 39:00 – Latest product news – December 2021 | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/12/product-news-dec-2021/ 43:08 – Microsoft Teams Essentials is a new standalone version for small businesseshttps://www.theverge.com/2021/12/1/22811605/microsoft-teams-essentials-price-features-availability 44:03 – Apple Introduces Business Essentialshttps://smallbiztrends.com/2021/11/apple-introduces-business-essentials.html 45:20 – Apple introduces device management solution aimed at small businesshttps://techcrunch.com/2021/11/10/apple-introduces-device-management-solution-aimed-at-small-business/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our Guest:Megan Walker, CPA - Vice President of Accounting and Finance at Oxford Corporatehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-walker-cpa-39843973/Learn more about Oxford Collection:https://www.oxfordcollection.com/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info!Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

Sponsors OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay CenterCard:  https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/center Relay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes0:07 – Happy After Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!  1:21 – Listener Mail – Are we really “anti-Desktop”? Thank you for your feedback, Peg! 1:48 – Defending Anti-Desktopness 5:35 – Is the Customer Really Always Right?  6:31 – Listener Mail – How the Feed the Pig campaign keeps the younger generation from becoming CPAs. Thanks, Eric!  7:27 – Tips for Promoting the Feed the Pig Savings Messagehttps://us.aicpa.org/volunteer/financialliteracyresourcecenter/ftp-tipsforpromoting 8:37 – The Subreddit – r/Accountinghttps://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/ 9:44 – More on Theoretical v. Practical Training 13:15 – Listener Mail – A Professor's Take on Real-World Experience. Thank you, Jennifer!  13:49 – Tweet from Jennifer Johnson, CPAhttps://twitter.com/JENJOHNSONCPA/status/1464604351985561617 15:20 – Why Not Work AT School?  17:51 – Director of Finance - Amulet Estate Wineryhttps://www.winebusiness.com/classifieds/winejobs/?go=listing&listingid=218327 18:38 – Assistant Controller - ODELL BREWING COMPANYhttps://www.brewbound.com/jobs/57212-Assistant-Controller-Odell-Brewing-Company 21:05 – Accountants press IRS for faster refunds and responses | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/accountants-press-irs-for-faster-refunds-and-responses 24:06 – AmEx Pitched Business Customers a Tax Break That Doesn’t Add Uphttps://www.wsj.com/articles/amex-pitched-business-customers-a-tax-break-that-doesnt-add-up-11637587980 29:32 – AmEx Fires Workers Over Payments Sales Pitches – CFOhttps://www.cfo.com/tax/2021/11/amex-fires-workers-over-payments-sales-pitches/ 30:19 – IRS plans to award $2.6B app development contract in Q1 of fiscal 2023https://www.fedscoop.com/irs-plans-to-award-2-6b-app-development-contract-in-q1-of-fiscal-2023/ 31:53 – Congress widens PPP fraud probe to more online financial companieshttps://news.yahoo.com/congress-widens-ppp-fraud-probe-140022824.html PPP companies Blueacorn, Womply added to congressional probehttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2021/11/23/ppp-companies-blueacorn-womply-added-congressional-probe/8730237002/ 34:44 – B2B Spend Management Startup Payhawk Closes $112M Series Bhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/b2b-spend-management-startup-payhawk-closes-112m-series-b/ 35:06 – Australian software firm simPRO raises $350 mln in new funding | Reutershttps://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/australian-software-firm-simpro-raises-350-mln-new-funding-2021-11-23/ 36:11 – Story within the Story – simPRO Acquired ClockShark!  37:25 – 6 lessons from audit experts who adopted AI earlyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/nov/6-lessons-audit-experts-adopted-ai-early.html 39:07 – Sage launches new platform to help launch and power up Accountantshttps://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2021/11/24/sage-launches-new-platform-to-help-launch-and-power-up-accountants/ 40:18 – How to Build Stronger Relationships With Colleagues in the Zoom Erahttps://www.wsj.com/articles/build-stronger-relationships-on-zoom-11637608490 44:30 – David’s Big, Poofy, Sad Problem 😊Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link above to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindCenterCard:  https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/centerClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes3:57 – SPACs Headed for New Wave of Restatements for Accounting Errorshttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/spacs-headed-for-new-wave-of-restatements-for-accounting-errors 5:57 – Senators Question Commissioner About Company Offering Fee-Based Access to IRS Phone Lineshttps://procedurallytaxing.com/senators-question-company-offering-fee-based-access-to-irs-phone-lines/ 11:55 – Opinion | IRS reform will generate a lot more revenue than the CBO thinks - The Washington Posthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/17/cbo-build-back-better-irs-revenue-too-low/ 14:17 – AICPA, NASBA publish revised CPA Evolution Model Curriculum - Journal of Accountancy https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/nov/aicpa-nasba-revised-cpa-evolution-model-curriculum.html                                17:20 – A closer look at the Model 20:55 – Practical v. Theoretical – which is better for accounting education? 22:14 – In the weeds – what’s missing from the revised CPA Evolution Model Curriculum? 26:21 – Can I get this in Excel? Faculty want the CPA Evolution Model Curriculum in Excel.  32:54 – The Sage Group plc (SGGEF) CEO Steve Hare on Q4 2021 Results - Earnings Call Transcripthttps://seekingalpha.com/article/4470238-sage-group-plc-sggef-ceo-steve-hare-on-q4-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript Sage posts 10% drop in operating profit after investing in cloudhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/sage-posts-10-drop-operating-072946722.html Accelerating growth driven by continued strategic progress (PDF)https://www.sage.com/investors/investor-downloads/press-releases/2021/11/full-year-2021-results-17-november-2021/ 35:14 – Intuit inc (INTU) Q1 2022 Earnings Call Transcripthttps://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/11/18/intuit-inc-intu-q1-2022-earnings-call-transcript/ 38:16 – Chimp Change – how QuickBooks Advanced is heading deeper into the midmark with MailChimpIntuit: Monetizing Its Vast Data Treasure Trove by Creating Better Outcomes For Customershttps://seekingalpha.com/article/4470721-intuit-intu-stock-monetizing-vast-data-better-outcomes-for-customers                 40:24 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: November 2021 – QuickBookshttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-november-2021/ 44:53 – Practice Ignition raises $50M | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/practice-ignition-raises-50m Practice Ignition lands $50M to scale globallyhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/11/17/practice-ignition-lands-50m-to-scale-globally/ 46:29 – Formstack raises $425M for a no-code platform that helps businesses automate their customer and internal workflowshttps://techcrunch.com/2021/11/18/formstack-raises-425m-for-a-no-code-platform-that-helps-businesses-automate-their-customer-and-internal-workflows/ 47:22 – Paychex Adds Support for Vaccination Status Tracking to its COVID-19 Technology Solutionshttps://www.wibw.com/prnewswire/2021/10/19/paychex-adds-support-vaccination-status-tracking-its-covid-19-technology-solutions/ 47:52 – Pixie, the operating system for small accounting firms, pockets £2.25M to grow furtherhttps://www.uktech.news/news/pixie-uk-startup-funding-20211118 48:36 – Accounting tech start-up to double headcount following funding boosthttps://www.siliconrepublic.com/jobs-news/accounting-tech-start-up-double-headcount-funding-boost 49:24 – Scammers Clone Exec's Voice, Steal $35M From Bankhttps://www.newser.com/story/312228/scammers-clone-execs-voice-steal-35m-from-bank.html 52:40 – Listener Voicemail. Thank you!  54:44 – We’ve Got a Review! Thank you! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link above to get more info!Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our GuestAaron Harris, Global CTO, Sagehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-harris-7407b2/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info!Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd 

SponsorsFyle: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/fyleRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindReach Reporting: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/reachNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes2:43 – Our takeaways  from Sage Transform, and news on upcoming CAP bonus interviews from the conference!  5:32 – Intacct and ADP Partner to Streamline Back-office Processes for Midsized Companieshttps://www.sageintacct.com/press/intacct-and-adp-partner-streamline-back-office-processes-midsized-companies 8:02 – A little compare and contrast of NetSuite, and Sage Intacct 10:28 – Some thoughts on Sage’s global expansion, and their data mesh 12:17 – A few pros and cons on Sage, and Sage Transform — what’s wrong, what’s missing 18:38 – Sage highlights automation, mobile features | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-highlights-automation-mobile-features 19:47 – We’ve got voicemail! Thanks, for the great feedback, Greg! 21:33 – We’re clarifying our point of view on crypto – its usefulness as a tool, and as an investment, and where the blockchain will take accounting in the future.  30:13 – Expensify Shares Pop 52% in Market Debut – CFOhttps://www.cfo.com/the-cloud/2021/11/expensify-shares-pop-52-in-market-debut/31:45 - Expensify is the Slack of Accountinghttps://www.blakeoliver.com/blog/expensify-is-the-slack-of-accounting 32:04 – Expensify’s $263 million IPO breaks Oregon tech’s 17-year droughthttps://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/11/expensifys-263-million-ipo-breaks-oregons-17-year-losing-streak.html 34:58 – Expensify IPO Could Make Nearly All 140 Employees Paper Millionaires, but There is a Catch, Insiders Sayhttps://www.businessinsider.com/expensify-ipo-employees-become-paper-millionaires-stock-grant-2021-11 We become a public company today [11/10/21]https://community.expensify.com/discussion/8596/we-become-a-public-company-today-11-10-21 39:50 – Xero Acquires Inventory Management Company LOCATE Inventoryhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/accounting-audit/news/21246049/xero-acquires-inventory-management-company-locate-inventory 41:11 – Xero’s half year 2022 financial results | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/11/half-year-2022-financial-results/ How we’re enhancing inventory management in Xero | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/11/enhancing-inventory-management/ 43: 51 – Sage adds Zapier to marketplace | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-adds-zapier-to-marketplace 44:39 – Toast, Inc. (TOST) Q3 2021 Earnings Call Transcripthttps://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/11/10/toast-inc-tost-q3-2021-earnings-call-transcript/ 45:37 – Bill.com Introduces New Product Features at Sage Transform, Continuing Innovation that Makes it Simple for Small and Midsize Companies and Accountants to Do Businesshttps://www.bill.com/about-us/press-release/billcom-introduces-new-product-features-sage-transforms 46:27 – Melio releases three new features 46:45 – Relay Financial releases a new set of features 47:56 – MyCase Announces Product Enhancements, Acquisitions to Enable Law Firm Successhttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mycase-announces-product-enhancements-acquisitions-to-enable-law-firm-success-301419371.html 48:38 – LegalZoom Acquires Leading Virtual Mailbox Provider, Earth Class Mailhttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/11/10/2331550/0/en/LegalZoom-Acquires-Leading-Virtual-Mailbox-Provider-Earth-Class-Mail.html 50:44 – Payroll Software Startup Wrapbook Gets Unicorn Status After Latest Funding Round – Bloomberghttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-10/tiger-global-bets-on-wrapbook-vaulting-it-to-unicorn-status 51:58 – Zenwork raises $163M | Accounting Todayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/zenwork-raises-163m 52:49 – Knowify secures $5.45M in Series A financing led by MassMutual Ventures and Companyon Ventureshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/knowify-secures-5-45m-in-series-a-financing-led-by-massmutual-ventures-and-companyon-ventures-301422267.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Oh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants: ohmyfraud.comAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Our GuestAnurag Pal, CEO @ Escalonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/anurag-ap-pal/Learn More About Escalonhttps://escalon.services/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.

Meet Our GuestsJoav Bally: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joavbally/Marc Holliday: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-holliday-42634558/ Learn More About NetSuite Data Warehousehttps://www.netsuite.com/portal/products/analytics/data-warehouse.shtmlNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Our GuestDave Damond, Sr VP/CFO at March of Dimeshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-damond-73853bb/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsPractice Ignition: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/piCenterCard:  https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/centerClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:06 – David reports back from the delightful 2021 QuickBooks Connect virtual conference 2:48 – What did Kristen Bell’s closing remark, “Remain Human” mean?    3:38 – We’re heading to Sage Transform 2021 4:32 – Blake has received the NASBA seal of approval for Earmark CPE!https://earmarkcpe.com/ 7:43 – Building a Best-in-Class A/P Tech Stack Without Breaking the Bankhttps://www.cpaacademy.org/webinars/a0D2S00000raCSPUA2 9:41 – Intuit to Discontinue QuickBooks Desktop in the UKhttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/intuit-to-discontinue-quickbooks-desktop-in-the-uk UK QuickBooks Desktop will cease to be supported outside the UK & Irelandhttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-uk/discontinued-offering/uk-quickbooks-desktop-is-no-longer-supported-outside-the-uk/00/654996 11:38 – Conversation with John Stokdyk from AccountingWEB on the QuickBooks news! 19:25 – Zillow’s Algorithm-Fueled Buying Spree Doomed Its Home-Flipping Experimenthttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-08/zillow-z-home-flipping-experiment-doomed-by-tech-algorithms 26:15 – Staffing Shortage Cripples Growth at 40% of Firmshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/10/27/staffing-shortage-goes-global/ 29:43 – Two in five accountants ‘too drained’ to workhttps://www.accountancydaily.co/two-five-accountants-too-drained-work 32:08 – Stop Derailing CAShttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/10/31/stop-derailing-cas/ 34:29 – Trying to decide where to live now that your job is permanently remote? Maybe $2,000 worth of free coffee will help make up your mind.https://www.wsj.com/articles/remote-workers-can-live-anywhere-these-cities-and-small-towns-are-luring-them-with-perks-11633783904 38:26 – Remote-working jobs: Disaster looms as managers refuse to listenhttps://www.zdnet.com/article/remote-working-jobs-disaster-looms-as-managers-refuse-to-listen/ 39:37 – High Rock Accounting expands in Minnesotahttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/high-rock-accounting-to-expand-in-minnesota 42:42 – Bank increases lending limit to CPA firms seeking mergershttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/bank-increases-lending-limit-to-cpa-firms-seeking-mergers 43:25 – Botkeeper Raises $42M in Series C Funding from Paychex Founderhttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/botkeeper-raises-42m-in-series-c-funding-from-paychex-founder-301416557.html 44:51 – Patriot Software Secures Series-A Funding Roundhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/payroll/news/21244354/patriot-software-secures-seriesa-funding-round 45:53 – Microsoft brings JavaScript to Excelhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/11/02/microsoft-brings-javascript-to-excel/ 48:18 – Microsoft Office—Transforming for the hybrid worldhttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/11/02/microsoft-office-transforming-for-the-hybrid-world/ 53:25 – A2X Is Growing, In More Ways Than One.https://www.a2xaccounting.com/blog/leadership-team-announncement/ 51:25 – Stay in the flow of work with new collaborative apps for Microsoft Teamshttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/11/02/stay-in-the-flow-of-work-with-new-collaborative-apps-for-microsoft-teams/ 55:01 – A new look for bank reconciliation in Xerohttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/11/new-look-bank-reconciliation/ 58:23 – Square – Q3 2021 Shareholder Letterhttps://s27.q4cdn.com/311240100/files/doc_financials/2021/q3/SQ-3Q-2021-Shareholder-Letter.pdf 60:00 – Intuit announces revenue sharing program, new bookkeeping features at QB Connecthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-announces-revenue-sharing-program-new-bookkeeping-features-at-qb-connect 64:38 – AICPA opens .cpa web domain in Canadahttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-opens-cpa-web-domain-in-canadaGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

GuestJohn Cappadona, Chief Financial Officer @ School of Rockhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/johncappadona/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCenterCard:  https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/centerBaCo Tech: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bacoReach Reporting: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/reachNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:25 – We’re back from Scaling New Heights! Teslas, double-decker booths, and vaccination tales, oh my!  8:25 – Wanna win a Tesla? Go here: https://use.expensify.com/teslagiveaway ExpensifyApproved! Accountants Can Win a Free Tesla from Expensify!https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211025005776/en/ExpensifyApproved%21-Accountants-Can-Win-a-Free-Tesla-from-Expensify 10:15 – Scaling New Heights 2022: Thrive https://www.woodard.com/2022-scaling-new-heights-registration 11:13 – Parker Conrad’s Rippling is now valued at $6.5 billion — more than Zenefits at its peakhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/10/21/parker-conrads-rippling-is-now-valued-at-6-5-billion-more-than-zenefits-at-its-peak/ 16:25 – Woodard Announces Partnership with Wolters Kluwerhttps://report.woodard.com/articles/woodard-announces-partnership-with-wolters-kluwer-fpwr 18:20 – Gusto acquires Remote Teamhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/gusto-acquires-remote-team 19:40 – FBI Raids Chinese Point-of-Sale Giant PAX Technologyhttps://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/10/fbi-raids-chinese-point-of-sale-giant-pax-technology/ 22:46 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: October 2021https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-october-2021/ 25:55 – Audit Sight takes on new capital to eliminate all of the back and forth between auditors, companieshttps://techcrunch.com/2021/10/22/audit-sight-takes-on-new-capital-to-eliminate-all-of-the-back-and-forth-between-auditors-companies/ 27:54 – Xero serves US CrossFit community as preferred accounting platformhttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/10/us-crossfit-community-preferred-accounting-platform/ 29:57 – Accountants’ favorite apps: 2021 editionhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/accountants-favorite-apps-2021-edition 36:10 – Blake is Relay's new Accounting Community Advocate    https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/on-the-move-sax-presents-annual-founders-award 38:59 – SURVEY: Office 365 Dominates Accounting Officeshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/10/14/survey-office-365-dominates-accounting-offices/ 43:50 – ProPublica is hiring an accountanthttps://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/finance-associate-at-propublica-2781745917 46:31 – CEO Video Series: Putting Destination CPA Back on Accounting Students’ Radar https://vimeo.com/638007048 51:31 – A CPA Pipeline Report: Decoding the Declinehttps://www.icpas.org/information/professional-issues/decoding-the-decline 53:14 – Apple’s Most Back-Ordered New Product Is Not What You Expecthttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/technology/apple-polishing-cloth.html 57:03 — Listener Mail – Thanks, Ryan Pearcy! Check out his podcast, Digi-Tools in Accrual World! https://digitoolsinaccrual.world/ 58:49 – Man spent $57,789 in coronavirus relief aid on a Pokémon card, feds sayhttps://www.npr.org/2021/10/25/1049011060/coronavirus-relief-aid-pokemon-cardGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Our GuestEvan Goldberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-netsuite/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRippling: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ripplingBaCo Tech: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/baco Client Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:25 – The Scoop on  SuiteWorld 2021https://www.netsuitesuiteworld.com/ 3:17 – Sneak Peek at our talk with Evan Goldberg, founder of NetSuite. You can hear the whole interview here: https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/bonus250 15:00 – NetSuite Announces SuiteBanking, the First Cloud ERP to Integrate Fintech into a Unified Suitehttps://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/netsuite-announces-suitebanking,-the-first-cloud-erp-to-integrate-fintech-into-a-unified-suite.shtml 24:00 – We’re talking about Kevin O’Leary’s SuiteWorld keynote, and the three things CAP listeners need to hear — elevator pitch, proven track record, and know your numbers 27:53 – New rules taxing businesses using PayPal, Venmo in 2022https://www.pahomepage.com/top-stories/new-rules-taxing-businesses-using-paypal-venmo-in-2022/ 31:41 – Blake thinks it’s best to take a ‘wait and see’ approach in this so-called proposal, until it’s a real proposal 32:11 – Plaid Builds Partner Ecosystem to Simplify A2A Paymentshttps://www.pymnts.com/pymnts-post/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/plaid-builds-partner-ecosystem-simplify-a2a-payments/?c=mobile-wallets/page 33:58 – Clients prefer tech-savvy accountantshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/clients-prefer-tech-savvy-accountants 37:24 – Xero wants to help your employees run all their own processeshttps://www.techradar.com/news/xero-wants-to-help-your-employees-run-all-their-own-processes Xero Me – Non-U.S. apphttps://central.xero.com/s/article/Xero-Me-for-mobile 38:40 – The Guidance Gap: New Research Reveals Businesses Need Advice on People Operationshttps://gusto.com/company-news/the-guidance-gap-new-research-reveals-businesses-need-advice-on-people-operations 41:05 – Practice Ignition and Gusto Partner to Launch First-Ever Integration to Accelerate Adoption and Knowledge of People Advisoryhttps://www.practiceignition.com/news/practice-ignition-and-gusto-partner-to-launch-first-ever-integration-to-accelerate-people-advisory 41:43 – Blake talks an invitation for early access to Gusto’s mobile device management offering 42:55 – Expensify Launches Free Plan for Small Businesseshttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211018005215/en/Expensify-Launches-Free-Plan-for-Small-Businesses 45:47 – Inside Expensify’s IPO filinghttps://techcrunch.com/2021/10/18/inside-expensifys-ipo-filing/ 46:37 – Fiserv to acquire BentoBoxhttps://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/89810/fiserv-to-acquire-bentobox 47:01 – Sovos to Acquire Istanbul-Based e-Transformation Compliance Company Digital Planethttps://www.prweb.com/releases/sovos_to_acquire_istanbul_based_e_transformation_compliance_company_digital_planet/prweb18274410.htm 47:29 – Avalara Acquires CrowdReason to Help Businesses Manage Property Tax Compliancehttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/sales-tax-compliance/news/21242816/avalara-acquires-crowdreason-to-help-businesses-manage-property-tax-compliance 49:55 – Businesses spend heavily on sales tax compliancehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/businesses-spend-heavily-on-sales-tax-compliance 50:55 – Survey: Nobody Loves the Wayfair Decisionhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/10/18/nobody-loves-the-wayfair-decision/ 51:51 –Stripe will acquire Recko to help internet businesses automate payments reconciliationhttps://stripe.com/newsroom/news/recko 53:59 – Coinbase stock rises after Facebook taps it for help on new cryptocurrency projecthttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/19/facebook-taps-coinbase-for-digital-wallet-novi.html 54:19 – Intuit Introduces Money by QuickBooks, Mobile Banking Designed for Small Businesseshttps://investors.intuit.com/news/news-details/2021/Intuit-Introduces-Money-by-QuickBooks-Mobile-Banking-Designed-for-Small-Businesses/default.aspx 57:12 – PayPal is in late-stage talks to acquire Pinteresthttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/pinterest-shares-soar-following-report-paypal-may-buy-it.html 59:27 – IRS begins using videoconferencing to meet with big businesseshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-begins-using-videoconferencing-to-meet-with-big-businesses Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRippling: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ripplingClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubBaCo Tech: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bacoNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow Notes1:17 – David updates us on his Cancun adventure and, of course, he ties it into subscription services!  6:00 – Fixed fee debate is over. The new frontier is the all-inclusive subscription package, or as Ron Baker calls it, “Pricing the relationship.”  10:39 – Taliesin West is Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert laboratory in Arizonahttps://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/ 15:33 – How do accounting firms learn from the Taliesin model?  18:50 – SuiteWorld, October 18 – 21, 2021https://www.netsuitesuiteworld.com/ 20:33 – Suspected Ransomware Payments Nearly Doubled This Year, Treasury Sayshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/suspected-ransomware-payments-for-first-half-of-2021-total-590-million-11634308503 26:04 – Jamie Dimon Calls Bitcoin 'Worthless'https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/11/jpmorgan-chase-ceo-jamie-dimon-says-bitcoin-is-worthless.html 28:17 – Crypto could cause 2008-level meltdown, Bank of England official warnshttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/14/crypto-could-cause-2008-level-meltdown-bank-of-england-official-warns.html 30:40 – USPS Debuts Paycheck-Cashing Serviceshttps://www.pymnts.com/financial-inclusion-3/2021/usps-debuts-paycheck-cashing-services/ 34:31 – Listener email – Thank you, Sandy Lerner!  34:48 – The UPS Store – Small Business Accounting & Bookkeepinghttps://www.theupsstore.com/small-business-services/accounting-bookkeeping 36:10 – When Private Equity Blows Up the CPA Partnershiphttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/09/28/how-private-equity-blows-up-the-cpa-partnership/ 36:43 – Competing for Talent in a Private-Equity Worldhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/10/17/competing-for-talent-in-a-private-equity-world/ 39:58 – CAS practices see 20% growth ratehttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/oct/cas-practices-20-percent-growth-rate.html 47:30 – This Startup Is Using All-In-One Software To Empower Small Business Owners.https://www.forbes.com/sites/garydrenik/2021/10/12/why-smbs-need-more-tailored-saas-platforms/?sh=44907e7e770f 50:14 – Microsoft to shut down LinkedIn in Chinahttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/14/microsoft-to-shut-down-linkedin-in-china.html 51:46 – Should private companies such as enQ be allowed?https://twitter.com/lorilynwilson/status/1447578663688413192?s=12 57:21 – Envestnet | Yodlee partners with Intuit QuickBookshttps://thepaypers.com/online-mobile-banking/envestnet-yodlee-partners-with-intuit-quickbooks--1252177 58:51 – Shopify Launches Global ERP Merchant Programhttps://www.pymnts.com/commerce-connected/2021/shopify-launches-global-erp-merchant-program/ 60:05 – Codat Announces Partnership with Intuit to Speed QuickBooks App Development And Catalyze New Wave of Open Financehttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/codat-announces-partnership-with-intuit-to-speed-quickbooks-app-development-and-catalyze-new-wave-of-open-finance-301399821.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRippling: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ripplingDark Horse: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/darkhorseClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubShow Notes1:27 – David is leaving the building ... On vacation!   1:52 – CAP Voicemail – Thank you, Jonathan Weiss!  Is it too hard to become a CPA? Practitioners speak outhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/is-it-too-hard-to-become-a-cpa-practitioners-speak-out 5:50 – CPA firms lay out top issues in 2021 and beyondhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/cpa-firms-lay-out-top-issues-in-2021-and-beyond 9:42 – Service levels hit new lows at swamped IRShttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/service-levels-hit-new-lows-at-swamped-irs 11:28 – IRS didn’t spot $20.6M in bogus nonresident tax refundshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-didnt-spot-20-6m-in-bogus-nonresident-tax-refunds 12:04 – Florida man filed 745 tax returns in 4 years, collecting $235K in bogus refunds — ‘I found a flaw in your system, and I took advantage of it’https://www.marketwatch.com/story/i-found-a-flaw-in-your-system-and-i-took-advantage-of-it-florida-man-filed-745-tax-returns-in-4-years-collecting-235k-in-bogus-refunds-11633540003 15:58 – Sage buys proposal software vendor GoProposalhttps://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2021/10/05/sage-buys-proposal-software-vendor-goproposal/ Sage buys U.K. proposal management software makerhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-buys-uk-proposal-management-software-maker 19:32 – Latest product news – October 2021 | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/10/product-news-oct-2021/ 23:05 – FreshBooks Acquires FastBill to Boost Growth in Canadahttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/freshbooks-acquires-fastbill-to-boost-growth-in-canada/ 24:24 – Google Drive Is Getting Labels for Your Fileshttps://www.howtogeek.com/759458/google-drive-is-getting-labels-for-your-files/ 25:20 – Chargebee acquires RevLockhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/chargebee-acquires-revlock 26:17 – Pipe launches trading platform for recurring revenuehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pipe-launches-trading-platform-for-recurring-revenue 30:05 – Hackers exploit MFA flaw to steal from 6,000 Coinbase customershttps://cointelegraph.com/news/hackers-exploit-mfa-flaw-to-steal-from-6-000-coinbase-customers-report 32:59 – Sage Intacct 2021 Release 3: What’s New?https://www.accttwo.com/blog/sage-intacct-2021-release-3-whats-new 39:03 – Elizabeth Warren Shocked to Learn Big Public Accounting Firms Do Shady Sh*thttps://www.goingconcern.com/elizabeth-warren-shocked-to-learn-big-public-accounting-firms-do-shady-sht/ 40:58 – The tax agency would like to look at your financial transactions above $600. What could go wrong?https://www.wsj.com/articles/internal-revenue-service-irs-rettig-yellen-brady-bank-account-tax-proposal-revenue-privacy-data-breach-11633287461 41:55 – Democrats eye narrowing Biden plan on bank reporting to IRShttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/democrats-eye-narrowing-biden-plan-on-bank-reporting-to-irs Banks enlist customers to kill Biden’s account data reporting planhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/banks-enlist-customers-to-kill-bidens-account-data-reporting-plan 45:06 – Adios, David – Enjoy Cancun!  46:23 – Who Is John Zabel? Britney Spears' New Conservator Takes Over From Jamie Spearshttps://www.yourtango.com/news/who-is-john-zabel-britney-spears-new-conservator Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Listen to the full interview with IMA president Jeff Thomson on the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comWant to learn how you can get CPE for listening to podcasts? Subscribe to get early access to the Earmark CPE mobile app when it launches this fall: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to Earmark Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts  Spotify Amazon Music Overcast Pocket Casts 

SponsorsRippling: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ripplingDEXT: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/dextDark Horse: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/darkhorseShow Notes 5:29 – Blake talks about his visit to the Institute of Management Accountants in Texas, his interview with IMA President Jeff Thomson, and gives more detail on the upcoming Earmark CPA! 8:25 – State auditor steps down after failing accounting examshttps://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/politics/state-auditor-steps-down-after-failing-accounting-exams/97-3073da7f-0106-4811-9f20-9db9fef24efd 13:04 – Ski Areas Are Struggling To Find Employees For The Upcoming Seasonhttps://www.npr.org/2021/09/29/1041411706/ski-areas-are-struggling-to-find-employees-for-the-upcoming-season 14:07 – Exclusive-PwC tells U.S. employees they need never return to the officehttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-pwc-tells-u-employees-211505972.html 18:42 – Work-life balance improves audits, but not job satisfactionhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/work-life-balance-improves-audits-but-not-job-satisfaction 21:57 – In-person Zoom is the new norm for many workers returning to the officehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/27/return-to-work-in-person-hybrid/ 23:50 – The real stakes of Apple’s battle over remote workhttps://www.vox.com/recode/22690190/apple-remote-work-from-home-employee-cher-scarlett-janneke-parrish 24:57 – Remote work is making productivity and innovation harder, says Microsoft studyhttps://www.zdnet.com/article/remote-work-is-making-productivity-and-innovation-harder-says-microsoft-study/ 25:53 – Accounting Today calls for nominations for 2021 Top 100 Peoplehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/accounting-today-calls-for-nominations-for-2021-top-100-people 27:30 – Intuit Investor Day 2021https://investors.intuit.com/events-and-presentations/event-details/2021/Intuits-Investor-Day-2021/ 27:52 – Our strategy is to be an “AI-driven expert platform”https://www.intuit.com/strategy/ 28:46 – QuickBooks Online Advanced adding Excel integrationhttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/quickbooks-online-advanced-adding-excel-integration/ 33:47 – Listener mail – QuickBooks v. Quicken? Thanks, Stephen Smith!  39:20 – Avalara Acquires Track1099 to Help Businesses Manage IRS Form Filing Requirementshttps://www.avalara.com/us/en/about/press/category/2021/10/avalara-acquires-track1099-to-help-businesses-manage-irs-form-filing-requirements.html 42:49 – Xero System Status – Current and Past Incidentshttps://status.xero.com/ 45:50 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: September 2021https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-september-2021/ 51:01 – A Message from Sage CEO Steve Hare to Sage colleagueshttps://www.sage.com/en-gb/news/press-releases/2021/09/a-message-from-sage-ceo-steve-hare-to-sage-colleagues/ 52:05 – (LSPD) Alert: Did You Lose Money on Your Lightspeed Commerce Investment? Contact Johnson Fistel Regarding Investigationhttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/09/29/2305700/0/en/LSPD-Alert-Did-You-Lose-Money-on-Your-Lightspeed-Commerce-Investment-Contact-Johnson-Fistel-Regarding-Investigation.html 52:24 – Lightspeed (TSX:LSPD) Stock: Is an Accounting Scandal Brewing?https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/lightspeed-tsx-lspd-stock-accounting-145454977.htmlNeed CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsTaxDome: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/taxdomeApprovalMax: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/approvalmaxGusto: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/gustonextShow Notes0:24 –Accountancy Problems – Studying Accounting at 3:00 a.m.https://twitter.com/AcctncyProblems/status/1441319313294561283 2:24 – AOC's 'Tax the Rich' dress could've used a different sloganhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/aocs-tax-the-rich-dress-couldve-used-a-different-slogan 4:00 – As More Workers Go Solo, the Software Stack Is the New Firmhttps://future.a16z.com/solo-workers-software-stack/ 7:56 – Have you used the IRS Tax Pro Account Feature? Details from the AICPA’s Weekly Weigh-In survey question.  10:14 – How Accounting Giants Craft Favorable Tax Rules from Inside Governmenthttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/19/business/accounting-firms-tax-loopholes-government.html?referringSource=articleShare 14:00 – How Top Accounting Firms Help Their Clients Sidestep Taxeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/19/business/accounting-firms-tax-loopholes-government.html 15:10 – News Analysis: Getting Over Government's Revolving Doorhttp://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/FA6ABE3DDF54E7EC852579C20073FD39?OpenDocument 16:12 – House tax bill would likely force Peter Thiel to pull $5 billion from his IRAhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/17/house-tax-bill-would-likely-force-peter-thiel-to-pull-5-billion-from-his-ira.html 17:07 – California Governor Signs Bill Targeting Amazon Warehouse Quotashttps://www.wsj.com/articles/california-governor-signs-bill-targeting-amazon-warehouse-quotas-11632367503?mod=tech_lead_pos4 21:30 – KPMG urges boards to focus on climate riskshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/kpmg-urges-boards-to-focus-on-climate-risks 22:40 – Heroic Accountinghttps://ssir.org/articles/entry/heroic_accounting 25:54 – Listener Mail on the 150-hour education requirement – Thanks, Mike!  27:34 – Accountants reply: Is it too hard to become a CPA?https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/practitioners-speak-out-is-it-too-hard-to-become-a-cpa 29:36 – Listener Mail on CPA – Thanks T.C. Whittaker!  32:34 – NY Law Firm Slams Intuit Over QuickBooks Transaction Feeshttps://www.law360.com/articles/1424069/ny-law-firm-slams-intuit-over-quickbooks-transaction-fees 34:57 – Intuit launches venture arm to invest in startups with innovation for small businesses, consumershttps://techcrunch.com/2021/09/22/intuit-launches-venture-arm-to-invest-in-startups-with-innovation-for-small-businesses-consumers/ 37:25 – Coinbase adds direct deposit into crypto accountshttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/27/coinbase-adds-direct-deposit-into-crypto-accounts-.html 37:48 – China's top regulators ban crypto trading and mining, sending bitcoin tumblinghttps://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-central-bank-vows-crackdown-cryptocurrency-trading-2021-09-24/ 39:01 – SEC’s Gensler Doesn’t See Cryptocurrencies Lasting Longhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/secs-gensler-doesnt-see-cryptocurrencies-lasting-long-11632246355 43:07 – Longest Article Title Ever? Gilded Launches Compass: The Most Advanced QuickBooks Integration for Crypto Institutional adoption of cryptocurrency has intensified the demand for sophisticated crypto accounting functionality. Gilded Compass streamlines financial reporting for cryptocurrency in QuickBooks Online.https://financialpost.com/globe-newswire/gilded-launches-compass-the-most-advanced-quickbooks-integration-for-crypto-institutional-adoption-of-cryptocurrency-has-intensified-the-demand-for-sophisticated-crypto-accounting-functionality-gild 44:03 – Meet Compass: The Most Advanced QuickBooks Integration for Cryptohttps://blog.gilded.finance/gilded-compass-quickbooks/ 44:45 – Does your business use Gilded? Let us know!  45:22 – Expensify is Carbon Neutral in 2021https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210922005893/en/Expensify-is-Carbon-Neutral-in-2021 46:24 – SURVEY: Zoom Tops Microsoft Teams for Nowhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/09/19/survey-zoom-tops-microsoft-teams-for-now/ 47:50 – REPAY, Veem Collaborate on B2B Paymentshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/repay-veem-collaborate-on-b2b-payments/ 47:57 – American Express and Extend Partner to Enable Virtual Cards for U.S. Small and Mid-Sized Businesseshttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210922005684/en/American-Express-and-Extend-Partner-to-Enable-Virtual-Cards-for-U.S.-Small-and-Mid-Sized-Businesses 48:14 – Melio Offers Small Businesses an Enhanced, More Secure Payment Management Experiencehttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/melio-offers-small-businesses-an-enhanced-more-secure-payment-management-experience-301382699.html 48:52 – QuickBooks Desktop Will Be Subscription Onlyhttps://qbblog.ccrsoftware.info/2021/09/quickbooks-desktop-subscription/ 50:05 – The Soul of Enterprise: Episode #358: Subscription Economy Updatehttps://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/tsoe/subscription-economy-updates 52:43 – Patriot Partners With Client Hub to Streamline Payroll Workflowhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/payroll/news/21239187/patriot-partners-with-client-hub-to-streamline-payroll-workflow 54:02 – Stripe Launches Revenue Recognition Tool to Automate Financial Reportinghttps://www.pymnts.com/news/payments-innovation/2021/stripe-launches-revenue-recognition-tool-to-automate-financial-reporting/ 57:34 – Walmart does away with layaway, which didn't carry any fees, and announces buy now, pay later program that may charge customers interesthttps://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-layaway-canceled-affirm-finance-buy-now-pay-later-2021-9 58:03 – The surge in ‘buy now pay later’ – and why we should be worriedhttps://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/18/the-surge-in-buy-now-pay-later-and-why-we-should-be-worried59:00 – The Journal: Why 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Is Popping Up Everywherehttps://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/why-buy-now-pay-later-is-popping-up-everywhere/baa2dae5-5bde-4f63-99bc-2760e70de1ffGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindApprovalMax: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/approvalmaxClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubShow Notes1:18 – Intuit Secures Clippers Arena Naming Rights for $500Mhttps://frontofficesports.com/intuit-secures-clippers-arena-naming-rights-for-500m/ 9:15 – Mailchimp employees are furious after the company's founders promised to never sell, withheld equity, and then sold it for $12 billionhttps://www.businessinsider.com/mailchimp-insiders-react-to-employees-getting-no-equity-2021-9 13:50 – Private equity firms take stakes in accounting firmshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/private-equity-firms-take-stakes-in-accounting-firms 19:46 – KPMG Australia fined $450K over training test cheatinghttps://www.complianceweek.com/regulatory-enforcement/kpmg-australia-fined-450k-over-training-test-cheating/30795.article 23:32 – Why Does All Work Take So Long?https://cpatrendlines.com/2021/09/13/why-does-all-work-take-so-long/ 27:30 – 'Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta' Star Gets 17 Years In Prison For PPP Loan Fraud Casehttps://www.blackenterprise.com/love-hip-hop-atlanta-star-gets-17-years-in-prison-for-ppp-loan-fraud-case/ More PPP Fraud News: Texas wedding planner sentenced after misusing more than $1.5M in PPP loan money, feds sayhttps://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/09/16/texas-wedding-planner-sentenced-after-misusing-more-than-15m-in-ppp-loan-money-feds-say/ 29:01 – The Holmes Trial gets into the Excel Nitty-Grittyhttps://www.theverge.com/2021/9/14/22674657/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-trial-wire-fraud-financial-witness 31:55 – Xerocon New Orleans 2022: Laissez les bon temps rouler; let the good times roll...soon!https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/09/xerocon-new-orleans-2022/ 33:06 – POS ResTech Firm Toast Eyes IPO up to $717Mhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/ipo/2021/pos-restech-firm-toast-eyes-ipo-up-to-717m/ 36:00 – Zoom Invests Additional $30 Million in Neat to Further Innovate the Modern Workspacehttps://blog.zoom.us/zoom-neat-investment-workspace-transformation/ 37:40 – Chewy to Launch Marketplace for Vets in Expansion of Health Offeringshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/chewy-to-launch-marketplace-for-vets-in-expansion-of-health-offerings/  38:35 – SaaS data backup and recovery platform Rewind raises $65Mhttps://venturebeat.com/2021/09/15/saas-data-backup-and-recovery-platform-rewind-raises-65m/ 41:10 – ADP improves RUN payroll system, adds vaccine trackinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/adp-improves-run-payroll-system-adds-vaccine-tracking 42:49 – Barely anyone is using Apple Pay in stores anymorehttps://www.techradar.com/news/barely-anyone-is-using-apple-pay-in-stores-anymore 44:26 – Square Offers Sellers and Consumers a New Checkout Experience with Cash App Payhttps://squareup.com/us/en/press/cash-app-pay 45:29 – B2B Payments Platform Melio Raises $250M at $4B Valuationhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/b2b-payments-platform-melio-raises-250m-at-4b-valuation/ 46:35 – Listener Mail about mesh network issues  – Thanks, Dan Luthi! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCPA Charge: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/cpachargeDEXT: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/dextRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindShow Notes2:58 – EisnerAmper Gets Private Equity Backinghttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/09/11/big-deal-private-equity-takes-stake-in-eisneramper-cpas-2/ 9:46 – KPMG's UK arm among first to set targets for working class staffhttps://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/kpmgs-uk-arm-among-first-set-targets-working-class-staff-2021-09-09/ 11:58 – Here’s What We Know Right Now About the New COVID Vax Requirements at KPMG UShttps://www.goingconcern.com/heres-what-we-know-right-now-about-the-new-covid-vax-requirements-at-kpmg-us/ 13:07 – Most U.S. Employers to Require COVID-19 Vaccinationhttps://www.cfo.com/covid-19/2021/09/most-u-s-employers-to-require-covid-vaccination/ 14:48 – If You Never Met Your Co-Workers in Person, Did You Even Work There?https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/business/remote-office-co-workers-working-from-home.html 19:53 – Blake is taking his leave from Jirav. What’s next?  24:50 – JofA 2021 Tax Software Survey Results Are Inhttps://www.drakesoftware.com/blog/tags/2021%20tax%20software%20survey 37:35 – IRS regulation of tax preparers gains steamhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-regulation-of-tax-return-preparers-gains-steam 43:45 – Facebook to buy $100 million worth of unpaid invoices from 30,000 small businesses owned by women and minoritieshttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/11/facebook-to-buy-100-million-of-invoices-from-diverse-owned-businesses.html 46:00 – Amazon Is Creating A POS System To Compete With Shopify And PayPal—And Other Small Business Tech Newshttps://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2021/09/12/amazon-is-creating-a-pos-system-to-compete-with-shopify-and-paypaland-other-small-business-tech-news/?sh=438fe52f5e28 49:59 – Quicken, one of the ‘first fintechs,’ is being sold againhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/09/09/quicken-one-of-the-first-fintechs-resold-to-another-private-equity-firm/ 55:42 – PayPal to Buy Japan’s Paidy for $2.7 Billionhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/paypal-to-buy-japans-paidy-for-2-7-billion-11631087698 56:30 –Clio snaps up document automation startup in latest acquisitionhttps://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/clio-snaps-up-document-automation-startup-latest-acquisition-2021-09-08/ 57:51 – Notion acquires India’s Automate.io in push to accelerate product expansionhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/09/08/notion-acquires-indias-automate-io-in-push-to-accelerate-product-expansion/ 61:35 – Expensify Announces New Expensify Card Perk: Up to 2% Cash Back for All Cardholdershttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210908005475/en/Expensify-Announces-New-Expensify-Card-Perk-Up-to-2-Cash-Back-for-All-CardholdersGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDEXT: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/dextClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubApprovalMax: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/approvalmaxShow Notes5:59 – Here’s why small-business kingpin Intuit is buying Mailchimp for $12Bhttps://www.fastcompany.com/90675994/intuit-mailchimp-acquisition 6:11 – Intuit in talks to buy Mailchimp for more than $10Bhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/intuit-in-talks-to-buy-mailchimp-for-more-than-10b 13:35 – Xero Tax: Personal tax is now livehttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/08/personal-tax-live/ 16:10 – Xero iOS app update – You can reconcile spend and receive transactions at the same time when doing find and match – WOOT!  Xero Blog – Latest product news – September 2021https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/09/product-news-sept-2021/ 19:30 – Apple announces first states signed up to adopt driver’s licenses and state IDs in Apple Wallethttps://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/09/apple-announces-first-states-to-adopt-drivers-licenses-and-state-ids-in-wallet/ 21:10 – Neat introduces NeatBooks and NeatInvoiceshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/neat-introduces-neatbooks-and-neatinvoices 27:16 – New & Improved in FreshBooks: Team Cost Rates, Project Profitability, and Morehttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/product-updates-august-2021 28:03 – Square to launch a new paid subscription, Invoices Plushttps://techcrunch.com/2021/08/30/square-to-launch-a-new-paid-subscription-invoices-plus/ 30:00 – Vic.ai, an AI-powered accounting automation platform, raises $50Mhttps://venturebeat.com/2021/09/01/vic-ai-an-ai-powered-accounting-automation-platform-raises-50m/ 35:08 – Watch Google’s Super-powered AI Turn Pixelated Photos into Hi-reshttps://www.inputmag.com/tech/googles-ai-photo-upscaling-tool-borders-on-science-fiction Google’s New AI Photo Upscaling Tech is Jaw-Droppinghttps://petapixel.com/2021/08/30/googles-new-ai-photo-upscaling-tech-is-jaw-dropping/ 37:25 – Canopy integrates with QuickBooks Onlinehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/canopy-integrates-with-quickbooks-online 38:40 – Baker Tilly to acquire accounting tech services companyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/baker-tilly-to-acquire-accounting-tech-services-company-accttwo 40:48 – Another Exodus of NCR Employees and NCR Reportedly Kills Aloha Nextgen POShttps://reformingretail.com/index.php/2021/08/31/another-exodus-of-ncr-employees-and-ncr-reportedly-kills-aloha-nextgen-pos/ 42:24 – IRS adds address change capability to Child Tax Credit portalhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-adds-change-of-address-capability-to-child-tax-credit-portal 43:11 – Plaid CTO: Banks, FinTechs Must Turn ‘Transaction Data Mosaic’ Into Cohesive Service Offeringhttps://www.pymnts.com/digital-first-banking/2021/plaid-cto-banks-fintechs-must-turn-transaction-data-mosaic-into-cohesive-service-offering/ 46:20 – Even a Marvel Superhero Knows How Horrible Working at a Big 4 Firm Can Behttps://www.goingconcern.com/even-a-marvel-superhero-knows-how-horrible-working-at-a-big-4-firm-can-be/ 50:07 – The Accountant 2 Is a Done Deal, Ben Affleck & Jon Bernthal Will Both Returnhttps://www.imdb.com/news/ni63411978 52:00 – Feedback from you, our excellent listeners! Thank you! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors Fyle: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/fyleCPA Charge: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/cpacharge Dark Horse: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/darkhorseShow Notes6:25 – Is it too hard to become a CPA? https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/is-it-too-hard-to-become-a-cpa 8:50 – Accounting profession having trouble with recruitmenthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/accounting-profession-having-trouble-with-recruitment 11:00 – Most Companies Struggling to Hire Workershttps://www.cfo.com/hiring/2021/08/most-companies-struggling-to-hire-workers/ 12:20 – Which College Programs Give Students the Best Bang for Their Buck?https://www.thirdway.org/report/which-college-programs-give-students-the-best-bang-for-their-buck 23:27 – “Entry-level” Jobs Require 3+ Years of Experience https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/nikastar/viz/2021W34Entry-leveljobsrequire3yearsofexperience_16297364426090/Dashboard1 29:19 – QuickBooks Live Bookkeeper Infohttps://www.intuit.com/careers/quickbooks-live-experts/ 31:58 – Intuit Bookkeeping Professional Certificatehttps://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/intuit-bookkeeping 33:40 – How a Video Résumé Can Get You Hired in the Covid-19 Job Markethttps://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-video-resume-can-get-you-hired-in-the-covid-19-job-market-11629457200 37:22 – Intuit Quarterly Results https://investors.intuit.com/financials/quarterly-results/default.aspx What’s new in QuickBooks Online: August 2021https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-august-2021/ 45:44 – Why we’ve updated the bank reconciliation designhttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/08/why-weve-updated-the-bank-reconciliation-design/ 50:32 – Incoming Updates! Start Using Focus Mode, Limit Screen Sharing, and Seamlessly Transfer Meetingshttps://blog.zoom.us/focus-mode-limit-screen-sharing-seamless-meeting-transfer/ 52:43 – Pry Financials raises $4.2M to make startup accounting more approachablehttps://techcrunch.com/2021/08/23/pry-financials-raises-4-2m-to-make-startup-accounting-more-approachable/ 53:43 – Ramp raises $300M at a $3.9B valuation, makes its first acquisitionhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/08/24/ramp-raises-300m-at-a-3-9b-valuation-makes-its-first-acquisition/ 54:48 – Balance raises $25M in a Ribbit Capital-led Series A to grow its ‘consumer-like B2B checkout platformhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/08/25/balance-raises-25m-in-a-ribbit-capital-led-series-a-to-grow-its-consumer-like-b2b-checkout-platform/ 55:17 – Zeal Raises $13 Million Series A to Scale API Infrastructure Allowing Companies to Build Custom Payroll Productshttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210827005003/en/Zeal-Raises-13-Million-Series-A-to-Scale-API-Infrastructure-Allowing-Companies-to-Build-Custom-Payroll-Products 55:46 – Brex Launches $150 Million Venture Debt Businesshttps://www.theinformation.com/articles/brex-launches-150-million-venture-debt-business 56:40 – Finexio Raises $8M To Build Out AP Software Suitehttps://www.pymnts.com/accounts-payable/2021/finexio-accounts-payable/ 56:50 – Accounting platform Synder raises $2Mhttps://startupworld.tech/accounting-platform-synder-raises-2m/ 57:26 – Sensibill and FreeAgent Partner to Offer Digital Receipt and Expense Management Solutions to Small Businesseshttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210826005115/en/Sensibill-and-FreeAgent-Partner-to-Offer-Digital-Receipt-and-Expense-Management-Solutions-to-Small-Businesses 58:46 – Pry Versus Quickbookshttps://pry.co/bookkeeping 60:34 – Short and Sweet – we got a review! Thanks, Vanessa! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindAFO Wealth Management Forward: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/afoClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubShow Notes1:40 – We’ve hit the big time! We’re 2,034 out of all podcasts in the universe!  2:05 – An Exclusive Guide to America's Top Private Companieshttps://www.inc.com/inc5000 4:00 – TikToker Shares How She Spent Millions of Dollars for Alabama Sorority at 19https://www.insider.com/how-woman-handled-finances-for-alabama-sorority-as-teen-tiktok-2021-8 10:45 – Why this New York designer loves doing her own bookkeepinghttps://businessofhome.com/articles/why-this-new-york-designer-loves-doing-her-own-bookkeeping 14:36 – These People Who Work From Home Have a Secret: They Have Two Jobshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/these-people-who-work-from-home-have-a-secret-they-have-two-jobs-11628866529 16:50 – The Remote Trend Of Working Two Jobs At The Same Time Without Both Companies Knowinghttps://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/08/15/the-remote-trend-of-working-two-jobs-at-the-same-time-without-both-companies-knowing/ 25:44 – PwC delays return to offices amid Delta spreadhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pwc-delays-return-to-offices-amid-delta-spread 27:00 – EY launches Career Path Accelerator Programhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ey-launches-career-path-accelerator-program 33:15 – Better yet, why not get rid of the 150 hour requirement? Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/BlakeTOliver/status/1428364571954192393 CPA Exam Makeover Risks Raising Hurdles for Black Accountantshttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/cpa-exam-makeover-risks-raising-hurdles-for-black-accountants 34:09 – Art of Accounting: Buying a new suithttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/art-of-accounting-buying-a-new-suit 37:40 – PPP Loan Fraud: Fintechs Found to Be Much More Likely to OK Suspicious Loans https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-17/fintechs-found-to-be-much-more-likely-to-ok-suspicious-ppp-loans 15% of Paycheck Protection Program Loans Could Be Fraudulent, Study Showshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/business/ppp-fraud-covid.html 42:48 – Afghanistan: What has the conflict cost the US and its allies? - BBC Newshttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-47391821 45:30 – Accountants must play key role in application of AI | Accountancy Dailyhttps://www.accountancydaily.co/accountants-must-play-key-role-application-ai 49:36 – QuickFee Integrates With Accounting Firm Xerohttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/quickfee-integration-accounting-firm-xero/ 51:53 – Blue J Raises $9M in Series B Funding, Adds Key Personnel, Announces New Tax Diagramming Solution https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210810005199/en/Blue-J-Raises-9M-in-Series-B-Funding-Adds-Key-Personnel-Announces-New-Tax-Diagramming-Solution 55:16 – Credit Karma integrates Money software with QuickBooks Online Payroll https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/credit-karma-integrates-money-software-with-quickbooks-online-payroll 59:13 – We’ve got VOICEMAIL! Thank you, Ryan!  62:00 – New Reviews! Thank you, Joe Gamatoria, and Colaangel! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Ambitious Bookkeeper: http://bkworkshops.online/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsFyle: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/fyleAFO Wealth Management Forward: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/afo Rewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindShow Notes01:30 – Blake and David talk smart homes, Zoom, and router recommendations, Mnuchin and movies. 7:55 – Updates of PPP Forgiveness10:02 – Survey: COVID relief, changing laws were last tax season’s headacheshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/natp-survey-covid-relief-changing-laws-were-last-tax-seasons-headaches 12:20 – IRS Funding Surge Punted From Bipartisan Infrastructure Packagehttps://www.govexec.com/workforce/2021/07/irs-funding-surge-punted-bipartisan-infrastructure-package/183873/ 13:26 – Cryptocurrency brawl bogs down infrastructure bill, as Yellen and White House fight changeshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/06/crypto-bitcoin-infrastructure-senate/ 18:00 – Closing date set for new Shuttered Venue Operator Grant applicationshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/aug/shuttered-venue-operator-grant-svog-application-closing-date.html 21:04 – Former Dixon comptroller Rita Crundwell released from prison earlyhttps://www.wifr.com/2021/08/05/former-dixon-comptroller-rita-crundwell-released-prison-early/?utm_source=pocket_mylist 22:25 – All the Queen’s Horses Documentary on YouTube – Freehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpr2A3S3CNk 24:05 – Hundreds of AI tools have been built to catch covid. None of them helped.https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/07/30/1030329/machine-learning-ai-failed-covid-hospital-diagnosis-pandemic/ 31:06 – Reflecting on the evolution of bank reconciliation at Xerohttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/08/bank-reconciliation-evolution-at-xero/ 33:36 – Taking business banking to the next level with Revoluthttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/08/revolut-next-level-business-banking/ More Reading on Xero: Xero Upgrades Bank Reconciliation Featurehttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/xero-upgrades-bank-reconciliation-feature Xero revamps bank recs, injects AIhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/xero-revamps-bank-recs-injects-ai 36:43 – HR software company Gusto raises $175 millionhttps://www.axios.com/gusto-fundraising-175-million-f2bb33ba-fced-4343-8a7b-0aa6a5d6dbbe.html Gusto Raises $175M in Series E Fundinghttps://www.finsmes.com/2021/08/gusto-raises-175m-in-series-e-funding.html 38:20 – Accounting firm FreshBooks hits unicorn status, plans global growth after raising US$130-millionhttps://financialpost.com/news/fp-street/accounting-firm-freshbooks-hits-unicorn-status-plans-global-growth-after-raising-us130-million 43:56 – 'Connected accounting' startup closes $13M funding roundhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/connected-accounting-startup-lockstep-closes-13m-series-a-funding-round Lockstep Websitehttps://lockstep.io/ 46:36 – New IRS tax collection notices offer QR code contact optionhttps://www.dontmesswithtaxes.com/2021/08/redesigned-irs-tax-collection-notices-now-offer-qr-code-contact-option.html 47:36 – ZenBusiness Democratizes Small Business Finance With New All-Inclusive Payments App ZenBusiness Moneyhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210810005143/en/ZenBusiness-Democratizes-Small-Business-Finance-With-New-All-Inclusive-Payments-App-ZenBusiness-Money 50:29 – US Bank to Buy Bento Technologieshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/us-bank-to-buy-biz-expense-management-platform-bento-technologies/ 53:13 – Announcing Check + Quickbooks Online – Checkhttps://www.checkhq.com/post/announcing-check-quickbooks-online?utm_source=pocket_mylist 53:44 – The news from you! We’ve got reviews! Thank you, Cbordeaux, Amanda from NOLA, Rachael, and Eddie Valls! 55:35 – As if reviews weren’t enough, we got voicemail! Thank you, Scott Scarano! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Ambitious Bookkeeper: http://bkworkshops.online/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCPA Charge: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/cpachargeAFO Wealth Management Forward: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/afoClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubShow Notes3:00 – Risk Assessment and COVID  10:30 – Square to Buy Installment Lender Afterpay for $29Bhttps://www.cfo.com/ma/2021/08/square-to-buy-installment-lender-afterpay-for-29b/ 19:21 – Rootworks Acquires CPA Practice Advisorhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/rootworks-acquires-cpa-practice-advisor-131500586.html 19:36 – Right Networks Acquires Rootworkshttps://www.rightnetworks.com/blog/right-networks-acquires-rootworks/ 20:57 – Windows 365 costs how much!?https://www.computerworld.com/article/3628169/windows-365-costs-how-much.html More Microsoft News:  Microsoft's new collaboration tool wants to replace Google Workspace for goodhttps://www.techradar.com/news/microsofts-new-collaboration-tool-wants-to-replace-google-workspace-for-good 4 Must-Know Features of Project Moca (a.k.a. Outlook Spaces)https://www.avepoint.com/blog/manage/outlook-spaces-project-moca/ 28:17 – Greenback is becoming Dext Commercehttps://www.greenback.com/blog/greenback-and-dext/447 Dext debuts rebranded e-commerce solutionhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/dext-debuts-rebranded-e-commerce-solution-following-acquisition 31:43 – Earth Class Mail: Mailbox Scanhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.delivered.ecm&hl=en&gl=US 33:37 – Introducing the new Xero App Storehttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/08/introducing-new-xero-app-store/ 37:14  – Latest product news – August 2021https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/08/latest-product-news-august-2021/ 38:20 – Zeni receives $34M in funding for AI bookkeepinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/zeni-receives-34m-in-funding-for-ai-bookkeeping-and-accounting 48:30 –Meetings aren't killing productivity; data entry ishttps://zapier.com/blog/report-how-office-workers-spend-time 52:13 – 1 in 4 Former Employees Still Has Access to Files at Old Jobhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2021/08/employees-access-files-former-employer.html 57:20 – Final Report - Advisory Committee on Open Bankinghttps://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/programs/consultations/2021/final-report-advisory-committee-open-banking.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Ambitious Bookkeeper: http://bkworkshops.online/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsFyle: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/fyleRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindAFO Wealth Management Forward: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/afoShow Notes2:00 – A rundown of our visit to AICPA Engage in Vegas, plus news on some other upcoming events. You can find out more about the latest, greatest accounting conferences here: https://accountingconferences.com 12:00 – SBA Announces Opening of Paycheck Protection Program Direct Forgiveness Portalhttps://www.sba.gov/article/2021/jul/28/sba-announces-opening-paycheck-protection-program-direct-forgiveness-portal 12:17 – Small Business Administration to Revamp PPP Forgiveness in Bid to End Historic Programhttps://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/27/paycheck-protection-program-ending-501046 13:49 – Nearly 500 taxpayers had over $150M in their IRAshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/nearly-500-taxpayers-had-over-150m-in-their-iras 16:53 – New IRA product allows for tax-free Bitcoin mininghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/new-ira-product-allows-for-tax-free-bitcoin-mining 21:02 – Fed's Brainard: Can't wrap head around not having U.S. central bank digital currencyhttps://reut.rs/3ygDh7S 23:10 – Tether Executives Said to Face Criminal Probe into Bank Fraudhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-26/tether-executives-said-to-face-criminal-probe-into-bank-fraud 24:40 – 74% of Consumers Prefer Texting with Businesses if a Real Person is Texting Backhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2021/07/customers-prefer-texting-business-real-people.html 27:16 – Small businesses face bookkeeping challenges, overdue invoices during pandemichttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/small-businesses-face-bookkeeping-challenges-overdue-invoices-during-pandemic 32:17 – It doesn’t fucking matterhttps://medium.com/@thedannorris/it-doesnt-fucking-matter-391a399c7caa 40:11 – Homebase raises $71M for a team management platform aimed at SMBs and their hourly workers – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/07/29/homebase-raises-71m-for-a-team-management-platform-aimed-at-smbs-and-their-hourly-workers/ 43:40 – Xero says accounting software users were locked out by login glitch, not nefarious deedshttps://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/xero_login_glitch_resolved/ 45:42 – New & Improved in FreshBooks: Advanced Client Search, KeyPay Payroll, and Morehttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/product-updates-july-2021 46:40 – Sage Q3 2021 Resultshttps://www.sage.com/investors/financial-information/results/ 47:41 – Introducing Zoom Apps: Use the Apps You Love, Right in Zoomhttps://blog.zoom.us/start-using-zoom-apps/ 48:47 – PandaDoc for Zoomhttps://marketplace.zoom.us/apps/hHK3qVpjTCycz2xXS249gA 50:22 – Summit invests $215M into Odoo, an open-source business management software developer, at a $2.3B+ valuationhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/07/29/summit-invests-215m-into-odoo-an-open-source-business-management-software-developer-at-a-2-3b-valuation/ 51:12 – We’ve Got Reviews! Thanks, Smackramen, and Brianqzo! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Ambitious Bookkeeper: http://bkworkshops.online/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected] Art Image License - Author: Moody College of Communication Source: Matthew McConaughey and Scott Rice conversation with film director and screenwriter Jeff Nichols. Date: 1 October 2019, 09:30 Url:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matthew_McConaughey_and_Scott_Rice_host_conversation_with_film_director_and_screenwriter_Jeff_Nichols._(48829043471).jpg

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooDark Horse: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/darkhorseShow Notes11: 51 – AICPA is now targeting high school counselors to build up the accounting profession 13:22 – ‘Financially Hobbled for Life’: The Elite Master’s Degrees That Don’t Pay Offhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/financially-hobbled-for-life-the-elite-masters-degrees-that-dont-pay-off-11625752773 17:47 – Graduates should expect to work 12-hour days and 6 days a week to really master their jobs, says JPMorgan exechttps://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-exec-graduates-should-work-12-hour-days-6-day-weeks-2021-7 23:17 – AICPA Town Hall Series – July 22, 2021http://townhall.aicpa.libsynpro.com/aicpa-town-hall-series-july-22-2021 25:38 – The Sad State of Accounting Standardshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/the-sad-state-of-accounting-standards 34:15 – Video Gaming the Systemhttps://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/1018915121/video-gaming-the-system 37:30 – The SBA's PPP Loan Forgiveness Portal Is Cominghttps://www.inc.com/brit-morse/ppp-loan-forgiveness-portal-small-business-administration-paycheck-protection-program.html 38: 51 – Bill.com to acquire Invoice2go in $625M dealhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/bill-com-to-acquire-invoice2go-in-625m-deal 43:44 – Square launches checking and savings accounts for small businesseshttps://www.theverge.com/2021/7/20/22585365/square-banking-checking-savings-business-accounts 44:16 – FloQast scores $110M in latest funding roundhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/floqast-scores-110m-in-latest-funding-round 45:15 – Finance Chiefs Are Still Trying to Replace Excel With New Toolshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/finance-chiefs-are-still-trying-to-replace-excel-with-new-tools-11626859801 48:52 – Visa acquires Currencycloud, which makes APIs for remittances and currency transfers, in a $963M dealhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/07/22/visa-acquires-currencycloud-which-makes-apis-for-remittances-and-currency-transfers-in-a-963m-deal/ 49:50 – Anduin earmarks $14M seed round for intelligent practice managementhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/anduin-earmarks-14m-seed-round-for-intelligent-practice-management 50:38 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: July 2021https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-july-2021/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Follow Ben Richmondhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-richmond-ca-b8794220/https://twitter.com/benrichmond1Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsPractice Ignition: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/piAFO Wealth Management Forward: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/afoOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow NotesLive from NOLA – The Cloud Accounting Podcast is on the road again!  5:25 – Banks Are Reversing Course on PPP Loans to Small Business Ownershttps://theintercept.com/2021/07/12/covid-banks-sba-ppp-loans/ 6:47 – We’ve got Voicemail! Thank you, Ray!  7:32 – This Way to CPA https://www.thiswaytocpa.com/ 9:15 – TurboTax-Maker Intuit Will Leave Free Tax Filing Partnership With IRShttps://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-maker-intuit-will-leave-free-tax-filing-partnership-with-irs 13:20 – Accelerating Technology Innovation to Better Help Consumers Solve Their Most Pressing Financial Problems https://www.intuit.com/blog/news-social/accelerating-technology-innovation-to-better-help-consumers-solve-their-most-pressing-financial-problems/ 18:12 – Ivix receives $13M in funding to help fight tax evasionhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ivix-receives-13m-in-seed-funding-to-help-authorities-combat-tax-evasion 20:32 – IRS offers online tools for managing Child Tax Credit paymentshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-offers-online-tools-for-managing-child-tax-credit-payments 23:08 – Pulling B2B Bartering From Underground And Into A Cash-Management Strategyhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/barterpay-bartering-commerce-cash-flow/ 25:21 – Introducing Relay Prohttps://relayfi.com/blog/Introducing-Relay-Pro 27:09 – Gusto Cashout – Another Easy Employee Benefithttps://bizhippo.com/blog/gusto-cashout-employee-benefit/ Cashout employee overviewhttps://support.gusto.com/benefits/gusto-wallet/cashout/1532856101/Cashout-employee-overview.htm 31:54 – Real estate accounting tech company Proper raises $9M in fundinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/real-estate-accounting-tech-company-proper-raises-9m-in-funding 34:45 – Check out the Proper website here: https://proper.ai/ 38:05 – Remote raises $150M on a $1B+ valuation to manage payroll and more for organizations’ global workforces – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/07/13/remote-raises-150m-on-a-1b-valuation-to-manage-payroll-and-more-for-organizations-global-workforces/ 40:12 – Xero introduces AI-powered analytics toolhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/xero-introduces-ai-powered-analytics-tool 43:07 – A new way to get paid: Introducing the QuickBooks Card Reader for mobile and contactless paymentshttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/a-new-way-to-get-paid-introducing-the-quickbooks-card-reader-for-mobile-and-contactless-payments/ 45:08 – Apple Working on ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Planhttps://www.cfo.com/credit/2021/07/apple-working-on-buy-now-pay-later-plan/ 48:16 – Revolut confirms a fresh $800M in funding at a $33B valuation to supercharge its financial services superapphttps://techcrunch.com/2021/07/15/revolut-confirms-a-fresh-800m-in-funding-at-a-33b-valuation-to-supercharge-its-financial-services-superapp/amp/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsSynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooDark Horse: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/darkhorseShow Notes 4:48 – Trump Organization Is Charged With Running 15-Year Employee Tax Schemehttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2021/bolt-seeking-300m-in-next-fundraising-round/ 13:35 – June Job Report? Employers added 850K jobs in June, including 2.8K in accountinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/employers-added-850k-jobs-in-june-including-2-8k-in-accounting 13:50– U.S. Job Openings Hit Record 9.2M in Mayhttps://www.newsbreak.com/news/2303009196462/u-s-job-openings-hit-record-9-2m-in-may 16:37 – SBA to Drop Its Review of PPP Loans of $2 Million and Abovehttps://www.inc.com/diana-ransom/small-business-administration-ppp-loan-necessity-questionnaire.html 19:45 – Biden Plan’s Higher Taxation of Businesses Would Boost Collections to Highest in 40-Plus Yearshttps://taxfoundation.org/biden-business-tax-collections/ 23:09 – Art of Accounting: Qualities that make someone a partnerhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/art-of-accounting-qualities-that-make-someone-a-partner 25:48 – When Money Is No Objecthttps://www.wsj.com/articles/when-money-is-no-object-11625839202 29:48 – SURVEY: CPA Firms Reject Staff Vaccine Mandateshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/07/07/survey-hybrid-of-remote-and-on-site-work-is-here-to-stay/ 31:30 – EisnerAmper adds tech firmhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/eisneramper-adds-tech-firm-zentek-data-systems 33:35 – Sage X3 software vulnerability found, addressedhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-x3-software-vulnerability-found-addressed 35:29 – Paycom Launches Beti, an Industry-First Employee-Driven Payroll Solutionhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210706005447/en/Paycom-Launches-Beti-an-Industry-First-Employee-Driven-Payroll-Solution 38:59 – Welcoming Symmetry to Gustohttps://gusto.com/company-news/welcoming-symmetry-to-gusto 44:38 – New & Improved in FreshBooks: Recurring Revenue Widget, Reply-To Emails, and Morehttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/product-updates-june-2021 45:36 – Liberty Tax acquired by NextPoint https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/liberty-tax-acquired-by-nextpoint 47:45 – PSA: Chime Banking App Is Closing Accounts and Withholding Peoples’ Moneyhttps://www.reviewgeek.com/91482/psa-chime-banking-app-is-closing-accounts-and-withholding-peoples-money/ A Banking App Has Been Suddenly Closing Accounts, Sometimes Not Returning Customers’ Money — ProPublicahttps://www.propublica.org/article/chime 51:52 – Fired by Bot at Amazon: ‘It’s You Against the Machine’https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-bot-amazon-turns-to-machine-managers-and-workers-are-losing-out 53:40 – Quote: “All your automated processes should start with a human interaction and end with a human interaction” Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Follow Ted Callahanhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tedcallahan/https://twitter.com/_tedcallahanSunset TradeGeckohttps://www.tradegecko.com/sunsetGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooDark Horse: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/darkhorse AFO Wealth Management Forward: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/afoShow Notes2:49 – Blake and David talk high-tech dining 10:00 – A listener voicemail about the CPA get/not get issue! Thanks, Byron!  16:54 – Proposed bill to regulate tax preparers has AICPA support - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/jun/proposed-bill-to-regulate-tax-preparers-has-aicpa-support.html 19:41 – Taxpayer Advocate prods IRS to improve service, reduce backloghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/taxpayer-advocate-prods-irs-to-improve-service-reduce-backlog 21:43 ­– Why call the IRS when you call us and tell us your CPA and IRS troubles? We guarantee you’ll have a better chance of us hearing you than if you called the IRS! (202) 695-1040 22:18 – Gusto is now offering pieces of its service to other companies via API – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/06/30/2171608/ 22:55 – Gusto Embedded Payrollhttps://gusto.com/embedded-payroll/ 26:13 – Intuit to Share Payroll Data from 1.4M Small Businesses With Equifaxhttps://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/07/intuit-to-share-payroll-data-from-1-4m-small-businesses-with-equifax/ 31:20 – Latest product news – July 2021https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/07/latest-product-news-july-2021/ 33:05 – ServiceTitan acquires Aspire to move into landscaping, raises $200M at a $9.5B valuation – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/06/30/servicetitan-acquires-aspire-to-move-into-landscaping-raises-200m-at-a-9-5b-valuation/ 35:58 – Slice Launches Pizzeria Payment Platformhttps://www.pymnts.com/restaurant-innovation/2021/fintech-goes-niche-with-slice-pizzeria-payment-platform/ 36:48 – Slice Is Giving 50 Winners $500 & Free Pizza for a Yearhttps://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/slice-app-giving-free-pizza-for-a-year 37:35 – LegalZoom shares jump 35% in market debut; CEO sees further opportunity in online legal serviceshttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/30/legalzoom-debuted-up-30percent-ceo-sells-further-push-into-digital-market.html 38:22 – Canopy scores $11M in funding for tax practice management softwarehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/canopy-scores-11m-in-funding-for-tax-practice-management-software 42:07 – How Two Start-ups Made a Fortune in Fees on P.P.P. Loans - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/27/business/ppp-relief-loans-blueacorn-womply.html 45:07 – Robinhood to Pay $70M to Settle FINRA Probehttps://www.cfo.com/regulation/2021/06/robinhood-to-pay-70m-to-settle-finra-probe/ 46:48 – Squarespace Survey Reveals Gen Z Find Digital Life More Important And Memorable Than In-Person Lifehttps://newsroom.squarespace.com/blog/squarespace-survey-reveals-genz 48:34 – Accountants more likely to return to offices than others: Studyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/accountants-more-likely-to-return-to-offices-than-other-businesses-study 49:30 – Do Chance Meetings at the Office Boost Innovation? There’s No Evidence of It.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/23/upshot/remote-work-innovation-office.html 51:03 – 56% of Employees Believe Too Many Meetings Affecting Job Performancehttps://smallbiztrends.com/2021/07/meetings-affecting-job-performance.html 55:14 – Melio Selects Colorado to Power its Explosive U.S. Growth | Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Tradehttps://oedit.colorado.gov/press-release/melio-selects-colorado-to-power-its-explosive-us-growth 55:32 – Many Companies Want Remote Workers—Except From Coloradohttps://www.wsj.com/articles/many-companies-want-remote-workersexcept-from-colorado-11623937649Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindUncat: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/uncatOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow Notes1:20 – David is LIVE (well, recorded) from the brand-new Accounting Podcast Network recording studio! Check out our Instagram for a pictorial view -@cloudacctpod 2:20 – Welcome to all our new listeners from the BKX conference!   5:45 – SuiteWorld will be back in Las Vegas - insightfulaccountant.comhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/vendor-news/suiteworld-will-be-back-in-las-vegas/ 6:15 – Find all the latest, greatest accounting conference news here: AccountingConferences.com 8:10 – How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank — ProPublicahttps://www.propublica.org/article/lord-of-the-roths-how-tech-mogul-peter-thiel-turned-a-retirement-account-for-the-middle-class-into-a-5-billion-dollar-tax-free-piggy-bank 10:25 – ProPublica Tells Only Half the Story on Taxeshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/propublica-tells-only-half-the-story-on-taxes-11624464637 11:38 – Antivirus software pioneer John McAfee dies in prisonhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/john-mcafee-antivirus-software-pioneer-found-dead-in-prison 26:00 - Bobby Bonilla Dayhttps://www.npr.org/2021/06/25/1010404697/bobby-bonilla-dayBobby Bonilla Day: 10 other athletes who are getting big checks from deferred payments https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/bobby-bonilla-day-10-other-athletes-who-are-getting-big-checks-from-deferred-payments 28:47 – Listener Voicemails – Why I didn’t get a CPA. Thank you, Mr. Three Cents, and Carla (sp?) from Lewisville, TX!  35:04 – The Accounting Profession Is Running Low on CPAs, But There’s an Obvious (and Completely Ignored) Fix For Thathttps://www.goingconcern.com/accounting-talent-shortage-and-cpa-exam-expectations/  41:13 – Visa Buys Swedish Fintech Tink for More Than $2 Billionhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/visa-buys-swedish-fintech-tink-for-more-than-2-billion-11624528687 Visa Acquiring Swedish Open Banking Platform Tinkhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/visa-acquiring-swedish-open-banking-platform-tink-for-2-1b/ 42:31 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: June 2021https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-june-2021/ 45:20 – H&R Block’s Wave unit plans new AR abilitieshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/h-r-blocks-wave-unit-plans-new-ar-abilities 47:58 – Announcing the first payroll products built on Check - Checkhttps://www.checkhq.com/post/announcing-the-first-payroll-products-built-on-check 50:14 – Tech news: FloQast releases request management tool for monthly close, and morehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/floqast-releases-request-management-tool-for-monthly-close 51:40 – Venmo Is About to Get More Expensive for Millions to Usehttps://money.com/venmo-fee-changes-email/ 56:40 – This Bachelor Fan Figured Out Who Won Colton Underwood’s Season With Venmohttps://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a30350953/bachelor-venmo-winner-colton-underwood/ 57:33 – PwC Restructures for Future of Bots, Post-Covid Advisory Boomhttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/pwc-restructures-for-future-of-bots-post-covid-advisory-boom 58:29 – Deloitte tells its 20,000 UK employees they can work from home foreverhttps://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/deloitte-work-from-home-employees-b1868977.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsPractice Ignition: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/piOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubShow Notes 1:56 – David talks specifics on Bookkeepers.com 5:54 – The IMA Is Beefing With the AICPA and NASBA Over the Future of Accounting Educationhttps://www.goingconcern.com/the-ima-is-beefing-with-the-aicpa-and-nasba-over-the-future-of-accounting-education/ 6:22 – AICPA, NASBA launch CPA Evolution Model Curriculum - Journal of Accountancy https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/jun/aicpa-nasba-launch-cpa-evolution-model-curriculum.html IMA pushes back on CPA Evolutionhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ima-pushes-back-on-cpa-evolution 13:20 – Time commitment, relevance push people away from CPA Examhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/time-commitment-career-relevance-push-young-people-away-from-cpa-exam 13:40 – A CPA Pipeline Report: Decoding the Declinehttps://www.icpas.org/information/professional-issues/decoding-the-decline 17:58 – Let us know your take on the CPA – if you have it, if you don’t, if you’re thinking about it …Tell us why you love it, hate it, or feel nothing about it! Call us at 202.695.1040!  18:40 – We’ve got voicemail! Thank you Chris, from Guam!  21:54 – SPAC Deals Slow Dramatically After Move by SEC | Los Angeles Business Journalhttps://labusinessjournal.com/news/2021/jun/21/spac-deals-slow-dramatically-sec-changes/ 22:20 – SPAC IPO Market Slowly Resurfaces With Play-it-Safe Accountinghttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/spac-ipo-market-slowly-resurfaces-with-play-it-safe-accounting 23:10 – The Lordstown Motors Mirage: Fake Orders, Undisclosed Production Hurdles, And A Prototype Infernohttps://hindenburgresearch.com/lordstown/ 23: 51 – Top Lordstown Motors executives out as SPAC-backed startup teetershttps://www.freightwaves.com/news/top-lordstown-motors-executives-out-as-spac-backed-startup-teeters 26:35 [Expensify] WhatsApp + Splitwise = Expensify.cash (now open for early access)https://community.expensify.com/discussion/8302/whatsapp-splitwise-expensify-cash-now-open-for-early-access33:06 – The Expensify Discussion on Blake’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlakeTOliver/status/140574544838036684837:15 – AmEx opens first business banking accounts https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/38256/amex-opens-first-business-banking-accounts 39:10 – Novo, a neobank for SMBs, banks $41Mhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/06/16/novo-a-neobank-for-smbs-banks-41m/ 40:20 – Unit Raises $51M To Expand Products, Integrationshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2021/unit-raises-51-million-dollars-expand-finserv-products-integrations/ 43:28 – Gusto makes first acquisition, buying Ardius to expand into R&D tax credits – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/06/17/gusto-makes-first-acquisition-buying-ardius-to-expand-into-rd-tax-credits/46:00 – Sunsetting of the QuickBooks Commerce standalone product (formerly TradeGecko)https://commerce.intuit.com/register 50:18 – Fastly: The Right Way to Apologize for an Outage | SaaStrhttps://www.saastr.com/fastly-the-right-way-to-apologize-for-an-outage/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsCPA Charge: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/cpachargeOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindShow Notes4:25 – Bill would make accounting part of STEM educationhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/lawmakers-introduce-bill-to-make-accounting-part-of-stem-education 5:47 – Accounting in schools down for the counthttps://www.newsroom.co.nz/accounting-in-schools-on-the-chopping-block 10:24 – The best cities for accountants in 2021https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/the-best-cities-for-accountants-in-2021 12:46 – The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Taxhttps://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax 18:11 – Let us know what you think about the secret IRS files, and whatever else we talk about! We’d love to hear from you! (202) 695-1040.  18:30 – Speaking of your thoughts, we got a voicemail! Thank you, Harry Gottlieb!  24:07 – Microsoft Excel Esports Tournament Is Real And Actually Happeninghttps://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-excel-esports-tournament-is-real-and-actually-happening/1100-6492464/  28:15 – Osome raises $16M to automate repetitive accounting tasks https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/10/osome-raises-16m-to-automate-repetitive-accounting-tasks/ 29:35 – Corporate services “superapp” Osome lands $16M Series Ahttps://techcrunch.com/2021/06/10/corporate-services-super-app-osome-lands-16m-series-a/ Super app for SMEs Osome raises $16 million https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/88040/super-app-for-smes-osome-raises-16-million 31:00 – Pennylane raises $18.3 million for its accounting service – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/06/09/pennylane-raises-18-3-million-for-its-accounting-service/https://www.pennylane.tech/33:06 – Mark Cuban-Backed Personal Finance App Dave to Go Public in $4 Billion SPAC Dealhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/mark-cuban-backed-personal-finance-app-dave-to-go-public-in-4-billion-spac-deal-11623085304 34:22 – Stripe Launches Global Tax Compliance Service https://www.pymnts.com/taxes/2021/stripe-launches-global-tax-compliance-service/36:00 – SEC warnings on SPACs dampen deals, boost accounting serviceshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sec-warnings-on-spacs-dampen-deals-and-accounting-services 38:42 – SPAC transactions come to a halt amid SEC crackdown, cooling retail investor interesthttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/21/spac-transactions-come-to-a-halt-amid-sec-crackdown-cooling-retail-investor-interest.html 40:22 – SPAC IPO Audits Dominated by Niche Firms as Big Four Stand Asidehttps://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/spac-ipo-audits-dominated-by-niche-firms-as-big-four-stand-aside 42:30 – SPAC Pullback Pressures Creators to Find Quality Mergershttps://www.wsj.com/articles/spac-pullback-pressures-creators-to-find-quality-mergers-11622494564 SPAC Selloff Bruises Individual Investorshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/spac-selloff-bruises-individual-investors-11621396808 44:12 – Amanda Aguillard named COO of Padgett https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/amanda-aguillard-named-coo-of-padgett45:43 – Accountants in Industry Expect Economic Boomhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/06/03/accountants-in-industry-brace-for-economic-boom/ 45:56 – Technology Fills the Gap as Jobs Lag GDPhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/technology-fills-the-gap-as-jobs-lag-gdp-11623250495Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindMeet LizLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonliz/Twitter: https://twitter.com/lizzynormaWebsite: https://highrock.co/Show Notes1:12 – Meet our guest, Liz Mason, CEO and Founder of High Rock Accounting 2:46 – Is the Maricopa County election audit truly an audit? Here's what professional auditors have to say … https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/06/01/professional-auditors-take-a-look-at-arizona-senate-audit-of-maricopa-county-2020-election/5212065001/ 6:08 – Liz gives us the scoop on her excited, and busy world!  8:17 – Gensler Ousts PCAOB Chair; Other Board Members to Followhttps://www.cfo.com/auditing/2021/06/gensler-ousts-pcaob-chair-other-board-members-to-follow/ Duhnke removed as PCAOB chair as transition to new board begins - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/jun/new-pcaob-transition-duhnke-removed-as-chair.html 10:00 – Intuit Answers Questions About ProAdvisor Pricinghttps://report.woodard.com/articles/intuit-answers-questions-about-proadvisor-pricing-fpwr 10:05 – Upcoming changes: Accountant discounts and QuickBooks Online pricing - Firm of the Futurehttps://www.firmofthefuture.com/content/papp-faqs/ 10:52 – QuickBooks Online Price Changes - insightfulaccountant.comhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/accounting-tech/general-ledger/quickbooks-online-price-changes/ 19:35 – Bench Raises $60 Million USD Series C and Expands Beyond Accounting with Launch of Bench Bankinghttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210603005032/en/Bench-Raises-60-Million-USD-Series-C-and-Expands-Beyond-Accounting-with-Launch-of-Bench-Banking 21:43 – Shopify adds to list of strategic deals with investment in Vancouver’s Bench Accountinghttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-shopify-invests-in-vancouvers-bench-accounting/ 29:26 – Clio Legal Softwarehttps://www.clio.com/ 30:18 – The Job Ahead: Small businesses and the global economic recoveryhttps://www.xero.com/content/dam/xero/images/xsbi/the-job-ahead-may-2021.pdf 33:05 – Nearly half of firms say COVID-19 spurred innovation, growth: Studyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/nearly-half-of-firms-say-covid-19-spurred-innovation-growth-study 42:50 – Liz zeroes in on Rebel Rock, the cannabis-focused spinoff of High Rockhttps://rebelrock.co/ 46:30 – Sage 2021 Close the Books Survey reveals businesses can shorten close process times by 36 percent by switching from spreadsheets to cloud financial managementhttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/06/02/2240469/0/en/Sage-2021-Close-the-Books-Survey-reveals-businesses-can-shorten-close-process-times-by-36-percent-by-switching-from-spreadsheets-to-cloud-financial-management.html 48:19 – Thanks to Joe in Los Angeles for calling in!   Latest product news – June 2021https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/06/latest-product-news-june-2021/ 55:01 – David discusses the Greenback app integrationshttps://www.greenback.com/ 56:03 – We got a review!  Thank you, App Ninha! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Uncat: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/uncatOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow Notes5:41 – Warren, Sanders Urge SEC to Immediately Remove and Replace Members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board – YubaNethttps://yubanet.com/usa/warren-sanders-urge-sec-to-immediately-remove-and-replace-members-of-the-public-company-accounting-oversight-board/ 7:11 – KPMG launches relaxed work policies to combat remote work fatiguehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/kpmg-launches-relaxed-work-policies-to-combat-remote-work-fatigue 12:47 – Congress Investigates PPP Fraud at Fintech Lenders BlueVine and Kabbagehttps://www.businessinsider.com/congress-investigates-ppp-fraud-at-fintech-lenders-bluevine-and-kabbage-2021-5 18:39 – IRS is trying to catch stimulus payment fraud, but billions may have been paidhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-is-trying-to-catch-stimulus-payment-fraud-but-billions-may-have-been-paid 20:34 – Digital Dollar Project to launch five U.S. central bank digital currency pilotshttps://www.reuters.com/business/finance/digital-dollar-project-launch-five-us-central-bank-digital-currency-pilots-2021-05-03/ 24:03 – China bans financial, payment institutions from cryptocurrency businesshttps://www.reuters.com/technology/chinese-financial-payment-bodies-barred-cryptocurrency-business-2021-05-18/ 26:24 – Opinion | Ban Cryptocurrency to Fight Ransomwarehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ban-cryptocurrency-to-fight-ransomware-11621962831 28:33 – Is Bitcoin a Buy?https://www.cfo.com/cash-management/2021/05/is-bitcoin-a-buy/ 29:24 – Treasury calls for crypto transfers over $10K to be reportedhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/treasury-calls-for-crypto-transfers-over-10-000-to-be-reported-to-irs 30:24 – 2021 Reader's Choice Awards: The Tech Getting Us Through the Pandemichttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/accounting-audit/article/21215751/2021-readers-choice-awards-the-tech-getting-us-through-the-pandemic 34:19 – Step in the time machine and visit PCSAI.com – See for yourself! http://pcsai.com/ 43:08 – IRS tests secure transcript technology for tax proshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-tests-secure-transcript-technology-for-tax-pros45:09 – Square may soon offer small-business checking and savings accounts, app code showshttps://www.bankingdive.com/news/square-small-business-checking-savings-accounts/600734/ 46:05 – Avalara for Accountants is livehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/avalara-for-accountants-is-live 47:45 – Revolut adds invoicing for SMBs as it builds out ‘financial super app’https://www.emarketer.com/content/revolut-adds-invoicing-smbs-builds-financial-super-app 49:55 – Bookkeep.com™ Secures $3.3 Million in Venture Financing led by Lerer Hippeauhttps://bookkeep.com/bookkeep-secures-3-3-million-in-venture-financing/ 51:16 – Bookkeeper360 Announces Integration with QuickBooks Online and Pay-as-you-go Accountinghttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bookkeeper360-announces-integration-with-quickbooks-online-and-pay-as-you-go-accounting-301300723.html 52:59 – What's New in Sage Intacct's Release 2 2021https://www.accttwo.com/blog/whats-new-in-sage-intaccts-release-2-2021 54:28 – Sage launches its first Sage Intacct data centre in Canada Channel Daily Newshttps://channeldailynews.com/news/sage-launches-its-first-sage-intacct-data-centre-in-canada/74091 54:59 – Got Tech Neck? Check this out! Tech Neck Prevention Tipshttps://smallbiztrends.com/2021/05/tech-neck-prevention.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow Notes1:12 – Welcome Kristen Keats, founder of Breakaway Bookkeeping & Advising, and practice owner at Sherwood Tax & Accounting12:17 – David’s Rant of the Week – Virtual conferences suck16:45 – REVIEW!  Thank you, Jolen.opyc! 18:06 – KPMG Canada launches cloud accounting solution for SMEshttps://www.consulting.ca/news/2273/kpmg-canada-launches-cloud-accounting-solution-for-smes24:06 – Burnout Is Real, On the Rise, and Retractablehttps://www-psychologytoday-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-health-in-the-workplace/202008/burnout-is-real-the-rise-and-retractable?amp  28:50 – Restaurant Revitalization Fund to stop accepting applications Monday - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/may/sba-loan-restaurant-revitalization-fund-to-stop-accepting-applications.html 29:11 – SBA will close Restaurant Revitalization Fund on Monday — just 3 weeks after openinghttps://www.restaurantdive.com/news/sba-will-close-restaurant-revitalization-fund-on-monday-just-3-weeks-afte/600476/ Restaurant Revitalization Fund faces huge funding shortfallhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/may/sba-restaurant-revitalization-fund-faces-huge-funding-shortfall.html NYC Introduces Restaurant Aggregator Data Billhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/delivery/2021/nyc-introduces-bill-to-require-restaurant-aggregators-to-share-customer-data/ 30:08 – Child Tax Credit Expansion Kicks In July 15 With Monthly Payments to Familieshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/monthly-child-tax-credit-payments-set-to-start-july-15-11621249203 31:28 – Under Armour shareholders can sue over sales disclosureshttps://reut.rs/3uYY3XZ 32:37 – Taxpayers deserve pandemic penalty relief, AICPA says - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/may/taxpayers-deserve-pandemic-tax-penalty-relief-aicpa-says.html 36:22 – Will Biden’s IRS be coming after your clients?https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/will-bidens-irs-be-coming-after-your-clients 41:37 – Elizabeth Warren’s take on the tax-preparer industry 44:39 – Innovations in audit: KPMG deploys smart glasseshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/innovations-in-audit-kpmg-deploys-smart-glasses 47:00 – Auditors leverage technology lessons from pandemichttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/auditors-leverage-technology-lessons-from-pandemic 49:14 – We Found Joe Biden’s Secret Venmo. Here’s Why That’s A Privacy Nightmare For Everyone.https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/we-found-joe-bidens-secret-venmo 50:25 – Popularity of Venmo, Other Apps Prompt Questions for Lawyer Usehttps://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/popularity-of-venmo-other-apps-prompt-questions-for-lawyer-use 52:50 – April sees resurgence in ransomware attacks - IT-Online https://it-online.co.za/2021/05/14/april-sees-resurgence-in-ransomware-attacks/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsFuture Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsSynder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synderOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooRelay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayShow Notes02:15 – $58,508: The Average Starting Salary for New Accounting Gradshttps://www.goingconcern.com/58508-average-starting-salary-new-accounting-grads-2021/ 3:44 – Fintech Startup Offers $500 for Payroll Passwords https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/05/fintech-startup-offers-500-for-payroll-passwords/ 6:07 – Railz Raises $12 Million Toward API Developmenthttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2021/railz-raises-12m-toward-api-development/ 8:04 – Kabbage, FinTechs Under PPP Distribution Scrutinyhttps://www.pymnts.com/loans/2021/report-kabbage-fintechs-under-justice-department-scrutiny-for-ppp-loan-distribution/ DOJ reportedly investigating Kabbage, fintech lenders, over PPP loanshttps://www.bankingdive.com/news/doj-reportedly-investigating-kabbage-fintech-lenders-over-ppp-loans/599888/ 11:37 – Collective, a back-office platform for the self-employed, raises $20M from Ashton Kutcher’s VChttps://techcrunch.com/2021/05/12/collective-a-back-office-for-the-self-employed-raises-20m-from-ashton-kutchers-vc/ 14:37 – Announcing Collective $20M Series A to Support the Rise of Businesses-of-One — Collective Bloghttps://www.collective.com/blog/news/collective-20-million-series-a/15: 51 – Blake’s discussion on Collective with CAP listener, Michael Eckstein 17:29 – The Collective Disclaimerhttps://www.collective.com/ 20:45 – Banking App Lili Raises $55 Million To Help Freelancers Tackle Expenses, Access Credithttps://www.forbes.com/sites/ninawolpow/2021/05/11/banking-app-lili-raises-55-million-to-help-freelancers-tackle-expenses-access-credit/ 25:56 – Xero FY21 revenues rise 18% to £432m | Newshttps://www.accountancytoday.co.uk/2021/05/13/xero-fy21-revenues-spike-18/ 26:03 – Xero scores subscriber surge despite slowed revenuehttps://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/business/15693-xero-scores-subscriber-surge-despite-slowed-revenue Xero’s FY21 through the eyes of our customers and people | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/05/fy21-through-their-eyes/ Xero’s full year 2021 financial resultshttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/05/full-year-2021-financial-results/ 32:25 – Digital bank Relay raises $19.4 million to automate financial management for small businesshttps://www.prweb.com/releases/digital_bank_relay_raises_19_4_million_to_automate_financial_management_for_small_business/prweb17934174.htm 37:55 – Sage's profits fall 30%, but accounting software boosts organic revenues | This is Moneyhttps://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-9578771/Sages-profits-fall-30-accounting-software-boosts-organic-revenues.html 39:50 – Introducing the Subscription Economy Income Statementhttps://www.subscribed.com/read/subscription-strategy/introducing-the-subscription-economy-income-statement?fbclid=IwAR2WHUUr4bE9pe0EUtHze0PuCBP3SpQdogHC3Z78YnvZvJhHOOMr1iywzSo 42:52 – WeWork CEO Says Least Engaged Employees Enjoy Working from Homehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/irs-needs-more-than-audits-to-find-tax-cheats-former-chief-says 45:07 – Driving Engagement in a Remote Work Worldhttps://www.cfo.com/workplace-issues/2021/04/driving-engagement-in-a-remote-work-world/ 46:53 – The hybrid workplace probably won’t last - The Boston Globehttps://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/09/opinion/hybrid-workplace-probably-wont-last/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsXero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersBKX Conference: https://bkx.com/tickets/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooRelay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayMarginDriver: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/margindriverShow Notes5:22 – SBA stops accepting new PPP applications from most lenders as general funds run outhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/may/sba-stops-accepting-most-new-ppp-applications-funds-run-out.html Paycheck Protection Program Closes to Most Applicants - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/04/business/stock-market-today 6:11 – SBA unveils initial Restaurant Revitalization Fund resultshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/may/sba-restaurant-revitalization-fund-initial-results.html 8:09 – IRS employees say ‘out of ink’ printers are delaying tax returnshttps://money.yahoo.com/irs-employees-say-out-of-ink-printers-are-delaying-tax-returns-171522801.html9:48 – Biden plan would give IRS authority to regulate tax preparershttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/biden-plan-would-give-irs-authority-to-regulate-tax-preparers 13:03 – The Best Firms for Technology for 2021https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/the-best-firms-for-technology-for-2021 19:25 – Knowledge workers' most dreaded taskshttps://zapier.com/blog/most-dreaded-tasks 23:34 – Bill.com Adds Divvy to Back-Office Solutionshttps://www.cfo.com/applications/2021/05/bill-com-adds-divvy-to-back-office-solutions/ 24:17 – Bill.com to Acquire Divvy, a Leader in Spend Management for SMBshttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210506006169/en/Bill.com-to-Acquire-Divvy-a-Leader-in-Spend-Management-for-SMBs 25:39 – David elaborates on the core value of Bill.com  29:13 – Divvy Joining forces with Bill.com https://getdivvy.com/blog/joining-forces-with-bill-com/ 37:48 – Metric of the Month: T&E Expense Reimbursements - CFOhttps://www.cfo.com/expense-management/2021/05/metric-of-the-month-total-cost-to-process-te-reimbursements/ 42:53 – Accountant view: Move from Intuit Online Payroll to QuickBooks Online Payroll https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/accounting/accountant-view-move-from-intuit-online-payroll-to-quickbooks/00/863888 46:52 – Veryfi Raises $12 Million To Use AI to Tackle The Unstructured Data Entry Markethttps://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccaszkutak/2021/04/26/veryfi-raises-12-million-to-use-ai-to-tackle-the-unstructured-data-entry-market/50:17 – Chime Stops Using Word 'Bank' After Pushbackhttps://www.pymnts.com/legal/2021/chime-stops-using-word-bank-after-regulator-pushback/ 53:12 – FloQast releases accounting coloring book ahead of Tax Dayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/floqast-releases-accounting-coloring-book-and-guided-meditation-ahead-of-tax-dayGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsXero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersBKX Conference: https://bkx.com/tickets/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsSage Advice: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/sageadvice Client Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubRelay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayShow Notes4:24 – Biden to propose tax hikes, $80B for audits of richhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/biden-to-propose-tax-hikes-80b-for-audits-of-rich  7:36 – U.S. companies went right back to heavy use of nonstandard accounting metrics during the pandemichttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-s-companies-went-right-back-to-heavy-use-of-non-standard-accounting-metrics-during-the-pandemic-11619550987 11:30 – Under Armour Paying $9 Million to Resolve SEC Accounting Probehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/under-armour-paying-9-million-to-resolve-sec-accounting-probe-11620079991 13:21 – QuickBooks Payroll sufferers outage on Friday morning … many employees never got their direct deposithttps://www.theverge.com/2021/4/30/22412349/quickbooks-issue-missed-direct-deposit-paychecks 16:25 – Financial impact of COVID-19 revealed in QuickBooks analysis of 1 million small businesseshttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/coronavirus/small-business-recovery/ 22:18 – Expensify Announces Confidential Submission of Draft Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offeringhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210503005265/en/Expensify-Announces-Confidential-Submission-of-Draft-Registration-Statement-for-Proposed-Initial-Public-Offering 23:11 – Stripe buys TaxJarhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/04/27/stripe-acquires-taxjar-to-add-cloud-based-automated-sales-tax-tools-into-its-payments-platform/amp/?__twitter_impression=true  More about TaxJarhttps://stripe.com/partners/taxjar TaxJar will be joining Stripe to help build the world’s tax compliance infrastructurehttps://blog.taxjar.com/taxjar-will-be-joining-stripe-to-help-build-the-worlds-tax-compliance-infrastructure/ 24:34 – Brex raises $425M at a $7.4B valuation, as the corporate spend war rages onhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/04/26/brex-raises-425m-at-a-7-4b-valuation-as-the-corporate-spend-war-rages-on/ Brex massive raise …https://www.businessinsider.com/brex-raises-mega-round-doubles-down-on-finance-management-2021-4 24:49 – Brex Unveils All-In-One Financial Solution For Businesseshttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210426005625/en/Brex-Unveils-All-In-One-Financial-Solution-For-Businesses#.YIcUHNRGTfg.whatsapp 25:18 – Brex Premium, our Series D, and the future of Brex as all-in-one financehttps://medium.com/building-brex/brex-premium-our-series-d-and-the-future-of-brex-as-all-in-one-finance-1ad40690edde 29:35 – OnDeck Markets First ABS Since Purchase by Subprime Lender Enovahttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/ondeck-markets-first-abs-since-purchase-by-subprime-lender-enova/2021/04/26/80919a32-a6a6-11eb-a8a7-5f45ddcdf364_story.html  31:14 – Latest product news – May 2021https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/05/latest-product-news-may-2021/ 34:06 – ACH payments on Invoices via Squarehttps://www.pymnts.com/news/payment-methods/2021/businesses-can-accept-ach-payments-via-square-invoices/ 36:20 – The robots are coming UiPath is Europe’s most successful tech export since Spotifyhttps://www.economist.com/business/2021/04/22/uipath-is-europes-most-successful-tech-export-since-spotify 37:20 – How UiPath Turned Into A $37 Billion Powerhousehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2021/05/01/how-uipath-turned-into-a-37-billion-powerhouse/?sh=6e1e53d62e40 37:40 – Heirlume raises 1.38 millionhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/04/30/heirlume-raises-1-38m-to-remove-the-barriers-of-trademark-registration-for-small-businesses/ 40:39 – New & Improved in FreshBooks: Income Importer, Dashboard Widgets, and Morehttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/product-updates-april-2021Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsXero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersBKX Conference: https://bkx.com/tickets/Future Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsUncat: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/uncatMarginDriver: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/margindriverOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow Notes2:22 – SBA to reopen Shuttered Venue Operators Grant portal Saturdayhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/apr/sba-reopen-shuttered-venue-operators-grant-portal-april-24.html Shuttered Venue Operators Grant portal begins accepting applications - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/apr/sba-reopen-shuttered-venue-operators-grant-portal-april-24.html SBA offers targeted advances to small businesseshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sba-offers-targeted-advances-to-small-businesses-and-tries-again-on-shuttered-venue-program 5:23 – Lawmakers push PPP revamp as funding lapse loomshttps://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/20/congress-ppp-funding-483803 7:06 – IRS is holding over 29 million tax returns, delaying refunds for many poorer Americanshttps://money.yahoo.com/irs-holds-over-29-million-tax-returns-delaying-refunds-192532885.html 10:33 – Biden’s Big Agenda Relies on a Shrunken, Strained Agency: The IRShttps://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-agenda-relies-on-shrunken-strained-irs-11618928830 13:20 – IRS sees delays in tax refunds and quarterly paymentshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-sees-delays-in-tax-refunds-and-quarterly-payments 15:18 – Federal Stimulus Bill Has Huge Tax Change For Gig Workershttps://www.forbes.com/sites/lizfarmer/2021/03/12/federal-stimulus-bill-has-huge-tax-change-for-gig-workers/ 17:35 – Controversy Erupts as Florida Follows Forty-Three States in Adopting Uncontroversial Tax Provisionhttps://taxfoundation.org/florida-online-sales-tax/ 19:22 – We’ve got reviews!  Thank you, De (via Podchaser), JGBC, and Jedda88 (via Apple Podcasts)!  21:34 – Netflix funds accounting program through CNM, NM Film Office » Albuquerque Journalhttps://www.abqjournal.com/2383393/netflix-funds-accounting-program-through-cnm-nm-film-office-2.html 25:27 – House OKs Bill to Make Weed Banking Legalhttps://www.cfo.com/regulation/2021/04/house-oks-bill-to-make-weed-banking-legal/ 28:30 – Why we ditched our accounting software for a bookkeeperhttps://zapier.com/blog/why-hire-a-bookkeeper 34:38 – Lumanu Talks Influencers' AR Challengeshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/lumanu-content-creators-influencers-accounts-receivable/ 36:23 – This is your brain on Zoom – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/04/21/this-is-your-brain-on-zoom/ 38:21 – New Data Shows How American Workday is Getting Longerhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2021/04/american-workday-getting-longer.html 43:13 – Our Workplace of the Future Strategy – Intuit®: Official Bloghttps://www.intuit.com/blog/intuitlife/our-workplace-of-the-future-strategy/ 46:45 – Bill.com Announces Integrations with Microsoft Dynamics 365https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/small-business/news/21219374/billcom-announces-integrations-with-microsoft-dynamics-365 47:22 – Paymogy Invests In Invoice Stream For P2P Serviceshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/paymogy-invests-in-invoice-stream-for-p2p-services/ 48:20 – Pleo Debuts ‘Bills’ To Digitize SMB Invoicing https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/pleo-debuts-bills-to-digitize-smb-invoicing/ 48:39 – Bank of America’s Complete AP Helps Transform A Company’s Accounts Payablehttps://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/content/newsroom/press-releases/2021/04/bank-of-america-s-complete-ap-helps-transform-a-company-s-accoun.html 50:00 – Deluxe Acquires First American Payments For $960Mhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/deluxe-signs-960-million-acquisition-deal-for-first-american-payments/ 51:17 – Xero and Bookkeeper360 collaborate to help US small businesses navigate financial complexitieshttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/04/xero-and-bookkeeper360-support-us-small-business/ 54:30 – Square Announces New Inventory Management Features for Retailershttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/square-announces-inventory-management-features-160000767.html 55:40 – Avalara Buys DAVO To Boost Sales Tax Automationhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/avalara-buys-davo-boost-sales-tax-automation-services/ 56:37 – Deel Raises $156M For Remote Payroll Solutionhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2021/deel-raises-156m-for-remote-payroll-solution/ 58:05 – Affirm To Buy Returnly For About $300 Millionhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/bnpl-firm-affirm-to-buy-returnly-for-about-300-million-in-cash-equity/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsXero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersRealize Accountant Community: https://rlz.ioBKX Conference: https://bkx.com/tickets/Future Firm: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odoo Client Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubShow Notes1:45 – The Interview with AICPA’s Ed Karl https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/bonus222 Reviews – Thank you all!  4:41 – Nels Larsen CPA via Podchaser5:02 – The Finance Wizard via Apple Podcasts 5:26 – Scott Scarano via Apple Podcasts5:50 – Lolololoic via Apple Podcasts 6:12 – ItsmeBeek via Apple Podcasts 7:15 – Anonymous Listener email about Episode 222  11:56 – Legislative threat to CPA licensure stalls in West Virginia https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/apr/legislative-threat-to-cpa-licensure-stalls-in-west-virginia.html 20:18 – IRS Chief Says $1 Trillion in Taxes May Go Uncollected Each Yearhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-chief-says-1-trillion-in-taxes-may-go-uncollectedeach-year-11618337765 21:41 – U.S. sues Trump ally Roger Stone, alleging he owes about $2 million in unpaid taxeshttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sues-trump-ally-roger-stone-alleged-nonpayment-federal-income-taxes-2021-04-16/ 23:00 – Listener voicemail! Thank you, Ian Crook! 26:40 – ACH Network Hits 2.7 Billion Monthly Paymentshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/payment-methods/2021/ach-network-has-record-setting-quarter/ 28:05 – IRS to roll out expanded Child Tax Credit on July 1https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-on-track-to-roll-out-expanded-child-tax-credit-on-july-1 29:50 – Biden Seeks 10% IRS Funding Hike to Spur More Audits of Wealthyhttps://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/biden-seeks-10-irs-funding-hike-to-spur-more-audits-of-wealthy 31:37 – More Listener Mail! Thank you, Amir Banihashemi!  32:08 – Get your value-pricing refresher here! https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/221 37:47 – This accounting firm will let staff choose start times — and clock off early in the summerhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/pwc-lets-u-k-based-staff-choose-start-times-and-clock-off-early-in-the-summer-11617275290 38:14 – Grant Thornton says almost 90% of staff want to work from homehttps://www.fnlondon.com/articles/grant-thornton-says-almost-90-of-staff-want-to-work-from-home-20210407 38:53 – CPAs are humans, too: Workplace relationships matter https://blog.aicpa.org/2021/03/cpas-are-humans-too-workplace-relationships-matter-1.html 40:34 – Fully Remote Work Will Make You Less Happy https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/04/zoom-remote-work-loneliness-happiness/618473/ 44:39 – The Latest Workplace Perk: Cash Bonuses for Taking Vacationshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/the-latest-workplace-perk-cash-bonuses-for-taking-vacations-11617960601 46:58 – NetSuite Helps Organizations Capitalize on New Growth Opportunitieshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netsuite-helps-organizations-capitalize-on-new-growth-opportunities-301267202.html  48:44 – NetSuite Expands Commitment to Accounting Communityhttps://www.netsuite.com/portal/company/newsroom/netsuite-expands-commitment-to-accounting-community.shtml 49:55 – Google migrates from Oracle financial software to SAP https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-migrates-from-oracle-financial-software-to-sap/ 51:08 – Grant Thornton releases controls testing apphttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/grant-thornton-releases-controls-testing-app 51:38 – Announcing TruckersBooksOnline: A Mobile Bookkeeping Management Services App for Owner/Operator Truckers https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/538425423/announcing-truckersbooksonline-a-mobile-bookkeeping-management-services-app-for-owner-operator-truckers 52:45 – New Investors Discover Tax Pitfalls of Robinhood and Other Trading Appshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/new-investors-discover-tax-pitfalls-of-robinhood-and-other-trading-apps-11618565406 56:02 – David wants to hear your thoughts! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsXero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersRealize Accountant Community: https://rlz.ioBKX Conference: https://bkx.com/tickets/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Show NotesHow to Collect $1.4 Trillion in Unpaid Taxeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/opinion/sunday/unpaid-tax-evasion-IRS.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.

Sponsors Dext: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/dext Rewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Odoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow Notes1:47 – Blake’s Discussion with Ed Karl, Vice President of Taxation at the AICPAhttps://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/bonus222 6:37 – Shutter Venue Operators Grant Snafu 7:45 – SBA SVOG Tweethttps://twitter.com/SBAgov 8:35 – Why Can’t Stimulus Checks Arrive Faster?https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-cant-stimulus-payments-arrive-faster-1161763120910:40 – Billions waiting in 2017 federal refundshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/billions-waiting-in-2017-federal-tax-refunds 11:38 – China Creates Its Own Digital Currency, a First for Major Economyhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/china-creates-its-own-digital-currency-a-first-for-major-economy-11617634118 17:27 – Facebook: 25 Pct Of SMBs Closed Around Worldhttps://www.pymnts.com/economy/2021/facebook-25-pct-of-smbs-closed-around-the-world/ 18:29 – Pickup in CFO Optimism Continues in Q1https://www.cfo.com/the-economy/2021/04/pickup-in-cfo-optimism-continues-in-q1/ 25:06 – Global minimum tax gains momentumhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/global-minimum-tax-momentum-gains-with-g-20-seeing-mid-year-deal 25:37 – IRS Program Summary by Budget Activityhttps://home.treasury.gov/system/files/266/19.-IRS-FY-2021-BIB.pdf 27:47 – How to Collect $1.4 Trillion in Unpaid Taxeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/opinion/sunday/unpaid-tax-evasion-IRS.html 30:15 – Blake’s Discussion with Ed Karl, Vice President of Taxation, AICPAhttps://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/bonus222 38:44 – Wealthiest Taxpayers Cheat IRS Out of $400 Billion a Yearhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/04/09/wealthiest-taxpayers-cheat-irs-out-of-400-billion-a-year/ More IRS Reading:  173% Increase in IRS Correspondence Backloghttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/04/08/irs-lags-on-compliance-correspondence/ The IRS’s $3-Billion Problemhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/03/22/92-of-paper-returns-stuck-in-backlog/ IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig Response https://www.c-span.org/video/?509965-1/irs-commissioner-rettig-testifies-tax-filing-season 41:00 – An update about Xerocon 2021 | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/04/xerocon-2021-update/ 41:20 – Sage Transformhttps://www.sageintacct.com/transform 43:10 – Check out AccountingConferences.com for all the latest on ’21 conferences!https://accountingconferences.com/ 44:00 – Dallas firm buys provider of property tax data softwarehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/dallas-firm-buys-atlanta-provider-of-property-tax-data-software 44:40 – Ramp Reaches Record-Setting $1.6B Valuationhttps://www.pymnts.com/startups/2021/ramp-reaches-record-setting-valuation/ 46:48 – Blue Dot's AI Helps You Manage, Comply With Tax Accounting and Codes: Company Raises $31 Million— How It Workshttps://www.techtimes.com/articles/258835/20210407/blue-dots-ai-helps-you-manage-comply-with-tax-accounting-and-codes-company-raises-31-million—-how-it-works.htm 47:12 – Blue Dot raises $32M for AI that helps companies comply with tax codeshttps://venturebeat.com/2021/04/07/blue-dot-raises-32m-for-ai-that-helps-companies-comply-with-tax-codes/ 48:50 – How Per Diem Payments Can Simplify Your Accounting and Taxeshttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/per-diem-payments-simplify-accounting-134500596.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsXero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and BookkeepersRealize Accountant Community:  https://rlz.ioAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooClient Hub: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubShow Notes1:44 – Talking #StopAsianHate and ties to the accounting world  6:06 – We’ve got reviews!  Thank you, Smeanser, AggieCPA,  and Larisa Lopez  7:59 – Do some good! Leave us a review on Podchaser, during #Reviews4Good 2021!  9:42 – Listener mail from Danny Burns  – pricing methodology 20:34 – Listener mail from Stephen Brown – ACH issues 25:54 – Jeff Bezos’ investment fund is backing a startup hoping to be the AWS for SMB accounting – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/03/27/jeff-bezos-investment-fund-is-backing-a-startup-hoping-to-be-the-aws-for-smb-accounting/ 26:33 – Pilot's $100m Funding Round: What it Means for the Accounting Profestransactionshttps://www.botkeeper.com/blog/pilots-100m-funding-round-what-it-means-for-the-accounting-profession 29:22 – SMB accounting platform Pilot doubles valuation with mega-roundhttps://www.emarketer.com/content/smb-accounting-platform-pilot-doubles-valuation-with-mega-round 34:47 – Auditoria raises $15.5M to expand AI platform automating repetitive accounting taskshttps://venturebeat.com/2021/03/31/auditoria-raises-15-5m-to-automate-repetitive-accounting-tasks/ 38:26 – Intuit updates QBO Accountanthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-updates-qbo-accountant-and-is-recruiting-for-the-accountant-council 38:59 - QuickBooks Online new features and improvements – March 2021https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/quickbooks-online-new-features-and-improvements-march-2021/  40:13 – Accelerating API-Based Automation Offerings With Cloud Elements | UiPathhttps://www.uipath.com/blog/uipath-accelerates-api-based-automation-offerings-with-cloud-elements  41:15 – Latest product news – April 2021https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/04/latest-product-news-april-2021/ 41:39 – Wolters Kluwer adds crypto tax capabilities to CCH productshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/wolters-kluwer-adds-crypto-tax-capabilities-to-cch-products 42:35 – New & Improved in FreshBooks: Profitability Details Report, Invoice PDFs, and Morehttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/product-updates-march-2021  43:02 – Sage debuts data and analytics platformhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sage-debuts-data-and-analytics-platform 44:36 – California firm creates accelerator program for entrepreneurial CPAshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/california-firm-creates-accelerator-program-for-entrepreneurial-cpas 46:44 – Blake pontificates on off-balance-sheet financing and new tech startups  51:17 – Roblox Loses an Accounting Fight With the SEChttps://www.barrons.com/articles/the-sec-told-roblox-to-change-its-accounting-heres-what-it-means-for-the-stock-51617217979Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsRealize Accountant Community:  https://rlz.ioAccounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Show Notes (1:50) Paycheck Protection Program (8:18) Employee Retention Credit (18:18) Shuttered Venues Operators Grant (25:29) Restaurant Revitalization Fund Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow Notes2:07 - The pandemic made us all coworkers — whether we like it or nothttps://www.msnbc.com/opinion/slack-s-new-dm-feature-proves-we-re-all-office-n1261983 3:00 - Slack’s walkback of its new DM feature is a sign of user powerhttps://www.marketplace.org/2021/03/25/slacks-walkback-of-its-new-dm-feature-is-a-sign-of-user-power/ 3:38 - Zoom Wants You to Zoom Even When Using Other Companies’ Appshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/zoom-wants-you-to-zoom-even-when-using-other-companies-apps-11616419800 4:45 - SURVEY: Phone, Email Tied for Client Communicationhttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/03/21/survey-phone-email-tied-for-client-communication/ 9:05 - HR Tech Startup Ease Raises $41 Million To Help Small Businesses Better Support Their Employeeshttps://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinstoller/2021/03/25/hr-tech-startup-ease-raises-41-million-to-help-small-businesses-better-support-their-employees/ 9:23 - Jeff Bezos-backed accounting start-up hits $1.2 billion valuation after new funding roundhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/jeff-bezos-backed-start-up-pilot-hits-1point2-billion-valuation-.html 19:52 - It’s time to end re-authenticating every 90 days: Have your say | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/03/end-re-authenticating-every-90-days/ 23:05 - Xero to acquire Tickstar to drive adoption of e-invoicing globallyhttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/03/xero-driving-e-invoicing-adoption-globally/ Xero buys Swedish-based company Tickstar after Planbuy acquisitionhttps://www.theceomagazine.com/business/innovation-technology/xero/ 25:45 - Mandatory audit trail of companies' accounts to curb backdate entrieshttps://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/mandatory-audit-trail-of-companies-accounts-to-curb-backdate-entries/story/434847.html 28:52 - Opinion | How to Collect $1.4 Trillion in Unpaid Taxeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/opinion/sunday/unpaid-tax-evasion-IRS.html 31:20 - Richest 1% hide a fifth of their income from the IRShttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/richest-1-of-americans-hide-a-fifth-of-their-income-from-the-irs 31:27 - IRS failed to collect $2.4B in taxes from millionaireshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/irs-failed-to-collect-2-4b-in-taxes-from-millionaires 31:55 - IRS audits of millionaires plunged 72%https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-audits-of-millionaires-plunged-72-in-8-years 32:43 - IRS Has Recruiting Problems, Toohttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/02/25/irs-has-recruiting-problems-too/ 34:56 - ServiceTitan, Software Provider For Tradespeople, Reaches $8.3 Billion Valuationhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2021/03/26/servicetitan-software-provider-for-tradespeople-reaches-85-billion-valuation/ 35:11 - BQE Software secures growth investment for accounting suitehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/bqe-software-secures-growth-investment-for-accounting-suite BQE Software Secures Significant Growth Investment from Serent Capitalhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210324005338/en/BQE-Software-Secures-Significant-Growth-Investment-from-Serent-Capital 36:01 - Dallas Tech Startup, BaCo Tech, Receives US Patent for CPA Firm Transaction-Based Workflowhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210323005845/en/Dallas-Tech-Startup-BaCo-Tech-Receives-US-Patent-for-CPA-Firm-Transaction-Based-Workflow 37:12 – A review! Thank you, Adam CPA!Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Launch for Accountants: https://www.launchfa.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Rewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Attend Rewind's Webinar Odoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odoo Show Notes2:53 - U.S. Treasury has sent out $242B in stimulus checks so farhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/u-s-treasury-has-sent-out-242b-in-stimulus-checks-so-far 5:50 - More Than Half Of Small Businesses Have Reopened: Surveyhttps://www.cfo.com/the-economy/2021/03/more-than-half-of-small-businesses-have-reopened-survey 10:10 - IRS postpones April 15 deadline - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/mar/irs-postpones-april-15-tax-filing-deadline.html 14:39 - IRS to automatically process refunds on jobless-benefit paymentshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/irs-to-automatically-process-refunds-on-jobless-benefit-payments 15:10 - House passes PPP deadline extension in 415-3 vote - Journal of Accountancyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/mar/ppp-application-deadline-extension-bill-gains-backing.html House votes to extend PPP deadline until May 31https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/house-votes-to-extend-ppp-deadline-until-may-31 17:35 - Tax season turns into 'dumpster fire' for advisors, clients after stimulus bill passeshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-season-turns-into-dumpster-fire-for-advisors-clients-after-stimulus-bill-passes 18:10 - SBA defers repayment of disaster loans until 2022https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sba-defers-repayment-of-eidl-disaster-loans-until-2022 20:27 - BDO and Xero join forces in global agreement | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/03/bdo-and-xero-join-global-agreement/ BDO becomes first Xero Global Partnerhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/bdo-becomes-first-xero-global-partner 22:42 - Changes Rolling Out to QuickBooks Payments - insightfulaccountant.comhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/payroll-merchant-services/changes-rolling-out-to-quickbooks-payments/ 24:43 - The Revolt Against the 30% Mafia. When did Big Tech gatekeepers from Apple to DoorDash decide they were entitled to a third of the internet’s sales?https://marker.medium.com/the-revolt-against-the-30-mafia-4193aa4b2dcf 31:18 - Trullion Announces Real-Time, AI-Powered Accounting Platform, Secures Seed Financinghttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210316005168/en/Trullion-Announces-Real-Time-AI-Powered-Accounting-Platform-Secures-Seed-Financing 32:25 - What's new in Sage Intacct's Release 1 2021https://www.accttwo.com/blog/whats-new-in-2021-sage-intacct-release-1 34:00 - Stripe: $95B After New $600M Funding Roundhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2021/stripe-valued-at-95-billion-after-new-600-million-funding-round/ 34:55 - Squarespace Raises $300 Million Investment Round at $10 Billion Valuationhttps://newsroom.squarespace.com/blog/squarespace-raises-300-million-investment-round-at-10-billion-valuation 35:23 - Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, Michael Ovitz Invest in Production Payroll Startup Wrapbook as Part of $27M Roundhttps://variety.com/2021/digital/news/wrapbook-funding-jeffrey-katzenberg-wndrco-michael-ovitz-1234924978/ Wrapbook Talks Entertainment Industry Payrollhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/wrapbook-payroll-entertainment-project-economy/ 38:10 - College accounting programs not covering emerging topics: AICPA/NASBA reporthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/college-accounting-programs-not-covering-emerging-topics-aicpa-nasba-report 42:13 - Which is more difficult: The CPA Exam or the Bar?https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/which-is-more-difficult-cpa-or-bar-exam-i-took-both-and-heres-my-answer 47:33 - Tax Provisions in the Fiscal Year 2021 Budgethttps://www.mass.gov/technical-information-release/tax-provisions-in-the-fiscal-year-2021-budget 48:54 - Risky trading targeted in Democrat proposal for financial transaction taxhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/risky-trading-targeted-in-democrat-proposal-for-financial-transaction-taxGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Launch for Accountants: https://www.launchfa.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Odoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odoo Rewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Attend Rewind's Webinar Show Notes3:58 - Economic confidence recovers to near pre-pandemic levels for finance leadershttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/mar/us-economic-confidence-recovers-to-near-pre-coronavirus-levels.html 6:56 - BREAKING NEWS: Scaling New Heights® Rescheduled to October - insightfulaccountant.comhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/people-and-business/scaling-new-heights%C2%AE-rescheduled-to-october/ 9:57 - Cost Of Deloitte’s EDD Phone Center Balloons to $55M, As Millions Of Calls Go Unanswered - capradio.orghttps://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/03/11/cost-of-deloittes-edd-phone-center-balloons-to-55m-as-millions-of-calls-go-unanswered/ 16:02 - Accountants experience 60% increase in payroll services, says QuickBooks | Newshttps://www.accountancytoday.co.uk/2021/03/10/accountants-experience-60-increase-in-payroll-services-says-quickbooks/ 17:02 - Metric of the Month: Avoiding Payroll Bottleneckshttps://www.cfo.com/compensation/2021/02/metric-of-the-month-avoiding-payroll-bottlenecks/ 17:34 - What should I take? Architecture or accounting? | Forum | Archinecthttps://archinect.com/forum/thread/150254452/what-should-i-take-architecture-or-accounting 23:00 - Alaska, Maine, and Oklahoma weigh CPA firm mobility billshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/feb/alaska-maine-oklahoma-weigh-cpa-firm-mobility-bills.html 24:08 - Lightspeed to acquire Vend to power global retail expansion | Lightspeed POShttps://www.lightspeedhq.com/news/lightspeed-to-acquire-vend/ 27:11 - Winners in New Zealandhttps://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/nz-retail-software-company-vend-sold-for-455m/QOK7AA57JK4MP3LTTHYD744W34/ NZ retail software company Vend sold for $455m - NZ Heraldhttps://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/nz-retail-software-company-vend-sold-for-455m/QOK7AA57JK4MP3LTTHYD744W34/Lightspeed to acquire Vend for $350M to expand its global retail basehttps://seekingalpha.com/news/3672022-lightspeed-to-acquire-vend-for-350m-to-expand-its-global-retail-base 29:00 - Karbon raises $10Mhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/practice-management-software-developer-karbon-raises-10m 30:00 - Accounting Services Platform Autobooks Raises $25 Million In Series Bhttps://pulse2.com/autobooks-raises-25-million-in-series-b/32:00 - Zeni Raises $13.5M To Put A Real-Time Digital Bookkeeper Inside Every Startup – Crunchbase Newshttps://news.crunchbase.com/news/zeni-raises-13-5m-to-put-a-real-time-digital-bookkeeper-inside-every-startup/ 33:20 - Deloitte Partners With Nvidia For AI Solutionshttps://big4accountingfirms.libsyn.com/deloitte-partners-with-nvidia-for-ai-solutions 34:40 - AI bookkeeping startup Zeni launches with $13.5M in fundinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ai-bookkeeping-startup-zeni-launches-with-13-5m-in-funding 37:53 - Intuit adds e-signature capabilities to QBO Advancedhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-adds-e-signature-capabilities-with-docusign 44:00 - Accountant-created Bookgel releases new client acquisition apphttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/accountant-created-bookgel-releases-new-client-acquisition-app 54:35 – We got a review!  Thank you, Zankonator! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsUnCat - https://www.uncat.comClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Launch for Accountants: https://www.launchfa.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorWe'd like to thank our launch sponsor Rippling for making the Accounting Salon Conversations possible.Visit https://accountingsalonconversations.promo/ripplingGet in Touch with Ryan twitter.com/ryankwatson facebook.com/ryan.watson.986227 linkedin.com/in/ryankeithwatson Upsourced Accounting Get in Touch with Amanda twitter.com/aguillardacct facebook.com/amanda.a.lo.3 linkedin.com/in/amandaaguillard Links Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser Follow the Accounting Salon on Twitter Visit the Accounting Salon Get CPE credit at Elefant Training Check out content created by Accounting Salon members Connect with Accounting Salon members at events Browse a list of Accounting Conferences SubscribeSubscribe to the Accounting Salon Conversations podcast in your favorite podcast app!This podcast is a production of the Accounting Podcast NetworkWant to sponsor this podcast? Full transcript available upon request.

SponsorsOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooRelay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayMarginDriver: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/margindriverShow Notes2:30 - Cryptocurrency Buys Are Not Reportable To The IRShttps://www.cointracker.io/blog/cryptocurrency-buys-are-not-reportable-to-the-irs 7:29 - What’s in the $1.9T stimulus bill passed by the Senatehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/whats-in-the-1-9t-stimulus-bill-passed-by-the-senate 13:47 - AICPA calls on SBA to change 'unfair' PPP guidance, deadlinehttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/mar/aicpa-calls-on-sba-to-change-unfair-ppp-guidance-deadline.html 16:05 - AICPA urges delay in tax deadline until June 15https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-urges-delay-in-tax-deadline-until-june-15 19:42 - FreshBooks, Salt Edge Team On Open Banking Techhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/freshbooks-teams-with-salt-edge-smb-open-banking-tech/ 20:22 - QuickBooks launches all-new Business Account https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/quickbooks-launches-a-new-business-account-powered-by-fintech-modulr 20:36 - QuickBooks gets all Modulr with new business accounts  https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2021/03/03/quickbooks-gets-all-modulr-with-new-business-accounts/ 21:44 - Xero to buy Plandayhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/xero-to-buy-planday 25:33 – Why we’re securing your account with Multi-Factor Authenticationhttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/03/introducing-xero-verify/ Xero – Further Reading  https://www.planday.com/ Xero to acquire Planday to simplify workforce management and compliance https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/03/xero-to-acquire-planday/ Xero steps into workforce management space with $285m dealhttps://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/xero-steps-into-workforce-management-space-with-285m-deal-20210304-p577s8.html Xero buys Planday: Accounting software firms biggest ever deal creates four growth optionshttps://www.afr.com/chanticleer/xero-s-biggest-ever-deal-creates-four-growth-options-20210304-p577q6 What our new multi-factor authentication process means for Aussie customers https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/03/mfa-what-it-means-for-au-customers/ A message from Anna Curzon: What the Planday acquisition means for you https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/03/what-the-planday-acquisition-means-for-you/  28:06 - Countingup closes £9.1M for its business current account with built-in accounting features https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/04/countingup-series-a/ 29:33 - Square acquires majority of Tidal, Jay-Z’s streaming service, in $297 million deal.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/business/media/tidal-square-jay-z-dorsey.html 34:42 - The Robots Are Coming for Phil in Accounting - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/business/the-robots-are-coming-for-phil-in-accounting.html ​42:37 - Burger Restaurant Renames Menu So You Can Expense Itemshttps://www.ladbible.com/news/food-burger-restaurant-renames-menu-so-you-can-expense-items-20210221 43:54 - Indoor marijuana grower keeps strict schedule to maximize output, avoid bottleneckshttps://mjbizdaily.com/indoor-marijuana-grower-schedule-maximizes-output-and-avoids-bottlenecks/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsUnCat - https://www.uncat.comClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Launch for Accountants: https://www.launchfa.com/Accounting Podcast Network: https://accountingpodcastnetwork.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindBooksTime: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bookstimeOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow Notes02:30 – Blake’s take on craptastic TikTok tax advicehttps://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/213 03:08 - How the word 'accountant' became synonymous with sex workers, strippers, and OnlyFans creators on TikTokhttps://www.insider.com/what-is-a-tiktok-accountant-meaning-meme-2021-2 04:38 – Rocky Paterra – I’m an Accountant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNLNHzjeSd8 09:58 - TransferWise Rebrands To Wise https://www.pymnts.com/news/cross-border-commerce/cross-border-payments/2021/transferwise-rebrands-to-wise/ 10:25 - Receipt Bank is Now Dexthttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/receipt-bank-is-now-dext 11:07 - Welcome to Dext - Dexthttps://dext.com/us/blog/welcome-to-dext Dext Product FAQs – Dext https://help.receipt-bank.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017865657-Dext-Product-FAQs 14:47 - White House will give small firms two-week exclusive PPP accesshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/white-house-will-give-small-firms-two-week-exclusive-ppp-access 16:07 - Fraud Checks and Errors Slow Small-Business Relief Loanshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/business/paycheck-protection-program-small-business-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare 17:58 - Which States Are Taxing Forgiven PPP Loans?https://taxfoundation.org/state-tax-forgiven-ppp-loans/ 20:42 - Federal Reserve Financial-Services Systems Disrupted for Hourhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-reserve-reports-several-business-lines-disrupted-by-operational-error-11614194912Rare Outage Takes Fed Payment Systems Offline https://www.cfo.com/credit/2021/02/rare-outage-takes-fed-payment-systems-offline/  21:30 - Yellen sounds warning about 'extremely inefficient' bitcoinhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/yellen-sounds-warning-about-extremely-inefficient-bitcoin.html 21:59 – CAP Crypto Update episode https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/bonus214 23:33 - Bitcoin’s Value Is All in the Eye of the ‘Bithodler’https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoins-value-is-all-in-the-eye-of-the-bithodler-11613826002 25:03 - Companies investing in crypto may be in for a rude accounting surprise https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/companies-investing-in-crypto-may-be-in-for-a-rude-accounting-surprise 27:53 - Intuit's Q2 revenue declines due to later tax season https://www.zdnet.com/article/intuits-q2-revenue-declines-due-to-later-tax-season/ 28:21 - Square Doubles Down On Bitcoin; Posts Solid Q4https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2021/square-doubles-down-on-bitcoin-generates-1-7-billion-in-crypto-revenue/ 29:06 - More than half of Square’s revenue now comes from bitcoin tradinghttps://www.paymentssource.com/news/more-than-half-of-squares-revenue-now-comes-from-bitcoin-trading 33:03 - What’s new in QuickBooks Online – February 2021https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-february-2021/ 35:26 - Help grow your small business with Venmo: Business profiles are officially available for all sellers http://blog.venmo.com/hf2t3h4x98p5e13z82pl8j66ngcmry/2021/2/24/help-grow-your-small-business-with-venmo-business-profiles-are-officially-available-for-all-sellers 38:02 - Latest product news – March 2021https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/03/latest-product-news-march-2021/ 40:12 - New & Improved in FreshBooks: Accounts Payable Aging Report, Credits, and Morehttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/product-updates-february-2021 41:35 - ADP Launches 'Roll™ by ADP®' Mobile App, a Completely Reimagined Way for Small Businesses to Do Payrollhttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adp-launches-roll-by-adp-mobile-app-a-completely-reimagined-way-for-small-businesses-to-do-payroll-301235154.html 45:35 - Affirm Launching Buy Now, Pay Later Debit Cardhttps://www.pymnts.com/buy-now-pay-later/2021/affirm-launching-buy-now-pay-later-debit-card/ 47:49 – We’ve got VOICEMAIL! Thank you, Alita!  49:33 - ICYMI | When Will We Be Able to Breathe in Accounting? https://www.cpajournal.com/2021/02/18/when-will-we-be-able-to-breathe-in-accounting-2/ “The Official Venmo Blog”‘Counting Black and White Beans': Critical Race Theory in Accounting: Anton Lewis: 9781789734065: Amazon.com: Bookshttps://www.amazon.com/counting-Black-White-Beans-Accounting/dp/1789734061 54:08 - Walmart’s Bid to Go From Supercenter to Super Apphttps://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/walmarts-bid-to-go-from-supercenter-to-super-app/ 54: 51 - How Music’s Business Managers Are Tracking Revenue -- And Getting Their Artists Bi-Weekly Paycheckshttps://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9529831/hifi-financial-royalties-business-managers-artists-accounting/ 56:23 - Domino’s Casts Doubt On Future Of Aggregatorshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/dominos-casts-doubt-on-future-of-aggregators/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsUnCat - https://www.uncat.com/ClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsDext: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/dextOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooRelay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayShow Notes1:50 – David got bitten by the Bitcoin bug! 6:25 - Tax season off to a slow start, lawmakers complain to IRShttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-season-off-to-a-slow-start-lawmakers-complain-to-irs 8:19 – Is an end to the pandemic in sight?  12:27 - Take control of your calendar this busy seasonhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/take-control-of-your-calendar-this-busy-season 14:58 - Democrat bills would help the IRS go after wealthy, corporationshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/democrats-introduce-bills-to-increase-taxes-on-wealthy-and-corporations 22:00 - Screenshot of the Horrific UI Design That Led Citigroup to Accidentally Send $893 Million https://www.core77.com/posts/105540/Screenshot-of-the-Horrific-UI-Design-That-Led-Citigroup-to-Accidentally-Send-893-Million What can we learn from Citi's $900 million mistake? - DEV Communityhttps://dev.to/feileacan/what-can-we-learn-from-citi-s-900-million-mistake-3p0j 29:20 - Sales-Hiding Software Outsmarts U.S. Tax Collectors (Podcast)https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/sales-hiding-software-outsmarts-u-s-tax-collectors-podcast 35:20 - Don’t Get Zapped: Enforcement against Businesses That Use Sales Suppression Software Is on the Upswinghttps://www.blankrome.com/publications/dont-get-zapped-enforcement-against-businesses-use-sales-suppression-software-upswing 37:33 - Most Restaurants Couldn’t Pay December’s Renthttps://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/survey-says-most-nyc-restaurants-couldnt-pay-december-rent/ 39:28 - 32% of Small Businesses Have a Month or Less in Cash Reserveshttps://smallbiztrends.com/2021/02/alignable-small-business-cash-reserves-report-covid-recovery.html 43:01 - SURVEY: If Only We Had Time For…https://cpatrendlines.com/2021/02/18/survey-if-only-we-had-time-for/  46:38 - Robinhood Fails to Meet Deadline to Give Customers Tax Formshttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-17/robinhood-misses-irs-deadline-to-give-customers-their-tax-forms 48:40 - Brex applies for bank charter, taps former Silicon Valley Bank exec as CEO of Brex Bank https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/19/brex-applies-for-bank-charter-taps-former-silicon-valley-bank-exec-as-ceo-of-brex-bank/ 49:12 - Iwoca Integrates With Xero For Pay Later Optionhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/iwoca-integrates-with-xero-for-smb-pay-later-option/ 50:35 - PayPal Wants To Become The Banking World's Next 'Super App'https://thefinancialbrand.com/107787/paypal-venmo-banking-super-mobile-app-payments/ 54:14 -  PayPal - Pay touch-free with a QR codehttps://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/qrcode 54:16 - Revolut Business Introduces QR Codes For Paymentshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/payment-methods/2021/revolut-business-introduces-qr-codes-for-payments/ 55:41 – We’ve got VOICEMAIL! Thank you, Giuseppe for sharing your struggles with QuickBooks Cash!  59:37 - Shopify Smashes Estimates With Q4 Resultshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/shopify-q4-results-smash-estimates-growth-could-slow-post-covid/ 59:54 - Why Amazon Snapped Up Selzhttps://www.pymnts.com/amazon-acquisitions/2021/why-amazon-snapped-up-selz/ 60:12 - Exciting News! DEAR Systems and Orderhive have joined Cin7 https://www.cin7.com/blog/cin7/exciting-news-dear-systems-and-orderhive-have-joined-cin7/https://www.orderhive.com/orderhive-has-joined-cin7Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsUnCat - https://www.uncat.comLaunch for Accountants -  https://www.launchfa.com/ClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsBQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/coreBookkeep: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bookkeepBooksTime: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bookstimeShow Notes1:00 - Welcome back, Rachel Fisch!  2:40 - MNP to acquire subset of Deloitte business to expand footprint in select locations across Canadahttps://www2.deloitte.com/ca/en/pages/press-releases/articles/mnp-acquires-subset-of-deloitte-business.html 9:31 – Episode 49 Discussion about KPMG back in December of 2018https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/49 14:49 -  EY U.S. Chair Kelly Grier Is Super Excited About EY’s Super Bowl Ad, You Guyshttps://www.goingconcern.com/ey-u-s-chair-kelly-grier-is-super-excited-about-eys-super-bowl-ad-you-guys/ 15:15 – Take a listen to EY’s Super Bowl Ad 16:00 -  Same year that EY elected to forgo performance based raises, it’s getting a super bowl commercial.https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/ldxyha/same_year_that_ey_elected_to_forgo_performance/ 18:07 - Verizon, Deloitte Unveil 5G Retail Platformhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/verizon-deloitte-unveil-seismic-5g-powered-retail-productivity-and-efficiency-platform/ 21:46 – More about Elon Musk’s Starlink https://www.starlink.com/ 23:09 - Tax forms help reveal extent of unemployment fraud in UShttps://apnews.com/article/tax-forms-reveals-unemployment-fraud-d79070609d6f7eedc8a03b5e37b17506 27:11 - SBA works to fix PPP loan bottleneckshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sba-works-to-fix-ppp-loan-bottlenecks 28:31 - Loan System Bugs Holding Up PPP Loans: AICPAhttps://www.cfo.com/credit/2021/02/loan-system-bugs-holding-up-ppp-loans-aicpa/ 30:13 - IRS warns of e-file identity theft scamhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-warns-of-e-file-identity-theft-scam 32:40 - TSheets is Becoming QuickBooks Time https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/general-ledger/tsheets-is-becoming-quickbooks-time/ 34:02 - Cleareye.ai and Microsoft partner on PPP loan forgiveness platformhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cleareye-ai-and-microsoft-partner-on-ppp-loan-forgiveness-platform 35:19 - Former WageWorks CFO, CEO Settle Accounting Casehttps://www.cfo.com/legal/2021/02/former-wageworks-execs-settle-accounting-case/ 36:16 - Rippling Launches Time & Attendance Toolhttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/rippling-launches-time-attendance-tool 38:20 - Zapier announces 3,000+ apps and brings automation inside partner productshttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/zapier-announces-3-000-apps-140800817.html 39:34 - The 7 best online whiteboards in 2021https://zapier.com/blog/best-online-whiteboard 42:42 - PayZen Nets $5M For Hospital Payment Platformhttps://www.pymnts.com/healthcare/2021/payzen-nets-5m-funding-for-hospital-payment-platform/ 44:12 - Credit Karma Integrates Account With TurboTaxhttps://www.pymnts.com/consumer-finance/2021/credit-karma-integrates-spend-account-with-turbotax-in-first-post-acquisition-move/ 45:17 - Another Remote-Work Year Looms as Office-Reopening Plans Are Delayedhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/another-remote-work-year-looms-as-office-reopening-plans-are-delayed-11613039402 49:27 - Salesforce says work from home is here to stayhttps://finance.yahoo.com/video/salesforce-says-home-stay-155726928.html 51:17 - Virtual accounting: How to succeed remotelyhttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/feb/virtual-accounting-remote-success.html 52:59 - Luckin Coffee files for bankruptcy after accounting scandalhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/luckin-coffee-files-for-bankruptcy-after-accounting-scandal 53:36 - German Markets Watchdog Chief Fired Over Wirecard Scandalhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/german-markets-watchdog-chief-fired-over-wirecard-scandal-11611943958 54:17 – Stay tuned for more info on Rachel’s Accounting and Finance Tech Club events on Clubhouse (app)!  Get in Touch with Rachel! Twitter: https://twitter.com/fischbooksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelfisch/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsUnCat - https://www.uncat.comLaunch for Accountants -  https://www.launchfa.com/ClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

GuestsShehan Chandrasekera, CPAhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/shehanc/ CPA Practice Advisor 40 Under 40 honoree Head of Strategy for Tax at CoinTracker Dr. Sean Stein Smith, CPAhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-sean-stein-smith-dba-cpa-63307444/ Assistant Professor at Lehman College (CUNY) Founder at Company NameInstitute for Blockchain & Cryptoasset Research Show Notes2:55 - Bitcoin to Come to America’s Oldest Bank, BNY Mellonhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-to-come-to-america-s-oldest-bank-bny-mellon-11613044810 4:49 - Tesla Buys $1.5 Billion in Bitcoin: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-and-bitcoin-what-could-possibly-go-wrong-11612797620  5:47 - What Do Bitcoin and Tulip Mania Have in Common?https://interestingengineering.com/what-do-bitcoin-and-tulip-mania-have-in-common 5:50 - The underlying value of cryptocurrency  7:00 - Store of value, or more?  8:18 - Exiting Robinhood Could Create A Tax Nightmare For Crypto Usershttps://www.forbes.com/sites/shehanchandrasekera/2021/01/28/exiting-robinhood-could-create-a-tax-nightmare-for-crypto-users/?sh=7a02ea1b4ad611:07 - Five taxable events regarding crypto 14:42 - Four types of cryptocurrency holders in the U.S.16:18 - If your clients hold crypto, what risks do you face, as an accountant, or tax preparer? 21:39 - Asking About Crypto on An Organizer? It's Not Enoughhttps://www.boomer.com/post/asking-about-crypto-on-an-organizer-it-s-not-enough?vgo_ee=76sfxqcZn66PFl4np71OpQ%3D%3DBy Gary Boomer 22:00 - Is Bitcoin a bubble?  33:27 - What does the future hold for Bitcoin?  38:53 - What are the business use cases for blockchain?  41:10 - Smart contracts in the blockchain Additional Crypto Reading:  Mastercard to Support Some Cryptocurrencies on Its Networkhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/mastercard-to-support-some-cryptocurrencies-on-its-network-11613004823?mod=article_inline Intent On Ban, India To Give Transition Time To Crypto Investors https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/intent-on-ban-india-to-give-transition-time-to-crypto-investors-bq-exclusive  As Bitcoin Soars Toward $50,000, Data Reveals Tesla Billionaire Elon Musk Triggered A $1.2 Billion Price Short-Squeezehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2021/02/12/as-bitcoin-soars-toward-50000-data-reveals-tesla-billionaire-elon-musk-triggered-a-12-billion-bitcoin-price-short-squeeze/?sh=98368a2219ed Bitcoin Is an Incredibly Dirty Businesshttps://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-26/is-bitcoin-mining-worth-the-environmental-cost Bitcoin's wild ride renews worries about its massive carbon footprinthttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/05/bitcoin-btc-surge-renews-worries-about-its-massive-carbon-footprint.htmlWhat is dogecoin? Elon Musk has sent the meme cryptocurrency soaringhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/what-is-dogecoin-the-meme-cryptocurrency-elon-musk-has-sent-soaring-170244933.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Meet Ed Kless LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/edkless/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/edkless Sage - https://www.sage.com/en-us/blog/author/ed-kless/ Sage Thought Leadership Podcast – https://sagethoughtleadership.com The Soul of Enterprise – http://thesoulofenterprise.com/ Show NotesAnother Remote-Work Year Looms as Office-Reopening Plans Are Delayedhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/another-remote-work-year-looms-as-office-reopening-plans-are-delayed-11613039402Learn  more about the Sage Accountants Networkhttps://www.sage.com/en-us/accountants/products/sage-accountants-network/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsQuickFee: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickfeePractice Ignition: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/piOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooShow Notes1:30 - Terrible financial advice is going viral on TikTokhttps://www.vox.com/the-goods/22229551/tiktok-personal-finance-day-trading-tesla-scam1:44 - TikTok Compilation Life Hack A Piece Of Information You Learned That feels Illegal to Know MashUpshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An3zt1xE6bA2:20 - Question: https://youtu.be/An3zt1xE6bA?t=163:40 - Start a church: https://youtu.be/An3zt1xE6bA?t=714:25 - S corp: https://youtu.be/An3zt1xE6bA?t=979:44 - Closing the Diversity Gap - Strategic Financehttps://sfmagazine.com/post-entry/february-2021-closing-the-diversity-gap/11:28 - Diverse talent leaving accounting jobs due to 'lack of inclusion'https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/diverse-talent-leaving-accounting-jobs-due-to-lack-of-inclusion13:00 - Accounting profession marks centennial of first Black CPA with new diversity campaignhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/accounting-profession-marks-centennial-of-first-black-cpa-with-new-diversity-campaign13:20 - Here's Another Reminder That Accounting Firms Used to Be Pretty Racist Back In the Dayhttps://www.goingconcern.com/heres-another-reminder-that-accounting-firms-used-to-be-pretty-racist-back-in-the-day/14:00 - BlackCPAcentennial https://www.icpas.org/BlackCPAcentennial15:47 - What Auditors Know about Amazon Product Ratingshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/02/05/what-auditors-know-about-amazon-product-ratings/The Paper: Audit Leadership Diversity and Audit Qualityhttp://hdl.handle.net/10125/7047321:16 - TSheets is Becoming QuickBooks Time  https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/general-ledger/tsheets-is-becoming-quickbooks-time/Introducing QuickBooks Time: It’s TSheets … with a new namehttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/news/introducing-quickbooks-time-its-tsheets-with-a-new-name/22:01 - QuickBooks Online Accountants Getting Upgrade https://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/quickbooks-online-accountants-getting-upgrade23:54 - Intuit - Changes to QuickBooks Online Payments Bank Transfer (ACH) Deposit Speed & Pricinghttps://intuit.me/3tSGicC26:06 - Small Business Bank Account & Debit Card - QuickBooks Cash https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payments/business-bank-account/27:37 - CAP Listener, Todd Plager, weighs in on QuickBooks Cash30:00 - Intuit Acquires OneSaas https://www.intuit.com/blog/investors/intuit-acquires-onesaas/32:21 - Okta: Best-of-Breed Apps Are Still Winning https://www.saastr.com/okta-best-of-breed-apps-are-still-winning/34:24 - Xero: Latest product news – February 2021https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/02/latest-product-news-february-2021/38:02 - Here's Why This Fintech Stock Is Skyrocketing on Fridayhttps://www.fool.com/investing/2021/02/05/heres-why-this-fintech-stock-is-skyrocketing-on-fr/42:06 - Cloud AP/AR company Lockstep closes $10M in Series A fundinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cloud-accounting-company-lockstep-closes-10m-in-series-a-funding42:41 - Whistleblowing soars to record with Americans working from homehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/whistleblowing-soars-to-record-with-americans-working-from-home43:45 - Microsoft CEO Nadella Bets Businesses Are Ready to Spend Big on Employee Softwarehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-ceo-nadella-bets-businesses-are-ready-to-spend-big-on-employee-software-11612447214Microsoft Vivahttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva45:46 - Deloitte in hot water in China after an employee makes a PPT exposing alleged accounting violations https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202102/1215067.shtmlDeloitte Whistleblower Alleges Auditing Violations in Chinahttps://www.caixinglobal.com/2021-02-06/deloitte-whistleblower-alleges-auditing-violations-in-china-101661171.html49:20 - CDC paid Deloitte $44 million for faulty vaccine appointment system https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-deloitte-flawed-coronavirus-vaccine-appointment-system-2021-253:21 - We've got VOICEMAIL! Thank you, Sean Birdsell! 55:18 - Taxpayers need clarity on coordination of ERC and PPP loanshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/jan/ppp-loan-employee-retention-credit-erc-taxpayers-need-clarity.htmlGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsUnCat - https://www.uncat.comLaunch for Accountants-  https://www.launchfa.com/ClientHub - https://clienthub.app/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsOdoo: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/odooQuickFee: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickfeeRelay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayShow Notes01:08 - GameStop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameStop 01:31 - Can’t Stop GameStophttps://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/960454567/cant-stop-gamestop 03:38 - This is how Wall Street thinks the Reddit-fueled GameStop trade unravelshttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/this-is-how-wall-street-thinks-the-reddit-fueled-gamestop-trade-unravels-.html 05:27 - Robinhood Raises $1B Amid GameStop Firestormhttps://www.cfo.com/credit/2021/01/robinhood-draws-1b-from-credit-line-amid-gamestop-firestorm 07:01 - For GameStop day traders, the moment they've dreamed abouthttps://apnews.com/article/us-news-health-coronavirus-pandemic-financial-markets-financial-crisis-834f2dd17cbbc5222e2fc4be3f41ab42  09:47 - The CAP-GameStop Connection?  13:18 - Sage customers are losing their minds – and could face SARS trouble – after outageshttps://www.businessinsider.co.za/on-sars-deadline-day-sage-systems-go-down-again-and-clients-are-going-crazy-2021-1 14:17 -  A South African CAP Listener  weighs in on the Sage Debacle. Thank you!  17:55 - We've got eMAIL - on PPP guilt, and Quicken! Thank you, Anonymous Listener! 20:44 - Melio raises $110M on a $1.3B valuation to bring B2B payments for SMBs into the 21st centuryhttps://techcrunch.com/2021/01/25/melio-raises-110m-on-a-1-3b-valuation-to-bring-b2b-payments-for-smbs-into-the-21st-century/ 21:01 - Melio hits $1.3bn valuationhttps://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37337/melio-hits-13bn-valuation 22:27 - Expensify adds Enhanced Invoicing And Bill Pay to its Preaccounting Platform https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/vendor-news/expensify-adds-enhanced-invoicing-and-bill-pay-to-its-preacc/ Expensify Rounds Out Its Preaccounting Platform With Enhanced Invoicing And Bill Payhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210125005260/en/Expensify-Rounds-Out-Its-Preaccounting-Platform-With-Enhanced-Invoicing-And-Bill-Pay 27:05 - FLEETCOR Acquires Cloud Software Platform Provider of B2B Online Bill Paymenthttps://www.fleetcor.com/news/fleetcor-acquires-cloud-software-platform-provider-of-b2b-online-bill-payment/ Additional Reading on Roger:  Roger Has Been Acquired by FLEETCORhttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/roger-has-been-acquired-by-fleetcor Roger Blog | Roger acquired by FLEETCOR, a leading global business payments companyhttps://www.roger.ai/post/roger-acquired-by-fleetcor 27:51 - Pilot Raises $60M To Help SMBs Modernize Financeshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/pilot-raises-60-million-dollars-help-smbs-modernize-finances/ 28:16 - Pilot Closes $60M Series C from Sequoia: What Comes Nexthttps://pilot.com/blog/pilot-closes-60m-series-c-from-sequoia-what-comes-next 32:24 - Check Launches With $35M To Streamline Payrollhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/check-launches-with-35-million-streamline-payroll/ 33:27 - Plaid Unveils Deposit Switchhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/banking/2021/plaid-unveils-deposit-switch-to-digitize-account-funding/ 34:47 - DailyPay Launches CYCLE To Disburse Paymentshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/dailypay-launches-cycle-disburse-off-cycle-payments/ 38:55 PPP loan application within QuickBooks Capital now availablehttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/news/ppp-loan-application-within-quickbooks-capital-now-available/ 39:43 - What’s new in QuickBooks Online: January 2021https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-january-2021/ 41:51 - TaxJar goes to bat for customers in Tennesseehttps://blog.taxjar.com/taxjar-goes-to-bat-for-customers-in-tennessee/ 43:56 - TaxAct and TaxDome pair to create end-to-end tax managementhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/taxact-and-taxdome-pair-to-create-end-to-end-tax-management 44:53 - Tax filing season to start Feb. 12, IRS announceshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/jan/tax-return-filing-season-starts-feb-12-2021.html 45:08 - IRS chief: Agency is 'current' on mail as start of filing season approacheshttps://thehill.com/policy/finance/535278-irs-chief-agency-is-current-on-mail-as-start-of-filing-season-approaches 45:45 - Tax Season Is Coming, and It Could Be Messyhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/tax-season-is-coming-and-it-could-be-messy-11610461365 47:08 - Beware of identity theft scam involving unemployment benefits https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/jan/identity-theft-scam-involving-unemployment-benefits.html 48:38 - EDD: 27% of California unemployment payments could be fraudulent, state sayshttps://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/25/edd-27-of-california-unemployment-payments-could-be-fraudulent-state-says/ 50:38 - Forms 2848 and 8821 are now onlinehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/forms-2848-and-8821-now-online 51:56 - IRS creates new Chief Taxpayer Experience Officer position; Ken Corbin to lead new focus to improve service to taxpayers | Internal Revenue Servicehttps://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-creates-new-chief-taxpayer-experience-officer-position-ken-corbin-to-lead-new-focus-to-improve-service-to-taxpayers 53:18 - Another CAP listener voicemail! Thank you, Geraldine Carter!  56:56 - Hear Blake's interview with Geraldine on the Smart Strategies for CPAs podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cloud-accounting-technology-software-blake-oliver/id1436350430?i=1000505185176Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBreadwinner - https://breadwinner.com/netsuite-salesforce/UnCat - https://www.uncat.comLaunch for Accountants: https://www.launchfa.com/Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsRewind: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewindPractice Ignition: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/piBookkeep: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bookkeepShow Notes01:10 - Sage cloud accounting offline for entire week as SMMEs wait to file returnshttps://citizen.co.za/business/business-news/2424489/sage-cloud-accounting-offline-for-entire-week-as-smmes-wait-to-file-return02:02 - Sage South Africa on Twitter: "📢We’re really sorry that our customers are still experiencing problems with Sage Business Cloud Accounting. We understand this is causing serious disruption to our customers’ business and we are working round the clock, with our partners, to restore the service." https://twitter.com/SageGroupZA/status/135215756634481459204:11 - WE'VE GOT VOICEMAIL! Thank you, Mary Going! 06:29 - WFH In 2021? Get Ready For Those Remote Salary Adjustmentshttps://www.goingconcern.com/wfh-in-2021-get-ready-for-those-remote-salary-adjustments/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wfh-in-2021-get-ready-for-those-remote-salary-adjustments10:57 - Biden’s Wall Street watchdogs signal new era of tough oversighthttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/bidens-wall-street-watchdogs-signal-new-era-of-tough-oversight12:02 - Pay Equity Startup Raises $17.1 Million in Round Led by Bessemerhttps://www.theinformation.com/articles/pay-equity-startup-raises-17-1-million-in-round-led-by-bessemer14:47 - LendingClub Gets OK to Acquire Radius Bancorphttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/lendingclub-gets-ok-to-acquire-radius-bancorp/15:46 - Rewind Closes $15 Million Series A to Meet Mounting Market Demand for Cloud Data Protection https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/vendor-news/rewind-closes-15-million-series-a-to-meet-mounting-market-de/17:25 - TripActions Raises $155 Million To Boost Travel https://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2021/tripactions-raises-155-million-to-boost-travel-spend-management/19:39 - The best laptop 2021: 15 best laptops money can buy in 2021https://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/best-laptops-130436122:42 - The 5 best SMS apps for small businesses in 2021https://zapier.com/blog/best-sms-app24:23 - Navigate from Hubdoc to Xero and streamline your workhttps://www.xero.com/blog/2021/01/navigate-from-hubdoc-to-xero/26:48 - 'Zoom fatigue' has hit 4 in 10 employees -- your best course of actionhttps://www.cfodailynews.com/articles/zoom-fatigue/29:24 - Need to Take a Dump but Stuck in a Zoom Call? There’s an App for Thathttps://www.goingconcern.com/need-to-take-a-dump-but-stuck-in-a-zoom-call-theres-an-app-for-that/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=need-to-take-a-dump-but-stuck-in-a-zoom-call-theres-an-app-for-that31:22 - Nearly a Third of Workers Say They’d Quit Before Returning to the Office When All This is Overhttps://www.goingconcern.com/nearly-a-third-of-workers-say-theyd-quit-before-returning-to-the-office-when-all-this-is-over/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nearly-a-third-of-workers-say-theyd-quit-before-returning-to-the-office-when-all-this-is-over31:46 - OfficeSpace Survey: 71 Percent of Employed Americans Eager to Return to the Office https://rebusinessonline.com/officespace-survey-71-percent-of-employed-americans-eager-to-return-to-the-office/33:49 - A Cultural Tax History Of The Three-Martini Lunch https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxnotes/2021/01/21/a-cultural-tax-history-of-the-three-martini-lunch/36:34 - Remote Work Is More Productivehttps://cpatrendlines.com/2021/01/07/remote-work-is-more-productive/39:46 - Welcome to the Fake Office Commute (Turns Out People Miss the Routine)https://www.wsj.com/articles/welcome-to-the-fake-office-commute-turns-out-people-miss-the-routine-1161038361741:24 - WFH In 2021? Get Ready For Those Remote Salary Adjustmentshttps://www.goingconcern.com/wfh-in-2021-get-ready-for-those-remote-salary-adjustments/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wfh-in-2021-get-ready-for-those-remote-salary-adjustments43:00 - No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employeeshttps://sahillavingia.com/workGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBreadwinner - https://breadwinner.com/netsuite-salesforce/UnCat - https://www.uncat.comGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsBooksTime: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bookstimeQuickFee: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickfeePractice Ignition: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/piShow Notes00:56 - Blake's been forgiven by the PPP!  05:50 - ‘It Was a Joke’: Some Small Businesses Got $1 Relief Loanshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/business/small-businesses-ppp-covid.html?referringSource=articleShare 09:42 - Bitcoin and SPACs Give 2021 a Flavor of Dot-Com Bubblehttps://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-04/bitcoin-and-spacs-give-2021-a-flavor-of-dot-com-bubble14:24 - Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/visa-and-plaid-abandon-merger-after-antitrust-division-s-suit-block  17:38 - Visa, Fintech Startup Plaid Drop Merger Plans After DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/01/12/visa-drops-plans-to-acquire-fintech-startup-plaid-after-doj-antitrust-lawsuitRelated stories: Plaid CEO touts new ‘clarity’ after failed Visa acquisition https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/14/plaid-ceo-touts-new-clarity-after-failed-visa-acquisition/ Visa Opts Out Of Plaid Acquisition, Cites Lawsuit https://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2021/visa-opts-out-plaid-acquisition-cites-complex-litigation/ 18:44 - Stripe Stops Processing Payments for Trump Campaign Websitehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/stripe-stops-processing-payments-for-trump-campaign-website-11610319116 19:54 - Shopify Takes Trump Organization and Campaign Stores Offlinehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/shopify-takes-trumpstore-com-offline-in-response-to-riot-11610035673 21:10 - Who is Jack Ma? Where the Alibaba co-founder came from and disappeared https://nypost.com/article/who-is-jack-ma-where-alibaba-founder-cam-from-disappeared-to/ 23:16 - Individual CPAs can apply for .cpa domains nowhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/individual-cpas-can-apply-for-cpa-domains-now 31:57 - Cloud-based farm accounting solution launched by ag tech start-up Traction https://www.agriculture.com/news/technology/cloud-based-farm-accounting-solution-launched-by-ag-tech-startup-traction 32:57 - TrustBooks Releases Full Accounting Software Niched Specifically for Legal https://www.prweb.com/releases/trustbooks_releases_full_accounting_software_niched_specifically_for_legal/prweb17651217.htm 35:25 - Commerce7 and Ekos Integrate to Help Wineries Sync D2C Sales, Inventory and Accounting https://wineindustryadvisor.com/2021/01/13/commerce7-ekos-integrate-help-wineries 36:32 - Lightspeed Rolls Out Vendor Network For SMBs https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/lightspeed-rolls-out-vendor-network-for-smbs/ 40:26 - Here’s Intuit’s plan to get Mint back on track after years of neglecthttps://www.fastcompany.com/90591464/intuit-mint-new-version-and-alternatives 47:45 - Listener questions from M. Ives. Thank you!  50:55 - Melody Seefeldt talks credit hours for the CPA.  51:56 - Color us corrected (via Twitter)!  53:10 - Talk to us! Tell us how your tax season goes! Share your PPP adventures! We really want to know! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBreadwinner - https://breadwinner.com/netsuite-salesforce/UnCat - https://www.uncat.comGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsBooksTime: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bookstimeBookkeep: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bookkeepShow Notes3:28 - Accounting firm heads urge Congress to accept Electoral College resultshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/accounting-firm-heads-business-leaders-urge-congress-to-accept-electoral-college-results 3:37 - Firm leaders weigh in on storming of Capitol buildinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/firm-leaders-weigh-in-on-storming-of-capitol-building 7:35 - Trump Loses Social Media Megaphone as Facebook, Twitch Acthttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-07/facebook-instagram-restrictions-on-trump-accounts-extended 10:38 - Why it's imperative to own your own marketing channels 13:41 - Employers cut 140K jobs in December, but added 2.3K in accountinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/employers-cut-140k-jobs-in-december-but-added-2-3k-in-accounting 15:05 - A Week Into Full Brexit, the Pain for U.K. Businesses Has Arrivedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/business/Brexit-British-economy.html 17:00 - With Congress approving up to $284 billion to loans, small businesses can apply for Paycheck Protection starting Jan. 11https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/08/small-businesses-can-apply-for-ppp-loans-starting-jan-11.html Date set for limited PPP reopeninghttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2021/jan/ppp-application-reopening-date.html                17:40 - TurboTax and H&R Block say they have fixed the issues that prevented $600 stimulus checks from being paid outhttps://www.businessinsider.com/turbotax-hr-block-fixed-issues-delaying-stimulus-payments-2021-1 18:32 - Treasury issues millions of second Economic Impact Payments by debit card | Internal Revenue Servicehttps://www.irs.gov/newsroom/treasury-issues-millions-of-second-economic-impact-payments-by-debit-card 20:51- Banks Withhold Stimulus To Cover Overdraft Feeshttps://www.pymnts.com/bank-regulation/2021/banks-may-withhold-stimulus-checks-to-cover-overdraft-fees/ 21:25 - Stimulus law may put disputes over PPP agent fees to rest for bankshttps://www.americanbanker.com/news/stimulus-law-may-put-disputes-over-ppp-agent-fees-to-rest-for-banks 24:15 - Ted Callahan announced as new accountant business leader for Intuit’s Small Business Self-Employed Group - Firm of the Future https://www.firmofthefuture.com/content/ted-callahan-announced-as-new-accountant-business-leader-for-intuits-small-business-self-employed-group/ 25:52 - Pennylane raises $18.4 million for its accounting service https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/07/pennylane-raises-18-4-million-for-its-accounting-service/ 30:21 - Avalara Unveils Cloud Sales Tax Returns Solution for Accounting Firms of All Sizes https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210107005090/en/Avalara-Unveils-Cloud-Sales-Tax-Returns-Solution-for-Accounting-Firms-of-All-Sizes 31:41 - Deloitte deal makes Tax Analysts’ law library publichttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/deloitte-deal-makes-tax-analysts-law-library-public 33:05 - Go Forth and Azlohttps://www.azlo.com/blog/go-forth-and-azlo 39:00 - IRS overlooks billions in potential taxes from nonfilershttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-overlooks-billions-in-potential-taxes-from-nonfilers-and-underreporters 42:36 - BKD premieres film noir tax parodyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/bkd-helms-tax-film-noir-short 45:18 - EY and Microsoft expand Xbox blockchain smart contract platformhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ey-and-microsoft-expand-xbox-blockchain-smart-contract-platform 46:33 - U.S. Accounting Standard-Setter Looks to Tackle Controversial Topics in 2021 https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-accounting-standard-setter-looks-to-tackle-controversial-topics-in-2021-11609434034 47:23 - Cost Versus Value: Is GAAP Obsolete? https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/cost-versus-value-is-gaap-obsoleteGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBreadwinner - https://breadwinner.com/netsuite-salesforce/UnCat - https://www.uncat.comGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

SponsorsFreshBooks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/freshbooksQuickFee: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickfeeShow Notes02:12 - Do David and Blake have any 2021 resolutions?  04:38 - Apparently NASBA Offices Narrowly Avoided the Nashville Bombinghttps://www.goingconcern.com/apparently-nasba-offices-narrowly-avoided-the-nashville-bombing/ 05:54 - IRS taxpayer data wasn’t exposed in SolarWinds hack, says TIGTAhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-taxpayer-data-wasnt-exposed-in-solarwinds-hack-says-tigta 08:07 - Sovos buys LTaxhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sovos-buys-ltax-provider-of-payroll-and-unemployment-tax-automation 08:51 - Tax Software Firm Avalara Acquires INPOSIAhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2020/tax-compliance-software-firm-avalara-acquires-inposia/  09:46 - RSM acquires MondayCallhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/rsm-acquires-salesforce-consultancy-mondaycall 12:10 - FedEx Wraps Up ShopRunner Purchasehttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2020/fedex-wraps-up-shoprunner-purchase/ 17:00 - Justice Dept. charges Texas billionaire with biggest tax fraud case in US historyhttps://thehill.com/policy/finance/521253-justice-dept-charges-texas-billionaire-with-biggest-tax-fraud-case-in-us 20:48 - Some businesses thrived, many lagged during pandemic in 2020https://dayton247now.com/news/coronavirus/some-businesses-thrived-many-lagged-during-pandemic-in-2020 23:23 - Six Stories From a Downtown District Show Pandemic’s Uneven Tollhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/some-asheville-businesses-thrived-with-government-backed-ppp-loans-others-struggled-11609426801 29:21 - We've got VOICEMAIL! Thank you, Kelly!  37:06 - 2019 Small Business Finance and HR Reporthttps://onpay.com/small-business-hr-software/2019-small-business-finance-hr 40:39 - SURVEY: Tech Spending Slowshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2020/12/12/survey-tech-spending-slows/ 46:11 - We're on the edge!  A review from Ilibanili on Apple Podcasts. Thank you, Ili!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark Financial Cents: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/cents Show Notes4:05 - 2019 Predictions! Also, Isaac Asimov predicted the computer automation revolution, Mindbody to be sold, senators prod regulators on FinTech, and what’s new in QBO https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/episodes/2019-predictions-also-isaac-asimov-predicted-the-computer-automation-revolution-mindbody-to-be-sold-senators-prod-regulators-on-fintech-and-what-s-new-in-qbo  5:23 - Bookkeepers are embracing the role of trusted advisorhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/bookkeepers-embrace-role-of-trusted-advisor  7:07 - Elevate Messaging & Safety with Zoom Phone SMS, Reporting & E911 Enhancementshttps://blog.zoom.us/elevate-messaging-safety-with-zoom-phone/ 8:13 - The best and worst 2020 predictions (and some of our own) https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/154 10:53 - Zoom may launch an email service and calendar app to compete with Google and Microsofthttps://www.theverge.com/2020/12/23/22197057/zoom-email-service-calendar-app-microsoft-google-competition 13:27 - Square has discussed acquiring Jay-Z’s Tidal servicehttps://bankinnovation.net/allposts/products/payments/square-has-discussed-acquiring-jay-zs-tidal-service/ 17:23 - Introducing Expensify.cash, open-source financial group chat, built with React Nativehttps://community.expensify.com/discussion/7862/introducing-expensify-cash-open-source-financial-group-chat-built-with-react-nativeExpensify.cashhttps://expensify.cash/#/signin  27:45 - SEC Sues Ripple Over Sales of XRP Digital Assetshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cfo/daily_briefing/~3/vZdi6MdgeUI/  30:45 - Google Delays Return to Office and Eyes ‘Flexible Work Week’https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/technology/google-delays-return-to-office-and-eyes-flexible-work-week.html?referringSource=articleShare  32:41 - 81% of firms expect more remote work post-pandemic: Surveyhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/81-percent-of-firms-expect-more-remote-work-post-pandemic-survey 34:58 - Can employers make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory?https://apnews.com/article/can-employers-covid-19-vaccine-mandatory-ba22c99f01f24ea3be7631ff751f0d82 36:40 - States battle over billions in work-from-home taxeshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/states-battle-over-billions-in-work-from-home-taxes 41:37 - What Running a Virtual CPA Firm Really Costshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2020/12/12/what-running-a-virtual-cpa-firm-really-costs/ 44:15 - Don’t Worry Everyone, Deloitte Says Everything Is Fine After SolarWinds Hackhttps://www.goingconcern.com/deloitte-solarwinds-hack/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=deloitte-solarwinds-hack 45:25 - How To Declutter Your Life in 15 Steps http://apartmenttherapy.com/declutter-your-life-268462 49:42 - The moment you've all been waiting for - Blake and David divulge their 2021 predictions!  50:10 - David says expect the unexpected in the accounting space!  51:02 - Blake predicts that predictions (of the cashflow kind) will be the thing in 2021.  54:05 - Maybe predicting the obvious - PPP will just keep going, and going, and going ...  55:28 - Two reviews to round out 2020! Thank you, Mrs. ShannyBanany, and some CPA in a small bookkeeping firm, aka 10594816! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds BaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Show Notes2:32 - Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 Enhances the Employee Retention Credithttps://www.aprio.com/whatsnext/employee-retention-credit-is-now-eligible-to-ppp-loan-recipients/ 4:56 - How does this impact the PPP loan forgiveness application deadline? 7:22 - [Updated] Top 10 PPP Changes from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021https://www.aprio.com/whatsnext/new-stimulus-package-finally-on-the-horizon/ 7:43 - Simplified forgiveness application - REALLY Simplified! 11:20 - Employee Retention Credit - the good, the bad, and the utterly confusing21:12 - Provider Relief Funds - CARES Act Don't miss Justin Elanjian's webinar on December 29 - Unpacking PPP Updates from the Latest Stimulus Billhttps://aprio.zoom.us/webinar/register/5316085644641/WN_dTqlpoVKR5eZcK2XL-OfugGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark Ceterus: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ceterus Show Notes3:56 - The Top 10 PPP changes in the pending Bipartisan Emergency COVID Relief Act of 2020https://www.aprio.com/whatsnext/new-stimulus-package-finally-on-the-horizon/5:08 - LegalZoom Finance and Accounting Careershttps://www.legalzoom.com/careers/by-department?ccc=Finance%20and%20Accounting6:45 - LegalZoom Names Daniel Wernikoff Chief Executive Officerhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190924005040/en/LegalZoom-Names-Daniel-Wernikoff-Chief-Executive-Officer6:50 - LegalZoom Grows Leadership Team with Appointment of New Chief Product Officer and Chief People Officer https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191121005267/en/LegalZoom-Grows-Leadership-Team-with-Appointment-of-New-Chief-Product-Officer-and-Chief-People-Officer7:07 - LegalZoom Names Shrisha Radhakrishna as Chief Technology Officer https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005325/en/LegalZoom-Names-Shrisha-Radhakrishna-as-Chief-Technology-Officer7:11 - LegalZoom Names John Buchanan as Chief Marketing Officer and Kathy Tsitovich as Chief Partnership Officer https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200807005057/en/LegalZoom-Names-John-Buchanan-as-Chief-Marketing-Officer-and-Kathy-Tsitovich-as-Chief-Partnership-Officer8:26 - Purely Solutions: Overview | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/pure-purelysolutions/15:10 - Senators ask IRS whether taxpayer data hit in SolarWinds hackhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/senators-ask-irs-whether-taxpayer-data-hit-in-solarwinds-hack16:49 - IRS extends acceptance of digital signatures and emailed documentshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-extends-acceptance-of-digital-signatures-and-emailed-documents-amid-coronavirus18:36 - Bob Dylan’s Catalog Sale Highlights a Tax Advantage for Songwritershttps://www.wsj.com/articles/bob-dylans-catalog-sale-highlights-a-tax-advantage-for-songwriters-1160768260422:24 - Ransomware Attack Hits Major Service Provider For Accounting And Healthcare Organizationshttps://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/it-and-internet/1016294/ransomware-attack-hits-major-service-provider-for-accounting-and-healthcare-organizations25:49 - China’s Luckin Coffee will pay $180 million to settle accounting fraud chargeshttps://techcrunch.com/2020/12/16/luckin-180-million-fine-sec/27:27 - EY Team Found ‘Red-Flag Indicators’ at Wirecardhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2020/report-ey-anti-fraud-team-found-red-flag-indicators-at-wirecard/28:32 - Microsoft engineer gets nine years for stealing $10M from Microsofthttps://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/11/microsoft-engineer-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-10m-from-microsoft/32:31 - Slack Is the Right Tool for the Wrong Way to Workhttps://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/slack-is-the-right-tool-for-the-wrong-way-to-work36:55 - WSJ News Exclusive | Massachusetts Regulators to File Complaint Against Robinhoodhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/massachusetts-regulators-to-file-complaint-against-robinhood-1160812000340:20 - How US customers’ attitudes to fintech are shifting during the pandemichttps://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/how-us-customers-attitudes-to-fintech-are-shifting-during-the-pandemic41:36 - GoCardless Notches $95 Million Led By Bainhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2020/uk-fintech-gocardless-notches-95-million-led-by-bain/42:22 - Patriot Software Offers Seamless Integration With TSheets by QuickBooks https://www.prweb.com/releases/patriot_software_offers_seamless_integration_with_tsheets_by_quickbooks/prweb17603468.htm43:15 - Ramp raises $30M as the battle to own corporate spend heats uphttps://techcrunch.com/2020/12/17/ramp-raises-30m-as-the-battle-to-own-corporate-spend-heats-up/46:44 - The 5 best note-taking apps of 2021https://zapier.com/blog/best-note-taking-apps46:46 - The 8 best free email marketing apps in 2021https://zapier.com/blog/free-email-marketing-software46:52 - The best free CRM software for 2021https://zapier.com/blog/best-free-crm49:49 - Sage Launches Partner Cloud Program to Accelerate Cloud Migrationhttps://www.channele2e.com/business/digital-transformation/sage-launches-partner-cloud-program-to-accelerate-cloud-migration/52:04 - A review! Thank you, JPLisdorf! 54:28 - Don't forget to check out the bonus episode Justin Elanjian of Aprio!https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/bonus206Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds BaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Show Notes2:58 - Additional Expenses eligible under PPP Loan forgiveness4:42 - Tax implications of PPP forgiveness07:15 - Simplified loan forgiveness applications and documentation requirements10:12 - Allotment for the 2nd round of PPP funds 10:45 - Eligibility requirements for PPP 2.0 14:55 - The Top 10 PPP changes in the pending Bipartisan Emergency COVID Relief Act of 2020https://www.aprio.com/whatsnext/new-stimulus-package-finally-on-the-horizon/15:55 - How Aprio's PPP team got down to business19:00 - Find a wealth of PPP resources with Aprio's Covid Advisor here: Aprio.com/covidGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark Synder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synder Show Notes  3:31 - Apps We Love: November 2020 – Our Favorite Podcastshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/firm-management/article/21162856/apps-we-love-november-2020-our-favorite-podcasts7:06 - Listeners let us know - sometimes, we miss the mark, especially when it comes to tax, audit, and even our favorite subject - PPP  11:19 - Mnuchin's Stimulus Includes Business Protections | PYMNTS.com  https://www.pymnts.com/economy/2020/mnuchin-916-billion-dollar-stimulus-plan-includes-business-protections/ 13:42 - BeachFleischman names Majchrzak next CEO  https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/beachfleischman-names-chief-strategy-marketing-officer-eric-majchrzak-next-ceo 15:15 - The case of the extra paycheck | Tax Pro Center | Intuit https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/tax-law-and-news/the-case-of-the-extra-paycheck/  17:58 - Oracle is moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texashttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/11/oracle-is-moving-its-headquarters-from-silicon-valley-to-austin-texas.html19:40 - Square Offers Beauty Sector Online Booking, POS | PYMNTS.com  https://www.pymnts.com/news/mobile-commerce/2020/square-offers-beauty-sector-online-booking-pos-tool/ 21:00 - Introducing duplicate document detection in Hubdoc | Xero Bloghttps://www.xero.com/blog/2020/12/hubdoc-duplicate-document-detection/ 23:14 - 2020 R4 Release Noteshttps://www.intacct.com/ia/docs/en_US/releasenotes/2020/2020_Release_4/2020-R4-home.htm 26:09 - Vic.ai Launches Autopilot, the Autonomous Accounting Solutionhttps://www.prweb.com/releases/vic_ai_launches_autopilot_the_autonomous_accounting_solution/prweb17601974.htm 27:40 - BQE Software Partners With AffiniPay to Bring Advanced Payment Technologies to BQE CORE Customershttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bqe-software-partners-with-affinipay-to-bring-advanced-payment-technologies-to-bqe-core-customers-301174791.html New Online Payments System Launches for Accounting Firms  https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/firm-management/news/21165991/new-online-payments-system-launches-for-accounting-firms 28:53 - Revolut, Europe's $5.5 billion digital bank, quietly broke even in Novemberhttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/08/digital-bank-revolut-breaks-even-in-november.html 30:12 - Gusto expands People Advisory Certification programhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/gusto-expands-people-advisory-certification-program 31:30 - WhatsApp launches Carts for small businesses to sell in app, online - Inside Retail  https://insideretail.asia/2020/12/09/whatsapp-launches-carts-for-small-businesses-to-sell-in-app-online/ 33:08 - The Gas Tax’s Days Are Numbered, What’s Next? (Podcast)https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/the-gas-taxs-days-are-numbered-whats-next-podcast37:05 - Unit raises $18.6M to offer banking features as a service  https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/08/unit-raises-18-6m-to-offer-banking-features-as-a-service/ 37:42 - Time to up your ‘out of office’ gamehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/time-to-up-your-out-of-office-game 41:11 - If you worked remotely due to Covid-19, a state tax surprise could be coming https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/06/if-you-worked-remotely-due-to-covid-19-a-state-tax-surprise-could-be-coming.html 44:57 - Square's Cash App Launches A Clothing Line Because, Clearly, Bitcoin And Stocks Aren't Enoughhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/squares-cash-app-launches-clothing-055837827.html 45:30 - We've got voicemail! Thank you, Sheila!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds BaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark Relay FI: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay Show Notes03:20 - The Best Gifts for People Who Work From Homehttps://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/gifts/gifts-for-remote-work-from-home/ 08:50 - We made the list! Accounting Today 2020 Top 100 People extra: Legacy https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/2020-top-100-people-extra-legacy 09:37 - AICPA joins in calling for PPP expense forgiveness legislationhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-joins-business-groups-in-calling-for-ppp-expense-forgiveness-legislation10:26 - SBA releases names of Grand Strand businesses that received less than $150K in PPP loanshttps://www.wmbfnews.com/2020/12/04/sba-releases-names-grand-strand-businesses-that-received-less-than-k-ppp-loans/  11:10 - More than half of emergency small-business funds went to larger businesses, new data showshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/01/ppp-sba-data/ 12:54 - A third of Oregon’s Paycheck Protection Program money went to 1.6% of loan recipientshttps://www.oregonlive.com/business/2020/12/a-third-of-oregons-paycheck-protection-program-money-went-to-16-of-loan-recipients.html  14:10 - Small Business Employment Trends as PPP Requirements Expirehttps://gusto.com/company-news/employment-trends-PPP-requirements-expire 19:20 - Tom Brady's company, TB12, received just under $1M in PPP loanshttps://www.si.com/nfl/2020/12/04/tom-brady-company-tb12-ppp-loan 19:54 - 48% of Small Businesses Fear Closing for Goodhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2020/12/alignable-survey-48-percent-small-businesses-fear-closing-for-good.html 21:17 - Employers added 245K jobs in November, but lost 2.4K in accountinghttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/employers-added-245k-jobs-in-november-but-lost-2-4k-in-accounting21:58 - November 2020 Accounting and Finance Jobs Reporthttp://blog.accountingprincipals.com/jobs-report/ 24:01 - Cyber escape room keeps employees’ security awareness locked in https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/network-security/cyber-escape-room-locks-in-employees-security-awareness-but-can-sc-media-beat-the-clock/ 26:15 - More MyPayrollHR fallout: Bank sues Albany accounting firm for $34M https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Pioneer-sues-Michael-Mann-s-accounting-firm-for-15767389.php 30:52 - At quick glance, 'expertly framed' Quickbooks phishing email looks legithttps://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/phishing/at-quick-glance-expertly-framed-quickbooks-phishing-email-looks-legit/ 32:54 - Congress Sets Stage for Exiling Chinese Stocks From U.S. Over Audit Dispute https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-sets-stage-for-exiling-chinese-stocks-from-u-s-over-audit-dispute-11606946071 34:30 - Stripe Treasury: Banking-as-a-service for platformshttps://stripe.com/treasury 40:20 - Intuit launches assisted tax prephttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/intuit-launches-assisted-tax-prep 43:33 - Facebook acquires Kustomer, a CRM start-up https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/30/facebook-acquires-kustomer-a-crm-start-up.html 46:57 - A Review!  Thank you, Matt Metras! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds BaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors Synder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synder ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes03:30 - Amazon cloud-computing outage Wednesday triggered by effort to boost system’s capacity https://www.inquirer.com/business/technology/amazon-web-services-failure-added-capacity-20201128.htmlAWS Outage Interrupts Service for Spotify, Square And Others https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2020/aws-outage-interrupts-web-service-for-spotify-square-and-others/People Can't Vacuum Or Use Their Doorbell Because Amazon's Cloud Servers Are Down - Eminetra Australiahttps://eminetra.com.au/people-cant-vacuum-or-use-their-doorbell-because-amazons-cloud-servers-are-down/74505/06:30 - Will Zoom Apps be the next hot startup platform?https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/18/will-zoom-apps-be-the-next-hot-startup-platform/08:44 -  Salesforce in Acquisition Talks with Slack – Good News or not? https://customerthink.com/salesforce-in-acquistion-talks-with-slack-good-news-or-not/13:54 - Salesforce buying Slack would mark the first big software deal in a boom year for the cloud https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/28/salesforce-slack-would-be-first-big-deal-in-boom-year-for-software.html14:05 - Expensify Surpasses $100 Million in Annual Recurring Revenuehttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201123005455/en/Expensify-Surpasses-100-Million-in-Annual-Recurring-Revenue19:28 - Tudor, the Virtual Accounting Robot, launched by Connectionshttps://business-review.eu/tech/tudor-the-virtual-accounting-robot-launched-by-connections-21518927:22 - Pentagon fails audit yet again, could pass around 2027, comptroller sayshttps://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pentagon-auditor/pentagon-fails-audit-yet-again-could-pass-around-2027-comptroller-says-idUSKBN27X03P29:45 - Some in Scottsdale will get deliveries from Walmart in autonomous Cruise vehicleshttps://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/consumers/2020/11/10/walmart-use-cruise-vehicles-autonomous-deliveries-scottsdale/3761006001/31:52 - Pandemic Speeds Americans’ Embrace of Digital Commercehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-speeds-americans-embrace-of-digital-commerce-1160543620034:07 - FinTech Stripe Eyes Funding Round, $100B Valuationhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2020/fintech-stripe-eyes-funding-round-that-could-put-valuation-at-100b/34:46 - Second Share Purchase Values Toast POS At $8Bhttps://www.pymnts.com/restaurant-technology/2020/second-share-purchase-deal-values-pos-startup-toast-at-8b/35:58 - TurboTax maker Intuit wins U.S. antitrust nod for Credit Karmahttps://bankinnovation.net/allposts/focus/comp-reg/turbotax-maker-intuit-wins-u-s-antitrust-nod-for-credit-karma/Credit Karma To Divest Tax Unit In Merger https://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2020/credit-karma-to-divest-tax-unit-to-square-in-7-1b-merger-with-intuit/38:22 - Square and Xero: Enhanced integration and point-of-sale features for UKhttps://www.xero.com/blog/2020/11/square-xero-enhanced-integration-uk/39:05 - Xero's cash mountain suggests a major deal is on the horizonhttps://www.afr.com/technology/xero-s-cash-mountain-suggests-a-major-deal-is-on-the-horizon-20201125-p56hrn39:56 - Crunch Free is a new online accounting platform aimed at the self-employedhttps://www.techradar.com/uk/news/crunch-free-is-a-new-online-accounting-platform-aimed-at-the-self-employed41:21 - Latest product news – December 2020https://www.xero.com/blog/2020/11/latest-product-news-december-2020/41:52 - New: Easily Manage Your Bills With Accounts Payablehttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/accounts-payable42:30 - FreshBooks Ramps Up Its Focus on the UK Small Business Market, Announcing a Partnership with Barclays, and Launching a Suite of New Features https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/11/25/2133461/0/en/FreshBooks-Ramps-Up-Its-Focus-on-the-UK-Small-Business-Market-Announcing-a-Partnership-with-Barclays-and-Launching-a-Suite-of-New-Features.html42:53 - Biden confirms he wants Janet Yellen to be his Treasury secretary — what that means for cash-strapped American familieshttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/janet-yellen-is-poised-to-become-treasury-secretary-in-a-biden-cabinet-what-that-means-for-cash-strapped-american-families-2020-11-2443:17 - Virtual HQs race to win over a remote-work-fatigued markethttps://techcrunch.com/2020/11/18/virtual-hqs-race-to-win-over-a-remote-work-fatigued-market/48:48 - Surge in interest temporarily overwhelms .cpa platformhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/surge-in-interest-temporarily-overwhelms-cpa-platform50:34 - A message from CAP Listener Sarah Seagraves. Thank you! 54:50 - Chris Macksey's "guide to making a dope cheeseboard to impress your friends... For accountants #taxtwitter" https://twitter.com/CMacksey/status/1331758688411979778 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds BaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors Thomson Reuters: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/trcloud ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes07:58 – 36% of Americans Won't Move to Rural Areas Due to Slow Internet Speeds https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/11/rural-internet-speeds-urban-sprawl.html11:09 – Women less likely to feel fairly comped for WFH expenses https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/women-less-likely-to-feel-fairly-compensated-for-work-from-home-expenses-during-pandemic17:01 – Congress blasts IRS for limits on forgiven PPP loan tax breaks https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/congress-blasts-irs-for-limits-on-forgiven-ppp-loan-tax-breaks17:23 – IRS clarifies deductibility of PPP loan expenses, as AICPA criticizes forgiveness questionnaire https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-and-treasury-clarify-deductibility-of-ppp-loan-expenses-as-aicpa-criticizes-forgiveness-questionnaire17:50 – IRS Crushes Hopes Of Deducting PPP-Paid Expenses Before Forgiveness Approval; But Questions Remainhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/2020/11/19/irs-crushes-hopes-of-deducting-ppp-paid-expenses-before-forgiveness-approval-but-questions-remain/19:13 – Letters signed by AICPA raise concerns about PPP Loan Necessity Questionnaires https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2020/nov/aicpa-signed-letters-raise-concerns-ppp-loan-necessity-questionnaires.html20:01 – PODCAST: How Fraud and Waste Seeped into a COVID Stimulus Program (WSJ’s The Journal) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-journal/id1469394914?i=100049927249523:22 – Evidence of PPP Fraud Mounts, Officials Say https://www.wsj.com/articles/ppp-was-a-fraudster-free-for-all-investigators-say-1160483207224:55 – Mnuchin pulls plug on some pandemic lending programs that Fed considers essential https://de.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-mnuchin-idUSKBN27Z34P25:54 – IRS plans a 50% ramp-up in small-biz audits next yearhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/irs-plans-a-50-ramp-up-in-audits-of-small-businesses-next-year27:57 – AICPA disagrees with IRS commissioner Rettig on penalty relief https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/aicpa-disagrees-with-irs-commissioner-rettig-on-penalty-relief30:10 – IRS investigating fewer tax preparers https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-investigating-fewer-tax-preparers31:35 – Top Challenges? Staffing, Staffing, Staffinghttps://cpatrendlines.com/2020/11/19/web-portals-are-here-to-stay/33:18 – PayPal Gives Employees Early Paycheck Accesshttps://www.pymnts.com/news/payments-innovation/2020/paypal-gives-employees-early-access-to-paychecks-though-evens-app/34:48 – QuickBooks Connect 2020 Hosts Thousands Virtuallyhttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/general-ledger/quickbooks-connect-2020-hosts-thousands-virtually/39:28 – QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping update: November 2020 https://www.firmofthefuture.com/content/quickbooks-live-bookkeeping-update-november-2020/41:36 – Intuit has Launched HubSpot for QuickBookshttps://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/general-ledger/intuit-has-launched-hubspot-for-quickbooks/47:28 – Intuit (INTU) Q1 Earnings & Revenues Top Estimates, Increase Y/Y https://finance.yahoo.com/news/intuit-intu-q1-earnings-revenues-131201694.html51:19 – Why Xero investors should forget the US markethttps://www.afr.com/technology/why-xero-investors-should-forget-the-us-market-20201110-p56d8y54:41 – A Review! Thank you, B Stoltzfus!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ClientHub: https://clienthub.appGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors Accountant Connect: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp A2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/a2x BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes03:55 – It’s not too late to cancel Thanksgiving https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/11/14/1012128/its-not-too-late-to-cancel-thanksgiving/ 08:11 – Follow up on Leary's theory about Trump's Loss from last week's episodehttps://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/200 12:34 – Blake sheds some light on his discussion with David Barrett, CEO of Expensify 20:32 – The Time Has Come for a True Wealth Taxhttps://dvorak.substack.com/p/the-time-has-come-for-a-true-wealth 25:11 – Deutsche Bank calls for a 5 percent 'privilege' tax on peoplehttps://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/poverty/525480-deutsche-bank-calls-for-a-5-privilege-tax-on-people-choosing People Who Work from Home Should Pay a New Tax, Economists Suggesthttps://gizmodo.com/people-who-work-from-home-should-pay-a-new-tax-economi-1845646500 26:50 – Personal banking vs. business banking: Do you need separate bank accounts? | QuickBooks https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/banking/personal-vs-business-banking/ 30:50 – Millennials & Your Firm [Xero Survey]: 11 Key Takeawayshttps://futurefirm.co/millennials-accounting-firm/ 33:28 – My Startup Story: How This Founder Uses Tech to Prove Work-Life Harmony Is Possible For Accountants » Dallas Innovates https://dallasinnovates.com/my-startup-story-how-this-founder-uses-tech-to-prove-work-life-harmony-is-possible-for-accountants/  35:57 – Microsoft now lets you bring your own data types to Excel – TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2020/10/29/microsoft-now-lets-you-bring-your-own-data-types-to-excel/38:26 – NetSuite debuts SuiteAccountants programhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/netsuite-debuts-suiteaccountants-program-to-help-accountants-elevate-service 41:20 – Xero's fast growth slows, but profits surgehttps://www.afr.com/technology/xero-s-fast-growth-slows-but-profits-surge-20201109-p56cul 43:19 – Receipt Bank now available for QuickBooks Desktop via Right Networks https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/receipt-bank-now-available-to-quickbooks-desktop-users-via-right-networks 46:13 – Avalara buys Businesses Licenses LLC for $97M https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/avalara-buys-businesses-licenses-llc-for-97m48:06 – Blake's tax discussion with CAP listener Juventino Gaytan (Tino) https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinogaytan/  60:05 – Reviews x 3! Thank you, Vcjgvjgbufbycjg (however you would pronounce that), Nonickname7395, and Jesse Gildesgame! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ClientHub: https://clienthub.appGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors Financial Cents: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/cents A2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/a2x BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 07:37 – No, Biden did not receive thousands of mysteriously surfaced votes in Michiganhttps://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/nov/04/tweets/no-biden-did-not-receive-thousands-mysteriously-su/ 10:02 – Meet the Excel warriors saving the world from spreadsheet disasterhttps://www.wired.co.uk/article/spreadsheet-excel-errors11:20 – It's time for the Leary Theory on How Trump Lost13:46 – 691,145 Californians left last year: What state did they go to? – Orange County Registerhttps://www.ocregister.com/691145-californians-left-last-year-what-state-did-they-go-to13:54 – Where to Move from California in 2018: Top 10 Places Californians Move - TSI Movinghttps://www.tsishipping.com/blog/moving/top-10-places-californians-now-call-home-201816:20 – Judge orders Trump administration to reveal PPP loan data it sought to obscurehttps://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/judge-orders-trump-administration-reveal-ppp-loan-data-it-sought-n124679219:05 – Evidence of PPP Fraud Mounts, Officials Sayhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ppp-was-a-fraudster-free-for-all-investigators-say-11604832072 20:33 – Walmart abandons shelf-scanning robots, lets humans do workhttps://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/walmart-abandons-shelf-scanning-robots-lets-humans-do-work22:28 –  If you worked remotely due to Covid-19, a state tax surprise could be cominghttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/06/if-you-worked-remotely-due-to-covid-19-a-state-tax-surprise-could-be-coming.html26:42 – How one simple Zapier workflow created a multimillion-dollar business https://zapier.com/blog/how-zapier-helped-create-bonjoro/28:14 – How to Get Accounting Clients in a Changing Worldhttps://futurefirm.co/how-to-get-accounting-clients/30:59 – Acuity Launches Accounts Receivable Services as Standalone Servicehttps://acuity.co/accounts-receivable-services/36:00 – California accounting board fines KPMG $1.3M for cheating scandalhttps://www.complianceweek.com/regulatory-enforcement/california-accounting-board-fines-kpmg-13m-for-cheating-scandal/29683.article38:16 – Bill.com tops earnings expectations as more small businesses get back to work, but stimulus questions lingerhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/bill-com-tops-earnings-expectations-as-more-small-businesses-get-back-to-work-but-stimulus-questions-linger-11604628670 39:50 – Square stock soars after earnings 'beat by a mile,' analysts applaud growth in Cash App https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/06/square-stock-soars-after-massive-earnings-beat-helped-by-cash-app-.html 45:13 – Customise your chart of accounts templates in Xero HQhttps://www.xero.com/blog/2020/11/customise-chart-of-accounts-templates-in-xero-hq/47:06 – Does Your Firm Have a Clear Vision for Hosting: Public Cloud, Private Cloud, SaaShttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/firm-management/article/21157787/does-your-firm-have-a-clear-vision-for-hosting-public-cloud-private-cloud-saas 48:57 – Osome Banks On $3M For Accounting ‘Super App’ https://news.crunchbase.com/news/osome-banks-on-3m-for-accounting-super-app/ 52:40 – Lightspeed To Buy ShopKeep For $440Mhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2020/lightspeed-buy-shopkeep-advance-pos/ 54:00 – NerdWallet Acquires SMB Finance Platform Funderahttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2020/nerdwallet-acquires-smb-finance-platform-fundera/ 55:25 – A Review! – Thank you, Joe Pavone! 57:09 – Last, but definitely not least, this is our 200th Episode!🎉👏😁Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ClientHub: https://clienthub.appGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors Thomson Reuters SYNERGY: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synergy ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes03:41 – Why political campaigns are sending 3 billion texts in this electionhttps://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/28/1011301/why-political-campaigns-are-sending-3-billion-texts-in-this-election/07:43 – America’s Password Habits: 2020https://www.security.org/resources/online-password-strategies/   - 14% of Americans Using COVID in Online Passwords, New Survey Reveals      https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/10/americans-using-covid-online-passwords.html 09:34 – At the expense of its partners’ neutrality, Expensify boosts Bidenhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/at-the-expense-of-its-partners-neutrality-expensify-boosts-biden09:54 – Coinbase CEO discourages politics at work, offers generous severance to employees who want to quithttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/30/coinbase-ceo-offers-severance-to-employees-leaving-over-politics.html12:20 – SBA presses big businesses to justify aid, sparking uproarhttps://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/30/sba-big-businesses-ppp-loans-43373616:23 – Fed lowers minimum loan level for small business lending programhttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/30/fed-lowers-minimum-loan-level-for-small-business-lending-program.html17: 51 – An Avalanche of Fraud Buried a Small-Business Relief Programhttp://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/an-avalanche-of-fraud-buried-a-small-business-relief-program-1.151467423:00 – SEC awards record $114M to whistleblowerhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sec-awards-record-114m-to-whistleblower24:49 – Employers refilling open accounting jobs amid pandemichttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/employers-refilling-open-accounting-jobs-amid-pandemic25:55 – Number of the Day: 75%https://www.goingconcern.com/number-of-the-day-75/27:12 – More than Half of Small Businesses Say They're the Same or Better Than Before COVIDhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2020/10/capital-one-small-business-confidence-survey.html31:00 – More than Half of U.S. Companies Have Hired New Staff Remotelyhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/payroll/news/21159623/more-than-half-of-us-companies-have-hired-new-staff-remotely34:14 – Vast migration of over 14 million Americans coming due to rise in remote work, study showshttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/28/vast-migration-of-over-14-million-americans-coming-due-to-remote-work.html37:52 – 9Spokes signs new Bank of New Zealand contract for further two-year term https://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/932539/9spokes-signs-new-bank-of-new-zealand-contract-for-further-two-year-term-932539.html38:12 – BlueVine Takes Wraps Off Biz Banking Platform https://www.pymnts.com/news/banking/2020/bluevine-takes-wraps-off-small-biz-banking-platform/38:56 – Sunrise Bookkeeping, a Lendio Company, Releases Its First Mobile Apphttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/10/29/2117108/0/en/Sunrise-Bookkeeping-a-Lendio-Company-Releases-Its-First-Mobile-App.html39:52 – QuickAccept First Step To Building SMB Ecosystemhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2020/chase-neukirchen-quickaccept-first-step-building-smb-ecosystem/40:41 – Stripe Expands Partnership With Mindbodyhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/payment-methods/2020/stripe-expands-partnership-with-mindbody-for-fitness-payments/42:01 – Credit Karma in Talks to Sell Tax-Preparation Business to Square https://www.wsj.com/articles/credit-karma-in-talks-to-sell-tax-preparation-business-to-square-1160406727443:59 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: October 2020https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/whats-new/whats-new-in-quickbooks-online-october-2020/46:25 – Tech news: Wolters Kluwer adds eSignature to ATX, and morehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/tech-news-wolters-kluwer-adds-esignature-to-atx-and-more46:57 – Report: DOJ May Sue To Block Visa's Plaid Acquisitionhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2020/report-doj-could-soon-decide-if-it-will-try-to-block-visas-acquisition-of-plaid/Visa $5.3 billion Plaid deal triggers DOJ antitrust worries https://bankinnovation.net/allposts/focus/comp-reg/visa-5-3-billion-plaid-deal-triggers-doj-antitrust-worries/48:42 – New & Improved in FreshBooks: Invoice Attachments, Croatian Language, and Morehttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/product-updates-october-202049:10 – ADP exec lays out payroll giant's plans for earned wage accesshttps://www.businessinsider.com/adp-earned-wage-access-product-payroll-processing-pilot-customers-2020-1050:00 – Workday Adds Data Management and Machine Learning Innovationshttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/accounting-audit/news/21160701/workday-adds-data-management-and-machine-learning-innovations50:55 – Amazon Rolls Out SMB Inventory Solutionhttps://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2020/amazon-rolls-out-dash-smart-shelf-smb-inventory-solution/54:00 – VOICEMAIL!  Our favorite Australian correspondent Heather Smith answers a question! 56:10 – REVIEW! Thank you, Chan Collab! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ClientHub: https://clienthub.appGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors ADP Marketplace: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark LivePlan: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Show Notes07:14 – Expensify’s CEO explains how he made the decision to tell all his customers to vote for Biden  https://www.protocol.com/expensify-email-biden-trump-david-barrett 20:34 – Expensify CEO Emails 10 Million Customers Urging Them to Vote for Bidenhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-23/expensify-biden-email-goes-out-to-10-million-customers More Expensify Coverage:   CEO emails 10 million customers to tell them to vote for Biden https://www.cbsnews.com/news/expensify-ceo-david-barrett-emails-customers-vote-biden/ Expensify CEO Urges Customers to Vote Against Trump https://www.wsj.com/articles/expensify-ceo-urges-customers-to-vote-against-trump-11603489825 Expensify CEO implores customers to vote for Biden over Trump in an explosive mass email https://www.fastcompany.com/90567857/expensify-ceo-biden-trump-david-barrett  27:37 – The results are in from our own Expensify v. Democracy survey on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/CloudAcctPod/status/1319606666690580480 29:15 – Our discussion on which way accountants will vote in 2020https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/194 35:48 – Jirav named CPA.com's preferred business planning software partner https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/jirav-is-now-cpa-coms-preferred-business-planning-software-partner  38:10 – JPMorgan Takes On Square, PayPal At Point Of Sale  https://www.pymnts.com/smbs/2020/jpmorgan-takes-on-square-and-paypal-at-the-point-of-sale/ 38:48 – JPMorgan Chase takes on Square and PayPal with smartphone card reader, faster deposits for merchantshttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/21/jpmorgan-takes-on-square-and-paypal-with-smartphone-card-reader-faster-deposits-for-merchants.html 39:47 – PayPal to open up network to cryptocurrencieshttps://www.reuters.com/article/paypal-cryptocurrency-int-idUSKBN2762D5 PayPal Eyes Buying Crypto Firm BitGo, Others  https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2020/paypal-eyes-buying-crypto-firm-bitgo-others/ 42:17 – Intuit account – Why now for QuickBooks Desktop?https://quickbooks.intuit.com/blog/accountant-advice/intuit-account-why-now-for-quickbooks-desktop/ 43:27 – New: Track Your Inventory Directly in FreshBookshttps://www.freshbooks.com/blog/inventory 44:10 – Feature Release: Introducing Plan, the 1st Feature in the All-New Scale Tierhttps://jetpackworkflow.com/blog/scale-tier-plan-release/ 45:02 – As stimulus talks drag on in Washington, millions of small businesses await guidance on PPP loan forgiveness https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/23/millistimulus-talks-drag-on-and-uncertainty-over-ppp-loan-forgiveness-hangs-in-the-balance.html 47:09 – Deer crashes through window into accounting office https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/10/23/Deer-crashes-through-window-into-accounting-office/7171603475615/  47:42 – Accounting Seed Releases Downloadable Accounting Basics Board Game https://curated.tncontentexchange.com/states/maryland/accounting-seed-releases-downloadable-accounting-basics-board-game/article_869e752d-bbad-5927-ac13-ba0b64fc19f1.html 50:00 – Historic bookkeeping record suggests Washington's horse fell in water near iconic Bull's Covered Bridge https://connecticut.news12.com/historic-bookkeeping-record-suggests-washingtons-horse-fell-in-water-near-iconic-bulls-covered-bridge  52:02 – Another listener voicemail from Shane Mason, Brooklyn FI TaxGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ClientHub: https://clienthub.appGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes03:35 – Reviews from Julie Sigety, CPA, Angela, and MarieP86!  06:44 – String of Firms That Imploded Have Something in Common: Ernst & Young Audited Themhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/string-of-firms-that-imploded-have-something-in-common-ernst-young-audited-them-11602863319 13:12 – New Zoom Enhancements to Help Customers Re-Enter the Office & Enable Hybrid Workforceshttps://blog.zoom.us/new-zoom-enhancements-to-help-customers-re-enter-the-office-enable-hybrid-workforces/ 18:00 – Introducing Zapps, Bringing Best-of-Breed Apps Into the Zoom Experience https://blog.zoom.us/introducing-zapps-bringing-best-of-breed-apps-into-zoom/ 18:24 – Bring Zoom Into Your Apps With Our Customizable SDK https://blog.zoom.us/bring-zoom-into-your-apps-with-our-customizable-sdk/18:54 – From The Folks Who Brought You Boring Meetings: CEOs Want To Ditch Sterile Zoom Callshttps://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/923428794/from-the-folks-who-brought-you-boring-meetings-ceos-want-to-ditch-sterile-zoom-c 23:11 – It's Almost Impossible to Get COVID-19 on an Airplane, New Military Study Suggests https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/10/15/its-almost-impossible-get-covid-19-airplane-new-military-study-suggests.html 26:53 – Report: Hackers Hit 2,000 Robinhood Accounts https://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2020/report-hackers-hit-2000-robinhood-accounts/ 30:16 – What’s New in the Sage Intacct Release 3 https://www.accttwo.com/blog/whats-new-in-the-2020-sage-intacct-release-331:25 – BofA adds three new APIs to CashPro treasury producthttps://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/84422/bofa-adds-three-new-apis-to-cashpro-treasury-product33:46 – European fintech giant Revolut is close to applying for a bank charter in California, sources sayhttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/12/european-fintech-giant-revolut-is-close-to-applying-for-a-bank-charter-in-california.html 35:55 – Square Introduces Terminal API For Payments https://www.pymnts.com/api/2020/square-introduces-terminal-api-for-all-in-one-payments/ 38:33 – TD Bank files lawsuit against Plaid, accusing it of trying to 'dupe' consumers https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/td-bank-files-lawsuit-against-194530182.html41:24 – Intuit QuickBooks achieves open banking milestonehttps://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/technology/14942-intuit-quickbooks-achieves-open-banking-milestone42:51 – QR codes added to IRS balance-due noticeshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-adds-qr-codes-to-balance-due-notices 44:31 – Starling Bank small business customers get PayStream accounting platform as an option https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/starling-bank-small-business-customers-get-paystream-accounting-platform-as-an-option 45:11 – Receipt Bank launches 'one place to pay' app https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/84473/receipt-bank-launches-one-place-to-pay-app 46:34 – Treasury encouraged banks to prioritize PPP loans for existing clients, hurting minority- and women-owned small businesses, House report says https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/16/treasury-encouraged-banks-to-prioritize-ppp-loans-for-existinG-clients.html 50:32 – Survey: Who’s Not Billing for PPP Services? https://cpatrendlines.com/2020/10/12/more-than-1-in-5-accountants-are-not-charging-for-ppp-services/ 53:19 – Wells Fargo terminates employees over potential COVID-19 relief fraud https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/wells-fargo-fires-employees-over-potential-covid-19-relief-fraud55:01  – Voicemail!!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ClientHub: https://clienthub.appGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors DEAR Systems: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/dear ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes07:15 – Microsoft will let employees work from home half the time https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/09/microsoft-implements-new-hybrid-remote-work-policy.html 10:47 – SBA and Treasury simplify forgiveness of PPP loans under $50K+https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/sba-and-treasury-simplify-forgiveness-of-ppp-loans-under-50k 11:47 – PPP forgiveness simplified for loans of $50,000 or lesshttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2020/oct/ppp-forgiveness-simplified-for-loans-50000-less.html 14:21 – IRS Investigating NRA’s Wayne LaPierre for Possible Tax Fraudhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-investigating-nras-wayne-lapierre-for-possible-tax-fraud-11601923467 15:46 – Software Pioneer John McAfee Indicted On Tax Charges https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2020/10/05/software-millionaire-john-mcafee-indicted-on-tax-charges/#65df8ef72672 19:00 – IRS: Sorry, but It’s Just Easier and Cheaper to Audit the Poorhttps://www.propublica.org/article/irs-sorry-but-its-just-easier-and-cheaper-to-audit-the-poor 21:20 – IRS Whittles Mail Backlog, Aims to Make Final Stimulus Paymentshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-whittles-mail-backlog-aims-to-make-final-stimulus-payments-11602097587 23:20 – Robinhood Reports Potential Hacking Incidenthttps://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2020/robinhood-reports-potential-hacking-incident/ 29:12 – BoA Goes Micro With Consumer Loan Up To $500https://www.pymnts.com/loans/2020/bank-of-america-goes-micro-with-consumer-loan-up-to-500-dollars/ 30:04 – Introducing New Modern Benefits that Expand Access to Affordable Health Coverage and Put an End to Predatory Banking Practiceshttps://gusto.com/company-news/introducing-gusto-benefits-for-all 32:20 – Expensify introduces free vendor bill-payhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/expensify-introduces-free-vendor-bill-pay 36:58 – Tipalti valued at $2B+ after raising $150M for its accounting automation platformhttps://siliconangle.com/2020/10/06/tipalti-valued-2b-raising-150m-accounting-automation-platform/ 38:20 – Avalara acquires Transaction Tax Resources for $377Mhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/avalara-acquires-transaction-tax-resources-for-377m 42:26 – Accounting error costs Georgia, tax collections stay strong https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Accounting-error-costs-Georgia-tax-collections-15626264.php 44:02 – Spill some tea! If you know which software was involved in the Georgia tax fiasco, do tell. Hit us up on Twitter, or LinkedIn. Inquiring accountants want to know!  46:02 – Botched Excel import may have caused loss of 15,841 UK COVID-19 cases https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/excel-glitch-may-have-caused-uk-to-underreport-covid-19-cases-by-15841/ 48:41 – Introducing Client Hub Frictionless Workflowhttps://blog.clienthub.app/frictionlessworkflow/ 49:27 – This is Google's new plan to take on Microsoft Office - Latest Newshttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/this-is-googles-new-plan-to-take-on-microsoft-office/articleshow/78533493.cms 52:08 – Japanese Startup Surges 300% on Demand for Cloud-Based Accountinghttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/japan-startup-surges-300-demand-200000131.html 54:10 – Square stock gains after company purchases $50 million in bitcoinhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/square-stock-gains-after-company-purchases-50-million-in-bitcoin-11602164665 56:45 – EY Changes Its Vacation Policy, Oh and BTW They’re Not Paying Out Accrued PTO If You “Leave”https://www.goingconcern.com/ey-flexible-vacation-policy-pto/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsBaCo Tech: https://www.bacotech.com/ClientHub: https://clienthub.appWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors OnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes04:17 – Happy Birthday, Microsoft Excel!https://www.goingconcern.com/happy-birthday-microsoft-excel/ 06:06 – Love them or hate them, spreadsheets are going 3D https://www.techradar.com/news/love-them-or-hate-them-spreadsheets-are-going-3d 07:50 – Updates on Scaling New Heights and announcing a new, ongoing strategic alliance with Woodard Institute https://www.firmofthefuture.com/content/updates-on-scaling-new-heights-and-announcing-a-new-ongoing-strategic-alliance-with-woodard-institute/ 11:13 – EisnerAmper releases return-to-office, social distancing apphttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/eisneramper-releases-return-to-office-social-distancing-app 14:25 – Sage Launches AI-Powered Timesheets App Built Directly into the Sage Intacct Cloudhttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/sage-launches-ai-powered-timesheets-app-built-directly-into-the 16:35 – Zapier Launches New Microsoft Teams Integration to Bolster Productivityhttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zapier-launches-new-microsoft-teams-integration-to-bolster-productivity-301138171.html 18:53 – Canopy Enhances PM and Tax Resolution Featureshttps://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/canopy-releases-feature-updates-for-its-practice-management- and20:35 – Expert’s choice: Top accounting appshttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/experts-choice-top-accounting-apps 26:48 – Apps Will Get You Paid Early, for a Pricehttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/your-money/cash-advance-apps-paychecks.html 30:57 – Banks Push Back On Possible Banking Chartershttps://www.pymnts.com/bank-regulation/2020/banks-push-back-on-possible-banking-charters-for-big-techs-like-amazon-and-facebook/32:36 – E.C.B. says it is considering issuing a digital euro.https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/02/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus#ecb-says-it-is-considering-issuing-a-digital-euro 33:28 – IRS releases final rules on business meals and entertainmenthttps://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2020/oct/irs-rules-business-meals-entertainment.html 35:49 – IRS adds marijuana industry page to websitehttps://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/marijuana-industry  37:14 – Apple’s credit card won’t make you question the existence of a 10-person Texas tax firm anymorehttps://www.theverge.com/2020/10/2/21498824/apple-credit-card-mislabeling-at-t-charges-transactions-waters-hardy-co 39:18 – COVID-19 has just turned your website into a rainmakerhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/COVID-19-has-just-turned-your-website-into-your-rainmaker 42:09 – Accountants are now 'key workers', say UK firmshttps://www.techradar.com/nz/news/accountants-are-now-key-workers-say-uk-firms 45:20 – Despite Billions in Fees, Banks Predict Meager Profits on PPP Loanshttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/business/ppp-loans-bank-profits.html 48:12 – Man tries to steal millions in PPP loans named after 'Game of Thrones'https://www.businessinsider.com/man-tries-to-steal-millions-ppp-loans-game-of-thrones-2020-10 49:51 – Reviews and Voicemail!  52:20 – Brave – A Chromium browser https://brave.com/?ref=tom660 53:56 – See Blake and David at the Accounting & Finance Show! https://cloudacctpod.link/AccountingShowUSA Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.appWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  Full Transcript Available Upon Request - [email protected]

Sponsors ADP Marketplace: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark Smansha: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha Come See Us Here: The Accounting & Finance Show October 20-21 - https://cloudacctpod.link/AccountingShowUSA Show Notes05:23 - Reviews! 07:41 - No forgiveness: Small businesses still on hook for rescue loanshttps://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/27/no-forgiveness-small-businesses-still-on-hook-for-rescue-loans-421940Report: Not One PPP Loan Has Been Forgivenhttps://www.pymnts.com/loans/2020/report-not-one-ppp-loan-has-been-forgiven/08:17 - IRS says lenders don’t need to report PPP loan forgiveness https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-says-lenders-dont-need-to-report-ppp-loan-forgiveness09:08 - Is It Insane to Start a Business During Coronavirus? Millions of Americans Don’t Think So. https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-it-insane-to-start-a-business-during-coronavirus-millions-of-americans-dont-think-so-1160109284112:36 - New Job Cuts at CPA Firmshttps://cpatrendlines.com/2020/09/21/covid-impact-32300-jobs-gone/14:31 - Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidancehttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.htmlTrump didn't pay income tax for 10 of 15 years before 2016 election: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/518510-trump-paid-no-income-taxes-for-10-of-past-15-years-report17:42 - The Ordinary Taxpayer’s Guide To The Extraordinary Story Of Trump’s Tax Returns https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2020/09/28/the-ordinary-taxpayers-guide-to-the-extraordinary-story-of-trumps-tax-returns/18:56 - Accountants favor Trump in election by large marginhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/accountants-favor-trump-in-election-by-large-margin22:06 - If Your Small Business Died, Blame Trump  https://planningshop.com/2020/09/if-your-small-business-died-blame-trump/26:12 - Blackbaud Ransomware Breach Victims, Lawsuits Pile Uphttps://www.bankinfosecurity.com/blackbaud-ransomware-breach-victims-lawsuits-pile-up-a-1505328:03 - Shopify: 2 Employees Took Consumer Datahttps://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2020/shopify-2-employees-took-consumer-data-from-merchant-sites/29:48 - Intuit launches new QuickBooks Commerce platformhttps://www.zdnet.com/article/intuit-launches-new-quickbooks-commerce-platform/32:10 - QuickBooks Recurring Transactions now available to third-party appshttps://blogs.intuit.com/blog/2020/09/22/quickbooks-recurring-transactions-now-available-to-third-party-apps/33:42 - Xero Business Community - Reporting: Insert page breaks https://community.xero.com/business/discussion/441431434:34 - FreshBooks Buys Mexico's Facturamahttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2020/freshbooks-buys-mexico-based-digital-invoicing-firm-facturama/35:30 - Tech News: OnPay debuts customizable reports, and morehttps://www.accountingtoday.com/list/onpay-debuts-customizable-reports-and-more36:57 - 8 things to know about the audit evidence standardhttps://blog.aicpa.org/2020/08/8-things-to-know-about-the-audit-evidence-standard.html#sthash.8BCbEvgj.J65rwht5.dpbs37:32 - Avalara debuts suite for alcohol industry https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/avalara-debuts-compliance-product-suite-for-alcoholic-beverage-industry40:00 - Another satisfied listener - Thank you, Jackson Wilcox! 42:36 - Google launches a work-tracking tool and Airtable rival, Tables https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/22/google-launches-a-work-tracking-tool-and-airtable-rival-tables/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with ADP Marketplace, a digital HR storefront. Be a more trusted advisor to your clients by recommending apps to help streamline HR processes and free up time to focus on people. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Marketplace, later in the episode. David Leary: [00:00:21] I think the accounting industry might skew a little toward Republican, a little, so I'm gonna say it's 58% Republican.  Blake Oliver: [00:00:30] Well, you're very close. 55% of accountants plan to vote for Donald Trump and 38% plan to vote for Joe Biden; 7% are voting for someone else — I assume that's gonna be somebody Libertarian ... ____________________   This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. ClockShark is the leading GPS, time-tracking, and scheduling system built for local construction and field-service companies that want a simpler way to track time, run payroll, and understand job costs. With the capabilities of crew tracking, scheduling, jobsite geofencing, teams, and project segmentation, automatic labor allocation, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking system to handle the unique challenges that face your clients.  With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like overtime, paid time off, unpaid time, hours per job, and tasks, as well as the crucial data needed for certified payroll. With the integrations ClockShark has, you'll be able to connect to one of many ADP payroll platforms through ADP Marketplace and process payroll in minutes with the click of a button. ClockShark's pricing starts at just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark.___________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Smansha. The line between a successful business and a bankrupt one is often how much cash they have in the bank and how long they are able to remain cashflow positive during challenging times. Keeping an eye on your clients' cashflow is now more important than ever. Smansha integrates with QuickBooks Online, and Xero to help put an end to cashflow problems.  By using daily, weekly, and monthly forecasts, cashflow calendars, and powerful, customized 'what-if' scenarios, you can visualize your clients' finances in clear, and intuitive ways, so you can take action and reshape their cashflow by getting them funding with one simple application. Smansha identifies when extra cash is needed and can match your clients with multiple financing options via more than 50 screened lenders, and you can advise on the best offer suited to your clients' needs. Just for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast, Smansha is offering its fully functional unlimited-companies license for free until August 31, 2020. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha.____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:03:03] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver.  David Leary: [00:03:06] I'm David Leary.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:07] David, what were you up to this weekend that we are recording on Monday morning?  David Leary: [00:03:10] I went up to Phoenix from my sister's 40th birthday party and, obviously, you're in Phoenix, I'm in Phoenix ... But for those of you that aren't familiar with Phoenix, I was still like 55 miles away from Blake even though we were in the same city. Blake Oliver: [00:03:24] Phoenix is like the state. It feels like it just goes forever. I still haven't explored even a tiny fraction of it. David Leary: [00:03:31] Yeah, and to try to ... "Oh, yeah, sure, Blake. Let's try to connect and record in person ..." It just wasn't logistically gonna happen, so that completely got scrapped, and here we are, Monday morning.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:41]  I am really excited because I have some good news — a good news story this week to share with you — which is all about the new businesses that are starting up amidst all the shutdowns that are happening. Creative destruction is something that happens in a downturn, where businesses that can't survive go out of business, which creates opportunities for new ones to spring up. We can talk about that. I don't know? What's on your plate, David? David Leary: [00:04:05] We could try to touch the New York Times article that came out about Trump's taxes, but it literally took 50 minutes to read the article. I don't even know how to ... I don't even know where to start digesting it. It's a gigantic article that came out- Blake Oliver: [00:04:19] To be honest, I haven't read the article, but I could give you my hot take on it without having read it. We'll pretend that we're on Twitter, and people don't read the articles [crosstalk] just the headlines. I'll give you that. I have a survey of accountants and who they plan to vote for. Since we're talking politics, and we're getting close to the election, maybe we can successfully do that without alienating our entire listener base. A ransomware attack, big ransomware attack against Blackbaud; possibly one of the biggest ransomware attacks that we've ever talked about. Then I've got a just a ton of updates. I know that QuickBooks released their new e-commerce solution that's built into QuickBooks Online. That's a pretty big deal. What else? You posted something about an API that is a really interesting change to QuickBooks with recurring transactions. David Leary: [00:05:05] All right. Thank you for reminding me about it. I totally forgot I did that. That's the way this week's gone-  Blake Oliver: [00:05:08] Yeah, well, I've been following you. I've been trying to keep up with all your happenings. You're a busy guy. We have some reviews, right? We got a couple of voicemails that we gotta get to, and we got some reviews. David Leary: [00:05:20] Let's knock out the reviews really quick because one was pretty funny.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:22] Okay, let's do it. David Leary: [00:05:23] This is a five-star review from Daniel Sears. This is on Podchaser. "Not a bot, but my twin brother is totally a bot. Very smart commentary." That's his review. Simple as that.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:33] I love it. Short and sweet. Thanks, Daniel — if that is your real name. Our second review is from Tyler Trenda; five stars "New to the field — I'm just starting out in the Accounting/Bookkeeping field and looking to start my own small bookkeeping business. The Cloud Accounting Podcast has been a great way to get up to speed with the current events happening in the Accounting space. I've sent a couple of emails out to Blake directly and he has responded promptly and provided invaluable knowledge to me. Love the show and I'm always listening at work." Awesome. Thank you, Tyler!  [00:06:04] I've actually saved a couple of emails from Tyler, just in case we needed something to talk about. I think those were some great questions. Tyler was asking if there are any certifications he should look into getting, beyond the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program should he having an associate degree in accounting and being a certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor program. Should he, having an associate's degree in accounting and being a certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, should he look into getting the certified bookkeeper license?  [00:06:30] Now, I'm aware of that license and I actually, at the very beginning of my bookkeeping career, considered doing that. I did not because then I ended up taking that long arduous path to the CPA, but I'm curious to know if anyone out there is a certified public bookkeeper who's listening, and if you have any thoughts on that. If you do, maybe you could give Tyler some advice. So, if you wanna call and let us know what you think, we have a voice mail number. It's a Google Voice number. It goes straight to voicemail; you can call it. That number is (202) 695-1040. Give us a call. We'll take a listen, and we might even play it on the air. David Leary: [00:07:08] Do you wanna talk PPP really, really quickly? Blake Oliver: [00:07:10] Yeah, I saw there was a few updates.  David Leary: [00:07:14] So, let's quiz you, Blake.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:15] Uh-oh ...  David Leary: [00:07:15] How many PPP loans have been forgiven to date? Blake Oliver: [00:07:18] Probably not many, right? I think most people are holding off on forgiveness. David Leary: [00:07:23] What'd be your guess? Because there's been millions of loans, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:07:25] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:07:25] What's your guess? Blake Oliver: [00:07:27] Maybe a few hundred thousand? David Leary: [00:07:30] Zero? How does zero sound?  Blake Oliver: [00:07:33] I filled out my paperwork, and I still haven't heard back, so I guess I'm not the only one? What's going on? David Leary: [00:07:41] Some lenders are accepting people's applications, but the Treasury Department and the SBA, they're just not ... None of them have officially been forgiven yet. I think they're in one of those stalls. I think we're gonna see this automatic rubber-stamp forgiveness because they obviously don't have the program and procedures to do it. The reality is, if you think about it, if there's gonna be some ... There's gonna be another round of stimulus.  Blake Oliver:[00:08:03] Right.  David Leary: [00:08:03] It might be- It'll probably be post-election, but there's gonna be another round of stimulus, and they'll have to deal with that. They're not gonna be able to have time to deal with the forgiveness application. I just don't see it happening. Blake Oliver: [00:08:12] Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. One more small update about PPP. The IRS has notified lenders that they should not file cancelation of debt information returns, or furnish pay statements to report the amount of qualifying forgiveness with respect to covered loans made under the Paycheck Protection Program; which in plain English means that you are not going to get a 1099-C for the forgiven PPP loans because that could cause people to report that as income, and we all know that the PPP forgiveness is not taxable. Although they still have not addressed the taxability of the expenses or the deductibility of the expenses yet, I don't believe. That'll probably be another thing in that stimulus package that will someday arrive.  [00:09:00] Let's talk about good news. Is it insane to start a business during coronavirus? Millions of Americans don't think so. That is the headline in a Wall Street Journal article that made me feel good, for once, talking about the economy. Apparently, the data shows that Americans are starting new businesses at the fastest rate in more than a decade, seizing on pent-up demand and new opportunities after the pandemic shut down and reshaped the economy. We know this because applications for EIN, the employer identification numbers that you need if you want to start a business and pay people– David Leary: [00:09:37] Or a file for a PPP loan.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:38] Or get a PPP loan [crosstalk] Yeah, that could be distorting things. I don't know. But let's keep it positive here. We have passed 3.2 million, so far this year, compared with 2.7 million at the same point in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More businesses are being started. Now, admittedly, small business revenue overall is down. It's down 21% as of mid-September versus January levels. There are people who are figuring out how to navigate this new economy and new buying behaviors.  [00:10:08] There's a baker who looked into buying a bakery and couldn't afford it; didn't have the capital and, due to the coronavirus, was able to lease commercial space for just $350 a month; started her own bakery; bought an espresso machine. Place is packed every day. There is a fitness founder who had a publicity business. She was a publicist and started an online fitness studio that holds classes, attracts instructors that were holding free classes on Instagram Live. It's now a platform- has created a platform for online workouts. There's a guy who was a personal trainer, a fitness trainer, who realized that his business was not going to survive if the gyms closed, so he started a bike repair business. Now he's busy every single day going out and fixing bikes, which we know are much more popular now because people don't wanna take public transit [crosstalk] David Leary: [00:11:02] Super demand for bikes. Yeah, you can't get bikes anywhere. Obviously, if you can't buy new bikes, there's totally a business market for fixing old bikes. Blake Oliver: [00:11:10] Yep. The last one, which is one of my favorites, is a woman who had a job as a school-based therapist in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and that looked uncertain as the schools started to close. She created a plan in April, and May, and then by June had completed the requirements to become a licensed clinical social worker and pivoted to doing telehealth, which is growing. People don't wanna go to people in person. They wanna do it on Zoom, or the HIPAA-compliant version of that. She has a thriving telehealth practice, consulting with people as a clinical social worker.  [00:11:42] My takeaway from this is it's not just great for the economy. I think there's gonna be a lot of accounting firms that serve these new small businesses and those are gonna be the ones that really take off, as the virus recedes in the next two years. I just think that's something positive. If we can support those new business models – the e-commerce-type business models, the telehealth business models – this is all innovative, and it's all happening very quickly. It's all– David Leary: [00:12:07] This is why I've always felt like Intuit, historically, has been recession proof. So, what we'll probably see is, in Intuit's numbers, and in Xero's numbers, and probably FreshBooks' numbers, all these entry-level accounting-package numbers, you're gonna probably see a bump in the numbers because when people can't get jobs, they start businesses because you have no other option. Blake Oliver: [00:12:27] Actually, it's why the accounting profession, as a whole – the service providers – are very recession-proof, too. There's some new numbers courtesy of CPA Trendlines about job levels in the accounting world broken down by different types of firms. Overall, the accounting profession is down 2% for the year, which that's a lot of jobs, but way better than the overall economy. Staff employment is down 4.7%.  [00:12:55] If you have a CPA- they call them accounting professionals, but given it's CPA Trendlines, I think that means, in this survey, that you have a CPA license. It's not quite clear to me. Anyway, if you have a CPA license, you're pretty insulated from this. Employment at CPA firms is only down 1.2%. Tax prep services down 1.4%. Now, payroll services, they took a big hit. They are down 13.5% for the year. They went up a bit in August, almost 2% in August, but still, down 13.5% for the year. That makes sense, right? A lot of businesses closing; not running payroll- David Leary: [00:13:28] A lot less volume.  Blake Oliver: [00:13:28] Right, restaurants, all that stuff. Bookkeeping down 1.2% for the year; the same as CPA firms. They broke out this by women – just women in accounting – overall, jobs are down 2.2% for the year, so a little bit, 10%, worse than the overall profession. Now, in CPA firms, it's only 0.5%, so they've actually ... Women in accounting have weathered the storm better, if I'm reading this survey correctly; assuming they're working in a CPA firm. That's my economic news of the week. We can talk politics. We can talk this survey about accountants before we jump in app news. If you don't think it's too hot-button- I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't touch it. Maybe we should avoid it. I don't have anyone to talk politics with. David Leary: [00:14:16] I know I sent you the text of the article yesterday, but as soon as I saw it on social media start coming through, everybody started posting it on Facebook; all the accountants and bookkeepers. It started showing up in all the groups, and I was like, "Oh, this is gonna be a big deal." Then, I was like, "All right, let's go see what this is." I didn't realize that it's a New York Times story that, for 45 minutes on your phone, you keep scrolling. The same story. It's not- it's not TikTok, where you just scroll and it's 15 seconds; you move on to the next thing.  [00:14:42] It is a gigantic four-year investigation by The New York Times looking at 15 years of Trump's tax returns from ... Some of them, they actually have the real returns; some of them are working backwards from other public information that's out there ... Almost like a forensic-type experience – they're recreating all the data. The article's actually super-super-hard to completely understand. The gist of it is there's many years he did not pay any income tax because it's the way [you play] the game a little bit, right? I'll take out a $100 million loan; spend the whole thing on a building. Well, now, it's $100 million of expenses. Some of the things I saw that've been trending was that, in about three years, he has a lot of mortgages that are come due for these golf courses and stuff that are not making money still.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:29]  I think that's the thing that's most interesting to me that got buried in all this because the top-level conversation, which is not productive or helpful, is on the left, criticism: Donald Trump paid 40 times less taxes than I did as a contestant on Jeopardy. He paid $750 in taxes the year that he won the presidency. Now, on the other side, it's actually a lot of tax preparers, a lot of experts saying, "Well, yes, of course, because you are allowed to offset your income with losses." [00:16:01] This is how the system works. He's not doing anything wrong. Everybody does this. People who support Donald Trump are saying this is what an intelligent person should do. Then, of course, what is missing in all this is what you pointed out,       which is the reason he has the losses is because he has the hundreds of millions of dollars of debt that are coming due.  [00:16:20] I don't care about the tax situation. The tax system is the way it is – avoid taxes if you can. There's nothing wrong with that. We shouldn't go back to what happened in the Great Depression, when FDR and his cronies went after all of the wealthy people in the country, saying that tax avoidance was unethical. This has happened before, by the way. Anyway, it's the fact that there's all those millions of dollars of loans that are coming due that concern me a little bit because- David Leary: [00:16:47] I think was in the article- I think that it's like he's more of a tax genius and 'how to play the tax game' genius maybe, and less of a businessman genius. Blake Oliver: [00:16:56] Well, it's not that Donald Trump's a tax genius; it's he has a really good accountants. He pays for really good advice. They minimize his tax liability. They help him avoid, legally, all the taxes that he's entitled to avoid. David Leary: [00:17:09] He's not hiding behind this either. He said that in the debate, I think, with Hillary Clinton that, "I'm very proud that I maximize my tax burden or lack of tax burden."   Blake Oliver: [00:17:20] As he should be. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Fix the tax code if you've got a problem with it. Don't go after high earners for taking advantage of the situation. That's just my hot take. Of course, I haven't read the article, so I could be completely off base here. David Leary: [00:17:35] This is gonna be the news all week. This is a gigantic story. Kelly Phillips Erb, @taxgirl on Twitter. She wrote a Forbes article: "The Ordinary Taxpayer's Guide to the Extraordinary Story of Trump's Tax Returns." She breaks it down a little bit more in laymen's terms, so if you don't have time to read the 45-minute article, I'd say go to her article and look at that. Even with reading that, it's still all over the place. The nice thing is she shows other historical stories or articles she wrote in the past; links to those. At the bottom, I liked her little summary here. "I'm reminded of something that departing IRS-CI Chief Don Fort used to stress - voluntary compliance is the basis of our tax system, and no one is above the law."  Blake Oliver: [00:18:20] David, this might be a good chance to transition into who we plan to vote for, or maybe – if we don't wanna discuss that – who accountants plan to vote for. Do you have any idea what the polls say, if you haven't peeked at my notes yet?  David Leary: [00:18:37] I have not peeked. Who the accountants plan to vote for? In theory, right now, the country's very, very- we've been very split for a long time. I think the accounting industry might skew a little toward Republican, a little, so I'm gonna say it's 58% Republican.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:54] Well, you're very close. 55% of accountants plan to vote for Donald Trump and 38% plan to vote for Joe Biden; 7% are voting for someone else — I assume that's gonna be somebody Libertarian. That is according to a survey by the parent company of Accounting Today – survey of over 400 accountants. Doesn't surprise me because we know that accountants tend to be more conservative – at least that's my experience. Why wouldn't we be, given that the Republican Party has branded itself, and policy wise, is the party of small businesses, and accountants generally serve small businesses? What's interesting about this is ... Let's see, party registration is 48% Republican among accountants; 23% Democrat, and 27% Independent. That is different than the national because national is very split. National, it's more like 40–40. David Leary: [00:19:51] I question the logic in this. If we vote in Donald Trump, chances are, taxes aren't gonna change too much- tax policies, which means less work for you, as a tax professional. If you vote in Biden, he's gonna reverse things that Trump did; there's gonna be a new tax code; there's gonna be new laws to learn, which means it's more engagements from your clients. You're gonna make more money. It seems like accountants are not being very logical with their wallet. They should always vote for the other person, every single time. Blake Oliver: [00:20:20] Well, yeah, if you're being completely opportunistic about it, right? But this is something that, as a CPA, I find interesting is that people don't go into accounting because they're looking for the easiest job. They get into it for very different reasons. I think that the Republican support, and the support for Trump, as you pointed out, a lot of it is to do with taxes. Many people are concerned that if Joe Biden wins that he's gonna raise taxes, and that's gonna be bad for business.  [00:20:51] Although it might be good for accountants to have changing laws, I think they're really voting in sympathy with their clients and with the businesses that they work for, in that I think Trump is gonna be better for small businesses, excluding the whole coronavirus thing, which ... That's the thing that's dominated my vote. I've said this before, I believe, on the show – I'm a Republican. I started the Young Republicans Club at my high school. It's kinda like I was born into it. My parents were Neocons, and Clinton were a bad word in our house when I was growing up.  [00:21:28] It's tough for me, personally, as a Republican, because I've never been a Trump supporter. I think the whole coronavirus response has been just awful. That is worse for small business, I think, than the potential tax increases. It's like with the whole discussion around the tax return, I feel like the whole conversation in this country, at the top level, is on all the wrong things. It's possible, for instance, that we can have a virus that is deadly that we need to control, but also that lockdowns- Draconian lockdowns that I fled in California are not effective. Both can be true, but there is no party for that. Right? It's like we're so extreme, there's no compromise. I find that frustrating. David Leary: [00:22:06] Rhonda Abrams wrote an op-ed article for USA Today. She's USA Today columnist; she has her own company called The Planning Shop. She's all about business plans, business planning, that type of stuff. She's been around a long time. I think she has a column inside the Costco magazine, as well, if you get that magazine. She does a small business column in there. She wrote an op-ed about – if your small business died, blame Trump.  [00:22:28] She really breaks down every one of the policies. You have the PPP, and you have the loan programs because they weren't grants. She breaks down every one of these and makes an argument how that plan wasn't focused on small business – that plan; that part of the stimulus – was not focused on small business.         She really breaks down – everything that's been done so far truly has not been set up to help the smallest businesses. Then, she points back to the latest numbers from Yelp that we talked about last week, or the week before that 73,000 businesses are gonna be closed for good. Blake Oliver: [00:23:02] The stimulus bill, if we go to that, that was a collaboration between Pelosi and Mnuchin. That was a bipartisan thing. Now, they may be deadlocked on the next step, but if there are problems with the stimulus bill, both parties deserve the blame for that. I do believe that the biggest problem for small businesses in the biggest states, like New York and California, is due to shutdowns; being unable and prevented from making a living by the government. This has never happened before in the history of our country where we have simply said to businesses, "You must stay closed. You cannot go to work. You cannot earn a living."  [00:23:36] I personally – I'm not a constitutional lawyer, but I feel like this should be unconstitutional. You can't just have an ongoing pandemic that just goes on for months and months and months, maybe years, and prevent people from earning a living. One of the reasons I left California – you mentioned that Yelp data; one in six restaurants are gonna close and not reopen. In California, it's double. They're predicting one in three restaurants will close and not be able to reopen. Why is that? Because of the different measures that are being taken, the controls. It's horrific. There's no party for me. David Leary: [00:24:09] You can join the largest party in Arizona, which is the Independent party. Blake Oliver: [00:24:12] I think I might have to. Are you an Independent party guy? David Leary: [00:24:16] Yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:24:17] You are? Okay.  David Leary: [00:24:18] Yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:24:18] I feel like it is the small businesses that get caught in the middle of all this, right? Anyway, I was trying to start this whole show with a positive story, but ...  David Leary: [00:24:26] Positive spin [crosstalk] open our reviews, again.  Blake Oliver: [00:24:31] Let us know what you think. We try to be reasonable here. Wanna hear your feedback. You wanna talk about ransomware since we're in this world?  David Leary: [00:24:39] Yeah, let's jump on that.____________________   This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Marketplace. How can you be a more trusted advisor for your clients as they face new challenges? By recommending solutions from ADP Marketplace, ADP's digital HR storefront. With ADP Marketplace, clients can try, buy, and implement highly rated HR apps that can share data with ADP. With secured data integrations, it's easy to streamline HR processes and adapt to new business needs. Help your clients discover new ways to recruit and onboard employees, boost performance, offer unique financial-wellness benefits, and much more.  With integrations for popular business software, like Expensify, PayActiv, Slack, and ClockShark, clients can add value to the tools they already use by simply and securely connecting them to ADP. Have clients in field service, or construction? ClockShark can help them track time to quickly and accurately run payroll, all integrated with ADP. Visit ADP Marketplace at apps.ADP.com, or right from your Accountant Connect dashboard. Not set up with Accountant Connect? Sign up today. It's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. ADP has your back with ADP Marketplace  ____________________  Blake Oliver: [00:25:58] There are worse things that could happen to you, as a business, I suppose, than even a lockdown. It is a massive ransomware attack. Blackbaud, which is a maker of cloud software for not for profits – they don't use this term, but I would consider them to be like an ERP provider. They provide full comprehensive cloud solutions – fundraising, financial management, all that stuff to not for profits.  [00:26:25] As of Thursday, more than three dozen Blackbaud-related health data breaches affecting about 6 million individuals had been posted to the Department of Health and Human Services' HIPAA Breach Reporting Tool website. It is commonly referred to as the "Wall of Shame." Businesses are required to list health-data breaches that are impacting 500 or more individuals.  [00:26:47]  Why is this happening? It's because Blackbaud, back in May, suffered a ransomware attack where their database was hacked and stolen. They started notifying their customers in June and July which actually was late. Now there are 10 lawsuits against Blackbaud. It's significant because there's a lot of hospitals and healthcare providers that use their software. Interestingly, a little detail in here, it was a ransomware attack – apparently, Blackbaud paid the ransom but they have no proof that the data was actually deleted. They're just believing that the hackers deleted the data after they paid the ransom. David Leary: [00:27:22] You can't trust them. You can't trust the hackers. This is that fine line of – dd you just always refuse to pay the ransom because you can't trust that they're gonna get rid of the data, but if you're locked, and you can't access the data yourself ... It goes back to that having backups – offsite backups, multiple backups.  Blake Oliver: [00:27:41] Yep, and this is why it's so lucrative to do ransomware, right? Because companies have to do it. They'd go out of business if they didn't. They have to get their data back. That is, I think, maybe a good point to kick off app news?  David Leary: [00:27:55] Yeah, I can transition this, as well, because I have a fraud story that's related to app news. Shopify, they had a blog post and they stated that two "rogue employees" have stolen data for – and they say – less than 200 merchants. They've launched an investigation. They've contacted the FBI. Two members of their support team apparently were involved in a scheme to take transactional records from individual customers, which would be small businesses that sell on the Shopify platform. Who knows what they were doing with this data – if they were selling it to somebody: was Amazon buying it? – nobody knows. It's being investigated.  [00:28:38]  I was actually surprised that Shopify- how upfront they were about it, and they just put it out there. It's not even a blog post. It feels like this is a community board of Shopify, and the Shopify staff put it out there, and they talked about this. Now, there's not a lot of clarity as far as have they told everybody about this; if they have to buy GDPR, and some of those other policies that are out there, but the fact that they communicated it  ...  [00:29:03]  The thing is, remember, one of the things that people are accusing Amazon of- let's say you sell hip pouches on Amazon; they see your sales of hip pouches; they know all about how many hip pouches you sell a week, blah-dee-blah, blah-dee-blah, blah-dee-blah ... Then, Amazon, all of a sudden, starts Amazon Basics, and they're selling a hip pouch.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:19]  And it looks just like yours.  David Leary: [00:29:20] It looks just like yours. They control the search words, and you're just done. Obviously, this data, at the merchant level, is super-super-valuable. Now, who they were stealing this for, or what they planned on doing ... Maybe they were just targeting yoga-mat sellers, and they're gonna open up a yoga-mat business, but nobody ... There's no details at any level. But this is a little scary, right? Everybody's worried about hackers but what about the internal employees?  Blake Oliver: [00:29:43] Yeah, that's a good point. Well, you mentioned Shopify. Let's talk about QuickBooks Commerce. David Leary: [00:29:48] Remember Intuit, six weeks ago ... Was it eight weeks ago, they acquired TradeGecko. TradeGecko is an e-commerce omnicommerce automation platform for inventory management, and e-commerce sellers. They've rebranded it. If you go to TradeGecko.com, today, it immediately flips and has a banner that says TradeGecko is now QuickBooks Commerce. It's completely rebranded. Not only is it rebranded, the marketing pages, the whole product has been reskinned. I've never seen a rebrand at Intuit happen this fast. Blake Oliver: [00:30:22] Yeah, I was surprised because the acquisition was announced and then, like you said, six weeks later, we've got the product integrated in the app, so obviously this was going on behind the scenes. David Leary: [00:30:32] Yeah, and it's not integrated into QuickBooks. It's still a standalone product, but they skinned it. It looks and tastes like QuickBooks Online. Blake Oliver: [00:30:41] Do you access it though inside of-  you don't access it inside of QuickBooks Online? David Leary: [00:30:45] There might be a launch point, possibly. That, I'm not clear on, but it's still a separate ... It's just been rebranded and reskinned, so it looks and tastes like QuickBooks Online. Like I said, I've never seen this happen so quickly with an acquisition like this. It was so good that the vast majority of people out there on the interwebs thought Intuit launched a brand-new product. Blake Oliver: [00:31:09] Wow. That's good marketing there. David Leary: [00:31:11] They've done a very good job about this launch and release, and we'll see where it goes next. It's a good sign, though, that they redid this. I remember years ago, I was at Intuit, and there was Digital Insight, which was ... It was a company that Intuit bought, and that company actually provides software for banks, and credit unions, and smaller FIs. Intuit bought that company, and five years later, they still didn't have their email addresses working with us, with Intuit. It's amazing when you see an integration take place like this.  [00:31:40] The other thing I thought was really interesting ... I was thinking about this TradeGecko thing. TradeGecko is based in Singapore, and my understanding is that's the next battleground for cloud accounting. Xero's doubling down there ... I wonder how much of this acquisition- just how Xero acquired Hubdoc because it gave them a good foothold in the North American market, I wonder how much of this is also a way for Intuit to get a foothold in Asia?  Blake Oliver: [00:32:06] Well, one more quick QuickBooks update. They've made recurring transactions now available to third-party apps in the API. David, you got really excited about this on Twitter. Explain why.  David Leary: [00:32:18] It's a personal reason ... A lot of developers want this. If your app – for example, Melio ... Melio will let you create recurring payments. If I have to pay somebody every single month, you wanna create that bill payment and have it sync to QuickBooks. It doesn't sync too well, and the reason why is QuickBooks never had the API calls available for a developer to write that. Now, a developer can go and create recurring transactions right inside of QuickBooks, instead of you having to manually create them outside of the app you're using. It's just a super-huge thing that developers have asked for, for a very long time, so it's good to see developers get support to make their apps better because that saves everybody time. Blake Oliver: [00:32:58] I could see this being super-helpful because one of my biggest problems was exactly that, what you mentioned, having to manage the recurring transactions outside of the GL. I would always have my clients' regular payments, when I managed their bill pay, entered as a recurring bill because if the bill didn't come in, in the mail, then I wanted to make sure we still paid it; we didn't get a late notice, or if something happened ... We were using Earth Class Mail to scan the mail, and there can be issues. It doesn't get scanned, yada yada. We always had problems because we were managing the recurring transactions outside of QuickBooks or Xero, and now, you can actually just manage that inside. It'll just be more efficient. It'll be more foolproof. That's great.  [00:33:41]  Let's talk about Xero. Some quick updates from Xero. You now get page breaks in reporting in Xero, and this is global. This is one of those little things that I think has annoyed folks for a long time, not being able to control page breaks in reports. I remember people in QuickBooks complaining about this, as well. Now you can do that on your layouts. You can get the reports looking exactly how you want when they go to PDF.  [00:34:05]  You can also now use e-signature on documents in Xero HQ. You can assemble a package of documents and upload a bunch PDFs into Xero HQ, which is their client management that's built into Xero. Then, you can send those to your clients and get them e-signed. It could be perhaps a set of financial statements, a tax return, whatever you want. That's now built in ... That's been available to Xero Tax users in Australia; now going global.  David Leary: [00:34:34] FreshBooks buys Mexico-based digital invoicing firm Facturama. I don't know if you understand how invoices work in Mexico. Blake Oliver: [00:34:44] I know that they have to go through the government. They get stamped or something? David Leary: [00:34:49] They have a special QR code, basically, in the corner of all these, and both the person sending in the request, and then the person paying ... Then, when it's paid, you have to include the same barcode. It's super-super-complicated. I know that, in the past, Intuit's partnered with somebody to work on QuickBooks Online, so their invoices are compliant. It looks like, now, FreshBooks is making a jump down into Mexico.  Blake Oliver: [00:35:12]  Interesting.  David Leary: [00:35:12]  The fact that they purchased a firm, they're serious. You're not gonna do that, unless you've already made the decision – we are going after that market. That's gonna be another battleground, here, is in Mexico. Yeah, FreshBooks has jumped down there. Blake Oliver: [00:35:27] Some quick payroll updates. OnPay has released a custom report builder, where you can build a custom payroll report using up to 50 data points from your payroll and HR data. I love this, when developers do this, because the stock reports are inevitably not exactly what you need, and you end up having to export to Excel. Any time you can do a custom report, this should be default. Everybody should have this. Please, if you're a developer, and you're listening, allow for us to build custom reports. David Leary: [00:35:56] Especially for payroll because, by default, the payroll reports are great for the payroll clerk, who's allowed to see all that data, but as soon as you need to run a report for some department head, or a department, or maybe for the board, or somebody else, there's a lot of details in payroll you don't want in the report. Blake Oliver:[00:36:12] Exactly.  David Leary: [00:36:12] If you don't have control over that ... What are you gonna have? You take a black marker and black out ... Probably what you do, right? You're like, "Okay, they're not allowed to see this data. I'll just scratch that off the report and just give them this."  Blake Oliver: [00:36:23] Continuing on with payroll, Wagepoint, another payroll provider in the cloud, has taken on $10 million in new capital from Providence Strategic Growth. Inflo, a data analytics company, has introduced Workpapers, a new audit module for end-to-end external digital audits, which I am sure are growing when you can't go to the office.  David Leary: [00:36:44]  Digital audits.  Blake Oliver:[00:36:45] Yes, and actually I have a story. I don't know if we'll get to it this week – it's been buried in my notes – all about the new audit evidence standard. I know this is riveting to you David, but it's a story from the AICPA about how they have created a new audit evidence standard for private companies that allows for non-human evidence collection. [00:37:07] They are specifically saying it is okay to collect data using bots, or robots, or Ais, or whatever it is. or just systems. The PCAOB, which regulates the audits of public companies, is considering revising their audit evidence rule, as well, to do the same. This is stuff that should have happened a long time ago, but Coronavirus is now putting that into the forefront and making it finally happened. David Leary: [00:37:32] Avalara has some alcohol-related news. Avalara, who's the sales tax compliance ... They're in the compliance game, but then, Avalara also has ... I don't know if you ever have heard about Avalara's corporate headquarters. They have a tiki bar right inside the facility. Avalara has some- they have double expertise here. They have expertise in alcohol, and they have expertise in the compliance.  [00:37:56] They've released a new product called AvaTax Beverage Alcohol, and it basically has compliance solutions for wineries, distilleries, breweries, importers, retailers. Not only does it keep track of all the sales tax and use case and all that ... Because now, with COVID, shipping alcohol has been a little bit easier. Moving alcohol's a little bit easier. They've lowered some restrictions, but you still have to comply. [00:38:19] It's interesting because they've released this, but it's not just the tracking from the sales tax tape, and the reporting. From day one, how to properly even register and maintain your state license. They assist you with that. Registering all your products because maybe your product has to be labeled properly, or it has to have the- in some states, you have to ... I think in the state of California, they always have that- there's a separate warning you always see on products, and maybe you don't see this on the East Coast, but I definitely see it in Arizona; it has a special California warning. Blake Oliver: [00:38:46] Oh, the cancer warning that's on everything in the state? Literally everything in California gives you cancer – every parking garage, every product ... Yeah.  David Leary: [00:38:55] What I like about this strategy is, yes, their expertise, and ultimately, their goal, was to get you to do tax remittances, correct reporting, and all that, but the fact that they're helping you get your business license set up properly, your labeling – they're keeping you in compliance across all three things instead of just the tax compliance. [00:39:14] This goes back to what we talk about with QuickBooks and having a small business bank account. Getting people going correctly from day one is what these apps have to do, and these companies have to do. Don't let people start a QuickBooks business without a business bank account. It's just better for everybody. It's better for them. It's better for the accountants and bookkeepers. Make them create a small business account for free; a checking account for free. It's just kind of that same thing. Don't just help people file their taxes, if they haven't labeled their alcohol correctly, and they haven't even gotten their license set up correctly. Blake Oliver: [00:39:46] David, we've got five minutes left. I wanna make sure we get to at least one of these voicemails.  David Leary: [00:39:51] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:51] This is app-news-related. We'll end with this, and we'll get to the next one next time. This is from Jackson Wilcox. Jackson Wilcox: [00:40:00] Hey, Blake and David, this is Jackson Wilcox. I'm a financial advisor in Franklin, Tennessee, but I used to be a tax accountant, and I still hold my CPA license. I found your guys' podcast recently. I've been really enjoying it. I feel so caught up on the tech and what's happening that I feel like I could almost go out and start my own consulting business.  [00:40:18] I just wanted to comment on something you guys shared in the last podcast about Noko Tools. I don't know if you've ever talked about it, but there's one out there called Knowtion, and it's really taking the world by storm. I recently used it for a problem that my team was having. We were just really surprised with how easy it was to get everyone an account, and everyone on the same page, and having the document update simultaneously on a desktop platform, an Android app, and an Apple app. It's pretty cool. I think they're pretty large, but I do think they are privately held. Just wanted to throw that out there. Thanks so much. Appreciate what you guys do. Blake Oliver: [00:40:57] David, have you ever used Knowtion?  David Leary: [00:40:59] Melio just adopted it. I will be using Knowtion this week for the first time, so I can report back out on that. Blake Oliver: [00:41:05] That's awesome. I tried to get my last firm to use Knowtion for our CaaS practice as a way to create an internal wiki. I could not, unfortunately, do that. It's part of one of the reasons I'm no longer in public accounting was my frustration with that. The way I would describe it is like a Google doc on steroids. It's a bunch of documents that are collaborative, where everyone can edit, but you can also hook in Zapier type of activities. There's automation; there's different types of data. It's all these sheets tied together, so you can create ... If you ever used an internal intranet, think of that, but it's much easier for everyone to collaborate and update, and it's not a static thing.  David Leary: [00:41:46] It's a consolidation of tools, it looks like Knowtion is. it has a little bit of a Trello killer; it's attacking that. It's attacking the typical media wiki. You just have a wiki ... In a way, it's what's ... What was that Microsoft thing that Microsoft constantly pushed for years, and everybody hated it? Blake Oliver: [00:42:10] Not OneNote.  David Leary: [00:42:10] No, not OneNote. They had ... Anybody who used, you had to host it yourself-  Blake Oliver: [00:42:16] SharePoint?  David Leary: [00:42:17] SharePoint. It's like everything that, on paper, SharePoint should have been, but it just never worked; it looks like Knowtion is. There's other products like this. I even think the 37Signals, the Basecamp guys, have something  along the lines of this. It's very interesting. Going back to no-code, remember last week, we talked about Airtable's big raise?  Blake Oliver: [00:42:36]  Yes.  David Leary: [00:42:36]  And we talked about, oh, yeah, there's a rumor Google is gonna have something to launch, too. Well, they launched a new product called Tables, which is very similar. No code. It's like, you're right, a spreadsheet on steroids. A lot of accountants like to- a lot of people use spreadsheets like a database, but they don't connect very well to each other. They do on a formula level, but not in that more of a database conceptual level. I think over the next year, I predict that accountants and bookkeepers are gonna start loving Airtable; this product from Google. Microsoft has a product. There's a lot of these that are out there, these- they're just super-super-powerful spreadsheets.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:12] Comparing Airtable and Knowtion, they're basically solving similar problems but they're approaching it from different lenses. Knowtion goes through the lens of the document. Think of you start with a Word document, and you go from there to extend its functionality; whereas something er table starts with Excel and goes from there from that spreadsheet. Main view but you can dig down into fields and then you have a document, and with Knowtion, you can dig down from a document into a sheet.  [00:43:39] It'll be interesting to see where they end up meeting in the middle and what wins. I like the idea of starting with the document, just from a visual presentation standpoint. I can really organize my thoughts like it's a notebook I think, for a lot of us, that's why OneNote is so powerful because you think of it like a notebook, and it's something familiar to us, and we can all understand that concept. Spreadsheets work really well for some people, too. anyway, David if people wanna touch base with you online, in the meantime, between episodes, where is the best place for them to do that? David Leary: [00:44:10] Easiest way is on Twitter. I'm @DavidLeary; also, on LinkedIn, @DavidLeary. And Blake, don't forget, on October 20, we are going to be joining the Accounting and Finance Show Virtual Conference. It's October 20–21. We'll have a link in the show notes to register, but we are going to be doing a keynote on October 20, and we'd love for all of you to join us. Blake Oliver: [00:44:29] A live episode, so you can type at us as we speak. That should be really cool. Maybe we'll do some polls, too. You can catch me on Twitter. I'm @BlakeTOliver. If you connect with me on LinkedIn, just let me know you're not a bot. David, until next time, don't let those Zoom calls get you down.  David Leary: [00:44:45] Bye, everybody.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:46]  Bye.____________________   ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________ Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? 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Sponsors OnPay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark A2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/a2x Show Notes 03:40 – TikTok Bid Highlights Oracle’s Public Embrace of Trump– New York Times  08:41 – The Oracle of National ID Cards – Wired 09:15 – Mnuchin Mum On Oracle, TikTok Deal  – PYMNTS.com  13:07 – Senate, Supreme Court opt out of Trump payroll tax deferral– Accounting Today  14:15 – House Republicans push to reopen Paycheck Protection Program amid coronavirus relief gridlock 15:53 – Yelp data shows 60% of business closures due to the coronavirus pandemic are now permanent – CNBC 17:20 – This tweak to the PPP could save small businesses $7 billion 18:55 – America’s Offices Sit Half-Empty Six Months Into the Covid-19 Pandemic – Wall Street Journal        US Offices Only At 50 Pct Capacity In August – PYMNTS.com 20:31 – Survey Says: Fintech On The Rise During COVID – Crunchbase 21:44 – CCH Axcess e-filing goes down on tax deadline – Accounting Today         E-filing problems plague some Sept. 15 tax returns – Journal of Accountancy 24:56 – Penalty relief may be available to those who miss Sept. 15 deadline due to COVID-19 – Accounting Today  26:05 – IRS set to begin rolling out new case management system – Accounting Today   29:45 – Square launches payroll feature that could boost its banking business through the Cash App –CNBC 35:12 – Square Sees Hike In Cashless Transactions – PYMNTS.com 36:10 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: September 2020 – QuickBooks 40:44 – QuickBooks Desktop 2021 updates respond to new COVID realities – Accounting Today  43:00 – Xero revamps Early U.S. plans, debuts ‘Xero on Air’– Accounting Today  44:10 – A refreshed Xero plan to support small businesses during COVID-19 – Xero Blog    50:14 – TD Rolls Out Online Accounting In Bid For Small Biz Accounts – PYMNTS.com 52:53 – Chime is now worth $14.5 billion, surging past Robinhood as the most valuable U.S. consumer fintech –– CNBC   54:47 – Klarna Valued At $10.65B After $650M Fundraise – PYMNTS.com  56:03 – Wolters Kluwer Acquires XCM – CPA Practice Advisor    57:30 – KKR to sell Epicor Software in $4.7 billion deal, 4 years after buying the company – MarketWatch 57:58 – Acumatica update focuses on COVID-19 challenges– Accounting Today  59:02 – Cloud Startup Airtable Raises $185 Million At $2.5 Billion Valuation And Launches API For Outside Coders – Forbes   1:01:02 – Bookkeeper360 Launches App That Integrates with Xero to Provide Real-Time Business Insights –Yahoo! Finance   1:02:32 – Saasable - Recurring Revenue Simplified – Intuit QuickBooks Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Join us at the Accounting and Finance Show: https://cloudacctpod.link/AccountingShowUSANeed Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptMany times, when choosing a payroll service, you have to choose between a new startup with a great app or an established company whose tech may feel behind the times. With OnPay, you get the best of both worlds – a great app from an established company that's been providing payroll services for over 30 years in all 50 states. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, OnPay, later in the episode.____________________  David Leary: [00:00:25] It's great that this is a feature, but at the same time, in the world of cloud, it's dumb or maddening. They have a new troubleshooting hub to help you address common problems and errors such as installation, file, network, and password issues. Blake Oliver: [00:00:39] Oh, man. David Leary: [00:00:40] Three of those are because you're not in the cloud – installation, file, and network. Why ... They're building a tool to encourage people to have headaches. Blake Oliver: [00:00:50] You just gave me memories of the times when I was on a desktop and I had file corruption issues and I lost a day of work or more and ... Oh, God. I wouldn't ever go back to that by choice.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. Back in October of 2013, I became ClockShark's first Twitter follower. Today, ClockShark has grown into a highly rated and very-much-loved time-tracking app that is now used by over 5,000 small businesses globally. With features like crew tracking, scheduling, overtime notifications, routes, geofencing locations, job costing, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking app to handle the unique challenges that face your mobile workforce clients.   Their technology has been helpful as their clients work through the COVID-19 pandemic. Your clients will need accurate records of their expenses, and losses, and technology like ClockShark helps. With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like paid time off, and other important data to provide the necessary proof for CARES, and FFCRA Acts' benefits. This lets them get straight back to work without too much disruption after the pandemic has passed. ClockShark's standard plan is just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by A2X. Blake and I have talked to plenty about the massive shift to online shopping during the time of COVID-19. This means that e-commerce sellers are dealing with massive amounts of transactions that need to appear in the general ledger correctly so that you can easily reconcile these transactions with a bank statement. A2X will give your Shopify and Amazon clients confidence in their financials because A2X was created with a focus on the importance of the reconciliation process. A2X posts tidy summaries of sales, returns, and fees from Shopify and Amazon directly into QuickBooks, or Xero that will exactly match the deposits that appear in your bank account. A2X has won the support of Amazon, Intuit, and has hundreds of five-star reviews by accountants and bookkeepers in both the QuickBooks and Xero app stores. Cloud Accounting Podcast listener and expert, Scott Sharp said that A2X is the gold standard in e-commerce accounting. To learn more about using A2X and get 20% off your subscription by using code "CAP20," head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/a2x.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:03:22] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast, I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:03:24] I'm David Leary. Blake, this morning, I was thinking, "Oh, what's a small kick-off thing I can mention personally or something exciting that happened this week in my life?" I've nothing. Nothing. Blake Oliver: [00:03:35] We're stuck at home here pretty much; it's same old, same old, but the news is quite varied this week. I think we have to talk about the strangest story of 2020. 2020 has been a crazy year, but the fact that TikTok, Oracle, and Donald Trump are in an entire news narrative that has spanned weeks and possibly months- David Leary: [00:04:00] And Mnuchin. Blake Oliver: [00:04:01] Along with China and Mnuchin. I don't know if it could get any stranger, other than the fact that there might be life on Venus. It's Saturday and I think tomorrow, TikTok is gonna be taken off of the app stores in the United States because Donald Trump has banned TikTok for security reasons, as we discussed. Oracle has proposed a- well, originally, it was gonna be an acquisition, but now it's more like a strategic partnership. We can talk about that later, it's very strange. The fact that Oracle and TikTok might be teaming up ... Oracle, the enterprise software ERP developer, the owner of NetSuite? I just never thought- although I follow accountants on TikTok like Lorilyn Wilson, I never thought that Oracle, an enterprise software, and accounting software would end up- I never thought we would actually be talking about TikTok. David Leary: [00:04:53] I'd fully agree. When Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's going on CNBC to discuss this, it still blows my mind, like, "The head of the IRS is talking about this," we're gonna have to. It looks like Oracle is getting a sweetheart deal here. They're gonna host the data, and this is being spun up. This is gonna create TikTok Global. It's a U.S. company; it's gonna add 20,000 new jobs. Blake Oliver: [00:05:15] Well, that's what they're saying, but this still has to be approved by the Justice Department or it's the Treasury that has to approve this, I think. The deal is strange. Originally, it was gonna be an acquisition and Microsoft was trying to get TikTok. David Leary: [00:05:32] Walmart. Blake Oliver: [00:05:32] Walmart. Now, it's like an Oracle partnership where, like you said, they're going to host the data, but ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, in China, will continue to be TikTok's majority shareholder. That might be a deal breaker for the Trump administration, which is why it's getting banned at this point. I'm not even sure how that would work because ... Oracle is hosting the data in the U.S., and that might do more to secure United States data, but if ByteDance still controls the code, how does Oracle, then, know that user data isn't being siphoned off for malicious purposes by the Chinese communist government? Just because you host data in the United States doesn't mean that it's secure. Maybe the administration doesn't really understand this, or maybe Oracle's trying to pull a fast one on this. I don't know what's going on here, but- David Leary: [00:06:25] Because like with most apps you use, they're sending 40 pieces of data out to other apps and other internet services that they partnered with or they're connected to an ad service they're using or whatever it might be. It's just not the app the data has on you, it's all the other apps that have access to your behaviors when you're using that app. Blake Oliver: [00:06:44] It's where the data is being siphoned off to, like you said. If you don't control the code; if you're unable to see where all this data is flowing through the code, then ... Anyway, maybe Oracle can basically provide that assurance. We'll see. Interesting fact about all of this – it has really put Oracle in the spotlight in a way that I'm not sure it wants to be. I'm not sure people realize this, but Larry Ellison, the founder and chairman of Oracle, he is a Trump supporter, which is unusual in Silicon Valley and in the tech world. Oracle has been a prominent ally of the president and the administration. Larry Ellison hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump's reelection this year. He has spoken to President Trump about the possible use of hydroxy- let me see if I can get this right, hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. David Leary: [00:07:35] This episode's gonna get banned; we're never gonna be able ... They're gonna kick us off of every platform. You're talking about stuff that gets you banned. We're not gonna be able to publish this on Facebook.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:43] Our Facebook ads constantly get taken down because we talk about this kind of stuff. Yeah, apparently the president specifically requested the FDA use an Oracle database for a study of hydroxychloroquine. That's the study that never happened because we found out that the drug is not actually a net benefit. This is so strange because it's one of those things where it's almost like the president's on a phone call with Larry Ellison, and Oracle is in his mind. Then, the TikTok thing is happening and he just connects those two. Then all of a sudden, those two are now connected in the national narrative. David Leary: [00:08:17] I think, like I said weeks ago, Ellison, and Oracle, he's been on- ever since 9/11, he's been on a kick for the government to build the database of every American and everybody get a special ID card that Oracle runs the database. He's been on this anti-privacy of Americans kick for a long time. He's like, "People should not have privacy." He's not a good dude. Blake Oliver: [00:08:39] Well, I don't know about that. David Leary: [00:08:41] I put the link in our episode, a few episodes ago. Blake Oliver: [00:08:45] Well, okay, but just because you wanna create a national ID doesn't mean that you are anti-freedom or anything like that. There's a lot of reasons why you might not wanna have that, but-  David Leary: [00:08:55] I'll tell you the opposite of that – I have no problem saying Larry Ellison is anti-freedom and anti-privacy. What's weird about this whole TikTok thing and with the IRS is you know how everybody talks about the algorithm. TikTok has this amazing algorithm that services the right videos to people on their first use and knows what to do. They're actually asking for Mnuchin to comment about it, and he refused to talk about it. It's just very, very interesting and he goes on to say, and I'll quote him. "I would just say, we will need to make sure that the code is secure, Americans' data is secure, and phones are secure," Mnuchin said. "We'll be looking to have discussions with Oracle over the next few days with our technical teams." Mind you, this is the person who runs the IRS computer systems that are how old now? 35? 36? Blake Oliver: [00:09:41] They date back to the Kennedy administration. They're now finally modernizing it; we can talk about that later. That's one of my app updates, or one of my IRS updates.  David Leary: [00:09:53] The algorithm's complete bullshit anyways, I think [crosstalk]  Have you signed up and ever used it, TikTok? Blake Oliver: [00:09:59] Yeah. Here's how I understand it very, very broadly. You know how we talked about Facebook's algorithm and how it prioritizes engagement?  David Leary: [00:10:08] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:10:08] And that can have a negative impact because really controversial stuff gets high engagement and that gets surfaced into your feed, so it creates this cycle of everybody starting to hate each other and becoming polarized. TikTok is different in that what it does is, when somebody creates a video, it packages up all the recent videos into a small set of videos. Then it sends all those videos out to a sample size of the population that's using TikTok. Then, depending on which ones that you watch all the way through and like, and which ones that you skip through, it ranks the videos, and then sends the best performing videos out to a broader group, and then does it again, and again and again. So, it's like focus-group-testing the videos, instantly, so that-  David Leary: [00:10:50] Except for, the results are this. You're making this sound very technical and highly amazing, and the results are this. If you're a dude, and you sign up to TikTok, you instantly get girls in bathing suits dancing, and if you're a female and you sign up for TikTok, you get guys with their six packs showing- Blake Oliver: [00:11:06] Well, that's 'cause that's what people watch. David Leary: [00:11:08] That's the algorithm, that's the whole algorithm. They can play it up to be some proprietary, amazing system but that's the results of it; that's the algorithm. Blake Oliver: [00:11:17] It's actually a very simple algorithm, but yes, it has a negative impact, which is that what do people watch? They watch hot people. That's what you get; you get a lot of hot people doing stupid shit on TikTok. David Leary: [00:11:28] And people with really nice kitchens [crosstalk] amazing kitchens people have in these videos. Blake Oliver: [00:11:35] Yeah, well, that's 'cause that's what people wanna watch.  David Leary: [00:11:35] We've talked about this for too much. It just seems like of all the stuff the IRS needs to be worrying about and Mnuchin should be worrying about, he's involved in this silliness.  Blake Oliver: [00:11:45] It's very strange. It's the strangest thing of 2020, if you ask me. Let's move on. We have lots and lots of app news this week. Many, many updates from Xero and QuickBooks, and Square, and TD, the bank. We've got Chime, Wolters Kluwer. Oh, and we cannot forget the CCH outage on September 15. David Leary: [00:12:11] Which felt like a redo of May of 2019.  Blake Oliver: [00:12:11] Yeah. Then we've got some updates on PPP, on the payroll tax deferral, and if we can get to it, I've got some updates on the Wirecard, and EY, and whatnot. Perhaps, we start with a little bit of PPP news and payroll tax deferral news? David Leary: [00:12:32] Yes, we can talk tax deferral, just an update on that. I know last week we talked a little bit about, "Oh, well, technically, if Trump loses the election, he won't have to pay it back." Now, we were technically wrong because he makes more than the wage limit on this, but it's the spirit of the thing, like his staffers, possibly. Blake Oliver: [00:12:46] The small details, right? This is why I'm not in tax. You have to make about $104,000 a year; you have to make under about $104,000 a year, 'cause it's $4,000 every two weeks. And so, yes, the president and most of our elected officials make more than that with their official salaries. David Leary: [00:13:07] There's an article in Accounting Today; the U.S. Senate, the Supreme Court, and the House are not gonna implement this order. Blake Oliver: [00:13:14] It's funny. You would expect the House, of course, to not do it because they're the opposition party, but you would expect the Senate to do it. Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, said that, apparently, a contributing factor was technical issues with the Senate's payroll processing systems. I guess they couldn't change the systems, or they weren't willing to make the effort to change the systems to do this deferral. David Leary: [00:13:36] Well, they should use Oracle, and Oracle could focus on building a newer payroll system for them instead of buying TikTok. Blake Oliver: [00:13:44] That's interesting. So, yes, nobody's doing the payroll tax deferral except the executive branch of the federal government. We actually had a listener send us his pay stub showing that the 6.2% Social Security had been not taken out that pay period and was annoyed at it. We have a sample size of one saying that they don't like it. 100% of Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners that we know are participating in this are unhappy.  [00:14:15] We also have the PPP; PPP has stopped, but there's still lots of money left. There's $138 billion remaining in the Paycheck Protection Program. I spotted two bills that have been introduced into the House to make these funds available. There's a Republican effort to expand the program or to reopen the program so that small businesses can get a second PPP loan if they have fewer than 300 workers and have seen their gross revenue plummet by at least 25% as a result of the virus-induced crisis. The bill would also set aside $25 billion for small businesses with fewer than 10 workers.  [00:14:54] That is being sponsored by Steve Chabot, of Ohio, and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington. That was introduced on Wednesday of this week. Interestingly, they're trying to force this bill, this targeted bill, to a floor vote because the leadership, Nancy Pelosi, has said, "We're not gonna do any piecemeal stimulus. We're only gonna do a big stimulus bill." They're using a seldom-used method called a discharge petition, where they can force a floor vote on the legislation by gathering a simple majority of signatures. They need 218 signatures to move to a vote, and Republicans control 198 seats in the House, so they only have to get 20 Democrats to sign this petition. I would be interested to see if they accomplish that.  David Leary: [00:15:36] My understanding is, this is the only part of the stimulus that almost both sides of the aisle are in agreement on. I could see this easily getting signed and pushed through as a whole separate thing because the money is already available; the decision's made, but I wonder if anybody is actually gonna take advantage of it. Did you see Yelp had some survey results, or state-of-economy-type results, and right now, they're looking at 60% of businesses that had closed, they're now permanent. They just haven't reopened. Blake Oliver: [00:16:05] Of the businesses that closed as a result of the pandemic, 60% of those are permanent closures. David Leary: [00:16:11] Yeah. I feel like even, anecdotally, as I drive around Tucson, I'm starting to really notice, I'm like, "Oh, yeah, they didn't make it. Oh, they didn't make it." I'm starting to see it more and more. What's interesting, this is like proof PPP worked and didn't work. They've seen a 23% increase since mid-July. When did PPP run out? If you got your loan, you're probably looking at somewhere between mid-June to mid-July, when you ran out the money, if you got the loan in the first tranche.  Blake Oliver: [00:16:38] Probably, yeah, because you were spending it thinking of an eight-week period. It was two months, essentially. David Leary: [00:16:43] People that got those loans, it delayed them closing, but it didn't save them. These businesses still closed. Now, without having new funding that's available differently, these people aren't gonna reopen. This is game over already, so who's actually gonna take out these additional loans? Because if you haven't taken the loan yet, is it because you think you're gonna close? It just doesn't ... There's $130 billion just sitting there still, right? Blake Oliver: [00:17:12] $138 billion, yeah. The bill sponsored by House Republicans, would allow those who have already taken a loan to take a second one. There's also a bill sponsored by a Democrat, Chrissy Houlahan, and I believe it has bipartisan support. It would streamline the forgiveness process. That might encourage more people to take out loans if they knew that they didn't have to do complicated paperwork. The proposal is that loans of less than $150,000 could have their debt forgiven with a one-page form and simply saying that the funds were used in accordance with PPP guidelines, without having to provide a detailed accounting of how the money was spent. I think a lot of small businesses are not taking the money because they're afraid of having to do that themselves and they don't have an accountant who's gonna do that for them. David Leary: [00:18:01] I also think it's ... Remember how when the housing crisis happened before, people were ... Their interest rates and their loans- because everybody had those balloon mortgages. Right? Blake Oliver: [00:18:09] Yeah, yeah. David Leary: [00:18:09] When that became due, their house wasn't worth anything and they just walked away from the loan. They just lived in the house until they finally took the keys away and stopped paying their mortgage. I wonder if this that same thing, people are just gonna be like, "Screw it. I'll just shut down the business. I'm not paying my PPP loan back." Then, you just start a new company; you just start a new entity, and never pay the loan back. In a way, everybody's gonna get forgiveness.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:34] One way or another.  David Leary: [00:18:35] One way or another, it's gonna happen because if you're struggling to keep your doors open and there's a pretty good chance you're not gonna be open three months from now, why would you fill out forgiveness paperwork and start paying back a loan or ask for forgiveness? Just screw it. That mindset, or that attitude could take place easily. There's just a little bit more economic news out there. Six months in, now, most office buildings are still dark. People are not going back. Blake Oliver: [00:19:01] It's over half, right? David Leary: [00:19:03] Yeah. There's a lot of data on this. So, there's a company called Brivo, I guess; you have those door badges where you buzz in and buzz out of a door to unlock it type of a thing. Then, a lot of workplaces have that, and that unlocks the doors at offices, and they track when people go in and go out of businesses. Traffic is down 51% in August versus February; so basically, half of everybody are not going back to the office- Blake Oliver: [00:19:27] That means nobody is in that office; it's completely dark. David Leary: [00:19:31] Yeah. You either probably have some offices where maybe they're at half capacity, but there's probably a lot more offices that are below that, if not not being used at all. It all ties back to this PPP and stimulus and all that, and now they're saying there's not gonna be stimulus until after the election. It's starting to get tough, which doesn't reconcile with the whole ... We'll get into this, I guess, with app news because we'll probably talk about these raises in the evaluations of these companies in the stock market; these companies going public. The realities of the economy are not reconciling with the market, but I get the market because you can't get any interest rate if you have cash. You've gotta invest in the market. Blake Oliver: [00:20:09] It's fascinating what is happening. The explosion of e-commerce, of digital banking, of these challenger banks. They've just taken off. Anything that allows you to continue to do your work remotely, or to pay people remotely. As you were talking about, you guys are doing fantastic over at Melio because people don't wanna use paper checks anymore, because they don't wanna go into that office just to print paper checks. As we discussed previously, that is one of the only reasons that finance professionals are going to the office; it was specifically called out in a survey of finance teams. David Leary: [00:20:42] I just talked to a friend in New York City. He's an internal controller at a company, and he drives all ... He has to commute over to New Jersey one day a week to cut 50 checks because they have no other way to do it. Blake Oliver: [00:20:54] Amazing. This is gonna be the thing that finally kills paper checks. David, I listened to you on the Cloud Stories podcast with Heather Smith. You had a great interview with her. David Leary: [00:21:04] Oh, thanks. She's awesome. It's all her; she is a great interviewer. Blake Oliver: [00:21:10] You were a great interviewee, and you said that. You said this pandemic, the silver lining of it is we could finally, in the United States, eliminate paper checks and move to digital payments. That will change the lives of finance pros and controllers who go to the office only for that purpose. David Leary: [00:21:26] Half of those people that are clocking in and out of the office are the controllers going into print checks? Blake Oliver: [00:21:32] That's right.  David Leary: [00:21:33] Those are the only ones going into the office right now. Blake Oliver: [00:21:34] Exactly. App news — the big story this week is CCH. CCH is in the news because on September 15, which is the deadline for 1120-S S-Corp, and 1065 partnership returns, they went down. Their e-filing system was not working, and so this impacted a lot of large accounting firms all over the nation. I think this is the filing system that is used for CCH Axcess, and there's one other of their systems that was impacted by this. A lot of large firms use CCH. I was chatting with a colleague of mine, a former colleague, who works at a very large accounting firm. She said that in her office they had 200 of these S Corp or partnership returns that could not be filed on time and were technically late as a result of CCH.  [00:22:37] There's some good news, which is that the penalty, if there is one, will not be humongous because these entities generally do not have taxable income as they're pass-through entities, but there is a late filing penalty, which could be $200 or something. If you think 200 returns times $200, that could be a $40,000 penalty for a single office; and multiply that by all the different offices, all around the country, of this kind of size. So, it's a lot. The good news is that CCH is working with the IRS and has pledged on its support website to work with its customers to address potential impact from the fees or penalties.  [00:23:17] The AICPA has contacted the IRS to discuss penalty relief. Given how generous the IRS is being now with penalty relief, so it sounds, hopefully this will not cause a giant headache for all of these tax practitioners. It's not just the fine, itself, and getting that waived, it's all the paperwork that could result, and having to deal with all these penalty notices, and the clients calling, and then trying to get them waived, and all that. That could be a huge waste of time, right? David Leary: [00:23:47] Yeah, it's just a headache. Have they announced why it was down? Because I think last May of 2019, they had an outage, and I think that was ransomware, correct-  Blake Oliver: [00:23:57] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:23:57] - was their hosting situation? That's funny because the article that I'm looking at here in the Accounting Today says that some people received a message that said it was down for scheduled maintenance, like they pre-planned to pull it down on the tax deadline day. Blake Oliver: [00:24:11] No, it was not a hack. There's no indication that it was a hack; it was a technical glitch. They had it up and running early morning on September 16. No indication right now what it was. I know you hate the word glitch, David, but I think that's  ...  David Leary: [00:24:27] Glitch is a lame excuse of, "We don't wanna tell you what really happened and you're dumb, so just trust us. It was a glitch." Blake Oliver: [00:24:35] Well, it was probably something technical, right? [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:24:36] Well, then tell us what it was. Did a switch go bad? Tell us. What happened? A hard drive crashed? What happened? Blake Oliver: [00:24:43] Speaking of penalty abatement, there is penalty relief available to those who missed the September 15th deadline, not specifically yet because of CCH, but because of COVID-19. Apparently, according to an article in Accounting Today, the AICPA has been having conversations with IRS officials about penalty relief and have been told informally that practitioners who have made a good faith effort to meet the filing deadlines on behalf of their clients but are unable to do so because of the coronavirus pandemic, can write, "COVID-19 at the top of the tax return to indicate the need for penalty relief." David Leary: [00:25:19] You mean just scribbled across the top?  Blake Oliver: [00:25:21] I guess. Just write a big COVID-19 at the top of the tax return, and then that's your get-out-of-jail-free card. I just think that's really funny. David Leary: [00:25:30] Well, I think it's something you would just try. I'm just gonna write this on the top and see what happens. Now, they've made it an official procedure. Blake Oliver: [00:25:35] I think I'm just gonna start doing that for everything that I do; if I'm late with anything, I'm just gonna write COVID-19. If I send a birthday card to somebody late, I'm just gonna write COVID-19 at the top of the card and then they'll forgive me. I don't have to send in ... David Leary: [00:25:50] It's like when you were a kid ... Little Johnny- his homework, and he didn't get it done properly, or he didn't finish it. The mom writes across the top, "He had a fever last night," across the top of the homework when he turns it in the next day. It's the same thing. Blake Oliver: [00:26:03] Well, we're on the IRS, so let's continue with this. The IRS is rolling out a new case management system. Do you remember talking about the Taxpayer First Act last year, David, and the IRS's ancient systems? David Leary: [00:26:14] I think so, yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:14] They have systems at the IRS that date back to the Kennedy administration, the oldest systems in use in the federal government, other than the ones that launch our nuclear missiles. Not so great for the IRS, which has been struggling during COVID-19 because everything is super-paper-based. That's because they have these ancient systems that aren't connected to the internet and all this stuff. As part of this Taxpayer First Act, we're seeing the fruits of that, a system developed by a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based technology company called Pegasystems is going to be implemented at the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division.  [00:26:51] The customer support part of that division is going to start using this new software, which I didn't see a name for it, but they're calling it their case management system. The initial release of this will enable this customer support division to scan and copy documents, research case records, send requests for publicly available documents, such as applications for tax exempt status and exemption letters, and resolve problems, including determination requests for tax exempt status.  Now, what does this mean for the customers of the IRS – the tax pros who are contacting the IRS? Well, taxpayers are going to have a digital option to send their requests for copies of determination letters and applications online, finally. You're not gonna have to fax or mail that to this division to get that information. If this goes well, they're going to roll out similar solutions across the IRS. The difference is, now, you're going to be able to have correspondence with the IRS not using fax or mail. You will actually be able to digitally make these requests; and they will be able to digitally respond to them. The silence is deafening. David Leary: [00:27:57] I was trying to decide if I should say wow or- I was trying to gauge my amazement level, and I just couldn't find it. I couldn't find it to pull it out. Blake Oliver: [00:28:07] Well, we're eliminating paper checks. Maybe next, coronavirus is going to finally get us to eliminate paper correspondence with our tax authority. David Leary: [00:28:17] I did call the IRS this week.  Blake Oliver: [00:28:20] About what?  David Leary: [00:28:21] I wanted to find out where my stimulus payment was.  Blake Oliver: [00:28:21] Did you find out anything? David Leary: [00:28:25] Well, first, they route you to a bunch of people that, basically, just tell you, "Don't give me your Social Security number, don't do this. Go to the website." The first person hung up on me, so I called back, and I get a second person that did that. So, I escalated up the ladder. I finally talked to a real IRS person. I did not know this ... With all the communication about this stuff that's been happening, I always thought this was just like- remember the olden days after 9/11, when George Bush just sent everybody checks? You Just got them? Blake Oliver: [00:28:52] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:28:52] This is really more like earned income tax credit. Essentially, they sent people checks, but it's like an advance that's gonna- you'll have to reconcile through on your tax return. In my case, because I didn't qualify my 2018 income, but I did for my 2019 income, when I do my 2020 taxes, I will be able to calculate the difference for my stimulus payment that I did not receive in this year's taxes.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:17] And take a credit?  David Leary: [00:29:18] And take a credit. These checks they've been mailing, they're like an advance on a credit for your taxes. They are not just like, "Here's checks." Which I did not know. In all the communications about this that we've seen over the last six months, I had no idea [crosstalk] completely did not understand that. Blake Oliver: [00:29:34] If you're not a tax person, would the general public understand this? Probably not. Well, what should we move on to next? We've got Square. How about Square? Square, they have done really, really well during the pandemic, and I did not expect them to do well. I actually expected Square to have massive problems because so much of their business is point-of-sale terminals in small businesses. [crosstalk]. David Leary: [00:29:58] -they did, within the first three weeks ... It was insane how everything dropped. They were able to recover because of- Blake Oliver: [00:30:08] Their Cash app. The Square Cash app, which is that app on your phone that lets you send money to people and receive it from people without exchanging physical cash or checks, has seen incredible growth, and has saved them. It was the star of their last quarter, gross profit for the app rose 167%, year over year, to $281 million. Square is doubling down on this Cash app, and they have released a payroll feature that integrates Square Payroll with the Cash app.  [00:30:40] Employees now can request $200 of a paycheck in advance of their normal biweekly schedule. If you're running Square Payroll, employees can now request that money in advance and Square will handle all of it, the employer's not at risk. The funds are funneled directly into the Cash app. By doing this, Square is going to increase usage and adoption of the Cash app because they have linked payroll advances to the Cash app.  [00:31:05] Now, on the business side, they're going to let businesses fund payroll immediately, using the money in their Square balance instead of waiting to pay through their external bank accounts. The money is going to stay in that Square ecosystem and it's going to improve cash flow because now businesses don't have to interact with their bank in order to run payroll. They just use the money that they've received from their customers that's in their Square balance from the credit card payments. This is genius. David Leary: [00:31:31] I have a prediction that this goes one step further. Payroll will be free. We are in a march to see Payroll be free. I'm going back, my career, 10, 11, 12 years ago, and I tried to talk to the people on the Payroll team about this, like, "There's a way to do this." You think about a high school kid. They get their paycheck, old school paycheck. They take it to the bank, they cash it. What are they doing? They're taking that, they're putting some of it to their Xbox Live account, some of it in their Amazon account, some of it in their Apple iTunes account at the time, so you could buy music on iTunes. It's being shoved in all these companies, these cloud companies, so you can spend the money. That's where their money- nobody was getting actual cash.  [00:32:12] I always thought you could create a payroll product that would be offset, like, "Hey, Apple ..." Instead of me, like right now when I get paid, I can specify what accounts I want my direct deposit to go to – my bank accounts. I've seen some payroll services where you can actually even specify, like, "Oh, I'd like to do a donation to some charity," and you could actually have that automatically withdrawn from your paycheck, too. Now, imagine if, in the same place, you could say, "I want this much to go to my iTunes account, this much to my Amazon, this much to my Starbucks card, this much ..." I could easily see Square, if you're paying your employees to their Cash app card directly, no fee to use Square Payroll. Blake Oliver: [00:32:46] It's brilliant because then Square, when you make that payment, Square's the processor, but they are also the payer, so they can make a greater margin on those transactions [crosstalk] because they're not paying a bank interchange fee or something like that. I imagine there's some-  David Leary: [00:33:02] This is a direct attack on the banks because their argument is you don't have to go and get your account numbers and routing numbers from your employees. You just, boom, and you're done. Blake Oliver: [00:33:12] You said this last week or the week before, that every payroll processor should just automatically give every employee what is essentially a bank account. It can be through the Cash app, or it could be through a debit card, or whatever, but don't make that be an issue. Just automatically give them an account and let them transfer the money wherever they wanna take it or keep it there, which a lot of people will do.  David Leary: [00:33:12] Intuit should do this. Everybody who files their taxes with TurboTax, "Would you like a bank account and have your deposit go there today?" Blake Oliver: [00:33:38] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:33:39] Like, boom, they set up a bank account, they get their deposit there today. "Oh, by the way, we noticed you have a bank with Intuit, your employer pays you with QuickBooks Payroll ..." Boom, instant pay with ... Intuit could build this system very easily. Anybody who has both sides of the equation, businesses, and the consumers, that's the situation they're in. Square also had- I don't know if you wanna talk more about Square Cash, but Square had some news come out about their actual retailers, as well. [00:34:03] Let's hear that. I'm done with the app update.____________________This of episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by OnPay. OnPay is an easy-to-use, full-service payroll, and HR software that is the right fit for all your clients, whether they have just one or 500 employees, to stay organized, save time, and get compliant. OnPay includes the best-in-class integrations to benefit providers, workers' comp plans, QuickBooks, and Xero. They also handle all the complicated stuff that other payroll providers don't, like agricultural payrolls, including Form 943, multistate payrolls, and employees with H2-A visas.  With OnPay's newly released Report Designer, you can use enterprise-level data, and over 50 data points to create multiple report views for all your clients' stakeholders, be it the C-suite, departments, or HR. Right now, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get three free months of top-rated OnPay payroll, and HR service. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay. ____________________David Leary: [00:35:12] Because of COVID-19, people are starting to go cashless. For Square, in February, only 5.4% of Square sellers were cashless. By mid-April, it jumped up to 23% were cashless. Now things are trying to- now that physical locations are starting to open up, it's falling back down, but it's now stabilized at about 13.4%. Blake Oliver: [00:35:35] Well, that's a huge increase. Remember all that legislation earlier in the year to ban cashless stores? I wonder what's gonna happen with that; that's gone away. David Leary: [00:35:43] COVID's changed everything. It's accelerating all of this stuff that wasn't accelerated before. When you see their numbers go up like this, and we'll talk about some other numbers that have gone up, it explains why the stock market, and the valuations for these companies are insane. Blake Oliver: [00:35:59] Well, you mentioned Intuit. Let's talk about QuickBooks Online and what's going on there. Then you have some updates about QuickBooks Desktop as a result of the pandemic. David Leary: [00:36:08] I have Desktop updates, yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:36:08] I'll do the Online ones. This is from the September 2020, "What's new in QuickBooks Online?" update. QuickBooks Online now connects to Amazon Business. If you're an Amazon Business customer, you have the ability to seamlessly sync expenses with QuickBooks to review or categorize transactions, and then add them to your books. This integration will bring in-line level detail, such as product descriptions, item costs, and fee breakdowns for each transaction. You can categorize each item you purchase separately and match them with bank transactions. [00:36:42] This is my favorite feature that I've seen enter QuickBooks in a super-long time. When I was doing bookkeeping for a lot of clients, my biggest pain was Amazon; because I didn't get detail on the bank statement, so I couldn't easily set up a rule. If I wanted to do good bookkeeping, I'd have to actually go get all of the emails, have my clients send me all those emails, or do it into a Hubdoc, or one of those- Receipt Bank, one of the receipt ... I tried a bunch of them. Then, we'd have to go and look at the actual Amazon receipt and code it properly, as to what it is. Is it computer equipment, is it office supplies, is it blah, blah, blah? Because a lot of businesses, they buy everything on Amazon, so you can't just categorize it to a single account; it's meaningless. This is really cool. David Leary: [00:37:29] I've used it. It's been in QuickBooks Labs for almost easily over a year. Maybe a year and a half, it's been in QuickBooks Labs. Then there's another app out there called Greenback, and they do it really, really well. That way, if half the transaction's there, they put all the line item details from your receipt. The only flaw in both of these — you don't get to specify anywhere like, "Oh, only do this for purchases on this credit card," like the business credit card. Now, you can just pick the transactions you wanna sync to QuickBooks, or match, but all of your personal transactions in Amazon are on there, unless you set up a whole different user ID and password for Amazon, and only use your business ones through there.  [00:38:08] If you're like most entrepreneurs, all you're doing is changing the payment method and what you're buying. All my normal- the other junk coming into my house are all in this feed, and that's a little annoying. It is convenient, though, when I wanna have the documentation, because, frankly, the receipt Amazon sends you doesn't have good details in it. If you send that to AutoEntry, or one of the receipt-scanning people, it doesn't come in very well. Services like this, pulling it through the API of Amazon, are definitely way better, but they're not- they need to take that next step to where they're smarter, where it just pulls in the ones on the one credit card. I don't need to see my water filter I bought for my refrigerator in my QuickBooks.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:47] Also new in QuickBooks Online Advanced is industry benchmarks in the performance center. Now you will see industry benchmarks for net profit margin and gross profit margin on those KPIs. I feel like this is of somewhat limited use, given that you don't really know what is the quality of the data? Where are they getting this information from? It is cool, though, to see the industry benchmarks come back after going away for a long time. This is one of those things that Intuit has added in, and then taken away, and added in, and taken away for years.  [00:39:18] We also have QuickBooks Payments Instant Deposit automation. This is coming soon. Instant Deposit is where you can pay a small fee, and you can have your credit card receipts deposited instantly, basically advanced to you, into your account. Now, you don't have to go and do that manually. You can specify the days of the week where you want those automatic instant deposits. You can say, "I want them on Mondays only." Maybe you only want it on the day when you're gonna run payroll or something like that. David Leary: [00:39:46] Maybe you're a restaurant or a bar, and your busier on Fridays, so you wanna instantly put in on that day only. That makes sense, because I think that, right now, even the next-day deposits, you opted in on QuickBooks, and you opted in for all of them. Even though it's made out to seem like, "Yeah, just pay 10 bucks for this one deposit," and I opted into all of them. Blake Oliver: [00:40:03] Also new, Guideline is now built into QuickBooks, so you can get a 401(K) plan for your business and you can sign up your employees. I have been a Guideline user for, I guess, a few years now. My previous company used it, and I think it's great. That's really cool because, I don't have it on hand, but I saw a stat that a really depressing number of small businesses offer retirement plans to their employees. I think a big reason is that it's just so hard to administer. That'll hopefully make more businesses do that and people will be saving for retirement. That's all the QuickBooks news I've got.  David Leary: [00:40:41] I get QuickBooks Desktop updates. Blake Oliver: [00:40:43] Oh, yeah, let's talk about Desktop. David Leary: [00:40:44] Essentially, the gist of this is they're putting changes in because all the QuickBooks Desktop users had to do what? Work from home.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:53] Hosting, go to the cloud. David Leary: [00:40:54] They're getting tons of requests, so this is a product manager at QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, Rachna Arya. Hopefully, I'm saying her name right. She said that there's been a rise in customer requests for remote hosting solutions. Blake Oliver: [00:41:10] No surprise there. David Leary: [00:41:11] One of the things they've done is they've created- of course, this is the Intuit way, create another sales level of QuickBooks. You could buy QuickBooks Desktop Plus, and then it gives you a discount on some hosting options that are available. That's not really what was interesting to me. Reading these notes, did you know they have a Desktop mobile app? Blake Oliver: [00:41:29] I had no idea. How does that even work? David Leary: [00:41:32] There's a QuickBooks Desktop mobile app and you can actually use that now to photograph receipts and categorize expenses out in the field, which I did not know existed before. Then, they've released a bunch of tools to help you install QuickBooks – to install the Desktop products from one management tool. Then they also have a secondary tools hub, which I think is ... It's great that this is a feature, but at the same time, in the world of cloud, it's dumb or maddening. They have a new troubleshooting hub to help you address common problems and errors, such as installation, file, network, and password issues.  Blake Oliver: Oh, man!  David Leary: Three of those are because you're not on the cloud – installation, file, and network. They're building a tool to encourage people to have headaches. Blake Oliver: [00:42:19] You just gave me memories of the times when I was on Desktop and I had file corruption issues, and I lost a day of work or more. Oh, God. I wouldn't ever go back to that by choice. David Leary: [00:42:32] Then because of COVID, people need loans, so QuickBooks Capital's coming down into QuickBooks Desktop now, so they can apply for it right inside of QuickBooks Desktop. The gist of it is a lot of this is working remotely, administering this remotely, installing it remotely, and- it's just, switch to QuickBooks Online. That's what every one of those phone calls ... "How do I host my QuickBooks?" Just switch to QuickBooks Online. It would probably be the easier phone call ... So, a lot of changes for QuickBooks Desktop announced there. Blake Oliver: [00:43:00] Well, let's talk about Xero. Xero has revamped its U.S. plans. The starter plan, I believe it was called the starter plan, is now called Early. That's the one that's $9 per month. That's the list price they usually have discount- David Leary: [00:43:17] I'm just thinking out loud. Simple Start from QuickBooks is $10 a month; this is $9 a month. It's falling into that. I'm just getting going ...  Blake Oliver: [00:43:24] That's the equivalent. It's always sucked, in my opinion. I never had anyone who used it. It was really just, I think, an inbound funnel tool; a lead-gen tool for Xero on the direct side for small businesses that are just getting started. Accountants would never use it. I never had a client that could use it. David Leary: [00:43:43] It was super-limited before. You could only do one invoice a month or something. It was super-limited, right? Blake Oliver: [00:43:49] Right. Actually, I'm glad you're calling this out, because the most annoying part was that they had a limit on the number of transactions you could reconcile every month, and it was really low. It was 20 lines or something. David Leary: [00:44:01] That you could reconcile? Blake Oliver: [00:44:02] Yes. They would just sit there until the next month, and then you could reconcile 20 more. David Leary: [00:44:06] I'm sure accountants love that. Blake Oliver: [00:44:10] It was so painful. They removed the limit on bank rec. You can reconcile, I think, it sounds like an unlimited number of transactions, which is great, because now it's more equivalent to that cash version of Xero; Cashbook, I think, is what they called it, where it was 12 bucks a month; only available to accountants. I think they still have a version of that. That allowed for unlimited bank recs, but didn't have invoicing or bills, but it was good for write-up work. Actually, that's one of the things that drew me to Xero from QuickBooks originally was the fact that they had that affordable, basically, 'bookkeeping for accountants' version where I paid 12 bucks a month, and I could do all the bookkeeping, even if my clients are using some other invoicing solution. I could do my write-up-type work [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:44:57] The write work, yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:44:10] Now, Early is more like that. No limit on bank recs and they've expanded the number of invoices you can send from five to 20, and it includes Hubdoc. This is, I think, a very appropriate and aggressive move to attack Intuit on the direct side, and honestly, on the accountant side because, for 9 bucks a month, you can do a lot. You can [inaudible] customers; you can send 20 invoices; you get the receipt processing with Hubdoc, and you get unlimited bank reconciliation. This is a good value. David Leary: [00:45:28] If you get on this and you grow, you just basically unlock the different Xero plan, and you get more features. You're not stuck, and that's the one issue I always think with Intuit- they have their Self Employed, but you're stuck. You can't migrate to a different QuickBooks product if you're on that. If you mess up and you choose that because it's five bucks a month, instead of choosing Simple Start, you're set up for a wrong path if you choose the wrong one. Yes, I get it. For Self Employed, it's really targeted at Uber drivers, true gig workers. Gig workers are never gonna turn their business from being a gig worker into a real business. There's no path for that, but I think a lot of people will opt into that because it's cheap and then they outgrow it, and then now, they have to change their data and start over. It sounds like this is gonna be- it's the same product. Blake Oliver: [00:46:15] Then just, for the folks who are not familiar with Xero's pricing, you can then move up from this $9/month one to their standard plan, which is called Growing Now that's 30 bucks a month that includes the bills. Actually, the Early one includes up to five bills; Growing is unlimited. Now you can do all your unlimited invoicing bills, et cetera. Then they have this Established plan, which I think is- there's a QuickBooks that's 70 bucks a month, and this Established plan is $60 per month, so that's the equivalent. That one adds multi-currency, expenses, and projects.  [00:46:46] Speaking of projects, Xero has released a new profitability dashboard in Xero Projects where you can see the total profit margin, all work invoiced, costs associated with the project, a highlight of outstanding invoices, as well as how the project is tracking against estimates. The idea is to make it easier to identify which projects are the most profitable and which need tweaking. That's interesting. Is there something like that on the QuickBooks side where you can do this project costing inside of QuickBooks? David Leary: [00:47:15] Yes, there is, because you can track to classes, and locations, and jobs. There is some levels of job costing, and project costing inside, but it's where it's just good enough. I think if you are a small contractor, you wanna look at an add-on app, like , you can add an app like Knowify; if you're maybe professional services, BQE Core. There's add-ons to QuickBooks that are that next level deeper. I think in a way, Xero's catching up to QuickBooks on this projects-type stuff right now. Blake Oliver: [00:47:44] Last update is their enhancement to short-term cash flow and business snapshot tools. Xero has this new short-term cash flow tool where it will forecast your bank balance for the next 30 days based on your bills and invoices in the system. That was originally made available to customers during COVID-19, and they were going to charge more for it; it was gonna be an add-on thing. They've decided to make that an ongoing feature in the platform. Now that's going to be part of the solution, just built in. They're gonna enhance it and make that an optional add-on price. David Leary: [00:48:21] That's not included in the Starter plan? Blake Oliver: [00:48:24] I actually am not clear on that, whether or not this- well, I don't think it could be because Starter limits you to five bills ... Well, I guess it could be, but you're gonna be limited in the number of bills you can enter. If you've got more than five bills, you're not gonna get a clear view of your cash flow. David Leary: [00:48:41] At this point in the game, why even have a plan that's $9 a month or $10 a month, and this is for Xero, and Intuit, especially Intuit. Intuit has all these things, these add-on services that they can sell you. You can open a bank account now with Intuit, the payroll and all these other things. Obviously, the banks are coming. The banks are adding in GL services. We've talked about it before, Square's gonna add a GL. Any day now, that'll be the biggest story of the week. They'll just open up a GL. It's going to happen, there's no doubt ... Isn't it in Xero's, and Intuit's best interest right now to offer their cheapest plan free forever? "Hey, you wanna do 20 invoices a month on Xero? It's free forever." Just get people locked into the ... Because it's hard to switch once you're on the platform. Blake Oliver: [00:49:29] Well, I think we'll eventually get there. That's probably where it's heading. At nine bucks a month, all they're doing is covering their hosting costs. That's just their cost of goods sold at that point- David Leary: [00:49:42] Think about the logic. When you're still brand new, starting, even nine bucks a month, you're like, "Oh, it's a little much," when you're just starting your business. Blake Oliver: [00:49:50] I'm thinking maybe it's just, if somebody's not willing to pay you that much, they're just gonna suck your support team's time. David Leary: [00:49:56] That's possible, too.  Blake Oliver: [00:49:57] You got to have some barrier to entry, or it's gonna cost you. Let's talk about the world outside of QuickBooks, and Xero, because there is one on the small business side. Let's talk about banks that are becoming GLs. We've been talking about GLs that are becoming banks. TD Ameritrade has rolled out online accounting, integrated with their banking, for small business clients. It's using tech developed by a Detroit-based company called Autobooks. Autobooks describes itself as an integrated accounting and receivables platform.  [00:50:31] I went to the website, and this is fascinating. They are selling to banks. They don't sell this software, or they're not trying to, anyway, sell this software to end customers, it sounds like. They are building an accounting software that is designed for banks to use for their customers, to integrate into their platform. What does Autobooks include with TD? You can send invoices electronically, accept payments digitally, automatically reconcile your statements, create financial reports, and access dashboards with real-time data and insights. David Leary: [00:51:06] I think we've talked about Autobooks a long time ago. It looks like they've pivoted to go straight to banks. That makes sense because banks are desperate to have GLs. It's a smart pivot, instead of trying to compete with Intuit, compete a different way. That ties in really well. Blake Oliver: [00:51:22] It's so fascinating. This is the big battle that is going to occur. It's already started. Banks are going to have accounting; QuickBooks and Xero are going to become banks. You even have payment processors who are becoming banks. Then, you called it David, we're gonna see Square, I think, add a GL option at some point in the next few years. David Leary: [00:51:42] Then, this shift to cloud is happening, and now cloud finance is happening. Everybody's seeing this shift, and so we're starting to see this in the data from Plaid. Remember Plaid? Plaid powers most of these apps we're using. Blake Oliver: [00:51:57] All the bank integrations, a lot of that is Plaid.  David Leary: [00:52:01] Plaid, it wasn't even a year ago. Yeah, less than a year ago, Visa bought Plaid for $5.3 billion, and I'm starting to think Visa got the deal of a lifetime because what they're seeing is, now that the pandemic is here, 59% of respondents in their survey are using apps to manage their money than they ever did pre-pandemic. There's a whole shift from physical banks and banks and paper checks. It's kind of the theme of the show this week is the shift of what's happening. Plaid's starting to see data on this that it's just- it's through the roof. Not only that, now banks are becoming more and more interested in utilizing Plaid; how do I get a mobile app? How do I offer my customers access to the bank feeds and to my data? Basically, they're seeing, across their customer base, 70% increase in usage. Blake Oliver: [00:52:50] Well, speaking of banks and digital banks, Chime, the challenger bank, an app-based bank, is now worth $14.5 billion, which puts it beyond Robinhood as the most valuable U.S. consumer fintech. Chime was founded in 2013 and in their latest fundraising round – it's a Series F; you don't get that far in the alphabet, too often – they raised $485 million, which doubles its valuation from December and makes it worth 900% more than just 18 months ago when it hit a $1.5 billion valuation. They went from being worth $1.5 Billion to $14.5 Billion in a year and a half. They are planning to be IPO-ready within the next 12 months, according to the CEO. Although they said they're not gonna lock themselves into that, they're not gonna necessarily commit to that, only if it's the right timing.  David Leary: [00:53:45] We've talked about Revolut out of Europe. Revolut has launched their whole business; Revolut bank business. Chime has not said anything about business yet. Blake Oliver: [00:53:56] It's interesting, the CEO, Chris Britt, he said, "We're more like a consumer software company than a bank." They really view themselves as consumer-centric, and I don't imagine they will be trying to target anyone else in the near term, because why would you when you see growth like that? Stick with what you're doing if it's working. He said that they're adding hundreds of thousands of accounts a month, hundreds of thousands. Although he wouldn't say just how many users they have. After this fundraising round, they now have almost $1 billion in cash in the bank. David Leary: [00:54:31] They could buy a cloud accounting app and jump right in, if they wanted to.  Blake Oliver: [00:54:36] They could. They probably could; one of these smaller ones. David Leary: [00:54:39] Do you wanna jump overseas and talk about now Europe's highest value private fintech company? Blake Oliver: [00:54:44] What is that?  David Leary: [00:54:45] We talked about them a couple of weeks ago; Klarna, K-L-A-R-N-A. They're one of the buy-now-pay-later apps, like Afterpay, we talked about these companies. Well, they took $650 billion investment. David Leary: [00:55:01] $650 million or billion?  David Leary: [00:55:03] Oh, the article says billion, but it's got to be million. Blake Oliver: [00:55:07] Is that what they're valued at or is that what they took? David Leary: [00:55:09] No, that's gonna now value them at $10.65 billion. Blake Oliver: [00:55:13] Wait, how can they take $650 billion [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:55:15] I think there's a typo in the article. They took $650 million, and that now their valuations is $10.65 billion, which makes them Europe's highest-valued private fintech company. All these fintech companies, these "new banks," they're taking off. Those are the companies that are gonna win in the stock market, and that's why they all wanna IPO soon. They're boasting that they have a billion in annual sales now with over 3,500 global employees. These services, and these new banks, and these online ways to move money around through apps and this new- which just used to be a hashtag, #fintech, five years ago; nobody was really in it. Now, it's leading everything because of the pandemic. Blake Oliver: [00:55:59] Amazing. Well, I have one last app story in acquisition. Wolters Kluwer has bought XCM Solutions. XCM is a cloud-based workflow solutions provider for professional tax and accounting firms. I've used it in my professional career, really popular in tax as a way to route tax returns. They have about 440 employees located in the U.S. and India.  [00:56:24] Something interesting I did not know until I read this article is that they actually were spun out of an accounting firm in Massachusetts in 2002. An accounting firm building software for itself creates workflow software that it then sells to the world. The deal values XCM at $161.4 million. They recorded revenues of $22.5 million in 2019, and three quarters of that came from cloud-based software. [00:56:49] I did the math on this, and if you divide their valuation by the revenue from cloud, it's about 10X earnings. That's a standard in tech valuation there. Multiply your annual earnings by 10 times. XCM and Wolters Kluwer have been working together since 2006, so this is not a surprise. They've had [crosstalk]. David Leary: [00:57:09] -when this was announced, and I was like, "They don't already own them?" I had no idea. My entire career, I had no idea that they weren't already owned by them. Blake Oliver: [00:57:18] Now, it's official. Last bit- actually, I lied; I got one more. Epicor software, the maker of ERP software that is very popular in manufacturing, they have been sold. They were owned by KKR, a private equity firm, which bought them in 2016 for $3.3 billion, and they have now turned around and sold them four years later to a private equity firm called Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for $4.7 billion. That's it for me. David Leary: [00:57:50] I have a one, two, three, four, five more app stories. We can just [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:57:54] You've got to run through them quickly because we're almost out of time. David Leary: [00:57:58] Acumatica, which is basically higher-end ERP software, they've really changed- because of COVID, they've changed where they're headed now. They have a heavy integration now, deep integration with Shopify. They now have advanced expense management, and they also have bank feeds now they've added, and they've actually added a point of sale for people that are doing omnicommerce. They're shifting because of people having to work at home. Airtable, I don't know. Have you ever used Airtable, Blake? Blake Oliver: [00:58:24] I don't think so.  David Leary: [00:58:24] We use Airtable to run the podcast, so you are using it.  Blake Oliver: [00:58:30] I have used it, okay. That's what you use for the sponsorship slots. David Leary: [00:58:33] Sponsorship slots. Essentially, when I discovered Airtable six years ago, and I remember talking to people at Airtable, I was like, "One day, accountants are gonna discover you and they're gonna love you." Airtable falls into that ... You've probably heard of the term; we've talked about "no code." Blake Oliver: [00:58:48] Right. David Leary: [00:58:48] It's like a spreadsheet that you can- but it's really a database, and you can connect things to it; you can connect Zapier to it; you can build out basically, miniature apps. It works out really, really well. They just raised $185 million, and their CEO was just brutally honest about it, which I think is really cool. He just said, "We didn't need the money," but he said once COVID hit, they wanted to seize the opportunity and not have to worry about the economy; if there's a little waves of this. They just want to have a long-term funding, so they can just not be distracted by the market and just continue to push forward.  [00:59:22] The other reason is they have a lot of competition now. In June, I don't even know how we missed this, but Amazon launched something called the Honeycode in June. Basically, it's a spreadsheet program that you create the spreadsheet and you magically build an app to host on Amazon Web Services. Microsoft released something called Microsoft List, which is a similar product. Rumor has it Google's making a product.  [00:59:46] These no-code platforms, I think accountants are gonna love these, because I think a lot of accountants have programmer minds, but they just don't know how to write code. No-code platforms are really like big, huge Excel formulas. I think these no-code tools are gonna be super-popular with accountants and bookkeepers, so it's good to see that they have another round, and they're gonna keep growing and improving that platform [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [01:00:10] 100% on that, just before you finish – defining your workflow is the number-one trick to making a cloud-based firm work. It's having a really, really solid workflow. I did something similar; I wish these tools had been available when I had my firm, but I used a tool from Citrix called Podio, which was similar, where it's a-  David Leary: [01:00:31] I remember that app. David Leary: [01:00:32] It's a custom database with a communications layer on top of it, but it's basically a spreadsheet with automation built in. You can connect different columns; you can create formulas, essentially; create workflows, and automation. This sort of thing is not new, but the fact that there are now so many options and different styles of it is really exciting. David Leary: [01:00:53] Maybe finally Excel has met its match. [crosstalk]. Blake Oliver: [01:00:56] Maybe.  David Leary: [01:00:56] I have two other teeny app news, because I always love it when accountants build apps. One of them is Bookkeeper360. Blake Oliver: [01:01:05] Oh, yeah. I saw this.  David Leary: [01:01:05] They launched an app, and basically what this app does, it integrates with Xero. I think Bookkeeper360 also, they have a lot of expertise in Salesforce, so I imagine this integrates in. Nick Pasquarosa, he's the founder and CEO – he's actually our listener, I think. He's on our home page. He left us a great review once [crosstalk] podcast.  [01:01:26] This, basically, will create performance dashboards, cash flow dashboards, real-time metrics, and on-demand access to your bookkeepers. In a weird way, it's not really a QuickBooks Live model, but imagine if this app is now your middleman between your Xero data and the bookkeeper you're working with at Bookkeeper360? Blake Oliver: [01:01:48] Well, and just from a marketing standpoint, man, what a great way to get your firm, your bookkeeping service visible, is to be listed as an app in the Xero marketplace? Now, you're surfacing to all those Xero users in a way that none of your competitors are? This is pretty awesome. David Leary: [01:02:04] It's almost like it's a real app, because I know there's these companies that will help accounting firms create these apps, and then it's just- Blake Oliver: [01:02:09] It's a glorified crappy portal, most of the time.  David Leary: [01:02:13] -or business card, or portal, yeah. It looks like everybody else's, and it's just not great. This looks like it's a true- this looks like a standalone separate product, so if people are searching in the market, this is gonna be a way for them to get new customers. Blake Oliver: [01:02:25] That's awesome. David Leary: [01:02:25] Because it looks like a standalone product. The last one is, Michael Lee, who's a listener, as well; a fan of the podcast, his product, Saasable, that he launched, now integrates with QuickBooks and is now in the QuickBooks Apps Store, which is a huge milestone to get to.  Blake Oliver: [01:02:41] That's really cool. David Leary: [01:02:41] The app basically helps automate the recurring revenue metrics in a real-time dashboard.  Blake Oliver: [01:02:47] For software as a service?  David Leary: [01:02:48] Software as a service companies, yeah. Blake Oliver: [01:02:49] Very nice. Well, that is all the time we have today, David, because it's Saturday, and my kid wants to go to the pool. I gotta go do something else other than just talk about accounting and apps, although I would love to do this all day long. If we wanna continue the conversation, where's the best place for people to do that with us? David Leary: [01:03:09] Definitely, you can reach me on Twitter, I'm @DavidLeary, and on LinkedIn, I'm @DavidLeary. Also, Blake, just so we don't forget, we're gonna be appearing and doing a keynote at the Accounting Finance Show Virtual Conference on October 20. Blake Oliver: [01:03:22] Oh yeah, that's gonna be really cool. David Leary: [01:03:23] We'll have links to that in the show notes. Hopefully, the plan is to have a cool survey, and then we'll talk about the results.  Blake Oliver: [01:03:29] We're gonna record it and release it as an episode. It'll be a live recording, right? David Leary: [01:03:33] Yes, yes. Blake Oliver: [01:03:34] You can reach me on Twitter, I'm at @BlakeTOliver, and on LinkedIn, as well. If you do connect with me, please say that you're a listener, or you can say, "I'm not a bot," that's how I know. If you want to leave us a message, you can call our listener voicemail line. What is that number, David? David Leary: [01:03:52] It's (202) 695-1040.  Blake Oliver: [01:03:56] Let us know what you think – (202) 695-1040 – about any of the topics we have discussed or anything that's top of mind for you. You could call in anonymously and tell us about how that CCH outage went for your firm. I'd love to hear more stories beyond my own personal network. David Leary: [01:04:13] I think that's it. It's interesting that phone number you picked ... I said I called the IRS this week, and I noticed, I was like, "Oh, their phone number's 1040 as well."  Blake Oliver: [01:04:20] Until next week, David, have a great whatever it is you have.  David Leary: [01:04:20] It's another week, another week of Zoom calls. Blake Oliver: [01:04:30] That's right. Another week of Zoom calls. Take care. David Leary: [01:04:33] Bye. ____________________ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100.  

Sponsors ADP Marketplace: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 05:46 – Melio Raises $144M to keep Small Businesses in Business by Simplifying their B2B Payments – Silicon Valley Daily           Melio Payments: Out of stealth with $144 million – Bessemer Venture Partners   06:53 – Is Working Remotely the Future of Finance? – CFO 07:41 – Auditors Struggle to Access Data, Count Inventory During Remote Work – Wall Street Journal 07:47 – 8 things to know about the audit evidence standard – AICPA 09:17 – DOJ: 57 Charged With Alleged PPP Fraud – PYMNTS.com   10:10 – More on Liar Loans – Wikipedia  11:52 – Quickie lender Kabbage doled out billions in PPP loans. A number of borrowers raised red flags. – Miami Herald  15:42 – SBA Loan Program Contractor and Rocket Loans Face Scrutiny – Wall Street Journal  18:26 – The FTC Is Investigating Intuit Over TurboTax Practices – ProPublica 20:39 – IRS Wants to Break Privacy on Monero and Bitcoin’s Lightning Network – News Break 22:48 – SaaS Firm CEO Resigns; Layoffs, Probe Follow – PYMNTS.com           CEO of cyber fraud startup NS8 arrested for defrauding investors in $123m scheme –ZDNet 25:44 – Major companies reject Trump’s payroll tax deferral – Accounting Today 28:09 – Employers added 1.4M jobs in August, but subtracted 1.6K in accounting – Accounting Today  29:16 – Millions of U.S. jobs to be lost for years, IRS projections show – Accounting Today 31:50 – Sage and Revolut partner to hand back three weeks of admin time to small business owners – Sage UK  33:20 – Deel Lands $30M For Workforce Payroll – PYMNTS.com 35:50 – How Do You Know a Human Wrote This? – New York Times        OpenAI’s new language generator GPT-3 is shockingly good—and completely mindless – MIT Technology Review 36:21 – GPT-3 bot that lets people with no accounting knowledge generate financial statements – Twitter  41:13 – The majority of workers use automation software at work—here's why – Zapier  48:12 – Time for REVIEWS!!!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with ADP Marketplace, a digital HR storefront. Be a more trusted advisor to your clients by recommending apps to help streamline HR processes and free up time to focus on people. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Marketplace, later in the episode. David Leary: [00:00:20] It's basically, President Trump's gonna get his next paycheck because he works for the federal government. There won't be Social Security taken out. Blake Oliver: [00:00:27] The 6.2% is not gonna be taken out, but then it's gonna get paid back next year, but I guess, if Trump isn't president next year, then he won't be paying back the Social Security. It'll be the White House that owes it, right? David Leary: [00:00:44] This is the perfect ... How come nobody's presenting it that way, Blake? This is genius. You should tweet this; it summarizes it perfectly. Blake Oliver: [00:00:48] I hadn't even thought of that until now. That's pretty funny, right?____________________ClockShark is the leading GPS, time-tracking, and scheduling system built for local construction and field-service companies that want a simpler way to track time, run payroll, and understand job costs. With the capabilities of crew tracking, scheduling, jobsite geofencing, teams, and project segmentation, automatic labor allocation, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking system to handle the unique challenges that face your clients.  With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like overtime, paid time off, unpaid time, hours per job, and tasks, as well as the crucial data needed for certified payroll. With the integrations ClockShark has, you'll be able to connect to one of many ADP payroll platforms through ADP Marketplace  and process payroll in minutes with the click of a button. ClockShark's pricing starts at just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark.____________________  This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before September 30, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:57] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast, I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:03:00] I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:03:01] It is Sunday, September 13, after, what did we just have? Labor Day? We had Labor Day. David Leary: [00:03:07] All your trash, you have your trash out the wrong day, and your recycling out the wrong day. Blake Oliver: [00:03:12] Yes, that's right. Well, I wasn't here. I was in South Lake Tahoe doing a leadership retreat for Jirav because we have raised $8.3 million this fall and we haven't been able to see each other to figure out, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna grow this company? It was critical that we get together, so we finally decided, we have to do it. We're just gonna, the six of us, get in a room together. Yeah, I was traveling for the first time since the pandemic. David Leary: [00:03:46] I was just gonna say ... Wow. Blake Oliver: [00:03:49] Yes. That was interesting. I have to say, the airports are set up very well to social distance, because there's not a ton of air travel. It's not like you're crammed together in the terminal. You can definitely social distance; through security, as well. Not a huge line. I flew Southwest, which is keeping the middle seats empty on planes, which made me feel very comfortable. I just sat near the window and kept my airflow going and wore my mask, and everybody was wearing masks. Compliance on that was super-high. I would say 98% of the people I saw were wearing them properly, over their nose and their mouth. So, I felt comfortable. I actually felt more comfortable in the airport and on the plane, than in many restaurants that I've seen, so ...  David Leary: [00:04:28] That's because you're in non-compliant Phoenix area. I'm starting to get the itch to travel. I wanna travel to New York City. I'd like to travel to Tel Aviv, where Melio was founded. Blake Oliver: [00:04:38] You were going to- David Leary: [00:04:39] They're in the news this week. Blake Oliver: [00:04:39] You've never been there to headquarters since you started, right? David Leary: [00:04:43] No, I was literally- I started at Melio and I was five minutes from the airport in Tucson here, and the COO called me on the cell phone and he's like, "Don't come, they're locking everything down." Then two days later, we locked everything down in The States. I literally have- Blake Oliver: [00:04:57] You had your bags packed. David Leary: [00:04:59] I still have clothes folded that I just took out of my suitcase and put back on the shelf, and never put away properly. Actually, I finally picked up my backpack because Starbucks ... You can go to Starbucks and work again. So, I did that one day this week. If you think about it, my backpack just sat there for eight months, or whatever this is now. Are we eight months into this now? Blake Oliver: [00:05:18] March, April, May, June, July, August, September. Yeah, past six months, seven months for some parts of the country. David Leary: [00:05:26] Because it started right after first week, second week of February. Blake Oliver: [00:05:30] In L.A., it started first week of March, was when people started to realize what was gonna happen. They- David Leary: [00:05:36] Taking it seriously. Anyways, the reason I wanna go is Melio was in the news this week. I don't know if you saw on Tuesday morning? Melio announced their Series B and their Series C rounds. Blake Oliver: [00:05:45] How much money? Are you rolling in dough now? David Leary: [00:05:50] Yeah, I'm rolling ... We've gotta hire a lot of bodies, right? This is a big job here, but they had a $48 million raise, and then an $80 million raise.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:58] Wow. David Leary: [00:05:58] For a total, with the Series A raise, it's a total of $144 million that has been raised now. Blake Oliver: [00:06:04] Were both announced at the same time because the first one wasn't previously announced, or did they both happen at the same time? David Leary: [00:06:10] The other one was previously announced. Blake Oliver: [00:06:12] Got it. David Leary: [00:06:14] Both announcements were at the same time on Tuesday and then, in COVID, a lot of it is just about how to double down and grow more during COVID times. Melio, basically, we had 700% growth, which makes sense, because I've talked to a lot of accountants and bookkeepers that are like-  they have small business clients; they can't use paper checks. Or the bookkeeper took the paper checks home, but they don't work on her printer or his printer, and then the business owner has to drive over there twice a week to sign the paper checks. It's just, there's a lot of things going against using paper checks right now, and Melio solves that, ultimately. Blake Oliver: [00:06:49] It's not just small businesses that feel that pain. I was just reading an article in CFO, talking about the future of finance in mid-sized to large organizations. One of the quotes was from Steven Horowitz, the CFO at CareCentrix, and he said, "The only time finance staff had to go to the office, was to scan physical mail and bills into their smartphones to process accounts payable." Isn't that amazing? That's the only time. So, you guys are doing good work. It's very, very timely. David Leary: [00:07:17] The fact that people have to take photos of the bills, it reminds me of a feature and a request that I need to work on for Melio, because we don't let people email the bills in yet. Blake Oliver: [00:07:25] Oh yes, I really want that. I got some more remote stories. Like I mentioned, finance teams are moving remotely, with a lot of success. There was a story in the Wall Street Journal about how auditors are struggling to work remotely, which doesn't surprise me given the reliance on paper for a lot of auditing and in-person interviews. [00:07:46] There's some good news; the AICPA issued a new audit evidence standard that allows for non-human evidence collection. The PCAOB, which regulates public companies on that end, is also considering revising their audit evidence rule, bringing some potential relief to teams that are working remotely on the audit and on the finance side. David Leary: [00:08:11] I got a survey from Zapier on the state of automation software and lots of cool data and things in that to look at. TurboTax, the FTC is investigating now on the whole Intuit deceptive marketing stuff, where Intuit employees are gonna be called in to testify. Blake Oliver: [00:08:28] That'll be interesting. Like public testimony? David Leary: [00:08:31] Yeah. Intuit handed over millions of pages of documents. It's almost like that overwhelm disclosure. "All right, here. Here's 500 million pages of emails you can go through. Build your case." Blake Oliver: [00:08:43] Well, speaking of investigations, Intuit's not the only tech company under investigation. Kabbage is under investigation for its PPP loan program, which we've discussed. David Leary: [00:08:53] Really? Blake Oliver: [00:08:53] Yes, they were very successful, but now, that has attracted attention. Rocket Loans, and the contractor associated with Rocket Loans that helped them get all that work for the EIDL program, they're also under investigation-  David Leary: [00:09:09] Why don't we jump into people that are under investigation, as a category today? I have- it talks about PPP fraud. Apparently, 57 total people have been charged as of now. Blake Oliver: [00:09:21] Only 57? That's sounds low. David Leary: [00:09:23] That was my thought as well. I saw just 57. If they said there's been 2 billion dollars in fraud, which I think was some of the reports a couple of weeks ago- Blake Oliver: [00:09:30] That's the estimate, right? David Leary: [00:09:31] -and only 57 charged. How long is this going to- it's like getting audited by the IRS. The odds are on your side. Blake Oliver: [00:09:39] Very much so. David Leary: [00:09:41] If you committed a PPP fraud, the chance of you getting caught is very low, actually. Blake Oliver: [00:09:44] It's really easy to commit PPP fraud, or it was, I guess, because you can't do it anymore. It was very easy because you just had to self-certify to the payroll, to the need, and it was up to the banks to do a little bit of due diligence on that, but not much, because the law insulates them from having to do an audit, and to have to actually verify this information. [00:10:10] People are talking about this is very similar to the Liar Loans of the 2008-2009 mortgage crisis, where you had banks issuing mortgages without any documentation at all, of people's income and stuff like that. As far as Kabbage goes, this is really interesting to me because we talked about how Kabbage got acquired by Amex, back in August. They were one of the first companies to jump on PPP. For our listeners who are not familiar with Kabbage, they are a digital lender to small businesses. Connect to your QuickBooks file, and Kabbage will tell you how much you can borrow, and then you can borrow online. It's very streamlined. You don't have to go to a bank. [00:10:56] That was Kabbage's main business, was just making these relatively small loans to small businesses. When coronavirus hit, that business went away. They shut that down, and they pivoted very, very quickly to processing PPP loans. By the end of August, they were number two for issuing PPP loans. They got very quickly up and running; an amazing pivot. That is what caught the attention of Amex, American Express, which agreed to acquire substantial parts of the business and- David Leary: [00:11:26] But didn't Amex not get the PPP part? Blake Oliver: [00:11:29] Right.  David Leary: [00:11:29] That's what was very confusing about the whole acquisition. Blake Oliver: [00:11:31] They are acquiring the technology platform, which makes a lot of sense, because if the tech platform is so good that they were able to go from doing micro loans to PPP loans that fast, as a tech company ...? David Leary: [00:11:42] Because they have all the pipes. They have all the pipes built. Blake Oliver: [00:11:45] Right. Amex is buying that for- it's billions, right? It's a lot of money. David Leary: [00:11:50] It was a good $800 million or something. Blake Oliver: [00:11:52] Here's the thing about this - did Kabbage, in rushing to process all those loans, not do enough checking of the people who were going through their platform? Well, a joint investigation by the Miami Herald/McClatchy DC and Anti-Corruption Data Collective flagged more than 75 companies that received loans of at least $150,000 from the coronavirus Small Business Relief Program, but didn't appear to have existed before the spring, or to have met other eligibility criteria for the program. Now, of those 75 companies, one in five got their loans from Kabbage, so that's quite a good chunk considering the- Kabbage [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:12:34] So, they identified 75 potential frauds and one out of every ...? Blake Oliver: [00:12:38] Five, yeah.  David Leary: [00:12:38] -five of those 75 just coincidentally went through Kabbage. Blake Oliver: [00:12:44] Kabbage processed fewer than 1% of all PPP loans. Really, you would expect maybe one of those companies to be Kabbage, given the total volume of loans. If Kabbage processed 1% of PPP loans, then maybe, one company on that list of 75 would be a Kabbage company, but it was one in five of those companies, so 15 of the 75, right? David Leary: [00:13:10] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:13:13] That indicates maybe that something might not have been right there. David Leary: [00:13:18] Then why is Kabbage under investigation then? Is it because they think Kabbage did something to enable this on purpose or to push the loans through prematurely or without due diligence or is it just criminals found a hole- they figured out that they were the easiest to push loans through, so they attracted more criminals? Blake Oliver: [00:13:37] I'm not totally clear on that. There is some requirement on these lenders to do something to ensure that the loans are not fraudulent. It's not very much, but the question is, were they just pushing through these without even checking the documentation at all? David Leary: [00:13:55] It feels like it's just easy to solve because that's the same thing with this article that I have, which was in PYMNTS. They have businesses that basically said they had dozens of employees in four different businesses, but they actually didn't have any employees at all - zero employees. [00:14:12] The thing is, you're the bank; you're giving the money. The SBA doesn't give you the money. You don't get the money from the SBA first and then use that to put out loans. You're giving a loan of your money and then you're going to the SBA and saying, "Hey, I gave out this loan. Here's why it's a qualified loan, please reimburse me." Really, is there even a crime committed here? Ultimately, the bank made a bad loan, or Kabbage made a bad loan. They gotta eat it. Blake Oliver: [00:14:36] I don't know what's gonna happen with this, but I think it all boils down to the forgiveness process. If forgiveness is rubber stamped, like you have said it's going to be, or you've predicted it's going to be, then none of this will ever matter because most of these loans will just get forgiven. If they were fraudulent, oh, well. [00:14:56] In the case of those businesses that didn't have any payroll at all and then they claimed to have all these employees, what were they uploading as evidence of their payroll? You had to include some evidence, some documentation. Were the lending platforms even requiring it? That's my question. Maybe they were just- David Leary: [00:15:15] You're just creating a PDF. I just printed a report from OnPay and just uploaded it. Somebody could have- it's probably not hard to figure out what the report looks like in something like ADP, and just fake it and create a fake PDF and upload it. Blake Oliver: [00:15:29] I don't know. We'll see, right? David Leary: [00:15:32] It's like the coffee guys, they were uploading those, and the Wirecard guys. They were just creating fake bank statements. Blake Oliver: [00:15:40] I've got one more fraud story here that I mentioned. The EIDL program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which has, itself, been kind of a disaster because, unlike the PPP program, EIDL loans did not get out very quickly. It has been plagued by delays and also plagued by pervasive fraudulent activity. Over 5,000 cases identified by the SBA Inspector General and an estimated $250 million in fraud, so far.  [00:16:09] Lawmakers are drilling down on this one relationship that the SBA has with a contractor that is helping with the EIDL program. Get this, the SBA awarded a $770 million contract, actually, at least $770 million. We don't know the total amount. They awarded at least $770 million to a contractor called RER Solutions Inc., in Virginia, to process EIDL loans and grants to help get them up and running faster; moving those loans through faster. [00:16:42] They got a $770 million contract. They only have 40 employees. The last contract they got from the SBA was for $10 million in 2018. So, they went from doing a $10 million contract, to doing a $770 million contract with only 40 employees. The whole point was to help the SBA accelerate EIDL. There was no competitive bidding on this. This was something the SBA just did very quickly. Now, RER, with only 40 employees, obviously, could not help that much, so they subcontracted the bulk of the work to Rocket Loans. The parent company of Rocket Loans also owns Quicken Loans. You've seen their ads everywhere, I'm sure. [00:17:19] Now, Rocket Loans hasn't said how much it made as a subcontractor, but just think about this. You've got $770 million going to this 40-person company to process EIDL loans and they just turn around and subcontract to Rocket Loans. How much are they skimming off of this? How much money is this little consulting agency making as a result of its political connection to the SBA? Why didn't the SBA just go and contract with Rocket Loans directly? This is the kind of skimming and grift and graft in the ... This is the swamp. David Leary: [00:17:50] This is politics. Blake Oliver: [00:17:51] Just think about this. That's one contract. How much of this stimulus money is actually just being eaten up by fees to banks, fees to contractors? A lot of it could be not getting to the small businesses because of that. David Leary: [00:18:08] Yeah, and I think we're gonna- we'll jump into Intuit's thing, but I have two more articles that are fraud-related, too. Blake Oliver: [00:18:15] Well, let's talk about that. I'm curious to hear about Intuit. What's the ...?  David Leary: [00:18:18] We can jump over to that one. This is the whole Intuit-TurboTax Free File. ProPublica has covered it extensively; they exposed it. They are now covering the fact that the FTC is investigating Intuit over these practices. The investigation has been under way for more than a year. Intuit produced a half-a-million pages of documents in response to the FTC's first civil investigative demands. It's almost like a subpoena, but essentially, they're just starting to subpoena and get the records ... A million pages of documents. Blake Oliver: [00:18:51] The FTC is investigating now. What were the investigations that were happening before? Was that Congress? Was that ...? David Leary: [00:18:56] It was Congress. That's what really drove this. There was demands by- it was a bipartisan order. There was demands ... Elizabeth Warren. She was one of the people driving this. They demanded this investigation. Then, it moved from a high-level investigation to now, they're getting into the weeds, right? Blake Oliver: [00:19:15] Got it.  David Leary: [00:19:15] Essentially, there was just fights about the company records and the conduct of Intuit. Now, what's happening is they're actually bringing in- they're gonna have a hearing with at least eight different Intuit employees. They're gonna require at least five Intuit employees to testify over several days. Blake Oliver: [00:19:32] Wow. I'm gonna have my TV on, watching C-SPAN, and I'm gonna get to see Intuit getting grilled [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:19:39] Well, it doesn't say if that's in a Congress-type thing, but- so, this has crossed a whole new line from being very political grandstanding. "Oh, bad Intuit, they did this," to there's real legal things happening here. There's a couple of outcomes they're suggesting that could happen,  [00:19:54] Previous FTC investigations in the past have led to large cash settlements and refunds for customers. Some have agreements by companies just to stop the practices, and then they could also just conclude Intuit did nothing and just drop the whole thing. It'll be interesting to see where this goes next. This is just taking another escalating turn. [00:20:13] In the meantime, Intuit out there claiming they filed more free returns than any other software product on the market, combined. Maybe Intuit's not even successful at this, of getting people to upgrade and not use the free product. It'll be interesting where this goes, but it's basically in to that next level. Blake Oliver: [00:20:32] Well, we're talking about politics. We could talk about the payroll tax deferral unless you've got some more fraud stories. David Leary: [00:20:37] I got two more fraud-related type things. The IRS is now offering ... They have a request for proposals for people to help crack two different types of Bitcoin products, Monero, and Lightning. They're two different protocols ... Remember we talked about ransomware as a service? Blake Oliver: [00:20:55] Mm-hmm. David Leary: [00:20:55] These people that are hacking and doing ransomware, they don't want Bitcoin anymore because people can- it's not private. The IRS can track it. Now, basically, they're looking for people- the IRS is looking for people to help crack these two other protocols that are super-secure and private. Blake Oliver: [00:21:10] A cryptocurrency is where you can't easily trace the wallets and where the money's gone. David Leary: [00:21:15] It's interesting that the IRS wants to crack this, because if somebody's doing ransomware as a service, I don't think the IRS cares if it's legal or not legal. They just need to make sure taxes are being paid on it. If you have a ransomware as a service business, you've gotta pay your income taxes [inaudible]  Blake Oliver: [00:21:32] This is one of the interesting things about cryptocurrency. Often, the analogy is that Bitcoin is like digital cash, but it's not really, because cash, you can't track it very easily. If I hand you a million in cash, David, it's very difficult for somebody to track that money back to me after you've spent it, but with Bitcoin, every single person in that transaction history has a unique identifier. You can trace the movement of Bitcoin through all time, back to its inception. It's more like credit cards, in that way, than it is like cash. David Leary: [00:22:10] There's a  trail, right? Blake Oliver: [00:22:12] Right. David Leary: [00:22:12] It's all connected down the line. Blake Oliver: [00:22:15] What these other services do is that they obfuscate the trail, so that it is more like digital cash. That's really scary for the IRS and for all tax authorities because cash is a big problem when it comes to collecting taxes. Imagine if it was easy- if we had digital cash, you didn't have to carry around in briefcases and smuggle across borders and whatnot, it'd be almost impossible to tax [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:22:40] Well, you know what'd be great for small businesses? If there was some software that helped you detect online fraud. Blake Oliver: [00:22:45] Oh, yeah. David Leary: [00:22:45] Though, there is. There's software called NS8. It's a Las Vegas-based online fraud prevention and detection software maker for small businesses, small to medium businesses, and also, they had a bunch of abrupt layoffs and their CEO resigned. It's turning out, it's looking- there's a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. The company that specializes in fraud prevention and detection, basically has frauds happening at the company. Blake Oliver: [00:23:16] Financial fraud going on there? David Leary: [00:23:18] Yes, yes. Blake Oliver: [00:23:18] Oh, boy. David Leary: [00:23:19] The quote from the CEO that just resigned in response to Forbes, via LinkedIn, he said, "I did not walk away with the company's money." Blake Oliver: [00:23:28] Where did it go? What's the scope of this fraud? David Leary: [00:23:33] They were founded in 2012 with 50 employees. They grew to over 200 in the last year. In June, they closed a Series A with Lightspeed Venture Partners for $123 million in June. That's what, three months ago? They're burning $4-$6 million a month, and they're gonna run out, but there's ... This has just happened very quickly. All the sudden, they're laying people off. CEO resigned. The investigation has popped up. It's a story that basically just broke. Maybe we'll have more news on this next week. [crosstalk] I find it very ironic that here's a company that specializes in fraud detection who has people working there committing possible fraud.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Marketplace. How can you be a more trusted advisor for your clients as they face new challenges? By recommending solutions from ADP Marketplace, ADP's digital HR storefront. With ADP Marketplace, clients can try, buy, and implement highly rated HR apps that can share data with ADP. With secured data integrations, it's easy to streamline HR processes and adapt to new business needs. Help your clients discover new ways to recruit and onboard employees, boost performance, offer unique financial-wellness benefits, and much more.   With integrations for popular business software, like Expensify, PayActiv, Slack, and ClockShark, clients can add value to the tools they already use by simply and securely connecting them to ADP. Have clients in field service, or construction? ClockShark can help them track time to quickly and accurately run payroll, all integrated with ADP. Visit ADP Marketplace at apps.ADP.com, or right from your Accountant Connect dashboard. Not set up with Accountant Connect? Sign up today. It's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. ADP has your back with ADP Marketplace.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:25:29] Well let's talk about the payroll tax deferral. One of our- David Leary: [00:25:32] Speaking of other possible frauds. Blake Oliver: [00:25:35] One of our previous top stories, as listeners will recall, the Trump administration was not able to reach a compromise with Congress to extend stimulus, still has not, and unilaterally declared a payroll tax deferral starting September 1, that would go through the end of the year. Then the amounts would, if not forgiven by Congress, then be collected in the first four months of 2021. Now, there was a lot of discussion as to whether or not companies would actually participate in this program, because the IRS said that employers are on the hook for the payroll tax, that they aren't able to collect from employees who leave before January or sometime in between. If there's any issues, it's on the employer and ... David Leary: [00:26:27] Ultimately, it's optional. As an employer, it's optional. Blake Oliver: [00:26:29] It's optional as an employer, yeah. We were saying on the show, at least I was saying I don't think anybody is gonna do this because it's stupid. I would not do it as an employer. This is a risk to me. It's extra headache work and it doesn't really, in the end, help my employees because they're gonna end up paying the same amount. It's just shifting the burden and could even make it harder for them to manage their cash flow because now, suddenly, their paychecks will be smaller in 2021. That's what happened. No major private employer has stepped forward with plans to forgo withholding. Costco said they're not gonna do it. UPS is saying no; FedEx, no; Walmart, Macy's, Procter & Gamble have said no comment. [00:27:07] The only large employer that is proceeding with its workers is the federal government because the administration can make that happen. Ironically, the federal government was late getting started. The withholding didn't start on September 1 because the regulations or the guidance just came out on the day before. They are starting the withholding in mid-September, so, I'm gonna guess this week's paychecks probably will have- David Leary: [00:27:33] Basically, President Trump's gonna get his next paycheck because he works for the federal government. There won't be Social Security taken out. Blake Oliver: [00:27:40] The 6.2% is not gonna be taken out, but then it's gonna get paid back next year. I guess if Trump isn't president next year, then he won't be paying back the Social Security. It'll be the White House that owes it, right? David Leary: [00:27:56] This is the perfect- how come nobody's presenting it that way, Blake? This is genius. You should tweet this; it summarizes it perfectly. Blake Oliver: [00:28:02] I hadn't even thought of that until now. That's pretty funny. Speaking of jobs, August was a pretty decent month for jobs. Employers added 1.4 million jobs in August, but we subtracted 1,600 accounting jobs. This doesn't surprise me, though, because there's a lag in the accounting world where the economy takes a hit. A lot of these engagements, a lot of this work that we're doing, it has to get finished before firms and businesses do any layoffs in the accounting and finance teams. We're so insulated in that way. Then the job losses are never as bad as they are in the overall economy, just because it's not like you can stop doing accounting and tax and finance and stuff. David Leary: [00:28:44] Somebody has to count up the beans to figure out who to lay off, right? Blake Oliver: [00:28:47] Exactly [crosstalk] Pretty much a wash for accounting in August, if you think about it in the big scheme of things. The unemployment rate fell to 8.4% from 10.2% in July, but before you take this as great news - the economy's recovering, we're all- this is the bottom, and now, we're gonna the top - the IRS has projections that it has to do to estimate tax collections in future years. [00:29:16] They have released information saying they are projecting lower levels of employment in the U.S. that will persist for years as the results of the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The IRS is forecasting that there will be about 229 million employee-classified jobs in 2021. That is 37 million fewer than it had estimated last year. That's an estimate of the number of W-2s, so it doesn't totally fit the number of jobs, but it's a pretty good approximation of that. [00:29:47] They are also estimating, and this is where it gets  scary, the lower rates of W-2 filings are gonna persist through at least 2027, with about 15.9 million fewer forms filed that year compared with prior estimates. We're in 2020, and they're projecting forward to 2027, and although we're 37 million fewer W-2s next year, we're not gonna get all those 37 million back, even in six years. It might be half, or 60%, or something like that. Yeah, it's gonna be a long recovery, and I don't see this as being politically motivated, in that this is the IRS doing projections for its own purposes. It's not typically politically-motivated here. [00:30:36] We all hope that this is a quick recovery, but I would temper that expectation. I've heard stuff from experts saying even if we have a vaccine this year, then it's gonna take a year to roll it out and for things to go back to normal. 2021, not necessarily gonna be normal again. I know you don't like hearing that, David, because you really wanna get back to in-person events, and I do, too. David Leary: [00:31:03] It's gonna be slow. Blake Oliver: [00:31:03] Slow. David Leary: [00:31:03] Football starts today, so ... Blake Oliver: [00:31:06] That's good. David Leary: [00:31:07] I think we're slowly getting back in there. I have two small app news, and then I just have one ... I do definitely wanna talk about that survey. What else do you have on your plate? Blake Oliver: [00:31:15] Let's see here. I have an AI story. That is really the one thing I wanna talk about, because it's super-cool. So, why don't you hit your stuff and we'll finish out with AI? Then I think we got some listener-  we got a listener voicemail and maybe a review or two. David Leary: [00:31:31] Yeah, we got four reviews. It's amazing! Let me knock out some quick, small app news. So, Sage and Revolut- remember, we talked about Revolut? They are that neobank, new bank in Europe and they're now coming to the States. I think, I saw this week, they've launched in Japan now, but they also have their Revolut business customers; they've rolled that out. [00:31:50] They had a press release with Sage that they're- reading the press release, the summary is, its bank feeds. Revolut's  gonna basically be integrated with Sage and come down in the bank feed, which I think- actually, I don't think these announcements, when a bank announces they're integrated, and they just have a bank feed is really news. [00:32:08] I feel like what's news about this is usually these neobanks get neglected or these newer- a credit card product like a Brex or a Divvy, don't get bank feeds into QuickBooks, and that makes them harder to use those products- these newer banks, these newer products that are out there. The fact that Revolut is now getting "into Sage" probably by bank feed is a big deal. It speaks well for these smaller banks. They're getting noticed. [00:32:35] From a priority standpoint, it was very easy, I think, for a company like Intuit to be like, "We'll just take care of the Sages and the American Expresses of the world, and all these big companies," and they ignored these newer banks. Obviously, there's enough- these new banks now are getting used by enough small businesses, where the accounting software packages have to integrate them properly into the bank feeds. Blake Oliver: [00:32:55] Well, that's great, because without that bank feed, you can't support clients on those banks. It's like, remember the new Apple credit card? David Leary: [00:33:05] Oh, yeah. The Quicken integration we talked about. Blake Oliver: [00:33:07] I still don't think there's a QuickBooks integration, so if you've got customers using that, it's got to be a disaster. I wouldn't wanna support that. David Leary: [00:33:15] It's gonna be tough. We talked about this company Deel before. They took a Series B investment of $30 million. Their software- basically, they are global payroll. The theory is, it's one software package. You can hire your employees anywhere in the globe, and you have one package to do staff, contractors, compliance, payroll, all in one package. Now, I don't know how they're building this. I don't know how they're able to keep track of all the localized compliance and automating the payments through this, but they're going for it. They just took another round to keep pushing down this path.  [00:33:57] I've seen companies like this before. This is the same- Xero's probably tried to deal with it. Intuit's tried to deal with it. This is why you have QuickBooks Payroll here in the States. They partnered with Wagepoint, and QuickBooks does in Canada. I forgot who the partner was in the UK. Then in Australia, it's KeyPay ... Same thing with Xero, right? Xero, here in the States, partners with Gusto. Xero tried to build their own payroll here in the States and wasn't successful at it. I even think Intuit purchased a global payroll provider company five years ago and just nothing ever seemed to happen from that. I think this is a very, very, very tough thing to solve, but these guys, it looks like these guys are just only trying to do this. They're not like, "Hey, we're gonna build payroll for one country and then try to figure out a second country." There's not many people that have done it successfully. I know Wagepoint is able to do U.S. in Canada, and that's one of the few exceptions. Blake Oliver: [00:34:54] Well, this is really interesting to hear. I'd be curious to know what their market target is. Is it midsized businesses, large businesses? Because, like you said, doing this is insanely difficult, but if they can, they could own this category of global payroll. Really cool. David Leary: [00:35:09] It doesn't really say what size businesses they're going for. It's just, they're- This is that startup, loosey-goosey, very inspirational, "We wanna just help people hire people everywhere. You can have a global workforce ... You can get the best talent wherever they are." Blake Oliver: [00:35:27] Interesting. Well, I've got an app story. It's not specifically accounting, it's artificial intelligence. You know I am a skeptic of artificial intelligence in the accounting profession. I think it's been overblown for years, but I saw something this last few weeks that blew my mind, and I think it really will make a humongous difference. [00:35:50] The new technology is called GPT-3. GPT-3 is what you should search for if you wanna find out about this on Google. It's created by Open AI, an artificial intelligence research lab based in SF. It is a machine learning, natural language-processing artificial intelligence. [00:36:11] It can do some really, really interesting things with that. For instance, somebody built- on Twitter, there's a video by @itsyashdani, who built a bot plugging into this AI that lets people with no accounting knowledge generate financial statements. It really does that. He set up a balance sheet template in a Google Sheet with assets, current assets, non-current assets, liabilities, owner's equities. [00:36:39] He laid out all the sections and the different accounts, and then, in his Python script that's connected to GPT-3, he types in transactions such as, "I put $20,000 in cash into the business." Then, you can see on the other side of the screen, the cash amount getting added onto the balance sheet, into current assets in the cash line. Then he types, "I prepaid $900 for the rent for the next three months," and the AI puts the $900 in the right spot on the balance sheet. David Leary: [00:37:11] Now, is this really AI or is this- because this is the same kind of things I saw built at the hackathons on QuickBooks that people would build with Amazon Alexa, or a Google Voice thing, where they basically have to program all those phrases in. Is this one of those you- it's like Microsoft DOS, you've gotta type it or say it the right way, or it's not getting on that balance sheet? Blake Oliver: [00:37:31] No, that's what's miraculous about this. GPT-3 is a general AI. Nobody programmed these financial statement phrases into it. What it does is it goes into its database and then it parses that sentence and tries to figure out what you want it to do, and it does it. It can actually- this is the sort of AI, where it could really look at a bank statement line and know how to categorize it in the GL. We have seen some companies doing that in our space. David Leary: [00:38:00] It has billions of pieces of data, and some of that data that it has refers to how to properly track an owner's investment in the business. Then it's extrapolating that out into a journal entry and sticking it into that Google Sheet, basically. Blake Oliver: [00:38:17] Yeah, it does it by best fit. It doesn't actually understand what you wanna do. It just looks through the massive database of information and tries to figure out, "Well, of all the accounts that are in the spreadsheet, when he says that, 'I put $20,000 into the business,' what does that most likely mean?" Based on all of the data it has, it says, "Oh, it must be cash because that's what other people do. That's what has been done in the past." This is actually not the most common use case for this AI. The stuff that you actually see that's really cool is somebody wrote an email plugin for Gmail where you write a bullet list of stuff you want it to say, and then it goes and takes those bullet points and turns it into a full email, and paragraphs in prose. David Leary: [00:39:10] It's like having a ghostwriter. Blake Oliver: [00:39:11] Yes. it's able to do that very well because it can look at all the emails you've ever written and then take that list of bullets and get that information into text that looks and sounds like you, based on what you've done in the past. That actually is a really cool application for this, and I hope somebody really writes that. I hope Google uses that because how great would it be if you could just write a bullet point of things that you want your email to say, and then it goes and adds the nice greeting like, "Hey, how are you doing today? Just wanted to let you know that blah, blah, blah," and then, puts all that in there?  David Leary: [00:39:46] Or you could just be a better service to the person you're emailing, and just send them the bulleted list. That's the whole point of this. Just send them the bullets, don't send them all the extra text. Nobody wants to see that. Actually, you know what I want? I want AI that strips all the other shit out of somebody's email and just gives me the points. Blake Oliver: [00:40:02] You could do it with that; you could do that with this, probably. David Leary: [00:40:06] That would be useful. [crosstalk] That would be really useful. Yes, I get an email and there's three sentences, and it's the only three I need to read, and all the other crap is gone. Actually, the whole internet should act like that. There should be some browser plugin that just strips off everything. Blake Oliver: [00:40:21] I don't know if I've done a great job explaining what this thing does. I think seeing the examples is really cool. Check out our show notes, but if the link isn't in there yet, when you listen, just search GPT-3 Beta, and see what people are doing with it, because it is amazing, and super-cool, and powerful. I think this will have a big impact on accounting and finance, especially when it comes to writing executive summary reports of what happened in the financial statements. There's apps that do that now, but they're limited because they had to be preprogrammed by the programmers to always say, "Our current ratio is this, and the cash in the bank is this." That may not be actually what's the most interesting.  David Leary: [00:41:08] Got it. Speaking of this AI, you'd use it as a tool to automate your work. Blake Oliver: [00:41:11] Yeah. Yeah. David Leary: [00:41:13] Zapier released their State of Automation at Work survey. There's some cool data in this. Start at a very high level. Now, two-thirds of knowledge workers currently use automation software at work. Another 18% intend to use it in the future. Blake Oliver: [00:41:29] It's not replacing us so much as super-charging what we can do. David Leary: [00:41:34] Yeah, and there's tons of stats on this, but they basically- these are employees, right? These are people that are knowledge workers. They're saying, "Automation software improves the way I work." 38% of people agree with that. Blake Oliver: [00:41:46] How many people? What percent? David Leary: [00:41:47] 38%. Blake Oliver: [00:41:48] Only 38%? David Leary: [00:41:50] Only 38%. "Automation software helps me be more organized at work." 40% of people agree with that statement. 43%, "It helps me complete tasks faster." Almost everybody in the survey, 96%, so they get a benefit from it of some type. Some of the highlights on that is that it reduces the number of errors, 38%. They say they get more done, 37%. It makes me better at my job, overall, 36%, which I think that's a really, really interesting one, because I think that gets lost in the shuffle when you- if you're automating some of your work, Blake, in theory, it's not so you can go to the bar and drink. You're doing that because you're trying to accomplish bigger company goals, and that's a really big one that helps you more, overall.  [00:42:39] Saving time, that comes in here. Saving money, doing things I value or enjoy more. Another one that really caught my eye is automation software prevents work from falling through the cracks. That's where I think I find a lot of benefit of it. I'm using it for some lead capture. I did a webinar with QBO Chat. If somebody watches that webinar, it automatically puts the email address into a Google Sheet. I'll forget to go get them and move them over to our lead sheet, but I just have it automated and it just goes from the Google Sheet Kathy Iconis made with QBO chat and gets it over into the Google Sheet, I need it in.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:12] Yeah, I would agree with that. The confidence that you can have with automation versus having to run the business from your email inbox and try to remember to do everything is super-powerful. David Leary: [00:43:23] Then, so there was a survey about- and you can take a guess on this. What stops people from using automation? What do you think one of the reasons are? Blake Oliver: [00:43:32] Lack of knowledge of how to set it up, maybe? Some sort of fear of it? David Leary: [00:43:38] Yeah, I think there's little of that. About 17% of the people say that their workplace isn't tech savvy. 23% didn't even know it was an option. Blake Oliver: [00:43:47] Or lack of knowledge there, yeah. David Leary: [00:43:48] Lack of knowledge. Then, some aren't sure how it could be useful for the job they're doing right now. They're almost mentally blocked. They're like, "Oh yeah, I'm sure, but that's just for other guys in the other department." They're not seeing how can be specific to them. Then, like you said, some people are afraid of using it. They think it'll change their role or their responsibilities. Then, there's the straight-out, plain, straight-up, "I am afraid of using automation software," 40%. Just, it's not even like, "I'm afraid to learn it," just "I'm afraid of it." It was a good survey. This is about 1,800 U.S.-employed adults ages 18, and older. Of those 1,100, 900 were knowledge workers, specifically sitting at a computer all day. That was their job. Blake Oliver: [00:44:34] Interesting. Well, in the short amount of time we've got left, I wanna make sure that we hear the voice mail that we got. We got another voice mail, and then, we've got one review, and then we'll take it out. Here we go. Mary: [00:44:45] Hey, my name is Mary, and I'm calling from the Bay Area in California. I'm just starting a practice. I love your show. I've just discovered it. It's full of extremely useful information. I follow it every week and have gone backwards, so thanks so much for doing it. I'm sorry I'm a little late to the conversation about value pricing. I appreciate the idea of the consumer surplus. Some people are willing to pay more than others, so why leave that extra money on the table?  [00:45:16] But I'm curious to know the extent to which that perpetuates certain groups paying more than others. For example, people who don't feel as comfortable negotiating, or people who aren't as clear about their options. Like in salaries, would women and people of color get the short end of the stick? Of course, you can say that the market would take care of that with competition, but in my experience, humans are just way more complicated than that. This is more of a question than a stake in the ground. I just wanted to add that to the conversation. Again, I love your show, and I'll be listening every week. Thanks. Blake Oliver: [00:45:49] Thank you, Mary. Thanks for listening, and actually, that's a great insight, and it's something I don't think about enough, I don't think, is how value pricing discriminates in a negative way. We even use that word "discriminate," because that's what you do when you value price. You're giving a different price for the same service to different customers. We have to be careful when we do that, that we don't do it in a bad way, or a wrong way, or an unethical way. David Leary: [00:46:18] Because it's even illegal in some circumstances, right? Blake Oliver: [00:46:22] Yes. David Leary: [00:46:22] Charging for rent and things like that. Blake Oliver: [00:46:25] Yeah, so I don't have the- I don't know if I have the answer for that. I think it's important to have, I guess it would be important to have measures in place to make sure that we don't discriminate unfairly based on race, gender, sexual orientation, all of, the whole list. David Leary: [00:46:43] It's an unintended consequence that maybe people aren't thinking about that could take place. It could be one of those things where it takes place over time, and we won't know until years down the road and like, "Oh, God. Maybe this value-billing thing ..." Maybe Ron Baker is completely wrong. 30 years from now, we discover it was the worst piece of advice to ever come out of the accounting industry. Blake Oliver: [00:47:04] This is why I'm a fan of making most of the services, especially the entry level services that your firm offers fixed fees. Because then, it's fair to everybody who comes to the firm, it's the same. You can have tiers of that, of course, but it's fair because of that. Also, the people looking at your site, or when you present these fixed fees, you can say, "This is our fee that everybody pays at this range of their business." Me, as a customer, I like that. It doesn't mean you necessarily put it on your website, but the way you present it can be like that.  [00:47:36] Fixed fees are a way to avoid the value-pricing danger of discriminating improperly. You could have lots of different types of fixed fees for different sizes of business. The whole idea is to, if you wanna standardize your practice, is to not have to do value pricing all that much because it's time-consuming and tedious. If you're not doing big engagements, where it's a very heavy time investment, then you really don't need it, if you ask me; you don't need that much. David Leary: [00:48:06] We do have four reviews. You wanna just knock those out here? Blake Oliver: [00:48:10] Wow, four? That's awesome. Yeah, let's do it. David Leary: [00:48:12] I'll jump into the first one here. This is Kate Josephine Johnson. This review is on Podchaser. It's five stars. "The Cloud Accounting Podcast has been an absolutely invaluable asset to me as I built my new bookkeeping business over the last couple of years. I don't have a ton of time to weed through the relevant industry news. I can trust David and Blake to give me the most important news I need to know. I also appreciate how the podcast continues to help me build my professional confidence. I'm an entrepreneur and bookkeeper for the first time in my life after having been out of the workforce for many years.  [00:48:42] It is as if The Cloud Accounting Podcast helped me relearn the language of business and quickly get me brought up to speed with new bookkeeping industry, I find myself in. I highly recommend this product and I'm always recommending it, especially for anyone who is new in the bookkeeping and accounting world. You'll learn the language of the industry very quickly. You'll be a better advisor to your clients. You will learn information that can help you directly apply to be successful in your own business. I listen to every episode." Kate Josephine Johnson of Heritage Business Solutions and the Bookkeeping Side Hustle. Thank you, Kate. That's amazing. Blake Oliver: [00:49:15] Thanks so much, Kate. Great to hear. Our second review comes from Omolara. "I have been listening to Dave, and Blake, or Blake, and Dave for about a year now. Their podcast is super-relevant for accountants, especially those in public accounting. When I set out to start listening to various accounting podcasts, I wasn't expecting much. I thought, "Here we go. This is gonna be boring AF." Quite the contraire. Even though Blake and Dave are talking about the most boring subject in the history of mankind, they keep it light and interesting. They always share what is going on in their personal lives and I love their political commentary.???????? When I tell people I listen to accounting podcasts, they always think it's because I am so passionate about accounting :). In reality, it's because I found a podcast that isn't so boring I wanna jump off a cliff. Thanks, Blake, and Dave." David Leary: [00:50:04] That might be our funniest review we've ever gotten. Got another one here. This one's a five-star review on iTunes from JoshCrist. "Whether you're well established, or someone innovating in the accounting space, or just getting started as a catalyst for change, this is a must-listen podcast for you. David and Blake do an incredible job leading conversations that cover a huge breadth of topics related to the ins and outs of navigating an ever-changing accounting industry. As leaders who've actually experienced success themselves, I highly recommend listening and subscribing." Blake Oliver: [00:50:36] Our final review comes from Ssidawg73. "This is a great podcast. It's light on the chit chat, which I appreciate, and full of useful accounting information and developments. This is one of my weekly must-listen podcasts." Five Stars on Apple Podcasts.  [00:50:52] Thank you so much, everybody; all of you, Josh, Ssidawg, Omolara, Kate, for writing those reviews. They are so helpful. To all of our listeners, if you wanna go write a review, we would very much appreciate it. It really helps us get visible with all the accountants and bookkeepers out there who are looking for podcasts. David, where can people go if they wanna help us out?  David Leary: [00:51:16] You can go to Podchaser to leave a review. It's Podchaser.com per review on Apple podcast. That's great. You could call, leave us a voicemail. Phone number is (202) 695-1040.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:33] That is (202) 695-1040. It's a Google Voice number. Go straight to voicemail. You've got a three-minute limit. Let us know what you think. If you wanna reach me online, you can find me on Twitter. I'm at @BlakeTOliver. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:51:44] I'm on Twitter as well. I'm at @DavidLeary. You can also get a hold of me on LinkedIn. Just make sure you say you listen to the podcast, so we know you're not a robot. Blake Oliver: [00:51:53] Say you're not a bot. That makes it easy for me to accept your invite. Until next time, David, great chatting with you, as always. Stay safe. Stay sane. I'll see you here next week. David Leary: [00:52:03] Bye.____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100.  

Sponsors ADP Marketplace: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 04:46 – Turns out, the people who work at Facebook are fighting just as much as the rest of us – Marketplace Tech 11:01 – We've got ... VOICEMAIL!  15:26 – A new internet domain for the CPA profession: .cpa – Journal of Accountancy        AICPA opens up applications for .cpa domains – Accounting Today  20:00 – Arizona First State to OK Nonlawyer Ownership of Law Firms (2) – Bloomberg Law 23:18 – Time & Budgets – Karbon         Karbon releases Time & Budgets – Accounting Today          App Aware: Karbon Updates Work Management Software – Intuitive Accountant 25:23 – Latest product news – September 2020 – Xero Blog 26:23 – Drury family sells $204m Xero shares, PushPay boss Bruce Gordon offloads on way out the door – New Zealand Herald        Second Xero block flies, this time via Jarden – Financial Review 28:41 – Zoom Revenue Soars on Remote Work Boom – CFO.com 30:52 – Zoom (ZM) Chief Accounting Officer to Resign – StreetInsider.com 31:51 – Plaid Unveils New Instant Account Update Feature | PYMNTS  32:58 – How your firm is missing a $682,000 opportunity – Accounting Today  38:03 for Summary why the pyramid scheme  41:26 – Spreadsheet error led to Edinburgh hospital opening delay – BBC News 43:13 – FedNow Aimed At Transforming The US Payment System Approved By The Board Of Governors Of The Federal Reserve – Forbes         FedNow: The Federal Reserve’s Planned Instant Payments Service – Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance          Fed Announces "FedNow" Real-Time Payments Service – White & Case LLP  44:27 – Fed to have payments service ready 'as soon as practicably possible – American Banker 44:56 –  Coronavirus prompts renewed calls for postal banking, faster payments – American Banker         Roundtable: Public Money - A. Klein, How to Fix the Covid Stimulus Payment Problem: Accounts, Information, and Infrastructure – Just Money   46:18 – Why Kamala Harris matters to fintech in the 2020 election – PaymentsSource 50:14 – One more voicemail!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with ADP Marketplace, a digital HR storefront. Be a more trusted advisor to your clients by recommending apps to help streamline HR processes and free up time to focus on people. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Marketplace, later in the episode. David Leary: [00:00:20] Really, in this grand survey from ADP, only 20 percent of firms had four percent or higher, but the Top 100 accounting firms, one in six of them are averaging more than 20-percent turnover. Blake Oliver: [00:00:31] The average turnover is 16 percent in those firms which have average partner compensation at Top 100 firms - equity partner, I should say - $682,000. So, the bosses are making $682,000, and the staff are turning over at 16 percent. You said that, in the U.S., a typical company is 3.2 percent. That's terrible turnover compared to a typical business.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before September 30, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. ClockShark is the leading GPS, time-tracking, and scheduling system built for local construction and field-service companies that want a simpler way to track time, run payroll, and understand job costs. With the capabilities of crew tracking, scheduling, jobsite geofencing, teams, and project segmentation, automatic labor allocation, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking system to handle the unique challenges that face your clients.  With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like overtime, paid time off, unpaid time, hours per job, and tasks, as well as the crucial data needed for certified payroll. With the integrations ClockShark has, you'll be able to connect to one of many ADP payroll platforms through ADP Marketplace  and process payroll in minutes with the click of a button. ClockShark's pricing starts at just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:03:03] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast, I'm Blake Oliver.  David Leary: [00:03:06]  I'm David Leary.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:08] So, it's Labor Day weekend.  David Leary: [00:03:10] We're knocking out a recording early. This is Friday evening and probably when we're done recording, the feds will release some news about PPP loans. Blake Oliver: [00:03:17] Do you have any plans this weekend, David?  David Leary: [00:03:19] Just to chill out. I think we're gonna go to do a staycation at a hotel for one night just to relax. We had a pretty major- we soft-released our Melio accountants features this week. Blake Oliver: [00:03:29] Oh, cool. David Leary: [00:03:29] All the work we've doing the last six months at Melio is finally getting out the door. We're tiptoeing out into those waters. It's a little- it's scary to release a new offering, right? Blake Oliver: [00:03:39] Yeah. David Leary: [00:03:40] It's been a lot of work, but it's getting out the door, finally. Blake Oliver: [00:03:42] So, when do I get my Xero integration, is my question. David Leary: [00:03:46] It's in the stack. It's in the stack of a zillion things I need to do, for sure. It's getting out there - accountants features for Melio. Blake Oliver: [00:03:53] It's nice you're doing a staycation. I am also staying at home. I imagine pretty much everybody is staying at home, or a lot of folks are. What are they gonna be doing at home? Probably spending some time on Facebook, going at each other on the political spectrum. I don't know about you, David, but my Facebook feed, lately, has become very partisan. I have noticed this on both sides. I log in and I just see a lot of angst. I was driving to pick up my son from school just before we're recording this. David Leary: [00:04:23] Oh, wait, wait. He's going back to real school now?  Blake Oliver: [00:04:25] He goes to a community center where he is in a pod that learns online with the help of a few tutors. David Leary: [00:04:33] So, it's tiptoeing in the waters, right? Blake Oliver: [00:04:35] Yeah. It's like a hybrid-ish approach, and it's working because nobody- there hasn't been an outbreak. So, there is a way to social distance to make this happen, it's just- it's expensive. Anyway, I'm driving to pick him up, and I'm listening to Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood, I think. There was a story there about how Facebook has their own internal Facebook. Did you know this? David Leary: [00:04:55] I feel like I've heard about this before, or I know of its existence. Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:04:59] So, it makes sense, if you are Facebook, you would want your employees using Facebook. What they did is they created an internal version called Workplace. They then sell it now to businesses. Actually, you could go buy Workplace by Facebook and use it as an internal Facebook for your firm if you wanted to do that. A lot of firms- David Leary: [00:05:21] I've heard it's actually decent. I've heard it's surprisingly a good communication tool to use in-house. I've heard it's decent. Blake Oliver: [00:05:28] Yes, if you think about it, it's familiar to everybody because everybody pretty much has used Facebook. So, if you know how to use that, you can instantly use this. So, Facebook has their own internal Workplace, and it has 50,000 people because Facebook is big: it's like a little city. People don't just talk about work; they talk about all sorts of things. Apparently, according to this report on Marketplace Tech, it's gotten really partisan on there. There are people posting political stuff left and right. This Workplace app uses the same Facebook platform that we all do on the social media site. The algorithm has been apparently pushing very controversial topics to the top of everyone's news feed, and it has become really bad on that Facebook with a lot of anger, and vitriol, and just the same stuff that we're seeing. David Leary: [00:06:19] Okay, so the algorithms- because they get lots of clicks, they're gonna push that stuff up to the top of your feed because it gets a lot of engagement. Blake Oliver: [00:06:25] Yes. David Leary: [00:06:25] That same algorithm's being applied to the internal Workplace Facebook groups as well, and coincidentally, because Facebook uses it, they're basically eating their own dog food in the way they probably never intended to or wanted to. Blake Oliver: [00:06:39] It's an algorithm that prioritizes posts with high engagement. So, the idea is that if something is getting a lot of comments, a lot of likes, a lot of engagement from users, then other users will want to see it. The negative side effect of this, the unanticipated consequence, is that a lot of stuff that upsets people is what gets them to engage. This is what we have all been seeing on social media, is that really upsetting things get a lot of engagement and these get into our news feeds. That's why you see such a partisan environment. A very small percentage of people interacting over these posts with a lot of comments – really extreme liberals, really extreme conservatives – can mess with the algorithm in that way. They're not messing with it. That's how it's designed to work, right? David Leary: [00:07:25] Well, the mainstream media is that way. It's very extreme on both sides, and ultimately, the politics is like that. The impeachment is a great example, right? They got people so divided, but both sides got tons of donations because of the impeachment. They both won. Blake Oliver: [00:07:41] Right, right. Exactly. So, technology is prioritizing, or promoting, or making it good to be controversial. To get back to this story about Facebook, why I'm telling you this is that, apparently, recently, Mark Zuckerberg had to step in and say, "We're not gonna have these conversations on Facebook Workplace anymore." The irony of that, David, is just astounding. I almost couldn't drive. I was just floored that Facebook's algorithm is so broken that Mark Zuckerberg had to step in and say that "We are going to override it and not have these political discussions on Facebook anymore," on their internal Facebook. Of course, he's not gonna do that on the real Facebook. David Leary: [00:08:24]  We can't opt into that on the real Facebook? Blake Oliver: [00:08:26] I know.  David Leary: [00:08:27] Maybe it's a paid tier, a premium offering. Twelve bucks ... You pay $1 a month for Facebook, and you get a better feed.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:33] Well, remember how it used to be where it was just chronological? David Leary: [00:08:37] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:08:37] The news feed was just whatever everyone posted, and it was in order, and you just go through it. It wasn't surfacing stuff based on engagement. That should be an option. I wish that was an option. I would switch that. So, anyway, I thought that was really funny.  [00:08:54] One takeaway, by the way, from all this, if you're a CPA or an accountant, bookkeeper, trying to get people to see you online, from a marketing standpoint, this is why, if you wanna get noticed on LinkedIn, or Facebook, or Twitter, it's actually really good to somehow figure out how to be controversial because that's what gets surfaced.  [00:09:11] So, you wanna be controversial enough with something where people start commenting a lot, but, obviously, not so controversial that it harms your business. Just be thinking about that if you're thinking about marketing. That's, unfortunately, the way these algorithms are designed. You're not going to get a lot of views if what you post is making people feel good; they just feel good and then they don't click. David Leary: [00:09:37] So, we should be titling our episode titles very controversially to get attention. Blake Oliver: [00:09:42] We did that deliberately with our last episode, with the payroll tax deferral. We put Trump in there, just because we know that it makes people ... It either makes people happy or sad. It's one way or the other, at this point, right? David Leary: [00:09:55] We can make a big post that says, "Desktop software sucks," or we can make a poster about, "The billable hour sucks," and we get all these people fired up and responding. I see how the system works; we might be able to game this a little bit. Blake Oliver: [00:10:06] Yeah. Unfortunately, that's the way it works in the world of digital marketing these days, so, I wanted to bring that up. I also have lots of stories this week. Amazingly, it was a very busy week for me, anyway. We have the new .CPA domain that was released. Karbon has a feature out, Time and Budgets, and a spreadsheet story, as well – a spreadsheet error that led to a hospital opening delay, believe it or not. David Leary: [00:10:33] Spreadsheet stories are my favorite, though, that we get. I love our spreadsheet stories. I have some instant payment stories. Blake Oliver: [00:10:39] The Wall Street Journal had a feature on how auditors are struggling to access data and do their jobs during remote work. I thought that was interesting; auditors don't get a ton of love from the press. There's a canton in Switzerland that is now accepting taxes in Bitcoin, that's pretty cool. The question is, where do we start?  [00:10:57] Maybe we should start with the voicemails we got. We got two listener voicemails, both about accounting education – one of our recent topics – and what should we be doing as an accounting profession to train people so that they're actually useful when they come out with their accounting degree and make CPA firms want to hire them? Because, as we have discussed in the past, the hiring of CPAs ... Well, it's actually not CPAs, it's the hiring of accounting degrees into CPA firms has declined by 30%. David Leary: [00:11:32] Well, this is appropriate because one of our reviews we got was written by a student. So, it's very appropriate these voicemails are tied to a student listener. Blake Oliver: [00:11:41] So, let's listen to those voicemails and then we'll hear that review. Kayla Shwitter: [00:11:45] Hi, my name is Kayla Schleeter. I am calling from Grand Forks, North Dakota. First of all, I love your podcast. It is up-to-date, straightforward information that is really enjoyable to listen to. I just wanted to call in about how I agree with what you said about the grunt work is what makes you good at what you do 10 to 20 years in the future. I was fortunate enough that in my small-town high school in North Dakota, we had three years of accounting. The first two years we learned the basics of accounting. Then in year three, we used QuickBooks Desktop to enter transactions for a fake business, and then reviewed the financials to have an understanding of what that means.  [00:12:28] That experience and understanding is what got me a job at a small business doing data entry while pursuing my accounting degree. That eventually led me to doing what I do now, which is software consulting and providing advisory services at a regional accounting firm. I think the best first step for educating future accountants is integrating cloud-based accounting software with actual workflow into the curriculum. Maybe Intuit can set up, if they haven't already, a special pricing structure for educational institutions to have access to the product to help the future generations enter the workforce well prepared. Finally, I also agree with the point that you mentioned at the end of the podcast about potentially shifting away from so much time in the classroom and extending internship experiences. Again, thank you so much for the podcast, it's super-helpful, and stay safe, and healthy, guys. David Leary: [00:13:25] Great voicemail.  Blake Oliver: [00:13:26] My mind almost exploded when I heard three years of high school accounting. That's amazing. David Leary: [00:13:33] Yeah, it's probably the exception, right? Where people are getting three years of accounting in high school. Blake Oliver: [00:13:37] That's awesome. Obviously, the work experience thing is great. Really great insights. All right, you up for number two? David Leary: [00:13:44] Yeah. Tasha Chambers: [00:13:45] Hey, Blake, and David. Tasha Chambers from Wisconsin here; longtime listener, first-time caller. Calling regarding your comments on the changes that should be made to the accounting education. Blake, I wholeheartedly agree; I think that we should return to an apprenticeship model for accountants. I would love to see maybe two years in the classroom, where they learn the basic 'debits equal credits,' but so many of them are coming out and they have just no practical application for the knowledge they have, and they can't make the leap. I think that it would be a great service for kids; it would be a great service for students; it would be a great service for the firms, as well, to bring people up and teach them their way. So, great show! Have a great day. Blake Oliver: [00:14:32] Well, thank you, Tasha. David Leary: [00:14:33] Yeah, I still firmly believe you can't replace that in-the-weeds hard work. You just can't. Blake Oliver: [00:14:39] No. Work experience is so important when it comes to accounting. Like you said, David, starting a business is the best way to learn about running a business, and a lot of that is accounting. David Leary: [00:14:49] We also got, from a student- we got a review. Blake Oliver: [00:14:52] Oh, let's hear that.  David Leary: [00:14:53] This is from Jrg828. The review is five stars on Podchaser: "Funny, entertaining, and informative. What more could you ask for? I listen to The Cloud Accounting Podcast to discover new technology, statistics, industry news and trends, as well as best practices as a professional. Great for students, too." Blake Oliver: [00:15:10] Thank you so much. David Leary: [00:15:11] The theme here is about students. So, let's just say, Blake, now, I've busted my ass; I got my experience; I take the test; I'm a CPA. Can I now go get a .CPA domain? Blake Oliver: [00:15:22] Well, no, actually; not yet. Almost. So, CPA.com is making available ".CPA," the top-level domain that they wrangled from the lords of the internet. I forget who-  David Leary: [00:15:39] The ICANN. Blake Oliver: [00:15:40] The ICANN, yes. So, the AICPA is the official registrar for the .CPA domain. You can now, if you are a CPA firm, apply through October 31 to get the same URL you have currently with .CPA at the end of it. For instance, if you have BlakeOliver.com, you could apply for BlakeOliver.CPA, if you are a CPA firm. I actually can't yet do that because I am an independent CPA. I have to wait until January 15, when .CPA registrations will be opened up to individual-licensed CPAs. David Leary: [00:16:19] Doesn't that mean all the good ones will be gone by then? You're gonna get BlakeOliver2552.CPA. You're not gonna get a good domains. Blake Oliver: [00:16:27] Well, yeah, we'll see. I'm curious to see how many people actually sign up for this, because it is not cheap. I guess for a firm it is. It's only $225 per year for each domain, and if you're a CPA firm, that's really no big deal. They do have premium domains at a higher price. So, if you want a domain with only two or three letters, that'll be $690 per year, and I imagine that it'll be mostly firms that grab those.  [00:16:55] Here's one thing that I only saw in one publication. Going Concern said that one of the conditions of getting this .CPA domain is that you have to redirect your current domain to the new one. So, if you have that sweet .com domain, you are going to have to commit to use .CPA as your main domain. You can't just get that and redirect it to your .com- David Leary: [00:17:18] Now, does that include all your email addresses and everything else, as well? You have to utilize this as your entire stack? Blake Oliver: [00:17:26] Well, so, according to Going Concern, what they said in there, it seems to me that's the way they want it to work. It makes sense, right? If CPA.com is going to create this whole domain and try to get it to become the domain for CPA firms, that every CPA firm and every CPA uses, but definitely the CPA firms, they need to make people use it. They don't just want people buying it and redirecting it. That's just me thinking out loud. David Leary: [00:17:51] You have to be a CPA firm? What if you're a bookkeeping firm, or an accounting firm, you ...?  Blake Oliver: [00:17:57] Well, you have to be registered as a CPA firm, I believe, is what that means. So, that's different in every state, but if you are not registered as a CPA firm, then I don't think you would be able to apply for this. David Leary: [00:18:09] Now, what if you're a CPA firm, but you're not a member of the AICPA? Are they gonna allow you to buy it? Blake Oliver: [00:18:13] I don't know about that. I am not sure; I didn't see that. It is limited to licensed CPAs, and CPA firms. That's what I know. David Leary: [00:18:22] I saw a lot of pushback on the interwebs, a little bit, on the Twitter, that people were a little shocked by the price because you can ... What's a domain? Twelve bucks a month for a for a typical .com domain? Blake Oliver: [00:18:31] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:18:32] People are shocked about the price. Then, also, think – there's a lot of people that don't renew their AICPA membership; they don't think it's worth the money. They could utilize this as a carrot to get people to renew. "Hey, if you renew your application, you get your domain." Blake Oliver: [00:18:48] I would love to see CPA.com make this free for individual CPAs ... Not free, but included with your membership, because you're already paying a few hundred dollars a year. Why not give everyone their own .CPA domain as part of that? But I guess it's gonna be on top of that. It would be a great way to convince independent CPAs to actually maintain their membership because I know a lot of people, once they leave big firms, where the big firms pay for the membership, then they let theirs lapse because they don't see the value as much anymore. David Leary: [00:19:19] I tried to register CloudAccountingPodcast.CPA, and it wouldn't let me get through there. For me personally, I'd like to get, "I'm-not-a.CPA" Blake Oliver: [00:19:28] Well, unfortunately, David, if you and I tried to make The Cloud Accounting Podcast into a CPA firm, I'm not sure if we could, in most states, because it's a 50-50 business, and to be a CPA firm, you've got to have at least 51% CPAs in many states. It varies, right? [00:19:47] Something I saw interesting in a related profession – in the legal profession, this is not common. To have non-lawyer owners of lawyer firms is actually- historically, you can't do it. Well, our state, Arizona, is now the first state to okay non-lawyer ownership of law firms. This was a big hullabaloo on Twitter, right? David Leary: [00:20:08] Well, I think a lot of it's an ethical thing. They think that as soon as a lawyer is motivated by profit, he or she is going to not have any judgment and not represent clients properly. Blake Oliver: [00:20:19] I don't understand how having non-lawyers in your firm or having non-CPAs in your firm makes you less ethical. David Leary: [00:20:25] My experience with a lot of lawyers is they are horrible at running their law firm. They're always changing partners because they're just not good businesspeople. They're good at practicing law, but they suck at running their business. If you open the door to let them partner with somebody that knows how to run a business, they could actually do better at their law job, right?  [00:20:44]  I do feel like it's an ethical argument, which almost leads me to be like, "Then why are you charging by the hour?" The fact that that's mandated, that they must bill by the hour; they can't even value bill in many cases ... It's just really being shaken up, and this is just another inch down the road. Good for Arizona being one of the first states to do that. Then, also in Arizona, I don't know if you remember, about a year ago, they were one of the first states to let people – if you move here, you don't have to retake your test or your license, for lots of different industries. Blake Oliver: [00:21:12] Oh, yeah. Is that the case for CPAs? I don't know. David Leary: [00:21:16] I think so, yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:21:17] So, I could get my license here in Arizona now. Oh ...   David Leary: [00:21:20] Yeah. The same thing- there's a podcast about stupid things that should go away now that we've had COVID, like, "Hey, maybe it's okay for people to drink on the sidewalk. Maybe that's all right." We could have beers outside during our dinner. Maybe that's okay, right? But one of the things is nursing. Nurses, nationwide, take the exact same exam, but you're licensed in each state, and all of these states would not let licenses move.  [00:21:43]  Now, because of COVID, they had to suspend all these laws, so that way some nurses who were registered in New Jersey, could go help out in New York City. So, they suspended all these laws, and hopefully laws like that will go away because it doesn't make any sense. If you're a nurse and you take a national test, you should be able to work in all 50 states. Blake Oliver: [00:22:01] There's one more consequence of this ruling here in Arizona about law firms. The Big Four, now, if more states follow suit, have an opportunity to start competing in the legal services world. We've got Big Law and we've got Big Four accounting and consulting, and we might start seeing a lot of overlap. So, Big Law firms creating consulting divisions and going after that kind of work, and then, Big Four accounting firms going after legal work by starting to hire lawyers and provide those services. David Leary: [00:22:30] This, in theory, should be better for the consumers, long term. Blake Oliver: [00:22:33] Now, I imagine that our listeners may have some thoughts on this and some strong opinions, and we would love to hear those – your opinions about the .CPA domain, the presence of non-CPAs owning CPA firms, or really anything you want. You can also leave us a voicemail, just like Kayla and Tasha. Give us a call at 202-695-1040. That is 202-695-1040. It's a Google Voice number; it goes straight to voicemail. You get three minutes to tell us what you think, and we will definitely listen to it, and we maybe will even play it on the air. That's it for the CPA stuff. What's next? Should we talk about app news?  David Leary: [00:23:12] Yeah, let's jump over to the apps.  Blake Oliver: [00:23:17] A big one from Karbon; the practice management solution has released Time and Budgets, "Time and Budgets is designed to allow Karbon customers to set time and dollar estimates, track time, compare budgets against actuals, manage capacity, analyze progress and performance, allocate resources and more." So, it's now in beta and is rolling out to all Karbon customers in the coming weeks. David Leary: [00:23:41] I always thought Karbon was about managing your communications. It feels like now it's heading towards full-blown firm management. Blake Oliver: [00:23:51] I think this is an interesting new feature, because I do recall Karbon, at its inception, arguing strongly against time-based billing and having this attitude that you don't need to track time and manage your firm that way. David Leary: [00:24:09] Oh, like if we went and Googled some of their old webinars and things. Blake Oliver: [00:24:12] I do recall that being part of the mentality, which is the mentality of a lot of cloud accounting firms that have moved to value-based pricing and don't track time anymore. Clearly, there are lots, and lots, and lots of firms ... The vast majority still track time. So, I think maybe this move is just an acknowledgment that this is something that firms want, and you cannot grow to take on most of the market, unless you're gonna offer it.  [00:24:42]  I will admit too, there is value, potentially, in tracking time. It's not good or bad, it is not one or the other. There are a whole spectrum of ways to track time and bill using time in a firm and use it in combination with value-based pricing. Maybe you use it to track performance, maybe you don't. Maybe you use it on some projects, maybe you don't. To go completely cold turkey is really challenging, and I think everybody will agree with that. Having a way for firms to be able to track time, while they move on to a new practice management platform makes a lot of sense to me. David Leary: [00:25:14] Well, in a way, if Karbon really saves so much time in improving the communications, now that it's being tracked, they'll be able to prove the value for the product and charge more. Blake Oliver: [00:25:22] Exactly, there you go. Xero released their September 2020 updates. I'm a fan of Xero, but I have to say, I am, again, somewhat disappointed in the pace of feature releases recently. The only thing in this list that stuck out to me that was even worth talking about is they have a redesigned date selector that finally makes sure that dates are formatted correctly for U.S. customers. Now, it's month, day, year instead of day, month, year, which is the rest of the world.  David Leary: [00:25:52] So, Xero rolled out 10–11 years ago in the U.S. market?  Blake Oliver: [00:25:56] Yeah. David Leary: [00:25:56] Now, the dates are working correctly? Blake Oliver: [00:25:59] They gradually started fixing it, and I don't think it was ever completely fixed across the whole product all at once because it's different code bases for different parts of the product. You would run into issues, sometimes, where you'd type it in the U.S. format into a field and then it wouldn't stick, and you'd have to go back and change it, and it was really annoying. David Leary: [00:26:20] Rod Drury, the former Xero CEO, founder of Xero, he actually did a sale. It's a planned block sale, but he sold over $2 million of Xero stock. Another former executive also sold, but somebody that's on the board actually bought 400,000 shares. So, there's a lot of movement happening, but the fact that people that are currently on the board that are at a different phase of their life are buying Xero shares is probably a good indication. This is just ... People have to do that, right? Executives have to rebalance their portfolio eventually. You just can't have all your eggs in one stock, especially if you're not active in the company anymore as much,  as Drury is.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:53]  I might give Xero a hard time on features because I'm a user, but I'm bullish on the company, globally, and their prospects over the long haul, for sure. So, that was the news is that Rod Drury is cashing out and now is super, super rich? That is awesome. It's great that somebody could make- I don't even know how much he's worth, at this point, but $200 million just right there from cloud accounting software is pretty cool; accounting software ... It's just awesome. Anyway  ...____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Marketplace. How can you be a more trusted advisor for your clients as they face new challenges? By recommending solutions from ADP Marketplace, ADP's digital HR storefront. With ADP Marketplace, clients can try, buy, and implement highly rated HR apps that can share data with ADP. With secured data integrations, it's easy to streamline HR processes and adapt to new business needs. Help your clients discover new ways to recruit and onboard employees, boost performance, offer unique financial-wellness benefits, and much more.   With integrations for popular business software, like Expensify, PayActiv, Slack, and ClockShark, clients can add value to the tools they already use by simply and securely connecting them to ADP. Have clients in field service, or construction? ClockShark can help them track time to quickly and accurately run payroll, all integrated with ADP. Visit ADP Marketplace at apps.ADP.com, or right from your Accountant Connect dashboard. Not set up with Accountant Connect? Sign up today. It's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. ADP has your back with ADP Marketplace.____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:28:41] The people who invested in Zoom are very happy, because Zoom stock bumped up ridiculously after their revenue numbers came out. Their revenue rose 355 percent to $663.5 million in the last quarter, crushing analysts' estimates of $500.5 million. To put this in perspective, the company made as much money in the past three months as it did in the entirety of 2019. David Leary: [00:29:10] Wow. Blake Oliver: [00:29:10] Yeah. One key metric, the number of Zoom customers with at least 10 employees exploded to 370,000, which is up 458 percent, year over year. That is startup-level growth, not growth-company-level growth. Just amazing. So, their stock jumped 22.7 percent. I'm not sure where it stands right now, after the recent fall in the markets, but it's still way up from where it was, and I wish I'd bought some Zoom stock when all this started. David Leary: [00:29:44] It'll be interesting to see how this sustains long term, because obviously Teams is coming in heavy. Google has moved their videoconferencing up higher. When you book a meeting now, Google really pushes you to use their videoconferencing. Facebook's coming down the pipe with their- they're basically gonna move Facebook's portal to be a little bit more meeting-based for work. There's other competitors now getting into this and taking it way more serious because of the pandemic, but obviously, they can't maintain this growth. Eventually, people are going to be Zoomed out; there's no more people you could possibly add. There's a finite amount of people that need to use Zoom. Blake Oliver: [00:30:18] They've expanded the market to kindergarteners, so how far can they go?  David Leary: [00:30:21] Yeah, there's not many-   Blake Oliver: [00:30:22] It's funny, you mentioned Google. I don't think Google has a shot here, because Google built browser-based videoconferencing, and they just can't figure out how to make it not suck up every single bit of power in your computer. Because not only is it Chrome, and Chrome is resource-intensive, but then you've got videoconferencing going through Chrome? It's a disaster. Every time I boot up a Hangout, I'm sad because I can't do anything else. Whereas Zoom just runs with no problems these days. David Leary: [00:30:50] Did you see that they also disclosed that their chief accounting officer is leaving the company? Blake Oliver: [00:30:56] No, I did not. Hopefully, we're not gonna hear about some shenanigans after this. David Leary: [00:31:00] He's resigning as of October 16, 2020. It's interesting. The disclosure really goes out of its way to call out, "Nothing's going on; there's nothing questionable, it's a peaceful exit," etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., but there's an interesting thing about the new replacement that's coming in, and how the offer letter to the new replacement has an annual base salary of $350,000, and a sign-on bonus of $40,000. Blake Oliver: [00:31:30] So, what's crazy about that? David Leary: [00:31:32] The only reason I'm bringing that number up is because I think later on, we're gonna talk about there were some stats about how much partners at accounting firms make. Blake Oliver: [00:31:41] Well, let's talk about that. How much do partners at accounting firms make? David Leary: [00:31:45] Before we jump to that, really quickly, I'll just make a quick ... One more last piece of app news before we jump out of app news. Plaid, who, basically, builds bank feeds, right? Blake Oliver: [00:31:54] Yep. David Leary: [00:31:54] Almost all the apps are using it; a lot of them are using Plaid under their covers. Plaid, about a year ago, started working directly with the banks to offer the banks a service where, "Hey, we can help you build out your bank APIs," and they called that Plaid Exchange. Now, what they're doing is, if you now use Plaid Exchange, you can actually offer your customers instant account activity. If your bank-  Blake's bank uses Plaid's Exchange service to build out your APIs, my bank feed's gonna be instantaneous now. Blake Oliver: [00:32:23] I don't have to wait until close of day for my feeds to update the next day, it's just instantly? That's really cool. David Leary: [00:32:30] Yes. Assuming they push it out in the bank feed ... Basically, it is available within seconds, the user's activity; you can authorize it-  Blake Oliver: [00:32:36] You can just be sitting there, reconciling those accounts all day long, just have QuickBooks open, as soon as a transaction comes in, just code that thing. David Leary: [00:32:44] Refresh, refresh, refresh. Except for QuickBooks, I don't think uses Plaid. QuickBooks has their own proprietary-  Blake Oliver: [00:32:48] I think Xero uses Plaid now, right? That's a good sign for them. That's nice. Can we talk about partner compensation because it's-  David Leary: [00:32:55] Yeah, let's jump into that. Let's jump over- Blake Oliver: [00:32:57] It's a really big number, and for people who don't know how much accounting firm partners make, it's shocking. David Leary: [00:33:03] So, the average equity of a partner at a Top 100 accounting firm is $682,000 a year. Blake Oliver: [00:33:08] You mean the average salary of an equity partner is $682,000 a year? David Leary: [00:33:12] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:33:13] That doesn't include the Big Four? That is insane. That's a lot of money. I think I saw an article from Gene Marks, was it in Accounting Today with this number in it? Is that how we came across it? David Leary: [00:33:25] Yes. There was a study that came out from Inside Public Accounting earlier in the month. Blake Oliver: [00:33:30] Got it. To be clear, this is the Top 100 firms, excluding the Big Four. Do you want to talk about the Gene Marks article? Kayla Shwitter: [00:33:39] Yeah. There's an article, and the headline was very eye-catching: "How your firm is missing a $682,000 opportunity." I was like, "Oh, that's interesting." Maybe there'll be some, "Oh, you should offer this service. There's some service you should be offering." I really read the article, and a couple of stats are in it, because it compares this survey, and the survey from ADP. ADP had a 2019 survey about the state of the workforce. The turnover in a typical business is about 3.2 percent. It's not a huge amount of turnover, but – really, in this grand survey from ADP, only 20 percent of firms had four percent, or higher, but the Top 100 accounting firms, one in six of them are averaging more than 20 percent turnover. Blake Oliver: [00:34:24] The average turnover is 16 percent in those firms. We have average partner compensation at Top 100 firms – equity partner, I should say – $682,000. The bosses are making $682,000 and the staff are turning over at 16 percent. You said that, in the U.S., a typical company is 3.2 percent. That's terrible turnover compared to a typical business. What is Gene saying that we should be learning about this number then? David Leary: [00:34:54] This is the part I don't get. He talks about how, in general, I feel like accountants- they don't wanna say how much they make. Partners, I guess, are embarrassed of how much they make. Blake Oliver: [00:35:03] So, they keep that to themselves. They don't advertise that they're rolling in dough is what he's saying. David Leary: [00:35:09] Yeah. They're not advertising the number, but my observation, though, is actually weird, and maybe we could, just as a side conversation related to this, is I don't understand ... When I worked at Intuit, I never said, "David Leary, Intuit shareholder." How come employees of the big accounting firms put their name and then say shareholder?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:29] Or equity partner, or partner? David Leary: [00:35:31] Yeah, instead of just saying, "I have this position at this firm." It's almost like they wanna tell you they make $682,000 a year, but they don't want to actually tell you that. Blake Oliver: [00:35:40] Well, that is possibly it. The other part is that there's a class difference between the equity partners, and the partners, and all the staff. It's a total-  you're either in the club, or you're not. Everybody wants to get into that club, at least once they- when they first get to the firm, they're bought into the idea of probably getting to partner someday; at least a lot of people are. You know that you can make a lot of money if you become partner.  [00:36:07] I guess Gene's point here is that because accountants don't talk about it, the partners don't advertise how much they make, that they're losing out and that staff are turning over. If they talked more about partner compensation and the benefits of becoming partner, then staff would stick around, and they wouldn't leave, and they would try to become partner. That's what I'm getting out of this. David Leary: [00:36:32] All right. The argument is because people don't know they could make $600,000 a year at an accounting firm, they just quit and just go get a different job somewhere else.  Blake Oliver: [00:36:41] Because it's hard, right? They become less-  David Leary: [00:36:42] They have to go to work at Zoom for $300,000 a year. Blake Oliver: [00:36:45] Yeah, they get less motivated or something ... Maybe they would stick it out. I take a different approach to looking at this, and I see that number, and then I know how much the staff and managers make, and the senior managers don't even make close to that number. I think to myself, well, maybe it's not that 16 percent of staff are turning over every year because they don't know that if they stuck around, they would make all this money if they became partner.  [00:37:15] Maybe it's because they know that, and they're annoyed that the partners make that much money, and they don't want to stick around. What I'm trying to say is that if the partners shared the wealth more, maybe people would stay around, and they wouldn't leave. If you pay people more, then are they gonna leave? I think money motivates people, right?  [00:37:34] If partners are sticking around to become partner or future partners are sticking around to become partner to make more money, if you just paid your managers, and senior managers, and staff all more, then maybe they would stick around, too. This is how big firms work is they're giant pyramid schemes, right? You convince people to join, and you work them to the bone, 60-   David Leary: [00:37:56] Episode title. You said it. Top accounting firms are pyramid schemes. That's the episode title. Now, here's the voicemail number: (202) 695-1040, call us up. Blake Oliver: [00:38:05] It fits with the marketing message about creating controversy. Engagement through controversy. I'm saying this tongue in cheek, but I'm a bit serious about it too, because how does it- it's not a literal pyramid scheme, but it has some resemblance to a pyramid scheme in that it is: recruit people at the bottom, get them bought in to this vision of someday becoming partner and moving up, and create this whole annual promotion schedule, so they're always competing to get to the next level, and then work them really, really hard and pay them not super great. That way, the profits flow up to the partners – the smallest group at the top. You just keep people hanging on for years, and years, and years, hoping that they're gonna make it. Eventually, they realize they're not gonna make. It is a ridiculously small number of people that become partner ever. Everybody else-  David Leary: [00:38:58] So, you're rolling the dice, here. It's a gamble. You're like, "Am I gonna be able to become partner before I burn out?" Or "I'm a young person ..." and he's saying this here. He's like, "Yeah, they should be telling people about the long-term financial rewards as long as they commit to being an accounting professional and keep the professionals, and good for you ... Let's work hard." Really, that's the gamble. There is a pot of gold at the end if you don't burn out first. Blake Oliver: [00:39:19] Right, and of course, when you're young and you have this attitude that you're the best; you're confident; you make that deal. You're saying, "Oh, yeah, I have what it takes to make it."  Then, of course, life goes on. Maybe you have some kids; that slows you down a bit. You decide, "This is not for me," and yet you've dedicated a bunch of your life to generating a lot of profits for the partners, and you never saw any of that yourself.  [00:39:43] I'm not saying it's all bad. You got a ton of amazing experience; you learned a lot and everything, but you definitely didn't benefit financially the way that the partners do. I think that is gradually changing because it's becoming more obvious, I think, with transparency that you get from the internet ... If you're an accounting student, and you just wanna know what it's like to work at the Big Four, you can just go on Reddit and learn all about PwC, and Deloitte, and KPMG from all the totally disengaged employees there who spend all their time on Reddit.  [00:40:18] You can see it's not exactly what the recruiters are promising you. Tell me I'm wrong. I'd actually love if somebody is listening to this and disagrees. You can call our number. You can leave a review and tell us what you think. If you agree with me, if you are one of those people who had this experience, let us know, as well. David Leary: [00:40:37] Well, so, how many years does it usually take to become a partner at a Top 100 firm would you guess? Blake Oliver: [00:40:44] Gosh, I don't know. 20 years or something? David Leary: [00:40:46] Blake, we'll do the podcast for 20 years, and there's a pot of gold at the end here. One day, you will get a $600,000-a-year salary from the podcast in 20 years, based on our current growth rates. Blake Oliver: [00:40:58] We're gonna do that much sooner, David. I'm looking forward to the Cloud Accounting Podcast yacht. We gotta figure out a way to get a tax deduction for having a boat, that's for sure. David Leary: [00:41:09] One of these days. Blake Oliver: [00:41:10] So, where do we go from here, David? What else do you want to talk about in the time that we have left? I've got a story about the spreadsheet error. David Leary: [00:41:19] I don't wanna skip that. Talk about that because I really love the spreadsheet stories that we always have. Blake Oliver: [00:41:25] So, there was this hospital in Edinburgh that was supposed to open; a very expensive hospital. I don't know, I want to say close to half-a-billion euros or something. The hospital opened up and then they immediately had to at least not use part of it, because the critical care rooms did not have the required features by law. They are required to have 10 air changes per hour. As we all know now, due to coronavirus, it's important that you aren't breathing recycled air when you're trying to control infections.  [00:41:58] The critical care rooms are supposed to have 10 air changes per hour. Well, the ventilation systems that were built only did four air changes per hour. The air was traced by Grant Thornton auditors back to a 2012 spreadsheet. So, this is eight years ago now. "This looks to be based on our review, human error and copying across the four-bedded room generic ventilation criteria into the critical care room detail," which I will translate from auditor speak, means, somebody accidentally copied and pasted from the wrong column into the wrong column. They had the number four in there instead of 10; everybody missed it all the way through the whole bidding process. That's the danger of spreadsheets there. David Leary: [00:42:42] I'm speechless. A mistake in a spreadsheet was in 2012 and it probably would have never been a big deal, but then COVID came and all of a sudden, it was a big deal. Blake Oliver: [00:42:51] I guess so, yeah. I'm wondering, actually, how much of an impact COVID had on it. All it takes is one person to do that copy-paste in some sheet that's way at the end of the workbook that nobody ever looked at. So, that's my spreadsheet error story. What else should we talk about here? David Leary: [00:43:06] FedNow, we could talk about that if you want?  Blake Oliver: [00:43:08] FedNow?  David Leary: [00:43:09] We missed this story. It was actually the first week of August. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve Board, they proposed a development of a real-time settlement service, RTGS, and basically, the public name's gonna to be called FedNow. It's instant money movement; faster payments, instant payments, instant movement of money.  [00:43:35] They built their own system and, essentially, everyone knows about their clearing house for ACH, and the delays in that and how it's not real-time. The private-sector banks got together, and they actually built their own RTP – real-time payments network – but they really cut out the small banks, the credit unions, retailers, technology companies. They all just were not big fans of this. They all got cut out.  [00:43:54] What they've done is they released a 50-page press release about this. The timeline, really, originally on this was going to be- it started in 2013; they started watching the strategies to build this out. Then, they really committed to building it out in 2019. They were actually gonna go through and really build this, and they were looking for a comment. Then, they really thought they'd get it out '23–'24; they'd start to really round it out and polish it off.  [00:44:23] What's happening is, because of the stimulus now, an earlier roll-out might happen because of stimulus, and it really ties a couple of stories we had together in the past because a lot of people didn't get their stimulus checks. We've talked about it before, they saw instant impacts to the economy once the checks started getting into people's hands and getting into their bank accounts, or they cashed those checks, right? Blake Oliver: [00:44:43] Yeah, yeah.  David Leary: [00:44:43] There's all these people that are unbanked, people that didn't get the checks. The IRS didn't  have their addresses. There's all these reasons the money didn't get to people fast enough. It turns out, what they wanna do is basically utilize the post office now.  [00:44:57] Now, the post office story is getting tied in this, and the unbanked is being tied in, to where the unbanked will just go to the post office and get some sort of debit card, and the Fed will put money directly into people's bank debit-card accounts. Basically, it's a bank of the Fed, and they're bypassing the normal banks, and they're bypassing all the, what is it, nine regional feds, right? Blake Oliver: [00:45:20] Wow. Wait. So, that's big news, if that's what's happening, because I had heard about this instant payment system coming someday, way down the road, so that we can replace ACH and actually have instant transfers like they do in Europe. We had speculated about how it would be beneficial for the Fed to have a bank account for every American, and that way, they could just put the stimulus money into it. Are you saying that this is now happening?  David Leary: [00:45:48] I'm tying a couple of articles here together, but I would not be surprised, as we see this next round of stimulus becoming more real, that this becomes a distribution method that is required. Even Senator Kamala Harris, vice president nominee now, I guess we have to say, she, actually ... This is a branch-off of the  Obamacare rollout. The U.S. Digital Service, which was set up to help fix the healthcare.gov website, a teeny little agency, she wants to expand their budget by 400% because this all ties to modernizing Medicare payments. It's all tied to this TreasuryDirect accounts, these digital wallets. Blake Oliver: [00:46:28] Well, it would make so much sense for Treasury to have a way to directly give stimulus to Americans and not have to go through the banking system. Because we saw that they had to pay the banks a pretty hefty chunk just to process those PPP loans, and then they had to cut checks via the IRS, which costs a lot of money and is super slow and doesn't get to everybody.  [00:46:52] If they could just have an account at the Fed for every American that is tied to your social or something like that, then they could just give you the money directly. Like you said, if you don't have a bank account to link it to, you could just go to the post office and get a debit card that way or something. That's brilliant. I could see there being a ton of opposition to this from the banking industry. David Leary: [00:47:13] Yeah. It goes back to, also, we were talking about that modern monetary theory. If you think about it, now, the Feds can just inject money into the economy instantly and then pull it back. Then if you think about it, now that it's all digital, instead of it being tracked to just the penny, they could go out as many decimal places as they want. This is where you could start getting into negative interest rates. You could have very small negative interest rates and you'd only be losing a couple of pennies a day, or less than pennies a day, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:47:41] But it would force people or incentivize people to go out and spend the money in those accounts. David Leary: [00:47:45] Exactly. This is all connected this instant payment. Basically, what was built to just move money around is now getting tied into the stimulus package possible, UBI, which we've talked about. It's really taught- you really see all these stories coming together into this federal wallet if you want to call it that. Blake Oliver: [00:48:03] Well, this is gonna make Libertarians scream, but I think it's a really good idea. If we're gonna have stimulus like we just had, we need to be able to do it more efficiently and get the money out quicker, and this would be a way to do it, and to track it; to see where it's being spent would be interesting, too. I don't know if the Fed has a plan to track that, but they could.  David Leary: [00:48:27] It's just also scary at the same time, right? We have all this technology, and how much we're giving up our lives. You have your locks connected to the Internet. Actually, somebody here in- I don't know if this happened you, but I've heard people in Tucson, because the rolling blackouts in California and all of this ... All of those Nest thermostats were adjusting people's air conditioning in Arizona up to 86 degrees because they wanted to conserve some electricity, but you can't have your house at 86 degrees when it's 110 degrees out. It's just doesn't work.  Blake Oliver: [00:48:27] They had it on the automatic setting, where it just does it? Yeah. David Leary: [00:48:59] Yeah. So, essentially, the government, if they wanted to ... You've got your smart lock; you've got your smart car; you've got your smart bank account that the government can control, and your smart thermostat ... They could just lock you in your house, and take your money away, and you're stuck in the house. I know it's a little 'tinfoil hat,' but are we giving up rights when we- the more dependent we get on all this technology stack like this? Blake Oliver: [00:49:19] Well, and that's what we have to balance, right? We have to balance technology with freedom and liberty. It's a real challenge. Disinformation is a consequence that nobody ever anticipated in the way that it's become a problem where ... To go back to Facebook, they're gonna not even accept new ads a week before the presidential election because they're so concerned about disinformation, apparently. David Leary: [00:49:44] Well, we keep getting into this because every time- obviously, every time we talk about PPP, and that's on our artwork, and we run an ad on Facebook, we keep getting into the list of-  Blake Oliver: [00:49:54] Oh, I know!  David Leary: [00:49:54] -Russian hacker advertising or something. We constantly have to play this game with them. David Leary: [00:49:58] Yeah. We had to verify our identities in order to have political ads. Apparently, the PPP is so controversial that it falls under that. I've got more I could talk about, but that's all that we've got time for this week. David Leary: [00:50:13] We have one more voicemail, though, we should play. Blake Oliver: [00:50:14] Yeah, we have a voicemail to take us out. Again, if you want to call us, I'll read that number one more time; 202-695-1040. If people want to reach you online, David, where's the best place for them to do that? David Leary: [00:50:28] The best place is on Twitter, but I'm also on LinkedIn and I know previously, I've told people, say that you like the show, so I know you're not a robot. But Blake, I saw you tweeted this great solution to how you can figure out if it's a robot on LinkedIn or not? Blake Oliver: [00:50:42] It was one of our listeners, I think it was D.J. He tagged me in something on social and I can't find it now, because I don't remember where it was. It was somebody saying that if you put an emoji in front of your first name or just as part of your first name on LinkedIn, that it will then identify all of the spammers to you because they're just taking your first name off your profile and then you sending a message. So, then you can just look for that emoji and you know, "Oh, they clearly didn't type this themselves," and it worked. I caught somebody.  David Leary: [00:51:10] Because I'm never gonna type "Beer Mug Blake" when I go to talk to somebody on LinkedIn.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:15] That was the example, was somebody put a beer mug in front of their name. I put an abacus in front of my name. David Leary: [00:51:21] I went and put a blue checkmark. So, hey, I'm one of those blue checkmark people now. I got the blue check mark. So, we're gonna report back on this in a week, because I get literally 50 a week, so it should be very clear. I'll do a screenshot of my LinkedIn inbox. Blake Oliver: [00:51:37] Well, if you want to reach me online, I'm at @BlakeTOliver and again, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Just be sure to let me know you're a listener of the show, so I know you're not a bot. Here to take us out is our final listener message. Omalara: [00:51:52] Hey, Blake and Dave. This is Omalara. I'm calling in from Mexico. I've been listening to your podcast for about a year and I really love it. That's why I'm always posting those reviews of LinkedIn because I love your podcast. It's super-relevant and it's funny, which I don't think you can use those two things when describing accounting, ever. So, that's why I am gonna be a lifelong listener. As long as I'm in the field of accounting, I'll be listening to your podcast. Keep doing what you're doing. Thanks, guys.____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100.  

Sponsors Accountant Connect: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp A2X: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/a2x Scott's Add-Ins: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/scotts Show Notes 03:29 – IRS says companies are responsible for deferred payroll taxes – Accounting Today        IRS guidelines put employers on the hook for Trump's payroll tax break – CNBC  05:33 – White House dissatisfaction slows IRS payroll tax guidance – Accounting Today 08:18 – Postal Service’s $522M in Overtime Costs Questioned – CFO  10:13 – Crisis At The Post Office – NPR Planet Money          What A Piece Of Work Is The Post Office – NPR         The United States Postal Service – Civics 101: A Podcast  12:42 – Fed Approves Shift on Inflation Goal, Ushering In Longer Era of Low Rates – WSJ 14:35 – Intuit Full Year Revenue Up 13 Percent – Intuit  16:18 – Intuit 13% annual growth driven by strong TurboTax performance – Accounting Today 19:13 – Intuit rebounds from challenging tax season with strong Q4 results | ZDNet        Intuit Corp (INTU) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript @themotleyfool #stocks $INTU – Motley Fool  20:09 – What’s new in QuickBooks Online: August 2020– Intuit QuickBooks 25:59  – Xero appoints director to lead growth in US Hispanic market – Insightful Accountant 27:01 – Episode 126 – #AccountexUSA: Getting to know the Latino market 27:46 – Xero flags move into lending with A$80m Waddle acquisition – NZME        Xero acquires Waddle to help improve small business cash flow– Xero Blog 28:34 – New & Improved in FreshBooks: Mileage Tracking, Auto Apply Credits, and More – FreshBooks 29:18 – Google Chrome update brings better tab management, QR codes, plus performance improvements – TechCrunch 32:30 – Invoice Fraud Strikes Amazon In $19M Scam – PYMNTS.com  35:07 – PwC pledges to review fraud detection after Wirecard scandal shakes industry – Financial Times 36:01 – CPA firms' hiring of accounting grads down 30% – Accounting Today          What Percentage of Straight White Businessmen Don’t Give a Crap About Diversity and Inclusion? – Going Concern                             Remove roadblocks to CAS practice growth – Journal of Accountancy 41:28 – Non-CPA “CPA” Firms? Really? – CPA Trendlines 42:18 – Does the US tax code favor automation?– Brookings 46:32 – Blake Oliver's Accounting Story – Yaeger CPA Review 47:56 – The Future of Business - How Finance is Becoming a Catalyst For Change (PDF)– NetSuite Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with Accountant Connect. Their award-winning multi-client payroll management and analytics platform is a remarkably effective tool for adding value to every client engagement. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Accountant Connect, later in the episode. Blake Oliver: [00:00:20] The U.S. tax code actually favors automation, according to a new paper. This is from the Brookings Institution. When you add up all the taxes on labor – hiring people, employing people to do work – it ends up being about 28.5% on employers. Now, what is the tax rate on replacing those people with software, and equipment? It's only about 5%.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by A2X. Blake and I have talked to plenty about the massive shift to online shopping during the time of COVID-19. This means that e-commerce sellers are dealing with massive amounts of transactions that need to appear in the general ledger correctly so that you can easily reconcile these transactions with a bank statement. A2X will give your Shopify and Amazon clients confidence in their financials because A2X was created with a focus on the importance of the reconciliation process. A2X posts tidy summaries of sales, returns, and fees from Shopify and Amazon directly into QuickBooks, or Xero that will exactly match the deposits that appear in your bank account. A2X has won the support of Amazon, Intuit, and has hundreds of five-star reviews by accountants and bookkeepers in both the QuickBooks and Xero app stores. Cloud Accounting Podcast listener and expert, Scott Sharp said that A2X is the gold standard in e-commerce accounting. To learn more about using A2X and get 20% off your subscription by using code "CAP20," head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/a2x.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Scott's Add-Ins. Are you tired of repeating the cycle of exporting data from an accounting system, then importing it to Excel, only to repeat the process again and again and again when the data in the accounting system changes? Ever wish that you could just create a formula in Excel, and have it get the data from the accounting system automatically? Scott's Add-Ins will link general ledger data in Xero to Excel. Once connected, you can directly, in a cell, create formulas like =XGL, =XRANGE, and =XTRACK. It's as simple to use as using the SUM function in Excel. Once you create your perfect reporter dashboard in Excel, you can simply recalc your Excel workbook to get the latest data from Xero. To learn more about how to use Scott's Add-Ins to create financial art, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/scotts.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:03:03] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver.  David Leary: [00:03:06] And I'm David Leary. Blake, I know last week, one of the headlines was we were just waiting for guidance from the IRS on the payroll tax holiday ... Is that what they're still calling it, payroll tax holiday? Blake Oliver: [00:03:19] It depends who you're talking to, if it's a deferral, which is, that's what it really is, if it's a holiday, or if it's a cut. We finally do have guidance. I think it just came out yesterday, late Friday, as per the administration's operating procedure these days. Yeah, now we know that employers, the companies, are gonna be responsible for deferred payroll taxes, which, if I were an employer, I would definitely not participate in this program, because if my employees leave, then I'm gonna be on the hook for this money. David Leary: [00:03:52] Do the employers get to opt out? If my employees say, "I don't wanna be paying this Social Security. I want my holiday; Trump promised me a holiday," you can say, "Sorry, we're not participating in that, at this company ..." or you have to participate? Blake Oliver: [00:04:08] It is optional for the employer. It's up to the employer whether or not they wanna do it. Here's how this is actually going to work. From September 1 through the end of the year, the employer will stop withholding the employee share of Social Security, which is 6.2%? Then, starting in January, January through April 30, the employer will withhold double the normal amount of payroll tax. By April 30, it will have been- the net effect will have been the same. David Leary: [00:04:40] I'm an employer. I'm being set up to look bad, now, right? Does Trump not want U.S. small business support? First, the employees are gonna complain  want this; then you're gonna give it to them it's what the employees want. They only think instant. Then, they're gonna be pissed at you, come January, when you take out twice as much out of their paychecks. Blake Oliver: [00:05:03] Yeah, or you're gonna say, "I'm not doing this." Then, they'll be pissed at you because you didn't do it, or worse, they're going to leave their job, and take a new one in January, and you won't be able to collect that payroll tax, so you'll be on the hook for it because the employer is responsible. The IRS explicitly said that.  [00:05:24] It just seems like ... Definitely, the big employers, they're not gonna do this. Apparently, by the way, the holdup in all this guidance was due to the White House. That's according to Accounting Today. The White House actually wanted employers, not employees, to be responsible for the payroll tax collection, and payment, even if the employees leave.  David Leary: [00:05:45] That's because there's more employees that vote than there are small business owners. Blake Oliver: [00:05:51] I guess so. They were perhaps even pushing for a longer repayment period. Our favorite Trump economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, he said last week that the administration is, "Exploring ways," to forgive the tax payment completely. The taxes, "essentially can be forgiven if you stretch it out five years, eight years," which, to me, is ridiculous, that kind of logic. It's not forgiven. You're just stretching it out over five or eight years, so it feels like you're not paying it back because it's a small amount over five to eight years ... It's completely divorced from reality, that kind of thinking, because- David Leary: [00:06:33] This is gonna tie into some articles I brought in for later, actually. It's perfect, about deferring payments on things. Blake Oliver: [00:06:39] Well, I think it's obvious what I think about this program. I think it's idiotic, and it just creates havoc for payroll companies, payroll processors, for small businesses. It's not helpful. It's not even that much money. David Leary: [00:06:52] Yeah, I saw that. For $50,000 a year salary, it's $119 a paycheck, probably, for a total of $1,073, over nine pay periods. The cost to track that, and the risk to the employer are pretty high. Just cut everybody a check for $1,200. Again, it seems really ... I think what they're trying to do though is they're trying to be like, "We wanna reward the people that have jobs, or go to work," or whatever this psychological game is. Just send out a checks for $1,000 to everybody ... I don't know. It seems like it's just not enough money to make a difference. Blake Oliver: [00:07:30] Yeah, it's not a lot of money. It's helping the people who already have jobs, but not really helping them because they're gonna have to pay it back anyway. It's ridiculous. But, hey, I don't wanna be too negative, so I have a positive story about the administration.  David Leary: [00:07:44] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:44] -where I actually agree. There's been a lot of talk about the United States Postal Service over the last few weeks. Have you been following any of that, David?  David Leary: [00:07:52] Yeah, I even tried to start a plan here. I tweeted about it, that people should ... Remember when the Treasury said they were out of coins in the country? I said take all your coins and go buy stamps.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:03] Oh, yeah.  David Leary: [00:08:03] Then that would solve two problems, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:08:05] Well ...  David Leary: [00:08:05] They'd get the coins back in circulation, and  the U.S. Postal Service would get lots of money. Blake Oliver: [00:08:11] Right, but you may be pouring money into a government program that is actually very wasteful. CFO.com had a story about this overtime question. Postal Service over time is one of the things that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — who is that Trump donor, but also a very successful logistics executive who knows how to run a company that does packages, and deliveries, and all that stuff; business guy — one of the things that he did when he came in was he said, "Guys, overtime is ridiculous here. We gotta stop it with the overtime."  [00:08:48] It really is. The Postal Service had $522 million in overtime; 42% of the Postal Service's 633,000 employees had unauthorized overtime in fiscal 2019 ... 42% of their employees, hundreds of thousands of employees had unauthorized overtime. They're not operating like a logistics company. It's wasteful. Sure, some of that overtime is necessary, but I can't imagine that there's a justification for so many employees having unauthorized overtime. Just seems wasteful. [00:09:26] I'm just thinking about this, and I'm thinking, it just doesn't make any sense that somebody would try to sabotage such an important service. The United States Postal Service is so important, serves so many people. It just seems kind of ridiculous to me that somebody would try to sabotage an entire department, or a program like this, just for the election. It could not possibly end well.  [00:09:49] I think, actually, a lot of what has been happening is legitimate attempts to control costs and make the United States Postal Service operate more like a business that happened to coincide with the president saying stupid things that would then imply that he's pushing to destroy the Postal Service for the election. I think it's all getting confused. David Leary: [00:10:12] Yeah, I heard a really good NPR podcast about this specifically. It's the guy they brought in to run it. Is the title like Chief Postmaster ...?  Blake Oliver: [00:10:22] Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.  David Leary: [00:10:23] Postmaster General. He came in from outside logistic companies, like you said. I think he's at the age of his career ... He's made plenty of money. I don't think he's doing this for money; he's doing it for the challenge, but the challenge is ridiculous.  [00:10:36] It just sets everybody up for failure, because back in the '70s, when this was really just a government agency, and they spun it off, and they said, "Hey, let's run it as a business." Basically, on one hand, they're telling the Postmaster General, "You need to run this is a business, but guess what? You still have to pay all the retirement stuff, the pensions that are pre-set up, and you can't get out of that." Basically, it's been running at a loss, and nobody can figure out how to fix it.  [00:11:04] The changes this new Postmaster General started implementing, like ripping out those machines, were decisions that were made in December, and January, before pandemic, before all this other stuff, just because he's trying to make everything more efficient. They've done lots of things. They've closed ... Every Postmaster General does cuts, but nobody can figure out how to make this profitable, it's because they're locked in.  [00:11:26] The big auto companies, they were able to declare bankruptcy, and  then get out of paying their pensions, eventually. That helped them get back on track. But the Post Office is just set up for failure. It'll be saved because we care about it, as a country; it's an institution, but whoever's running it has no chance of winning anybody's approval. Blake Oliver: [00:11:44] Well, because Congress is bipolar on this issue. They say that they wanna make the Postal Service profitable, or at least break even, but then,  Congress people in rural areas won't let the Postal Service close post offices that serve very few people or limit the days that you have delivery. We deliver the mail to the middle of nowhere, six days a week. It makes no sense. Cut it a little bit, don't have Saturday delivery. That's very unpopular with constituents, so you've got political considerations that- David Leary: [00:12:17] Because if it was running like a business, it would be like the cable companies, and their internet. It would be the way FedEx and UPS do it-  Blake Oliver: [00:12:23] Well, hopefully not that bad.  David Leary: [00:12:23] There'd be parts of the country that do not get service. Blake Oliver: [00:12:26] Well, no, they would all get service, but it would cost more, or you'd have fewer deliveries. You'd have to do something. Okay, so that's it for the United States Postal Service. I got a few more political things we could just hit on real quick.  David Leary: [00:12:39] Might as well. I don't think I have anything political.  Blake Oliver: [00:12:41] Something kind of wonky: The Fed changed its inflation target. This is actually super-big news, but kind of hard to make sense of because what does it even mean? I'll just try to summarize it here.  [00:12:54] For the longest time, the Fed has had a target of balancing unemployment with inflation; the theory being that if unemployment gets too low, then inflation is gonna go up. When unemployment starts heading down to some unspecified target, the Fed preemptively raises interest rates to slow down the economy and prevent unemployment from getting too low and then inflation from happening.  [00:13:19] What they have done now is basically change their philosophy to say that "We no longer believe that low unemployment causes inflation necessarily, so we're just gonna allow unemployment to go down, and we're not gonna preemptively raise rates anymore. We're gonna have our target be around 2% inflation." That's a big change. This is related to some of that monetary policy stuff we were talking about in previous episodes. The impact of this is probably what you're wondering about. The impact is that we're gonna see low interest rates for a very, very long time. Most likely.  David Leary: [00:13:52] Yeah, which explains why the stock market just keeps going up because you can't make money anywhere else. There's no interest rates. Blake Oliver: [00:13:59] Yeah, the asset prices are inflated. This will actually be really bad for retirees on fixed incomes, potentially, because if inflation starts to go up, and the Fed doesn't raise interest rates, then ... If they allow inflation to grow, then that reduces the value of fixed-income securities, annuities, that sort of thing. Not great, if you're retired on a fixed income, or Social Security, David Leary: [00:14:24] You wanna jump into  TurboTax-  TurboTax? Sorry, Intuit earnings? Blake Oliver: [00:14:28] Let's talk about app news.  David Leary: [00:14:34] App news. Intuit released their earnings; they had a 13% annual growth driven by strong TurboTax performance. Considering all the bad press TurboTax has gotten for the last 18 months, it had its strongest year-over-year performance in four years.  Blake Oliver: [00:14:52] Wow. Well, we knew it was growing already, right? It had good momentum. David Leary: [00:14:55] It's been like this for- a machine, right? It's been growing year after year after year after year after year for 20 straight, 25 straight years, TurboTax has. More and more people ... You're right, we talked about this before. They're moving from the tax shops. If it's an easy return, the H&R Block ... The Block stores ... What'd we call that?  Blake Oliver: [00:15:14] Yeah, the retail tax. David Leary: [00:15:15] The retail tax. People have been shifting to do it themselves. A couple of interesting numbers they talked about, though, specifically around that is that ... They actually put this in their filing: the number of customers paying nothing grew over 20% to 60 million filers, which, obviously, they put that in because they were accused of swindling people into paying. Blake Oliver: [00:15:37] Right. That is kind of funny, though. You don't expect to see a company touting how many people use its products for free, right? David Leary: [00:15:43] Yep. The magic number, I think, for TurboTax is they have that side offering, Turbo, which is kind of their credit-reporting software, which is kind of Intuit's version of Credit Karma; now, Intuit's obviously buying Credit Karma, but that moved- that grew from 14 million users last year to 22 million. Ultimately, even if you have-  for a free offering over here, on one hand, you're still able to get people to start using your other offerings, and they're feeding into each other. Blake Oliver: [00:16:13] Did you mention that TurboTax Live has grown quite a lot? I'm seeing here-  David Leary: [00:16:16] Yeah, I was gonna get into TurboTax. Yeah, TurboTax Live grew nearly 70%. Mind you, remember, they talked about before, in the previous years, that TurboTax Live has been their fastest-growing, most-successful product offering ever? Blake Oliver: [00:16:30] Yes.  David Leary: [00:16:30] And the fact that their most successful product offering ever has grown by 70% is pretty amazing. That ties back into the-  Blake Oliver: [00:16:38] TurboTax Live, by the way, that's where you get TurboTax software, plus you can video chat with a real CPA through the app. David Leary: [00:16:46] What they're really excited about is with the- QuickBooks Live is basically built — this is from the conference call — QuickBooks Live is built basically on the platform they built TurboTax Live on, so they're able to more rapidly roll this out. What they're really excited about ... Remember they started just like a QuickBooks Live-only set-up service earlier in the year? Blake Oliver: [00:17:04] Yes.  David Leary: [00:17:05] What's happening is a much higher percentage of customers than expected are upgrading to it. They buy the set-up service, and  then, it's a good experience. Their QuickBooks Online is apparently set up, and a higher percentage than expected are choosing to just opt into it monthly. We talked about this before in the past, where they're really taking people from a $70-a-month QuickBooks subscription to a $200-a-month QuickBooks subscription just by tacking on some "live" services. Blake Oliver: [00:17:36] Just help when you need it, right?  David Leary: [00:17:38] Which explains why they're having so much growth here. Blake Oliver: [00:17:41] Yeah. QuickBooks Online accounting revenue up 38% for the year. Customer growth, and higher effective prices drove that. Higher effective prices, I assume, means QuickBooks Online Advanced. Online services revenue up 21% for the year. Their fiscal year ends July 31, so they really didn't get hit by the pandemic, it seems. David Leary: [00:18:08] No. I feel like Intuit never does. They seem to be able to ride out ... When the economy gets tight, I think people pay attention to their finances more. Blake Oliver: [00:18:19] Well, and you know what? Let's say I have a business that I had to close during the pandemic, and I'm not gonna come back. I still have to keep my QuickBooks subscription because I gotta file my taxes down the road, maybe a year later, or longer. That is one of those things that is essential to my business, even if I'm not operating. I've got to have my accounting data. Maybe that's part of it. David Leary: [00:18:39] Also, just in general, I think when things are tough — I've seen this with the Dotcom One bust; with the Great Recession — is people have to ... If they don't have a job, and you can't find a job, and you can't get a job,  the only option is to start a business. So, you see a lot of new business growth, and Intuit, because they're cheap, it's gonna benefit from that because you're trying to start a business. You're not gonna go buy Sage Intacct, when you're starting a brand-new business. You're gonna buy $39 QuickBooks Online. It's kind of that same mindset. A couple things that were interesting ... Remember, they did really well with all their PPP loans? At the end of the fourth quarter, they held $98 million in loans receivables for PPP, and they intend to sell all of those off.  Blake Oliver: [00:19:27] Makes sense, right? You don't want that on your balance sheet. David Leary: [00:19:30] Yeah, and I imagine they are just gonna package all that up and sell it to somebody else, and that person eventually will just own-  Blake Oliver: [00:19:36] Hey, maybe we'll see some PPP loan-backed securities ... Derivatives, David Leary: [00:19:43] Well, if we pooled enough money together, we could buy these for a cheaper cost from the banks and just hope that they all get forgiven, and then, we'll just make up the difference, if that's the case, if we can buy them for-  I don't think  pennies on the dollar, but maybe you might be able to get them at 80% off. Blake Oliver: [00:19:54] You'll have to see.  David Leary: [00:19:54] You might be able to ... Nobody wants to hold notes for $7,000 at a 1% interest rate. Nobody wants that. Blake Oliver: [00:20:04] Nope. All right, well, we're talking about Intuit, why don't we talk about QuickBooks updates for August? David Leary: [00:20:08] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:20:09] All of the updates — four updates — for QuickBooks Online in August, all for Advanced. This has been the trend that we've seen this whole year. Almost all the updates that we see are going into Advanced, which is the $150-per-month product. Makes sense, right? They're trying to increase their average contract size. What do we get? Well, Invoice Approval Workflow is now live in QuickBooks Online Advanced, so you can route invoices for approval before they're sent to clients. There's also Tasks — Go ahead. David Leary: [00:20:41] Okay, that makes sense. Somebody else sent me that as a video, or a link specifically about that because, a lot of times, you'll have Employee A creating an invoice to send to a customer, and it's missing stuff. If it's missing stuff, it's hard to get paid for that later on, so an approval workflow makes sense on the accounts receivable side. Blake Oliver: [00:20:57] Yeah, I think that's huge. We've also got Tasks. Now, you can see your QuickBooks to-do list in Tasks. Related to invoice approval, if somebody sends you an invoice for approval or creates a custom task for you, you'll now see that when you log into QuickBooks. We've also got Batch-Create Bank Deposits. Now, you can reduce the time spent entering multiple individual bank deposits. Finally, Performance Center updates. Your Performance Center in QBOA now displays Quick Ratio, and Current Ratio. They're continuing to add to the KPIs that are available in that Performance dashboard. David Leary: [00:21:35] I'm trying to still feel out the QuickBooks Advanced. They talked about this in the earnings that both QuickBooks Live, and QuickBooks Advanced, basically, people look at those services and compare it to what they're currently paying for services. They look at QuickBooks Advanced, and they compare it to super-expensive ERP software. In this environment, the cheaper cost option's gonna win. They also know what they're paying for bookkeeping, and accounting services, and if they can get QuickBooks Live for cheaper, it's really ... Intuit views it – because of the current economic environment – as a competitive advantage.  I'm trying to still feel out QuickBooks Advanced. It doesn't have enough features to get anybody to switch. If you have to go to an ERP software, like a Sage Intacct, etc., you're gonna go. It doesn't have enough features there. I also feel like it doesn't have enough features to possibly ... Is it gonna encourage you, like, "Oh, those few features are worth the extra money? I'm gonna upgrade my subscription ..."? It feels like it's a very narrow audience, people that might need two or three of these things they need. I don't know. Is invoice approvals enough to push you over to pay double on price? Blake Oliver: [00:22:37] Well, considering that you're going from, what, $70 a month to $150, you've got to really justify that extra $80. If you're sending a lot of invoices and there's consistent errors in the invoices because there's no approval process, and you can pay $80 a month to avoid that problem, and you're sending hundreds of invoices, that seems reasonable to me. That could save you easily $80 a month just by not missing stuff on invoices. That's the sort of thing that I think does provide value there.  They're also bundling Fathom into QuickBooks Online Advanced, so if you're paying for a separate reporting tool, you can justify the cost there. You have to if you've got a big chart of accounts, right? That was the very first thing that they did with QuickBooks Online Advanced was limit the number of accounts you could have in Pro, so that you have to upgrade. I think they have ... The more customized user access, that is probably valuable to some businesses. David Leary: [00:23:31] I guess it feels like they're ... If you're using QuickBooks Online, and  you're missing a feature, instead of putting that in QuickBooks Online, they're putting it in QuickBooks Online Advanced. Then, that customer- "I guess I'll use QuickBooks Online Advanced because I need that thing."  Blake Oliver: [00:23:41] Right.  David Leary: [00:23:41] They keep adding all these extra Advanced things, all separately. Really, ultimately, most people are gonna upgrade not to get all of QuickBooks Advanced; they're upgrading for the one use case they need that wasn't put in regular QuickBooks Online. Anything, like you said, that's advanced at all, or a specific need is just kind of thrown in that QuickBooks Advanced.  Blake Oliver: [00:24:00] Yeah, and another big one is custom fields. You can add lots and lots of custom fields. If you need customization, normally, you'd have to go to an ERP system to get that. You can add those in Online. I think a lot of the stuff that's in the current Desktop Enterprise product is gonna end up in Advanced. It makes sense. They're just getting there. The batch processing can save you a ton of time. Online Advanced includes that integrated Bill.com thing, too. If you're using Bill.com by itself, you'd probably have a ton of money doing Advanced.  David Leary: [24:33] Or you could use Melio.  Blake Oliver: [24:35] Or you could use Melio, yeah ... ____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Accountant Connect. How can you stay on top of your game and still have time to think more strategically, or how do you keep up with all the COVID-19-related stimuli programs to make sure your clients have the documentation to get their piece of the pie? By using ADP's award-winning multi-client payroll-management and analytics platform called Accountants Connect. Be your clients' go-to guru by leveraging Accountant Connect's tools and resources to strengthen your strategic advisory role while boosting the efficiency of your traditional tax and accounting services. With ADP Accountant Connect, you can process payroll and easily integrate payroll data to the popular accounting systems, like QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage, and handle their clients' needs anywhere, anytime. Because ADP Accountant Connect was designed by accountants for accountants, it includes so much more. You can take a CPE course on trending topics, provide your clients with benchmarking data, access the tax-resource library, calculators, e-books, even template letters for communicating with your clients, and it's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. ADP has your back with Accountant Connect.____________________David Leary: [00:25:58] Did you see that Xero appointed a director of to lead the U.S. Hispanic market? Blake Oliver: [00:26:04] I had not. David Leary: [00:26:04] Jackeline Velez, she's gonna be the director of the U.S. Hispanic market to support the fastest-growing language demographic in the U.S. small-business economy. I think we've talked about this before in the past, like how many small businesses are started by Hispanics, and now, it's outpacing every other demographic.  I think this is a smart move by Xero. Intuit tried to get into this space years ago with TurboTax, almost 15 years ago. They created a Spanish version of TurboTax, and it just didn't sell. I don't know if it was 15 years too early. When I say it didn't sell, I think they moved 25 units- 25 versions of it were bought off the store shelves, and that was it. Blake Oliver: [00:26:42] That's interesting because the retail tax shops, the ones that are growing are the ones that target Hispanics. David Leary: [00:26:49] Yep, but as far as standalone software, it's been a struggle. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. My understanding, talking to- when we talked to the Latino Tax Pro guys before, at conferences, and I've had discussions with them, and some of it, the learning is they don't ... My understanding is it's not so much that your software has to be in Spanish, but maybe your support team does, your sales team. If you're doing webinars, all the other communications around your product ... Maybe that was the problem before. Intuit created a Spanish version of TurboTax 15 years ago, but none of the other things that supported the product were in Spanish-  Blake Oliver: [00:27:27] Yeah, none of the people who worked there were Hispanic. David Leary: [00:27:31] Exactly. I think it's an interesting move. I think some former Xero employees, I know, were pushing for this a long time. Blake Oliver: [00:27:39] That's great. Hopefully, that'll help Xero make greater inroads in the United States. We've got some more Xero news. Xero has acquired Waddle to help improve small business cash flow. I had not heard of Waddle before. Were you familiar with them in any way? David Leary: [00:27:54] Not entirely. I'm familiar with the concept. It's an invoice-refactoring-type service. It's very similar to FundBlock, who's really a huge partner with Intuit here in the U.S. market. My understanding is they're huge in New Zealand. They're a New Zealand startup, right? Blake Oliver: [00:28:12] They were founded in Australia in 2014. I think the term that they use down there must be invoice-financing, but we know it as invoice-factoring, often. Basically, you get a- you connect Waddle to Xero, and you get a line of credit based on your outstanding invoices. Pretty simple. Like you say, David, everyone's becoming a bank.  A few more updates real quick on apps. FreshBooks has some updates. Mileage Tracking is now live in the FreshBooks iOS app. I think we mentioned that they had added that into their desktop app previously. You've got a month view in the time-tracking area. You can automatically apply credits to recurring invoices; that's very helpful. Now, your clients in FreshBooks can have secondary contacts, so you can keep track of more folks, more like a CRM at your clients. That's great. When somebody doesn't respond to your invoice, you can send it to the CEO, as well.  Direct debit is now live for UK users of FreshBooks, and you can include unbilled expenses on invoices, and recurring templates, so you always remember to include your unbilled expenses. Then, last one for me, Google Chrome had some updates. I think this is worthy of the podcast, even though it's not accounting, because a lot of us live in Google Chrome these days. Although, David, I know you're a Firefox aficionado. You and 2% of the internet users in the world. David Leary: [00:29:33] If I wanted to use the new IE, I would be using Chrome. Blake Oliver: [00:29:38] Right. Well, Chrome has a lot of features. One I love is that when I'm logged in on Chrome, with my Google account, it automatically logs me into all the other services that I use that use a Google account. That's not what I wanna talk about here.  The new feature that's really cool is tab groups. David, this might actually be helpful to you. You have a zillion tabs open. Now, you can create groups of tabs in Chrome that you wanna leave open, and you can name them. You can move the all the tabs around as a group. Could be really helpful, if you're working on a specific project, and you don't wanna get disorganized. Instead of having to organize them in windows, you can use tab groups. I've been playing around with that, and I kind of  it a lot.  Another big one, I think that could be very helpful for accountants, is Chrome is rolling out the ability to fill out and save PDF forms directly in the browser. I'm not gonna need a special — I'm not gonna need Adobe to do this. If I open up a PDF, I can just fill it out, and save it.  David Leary: [00:30:33] That'll make all PDFs, even when people send you a PDF that's not fillable, is it gonna help out with that situation? Blake Oliver: [00:30:38] I don't know. We'll see. Lastly, one of the big complaints about Chrome, even though it's got such functionality with the plugins, and all that stuff, is that it gets slow because of that. You have those zillion tabs open, and your computer just bogs down. Well, they're introducing tab throttling. Tabs that are not in the forefront, that have been in the background for a while, will be throttled so they don't consume all your computer resources. David Leary: [00:31:02] Firefox has been doing something like that for a while, where the other tabs are just not running. Blake Oliver: [00:31:07] Well, my problem with Firefox is just I need certain extensions. They make my life so much easier, in Chrome, and I just ... They're never as good in Firefox because it's a secondary browser, so companies don't develop those extensions. That's my thing. Oh, and also, I'm a Google Apps user, so just so much easier to use it in Chrome. David Leary: [00:31:28] No, no, that's fine. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Just [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:31:31] You're a maverick, David. You're an Android user. You're a Firefox user. David Leary: [00:31:36] We've had repeating history here. Remember when you'd go to websites, and they'd tell you, "This website only runs on IE 5, or IE 6, or IE 7. You must use IE 10 to use this website."  Blake Oliver: [00:31:47] Oh, yeah, that was the worst.  David Leary: [31:47] Now, what's happening, you go to websites, and they're like, "Oh, you must use this on only Google Chrome," because the developers only built it for Google Chrome. It defeats the purpose of the whole internet. Google Chrome is the new IE, plain and simple.  Blake Oliver: [00:32:00] Well, it's certainly better than IE. At least, let's give it that [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:32:03] I've heard, actually, the new Microsoft Edge is excellent.  Blake Oliver: [32:06] Oh, really? Well, I run a Mac, so I don't know. I haven't seen that yet. David Leary: [00:32:12] If you use Firefox, you get it on all your devices; works perfectly everywhere. People should take a look. We need to have an independent browser available [crosstalk] Go ahead. Blake Oliver: [00:32:23] What else? What else? What should we hit on next?  David Leary: [00:32:25] I have a quick- Amazon got hit by a fraud scam for $19 million. Blake Oliver: [00:32:30] What sort of fraud? What happened? David Leary: [00:32:32] It's a typical old school ... Two brothers in New York State were just sending fake invoices to Amazon. Blake Oliver: [00:32:37] Oh, and they paid them, right?  David Leary: [00:32:38] They paid them. Blake Oliver: [00:32:39] That's what happens when you get too big, right? How much did they lose?  David Leary: [00:32:43] $19 million.  Blake Oliver: [00: 32:44] Wow. That's like a rounding error for Amazon, though, these days, right?  David Leary: [00:32:48] The best part is, in the claim from the district attorney's office, in this press release that was released, they said that the brothers, "manipulated" Amazon's vendor system. I think manipulated is not really the word. They just mailed in an invoice, and some morons at Amazon paid them. This is not-  Blake Oliver: [00:33:06] The classic fraud is you figure out who a vendor- a big vendor of Amazon. Then, you form a company that has a very, very similar name; enough where, if you've received a check paid out to the real company, you could deposit it, and the bank wouldn't question it. Then, you start sending invoices, as if you're that company, and you just have a different mailing address. David Leary: [00:33:29] Yeah because manipulated makes it seem like these guys almost hacked in, and Amazon's a huge victim, here, but they've gotta take some responsibility. You're Amazon. How do you not have some controls around this?  Blake Oliver: [00:33:43] Yeah, it's like when Wirecard went belly up, when that whole $2 billion fraud was exposed, Ernst & Young said, "Oh, well, you know, it was a sophisticated attempt to defeat our fraud detection capabilities." It turned out that it was just they faked bank statements. They just sent them fake bank statements- David Leary: [00:34:01] I guess that's the question that's not even in this article - where were the auditors? Nobody was like, "What's going on with this $19 million?"  Blake Oliver: [00:34:07] Well, again, I guess, at Amazon, $19 million is probably a rounding error, given how big they are.  David Leary: [00:34:12] That's true; that's true.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:14] Materiality, fraud detection, it probably wouldn't even matter if that ... It just sounds like a lot of money to us, and it's interesting ... C'mon, it's still kind of amateur. They should have better controls in place to make sure that-  David Leary: [00:34:26] They could use Melio for free and have Google processes. It would cost Amazon nothing to implement a solution. Blake Oliver: [00:34:35] What they should've had in that place ... I don't know exactly how this happened. Let's say that it was the address changed in the vendor, or the invoice came in, and there was a different Pay To address. That should be an alert. To change the address on a vendor should have required some review, and approval, and confirmation, or whatnot.  A lot of accounting systems don't have that built in because they aren't built to detect fraud. They're built to process transactions. Every fraud-detection capability that you build into your app just makes it harder to use, and slower, in a lot of cases, so there's that tradeoff. You make the app harder to use when you put in place that stuff.  Continuing on Wirecard, PwC's Global Head, Bob Moritz, responded to the Wirecard scandal. Now, his firm wasn't the one auditing Wirecard, but he pledged that PwC has to aggressively review how the firm can better hunt for frauds following the Wirecard, and other accounting scandals. "We want to make sure we're moving forward on the detection of fraud to ensure the relevance of the profession. Wirecard is yet another example of the fact we need to look at this and do it aggressively over the next few years." Now, how they're actually gonna do that, no answer. So, is it just talk? Probably. Who are the auditors really working for? They're not working for the markets. They're working for the companies that hire them, so they'll continue to overlook fraud as long as they can. They'll do the crappiest job they possibly can satisfy their clients. That's just the nature of it. David Leary: [00:36:02] There's an article in Accounting Today: "CPA firms' hiring of accounting grads down 30%." Blake Oliver: [00:36:07] Yes, I saw that, too. It's funny, that's not actually a new stat. We've actually talked about that. David Leary: [00:36:14] Yeah, they said it's been declining over recent years.  Blake Oliver: [00:36:17] From 2014 to 2018, CPA firms reduced their hiring of CPA grads, or accounting grads, I should say [crosstalk] not CPAs. They reduced their hiring of accounting grads by 30%. David Leary: [00:36:30] It's also not just the Big Four or CPA firms doing it. It's just in general, corporate America is hiring less CPAs. They're having less CPAs [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:36:38] -fewer accountants; fewer accounting grads.  David Leary: [00:36:40] Then, it's kind of where now, I'm thinking about this ... On one hand, I see posts, and accountants, and bookkeepers struggle to get qualified individuals to work for their firm. On one hand, there's a shortage of labor, and people are looking for people with the skills, but is it just the typical accounting grad doesn't have the skills?  The other part of this kind of thinking, the ripple effect of this, is that we always talk about diversity in the accounting industry. How are you supposed to convince minorities, be like, "Hey, go be an accountant?" Nobody's hiring. You can't get a job afterwards, but go get ... Is it gonna hurt- the ripple effects of the hiring not taking place, just, I wonder ...? Also, I really can't reconcile how I see constant posts from people; they can't find talent. Blake Oliver: [00:37:29] You hit on it right there. There's a lot of accounting grads still, but the accounting education system/accounting curriculum isn't preparing accountants to do what businesses need, and what firms need. That's the whole justification for this CPA Evolution Project the CPA is working on to add in technology into the curriculum, and to offer people specialization when they take the CPA exam. I can choose if I wanna specialize in tax; I can choose if I wanna specialize in financial reporting/audit, or I can choose if I wanna specialize in- what was the other one? Business management ... Technology. Sorry, that was one of the specializations. I can choose to specialize in those things and be more relevant.  It's interesting, the article that you saw- I think it was the Accounting Today one, right? That was driven by the Illinois CPA Society president, and CEO Todd Shapiro talking at their annual State Society Summit. He was talking about these stats and trying to come up with solutions. I'm not sure ... He didn't really have a solution for this. I mean, adding in technology is important. The other thing that he mentioned is something that is kind of missing from this Evolution Project, which is looking forward, and being able to provide advisory services to clients. That's a really important thing.  We know that advisory is growing. We talked last week about how businesses want to pay accounting firms for advisory, and they would pay 30% more among the small businesses. Small businesses would pay 30% more if they could get advisory services from their firms, but they're not being served.  I don't know if the curriculum has changed since I took my accounting classes — because I'm a career-changer. I've been through it recently. There was nothing finance, really, related. Maybe we barely touched on KPIs, and they were the really basic ones, like current ratio, and inventory turnover.  This whole future, forward-looking, helping clients see what's coming — none of  that is in there, and I don't think that's in this new curriculum. They're adding in the tech, but I think that kind of misses the point because the purpose of the tech is to automate the accounting, the historical work, so that you can do the future-looking stuff. If you don't add in that, then, I don't know ... I don't think it really solves the problem. David Leary: [00:39:54] It's a big overall question — when people are wondering, "Why do I even I wanna go get my CPA?" It's almost like it's a perfect storm ... The extra- nobody's hiring, or hirings are down. You have to do the extra 150 hours of semester study. You have RPA, and  AI eliminating CPA functions across the board. It's the perfect storm of things happening.  Even if you go smaller market, in general, now, small businesses are doing most of their work on the cloud now, and if you're not coming out of college with that experience with the cloud apps, and the cloud technologies ... I don't know how to solve it. It's a perfect storm, and it's not gonna help. Not hiring is not gonna encourage the best, and brightest to become accounting majors. Blake Oliver: [00:40:45] The 150-hour requirement was the profession shooting itself in the foot. It makes no sense. It makes becoming a CPA very expensive, and time-consuming compared to other things that you could be doing with your time, where you could be making more money in a shorter amount of time. It's just anti-competitive and was a really bad idea.  The problem is, I don't think anyone's willing to admit that it was a bad idea and to undo it because now it's enshrined in law in many states, so you can't undo it. It takes so long to make anything happen that to undo it would be another ... I don't know how long that took, but 10–20 years or something like that. We're kind of stuck with it. Maybe this is inevitable, this decline, but that might not be such a bad thing.  I think I saw Donnie Shimamoto arguing in an article on CPA Trendlines, and I have to dig into it more. I haven't read the whole thing, but basically his premise is maybe this isn't such a bad thing. We don't need everybody in a CPA firm to be a CPA. It's not like everybody who works at a hospital is a doctor. You have all these people that support them, right?  David Leary: [00:41:46] I think that makes sense.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:47] That makes sense, right? That's fair. Maybe this isn't such a big deal.  David Leary: [00:41:50] The market's gonna figure this out from a supply and demand perspective. If there's not enough CPAs, the market will be hiring a lot more- they'll try to hire more. The market's gonna balance this out, but it's shocking when you see headlines that 30%, hiring is down. Blake Oliver: [00:42:04] It's not shocking, though, if you look at the incentives in place for employers, when it comes to automation. The U.S. tax code actually favors automation, according to a new paper. This is from the Brookings Institution. When you add up all the taxes on labor – hiring people, employing people to do work – it ends up being about 28.5% on employers.  Now, what is the tax rate on replacing those people with software and equipment? It's only about 5%, and that is in large part due to government policies by both Republican, and Democratic administrations, from Bush, to Obama, to Trump, in which to incentivize business investment, we created bonus depreciation rules that allow businesses to buy equipment, and software, and write it off very quickly, thus getting a tax benefit.  Whereas if you hire people, you don't get any tax benefit, generally; certainly not as big one. So, there's this huge difference in the benefit you receive from implementing automation in your firm versus hiring people to do work. We are actually- this is not intentional, but we are incentivizing businesses to replace people with automation, even when the automation is only equal to the people, because of the tax benefit.  David Leary: [00:43:32] Not only that, because of these tax policies that we're currently rolling out for the pandemic, it's encouraged you not to have employees at all because it's too much headache. It's too much headache to pay employees now.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:43] Yeah, so remote work is making it harder to hire, and train people. It's making it easier to retain people, but it's not making it easy to train, and integrate people into your company. What are people gonna do? They're gonna buy software. They're gonna buy automation, instead of hiring people. That's probably also a big reason why accounting firms are hiring fewer accounting grads is because they're automating a lot of the work that these accounting students were taught to do. It's cheaper to automate it than to hire them. What's the policy implication here? Well, the authors of this economic study at Brookings say that we should adjust the taxation, so that it's even, or even preference labor over equipment because there are many first-order effects that are much more beneficial of having ... Well, I think it's obvious, right? If you have low unemployment, it's better for society than if you have high unemployment. We should even this out is the argument. David Leary: [00:44:44] Let's say all the grunt work is automated. I'm a firm believer that the grunt work is actually what makes you amazing, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, because you know all the inner workings of the pieces. How do you just graduate college? It's all theory. All the grunt work's automated, so you're not doing any of that, and you just jump into advising ... You kind of have to have that basis of the work. Blake Oliver: [00:45:08] Mm-hmm. Right, yeah, you have to do the dirty work. I always say that the best thing for me was I had to post debits, and credits in an ancient accounting system. It wasn't one of those systems like QuickBooks, where you can't screw it up. If I got the accounts wrong, I would create a huge mess, so I learned, like intuitively! It's in my bones how to post journal entries properly. You're not getting that anymore; you don't get that experience. I think I was one of the last accountants to-  David Leary: [00:45:43] Won't that hurt the success rate in the CPA exam because, in theory, in the CPA exam, you're supposed to have time and practice before you take the exam? Blake Oliver: [00:45:43] A little bit. Yeah, at least a few years probably. David Leary: [00:45:54] If the grunt work's not there, what are you learning? Just all in theory, still? Blake Oliver: [00:46:00] Yeah, this is the problem, where we're getting these firms that are no longer pyramids, where you have a lot of people at the bottom, and as you move up, you have fewer people. Now, we're getting diamonds, where you have very few people at the bottom entry level, and then you have a big group of middle managers who have experience, and know how to do the advanced technology, and advising stuff. Then, you have a smaller group of partners at the top.  I think it's a big problem. It's gonna be a huge challenge. I don't think anyone has a solution yet. Where do you get the experience that you need? This is something I talked about with Phil Yaeger on his podcast about the future of the CPA, and the profession. One of my suggestions is that we change the education, so it's less theoretical, and more practical. Do fewer hours in the classroom, fewer years in the classroom, and do more are working in firms? I think it would be better for people to do extended internships, and firms would be willing to hire them, if they didn't have to pay them a full salary; if it was an internship, and then get the experience that way. It would be better than just sitting in a classroom learning stuff that you're never gonna use.  David Leary: [00:47:09] Yeah or make them go run a business ... Start a business, and run a business for 12 months, and set up your own bookkeeping, and get revenue, and reconcile things. All these things you have to do that gives you the experience, so when you do ... You can have these conversations later on with a small business owner. Blake Oliver: [00:47:26] Here's the thing – if you're listening, and you're studying accounting, and you're worried about this, I would say, yes, you should be worried. Here's what you should do – take classes in finance, as well. Take your basic accounting, get your intermediate accounting, but more valuable to you than your advanced accounting courses – because you can learn that stuff probably in the real world – would be take finance.  According to an Oracle NetSuite survey, nearly half of respondents across finance, and executives on small- to medium-sized businesses said that finance has grown in importance since January. The most important elements of finance are financial planning, and analysis, corporate development, and strategy, and risk management. Those are areas they're growing. Accounting is shrinking due to automation. Finance is growing because, in uncertain economic environments, that's what people need. I think they're gonna need it going forward. FP&A is always something that businesses need. As business models change quicker, and quicker, due to technological advancement, this is gonna be something that we need, at least until, I don't know, 40 or 50 years from now, when we develop an AI that can basically take over the world, and we don't have to do any work at all because we are either all destroyed by the AI or it becomes our benevolent overlord, and provides us with everything that we need. David Leary: [00:48:56] Yeah. It'd be great if people called and left us a voicemail about their opinions on — how do you solve this problem, or how should the industry solve this problem of accounting majors not being able to get the skills and why they're not becoming CPAs, and why they're not being hired, and why they're not being valued in Fortune 500. We'd love to hear your opinions on this. That phone number, Blake? Blake Oliver: [00:49:20] (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. It is a number that goes straight to voicemail. You have three minutes. Leave a message. We will absolutely listen to it, and we may even play it on the air. We'd love to hear from you. That's all I've got this week, David. David Leary: [00:49:39] I'm out of news, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:49:41] Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy. See you all here on the next podcast. David Leary: [00:49:46] Bye.  ___________________ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100.  

Sponsors AccountingSuite: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite LivePlan Bootcamp: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/lpbootcamp BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 04:33 – One of this week's voicemail messages – Shana 06:40 - Increase your restaurant profits by tracking fiscal weeks in QuickBooks Online Advanced – Intuit QuickBooks 08:16 - Xero and TriNet provide full-service HR solutions to U.S. small businesses – Xero Blog 09:00 - NetSuite Adds More Remote-Friendly Accounting Features – CPA Practice Advisor 10:20 – More about building your own bank feed – Episode 132   11:07 - Intuit’s QuickBooks Accounting Software May Now Access Financial Data Provided by Bank of Montreal Customers via New API– Crowdfund Insider 11:45 - Amex acquires SoftBank-backed Kabbage after tough 2020 for the SMB lender– TechCrunch 13:13 - Trump Expresses Support for Oracle to Buy TikTok – WSJ 14:43 - Automate bank reconciliations with Excel Power Query – Financial Management 17:27 - The Oracle of National ID Cards – Wired  18:10 - IRS To Begin Sending Out Interest Payments To Millions Of Taxpayers With 2019 Tax Refunds – Taxgirl 19:00 - IRS will stop sending overdue notices until it catches up on mail backlog – Accounting Today  19:56 - The payroll tax holiday will kick off in two weeks. Your employer isn’t ready – CNBC 20:13 - NPRC Statement on Employee Social Security Tax Deferral - NPRC 21: 51 - Potbelly returned its first $10M PPP loan after public uproar — then it applied for another one– Fox Business 22:14 -  AICPA is urging congress to make a technical correction to fix the tax treatment of loan forgiveness on PPP loans – Accounting Today  24:00 – Our second voicemail, from TCAP friend, Hector Garcia.  30:35 - Clients disappointed with tax refunds, expect more from accountants (The Canopy Survey) – Accounting Today  38:42 - Patrick Knight of Adobe: 57% of Parents Feel Closer to Coworkers Now Despite Working from Home – Small Business Trends  42:20 - Where Opportunity Meets Value: Business Model Trends Report (Bill.com survey) – Bill.com  56:25 – A review!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad:https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptDo you have some clients that need more than what your current cloud-accounting software can offer - more robust inventory tracking, more connections to online sales channels, more users, more permissions, more reports, more control, more customization, more flexibility? Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, AccountingSuite, later in the podcast. Blake Oliver: [00:00:22] ... And you don't have to go get new clients. If you're serving small clients, you can increase your revenue 31% just by adding advisory services. David Leary: [00:00:30] Especially if you already are doing this. If you already offer this service at your firm, and you're not selling this in a good way to an existing client ... It's your God-given right to make more money off of your clients instead of trying to go hunt in the market for a new client to sell a teeny advisory service ... You have to show your customers what you offer, package it up in a way that's attractive that they'll buy it, and they'll pay more, if they know they're getting more value from you.____________________This episode of the Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by LivePlan. If 2020 has taught us anything, it's to be lean and nimble in our work. More than ever, you need to help your clients understand their opportunities and limitations, so they can react quickly, and accurately. The clients need advisory services, and you need to provide them ASAP, but you probably don't have months to develop your advising skills as a scalable offering. You need to learn this, lean style. At the LivePlan Strategic Advisory Bootcamp, you'll rapidly create your advisory offering within three days of deep learning and hands-on workshops. You'll learn a scalable system on how to market, sell, and deliver vital client advisory services. This virtual event even includes a bundle of resources, like meeting scripts, marketing collateral, packages and pricing. To learn more about attending the LivePlan Strategic Advisory Bootcamp on October 5, 6, and 7, head over the CloudAccountingPodcast.promo/lpbootcamp. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before September 30, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:55] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver.  David Leary: [00:02:59] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:59] My son finished his first week of virtual kindergarten. Did I talk about that? David Leary: [00:03:05] Last week, we talked about that. We talked about how the kids should, maybe, instead of using Zooms, they should use that software- the virtual world, so the kids can walk around and walk into their classrooms. Blake Oliver: [00:03:15] It went great for him. He's happy. It just is an inspiration to me because kids are- they don't have these expectations. He's good ... We're also fortunate in that we can send him to a place where he has tutors who help him go through all this stuff, because both my wife and I work. I feel for the parents who don't have that. I mean, you've got your kids stuck at home, and you're juggling them, and you're trying to work? David Leary: [00:03:41] They're on a Zoom call; my wife's on a Zoom call. The other day, I walked out of the room I'm in, and everybody in the house was on a Zoom call at the same time. The house was deathly quiet. Everybody's doing their own thing. It's just not the Zoom call fatigue I think is the problem. Teachers only have one way to communicate, so, the emails you get. I can't even keep up. Blake Oliver: [00:03:59] Oh, yeah.  David Leary: [00:03:59] Then, there's the things you'd typically go to school in the evening to attend some event with your children. That's now a Zoom call. You're getting reminded about a Zoom call at 8:00 a.m. that you're supposed to get on at 7:00 p.m. at night, and it's like, I just took 12 hours of Zoom calls. It's the reality. Blake Oliver: [00:04:14] Well, I've got some good news for you this week, which is that we had two people call our number. We have that Google Voice number that people can call and leave a message. We've been talking about it for months and months, and people started calling. So, I wanted to play the first listener message that we got. Shawna: [00:04:33] Hi, my name is Shawna. I am a solopreneur/practitioner in central Florida, just driving today, and I had to call in and say thank you. Your Episode 187 just recently aired this month, in August. I had just been on a phone call with a client of mine, struggling with e-commerce. They use QuickBooks Point of Sale in their retail store, but because of COVID, they have not been open for three or four months now; they've been struggling with their online presence, and they have an online store, have had it for a while. They sold something online. Somebody called in, wanted to buy, and they had already sold it, but it couldn't figure it out because their desktop Point of Sale said they had it, but it got sold online, so they didn't, obviously, talk to each other. [00:05:18] The struggle is real for them, right now, so they're like, "We need to rethink our e-commerce situation." I didn't have an answer at the time, but now I do, with Webgility, and with the TradeGecko purchase that Intuit just had. We're gonna start researching those two options for them. So, kudos to you guys. You're saving me some time trying to figure out what's their best solution. I now can point them a little bit- guide them a bit better than I would trying to figure it out on my own. Thanks for all you guys do. All the best. Bye.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:52] That makes me happier than any review. Whenever we can help somebody give more direction to their clients, learn about apps, know what to recommend, that makes me happy.  David Leary: [00:06:01] Or just save time and getting things in their awareness. I said before, I'm plowing through 1,100 crappy blog posts just to try to surface the best ones. Blake Oliver: [00:06:10] Thank you, Shawna, for listening. Good luck to you on that e-commerce journey. We got a bunch more app updates. We could start with that. David Leary: [00:06:21] Yeah, why not? Jump in? Blake Oliver: [00:06:26] QuickBooks Online Advanced ... A lot of those features, I think, kind of underwhelmed us as they were released over the last few months, but there's a big one that just came out. Now, you can track fiscal weeks in QuickBooks Online Advanced. Note, this is the Advanced version, the more expensive one, the premium one, not the Pro, not the Essentials. [00:06:48] In QuickBooks Online Advanced, you can now serve restaurants with better reporting because you can do that restaurant-style week setup, where you break the months not into calendar months, but into groups of four or five weeks throughout the year. You have four 13-week periods, and each 13-week period is 4-5, or 4-5-4. That way, you get comparability because now, all your month periods have the same number of weekends. [00:07:23] This is one of the big problems with the restaurant reporting is that because you get these spikes on the weekends, if you have a month where you have four weekends or five weekends, and it changes, then you can't compare December of '19 to December of '20 anymore. Does it make sense? David Leary: [00:07:37] Yeah, absolutely. It's been requested. I mean, for years, people were asking for this. There's a term for that report, and it's not coming to me, right now. Ultimately, you're right, it's for comparisons. Blake Oliver: [00:07:48] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:07:48] Probably, eventually, this is how COVID numbers should be reported ... Eventually. You know how there's all these spikes on the Mondays, and the weekends, and all this; you can't compare it calendar to calendar; probably gonna have to look at it week by week, especially if this goes on for another year ... Especially, if we see if there's trends over time. Like, "Oh, yes, the second week of April, there's always a spike. Why? Because of X event." Blake Oliver: [00:08:07] This is really cool. Neat to see this feature coming in for Advanced to help offer better reporting to specific industries, like restaurants. Xero and TriNet are now integrating. TriNet is a PEO provider. Map your TriNet payroll accounts to your Xero accounts and automatically post those journal entries into Xero. David Leary: [00:08:28] Yeah, this was one of the app news I had, as well. At the same time, I was like, this is it? This is the peak of the week. Xero wrote a blog post about mapping the wage account to the Xero account, matching the benefits account to the Xero account. This is the blog post. This is every single payroll integration, and every single app integration, at some level. I think the week has been that slow, of news. When this makes the show, it's a slow week of news.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:54] Well, I got some more for you, David-  David Leary: [00:08:55] All right.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:55] -that's probably not going to impress you, if that didn't impress you. NetSuite has added some more features. There's three new features in NetSuite, the ERP from the mid-market. Consolidating multiple invoices. Now, instead of creating a separate invoice for every order in NetSuite - and orders and invoices are a separate concept - you can group multiple orders into a single invoice for your customer to pay.  [00:09:22] Automated matching transactions from bank statements. "Bank reconciliation is tedious and time-consuming." I'm quoting the article, here. "To ensure that bank data and accounting details are in sync, financial transactions must be entered into the accounting system first. Oftentimes, this process is done manually and leaves room for inaccurate information. Now, with the ability to automate transaction creation from bank transactions, NetSuite users can create and post transactions automatically from imported bank data, saving time and improving accuracy." David Leary: [00:09:52] This is good. I mean, if you think about this, QuickBooks and Xero had bank feeds 10 years ago. Blake Oliver: [00:09:58] Well, that's the thing about this- David Leary: [00:10:00] I think when we started the podcast, early on, you went to a Sage Intacct conference that first time, and they announced that they were adding bank feeds to Intacct. As this goes up market, finally these bigger apps are starting to get bank feeds.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:11] We did an interview with a customer at the Sage Intacct conference- David Leary: [00:10:15] That's right.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:15] -who had built ... Her company built their own bank feed that went into the online banking and grabbed all the transactions and then posted a journal entry with all the daily transactions categorized. We were so impressed by that, but what's crazy about that is that Intacct did not have bank feeds at that time. [00:10:34] Now, I think both Intacct and NetSuite have them, to some extent. Again, what this feature does is something that has been happening in QuickBooks for 20 years, which is that you can import your bank data and then create transactions while you reconcile. If there isn't something to match it to in the GL, now, you can create it on the fly? It's kind of crazy that this didn't exist before. David Leary: [00:10:58] The thing is, even though QuickBooks has had this for a decade, QuickBooks is still involved in press releases about connecting to banks and getting bank-feed data. Blake Oliver: [00:11:06] Okay.  David Leary: [00:11:06] This is the article on Crowdfund Insider. Essentially, Bank of Montreal - BMO - they are announcing that Intuit's QuickBooks accounting software may now access financial data provided by Bank of Montreal customers via a new API. They've had a connection before, it's just there's new open API standards, and they're now connecting through the new pipe. There's nothing in this article ... This is what I mean. This is not a great week of news. If the announcements like this are making the podcast, it's a slow week. Blake Oliver: [00:11:39] Here's a big announcement that we kind of already announced. I mean, it's now finally happened. Kabbage is getting acquired by Amex. It's for sure; that's definitely happening at this point, right? The financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed but reports earlier this month put the acquisition value at up to $850 million. I think that's the number you used last week. David Leary: [00:12:02] I'm still confused on this. I tweeted about it, just trying to better understand. I mean, essentially, in my brain, I would have said Kabbage and OnDeck are very similar companies. One got purchase for $90 million and the other got purchased for maybe $800 million. It's just such a disparity between those two prices. Apparently, somebody said that Amex didn't even acquire the loan parts of Kabbage. Blake Oliver: [00:12:27] Right.  David Leary: [00:12:27] It's a technology play of their other products. They shut down their normal loan products because of PPP. They offered their PPP loan; they have their checking account. They launched a bank, like everybody else has been launching a bank. They launched a bank; we talked about that four months ago, five months ago, when they launched a bank.  [00:12:43] Then, their other product is they offer payments. You could have a Pay with Kabbage button. You can move invoices through it. Maybe that part of their product is major traction and that's attractive to Amex. There's some piece of this that is justifying them to go for the price they went for. Do they have some technology stack? Is it a talent acquisition?  Blake Oliver: [00:13:02] Two more stories here. We talked about NetSuite. NetSuite is owned by Oracle ... Oracle was in the news for a very, very strange reason this week. Donald Trump expressed support for Oracle to buy TikTok. The talk was that Microsoft was gonna acquire TikTok, but now Trump has floated the idea of Oracle buying TikTok. I just thought that was really funny because imagine the Oracle buys TikTok, and then they decide to reimagine the user interface. In order to make a TikTok, you now have to go through  20 different dropdown menus - an Oracle ERP interface. David Leary: [00:13:41] At some weird level, this makes a little bit of sense. Blake Oliver: [00:13:44] Okay, please tell me how this makes sense at all that [crosstalk] an enterprise software company would purchase a social media app. David Leary: [00:13:52] Larry Ellison is all ... You go back to post-9/11 and see TV interviews with Larry Ellison, he's all about everybody should have a government-issued ID. Everything should be tracked in a government database. Obviously, he's trying to sell a database to the government, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:14:04] Right.  David Leary: [00:14:04] He's into big databases. The key comes from that point of view of the world. If TikTok is really gathering data and spying on people this much, as they think the Chinese are, this makes sense. Oracle wants to create a database that spies on Americans and sell it to the government. This all makes sense to me. This is not a surprise. It makes sense, where TikTok fits into Oracle's plans. Blake Oliver: [00:14:26] I just wanna say for our listeners, that's David's conspiracy theory, there. There is no evidence that that is what is happening. David Leary: [00:14:33] I'll find it for the show notes. I'll find the interview of Larry Ellison talking about the government ID and government database tracking what Americans do. Blake Oliver: [00:14:40] My last story in app news is about Excel. It was an article that appeared in Financial Management Magazine about how to automate bank reconciliations with Excel Power Query. I opened this article in my browser thinking this is gonna be a joke. People are really still doing bank recs in Excel? Now, I know that is happening. That's happening in a lot of organizations because these ERP systems, like Oracle and SAP, have really crappy bank-reconciliation modules because it's just not a high priority for them. [00:15:13] You can just throw entry level staff at this all day long. It's just this problem in a larger organization that you can solve with people and make them do it in Excel. This is actually, if you have to do it in Excel, a really good way to do it. So, I highly recommend if you're doing Excel reconciliations and you're not using Power Query, check out this article. You can just search for Financial Management Magazine, Excel Power Query, reconciliations, something  that, or you can go find the link in the show notes. [00:15:43] It's really cool because one of the features of Power Query is that you can configure how it retrieves and formats the data, and you can set up that workflow. Then, if the data sets change that you're comparing, like, say you get a new bank statement, and you have a new export from your GL, you can just click a button, and it does the whole thing again without you having to do it manually. You can set it up once and then compare two tables and then find the missing lines in each table. David Leary: [00:16:17] Excel Power Query's always existed, but this is basically somebody's exploiting it for more benefit now that you can get bank feeds tied into Excel. Blake Oliver: [00:16:28] Well, you could, actually. I didn't even think about that, but we have talked about, in the show, how there's now a way to pull bank statements into Excel. What was that? Is that an app that's native to Microsoft or something? Is that something they created? I can't remember. David Leary: [00:16:42] I think so. It's a Plaid integration into Excel, and I think it's built-in. I think there's a thing for Google, but it's a third-party company you use to do it for Google, but I think it's a default in Excel now. Blake Oliver: [00:16:52] So, you could set up one sheet in your workbook where it's the bank statement that's being pulled in by this Plaid integration. Then you could have another one where you copy/paste to your GL for the month. Then, you run the Power Query and it finds the missing values in the GL, the missing values in the bank statement, and then, you can go manually fix it. David Leary: [00:17:12] None of our users will use this because they're all using cloud-accounting software that does all this stuff for them automatically. You don't have to build it from scratch, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:17:18] All right, so- David Leary: [00:17:22] I did paste you a little link there, so you can click on it and just verify that, yes, Larry Ellison wants everybody to have ID cards, all backed by Oracle databases. Blake Oliver: [00:17:31] This is a Wired article from 2001. Wow, you really dug for this. David Leary: [00:17:36] I didn't have to dig. It was the first ... I just Google searched: Larry Ellison, Oracle government ID. Came right up. Boom. There's lots of articles. The ACLU is against it. This is a bigger march into Oracle- Blake Oliver: [00:17:49] Understood. All right let's talk about what's going on with tax, IRS, payroll tax. That's all related, right? David Leary: [00:17:56] Well, it started on Monday. I got a deposit from the IRS in my bank account for $32.12, and I thought, oh, no, is this my stimulus payment? I was very confused. Another day later, it starts turning out, the IRS got their press going. 13.9 million Americans are getting a tax refund interest. The average payment they're sending out is about $18 million- I'm sorry, $18. Blake Oliver: [00:18:20] Is this because the refunds are delayed? David Leary: [00:18:22] They were delayed because the IRS ... Maybe they were closed; they were shut down; people's refunds ... I didn't even know- it didn't feel like my refund was any more delayed or less than it has been in previous years, but that's the deposit everybody got. So, now, this makes me question- they obviously have my direct deposit info. Where's my stimulus payment? That's the question. Blake Oliver: [00:18:40] Well, don't spend all that $30 in one place, David. David Leary: [00:18:43] Well, the best was somebody tweeted on top of it, and I said, I need ... I'd better go and hire a trained financial professional to help me manage that windfall. Blake Oliver: [00:18:52] Yeah, the IRS is really behind on a lot of stuff. That mail that we talked about that piled up during the coronavirus shutdown for the IRS, that's still- they're still working through that. I guess they were sending out notices to taxpayers about unpaid balances, but the taxpayer checks were sitting in giant bins waiting to be opened and processed. The IRS finally stopped doing that. They're gonna pause these collections notices while they work through their backlog. [00:19:21] That was causing a ton of confusion for tax preparers and for their clients. They're warning people: don't cancel the checks. They probably have them. It's just sitting in ... I guess they've got these giant storage containers with millions of pieces of mail that need to get opened. Hopefully, they'll catch up, at some point, or the changing situation, and administration executive orders will cause them to fall farther and farther behind, and they'll never catch up. I don't know. [00:19:48] Speaking of the administration, there's not much news on the payroll tax deferral. It's scheduled to start on September 1, but we don't have any guidance that I saw from the Treasury on how that's gonna work. How is it gonna get deferred? All these questions that the AICPA has sent - no answer. The payroll companies have a trade group that issued a statement.  [00:20:12] The National Payroll Reporting Consortium - Paychex, ADP; all these guys are in that - they issued a very short statement on August 20, saying, "NPRC is concerned that sufficient time is not available to implement an option to defer employee Social Security tax by September 1. IRS still needs to issue guidance on how such deferrals will work and any related reporting and other requirements before programming changes can be made." Now, at this point, as we record on August 22nd, I think there's zero chance this happens.  David Leary: [00:20:43] I found an article ... I just wanted to clarify - this is only the employee's share of Social Security, correct? Not federal withholding, as well? Blake Oliver: [00:20:49] And not Medicare. Just the employee share of Social Security. David Leary: [00:20:52] It's just 6.2% of each paycheck. It looks like the administration felt that it only had the power to issue a deferral and not a forgiveness. They didn't really have the power to truly handle this the right way, but they signed it anyways, because it obviously gets good press, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:21:06] Right.  David Leary: [00:21:06] This is an election year. I think we're gonna see ... I wouldn't be surprised if we see student-loan deferral type things come out from Trump- we're gonna see a lot.  Blake Oliver: [00:21:15] No, there was one. We haven't talked about it. That was an executive order, or it's a memorandum. I don't remember this difference. Practically speaking, there's no difference, but they're called different things. That's also having questions. We didn't even talk about it because it's not really related to tax. Yeah, chaos on that end. Meanwhile, no agreement in Congress about what to do about further stimulus. I haven't seen anything on that.  David Leary: [00:21:42] Everything's in limbo, right. Because things are in limbo ... Remember Potbelly was one of the people that applied for the loan, early on - the PPP loan - then gave it back. Blake Oliver: [00:21:49] The sandwich company. David Leary: [00:21:50] Yeah, the sandwich company. Apparently, they went, later on, and reapplied, once they saw that there was extra money ... They basically gave it back under the guise of, "Oh, maybe we took it from small businesses that needed the money." Blake Oliver: [00:22:01] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:22:01] Then, they gave it back. Then, they reapplied because everything's in limbo. They don't know what's coming down the pipe, so they reapplied to get a new loan. Blake Oliver: [00:22:09] Also in limbo is the tax treatment of the expenses paid with PPP loans. The AICPA joined with 170 business and trade organizations asking Congressional leaders to allow businesses to write off those expenses. Still no action on that. Yeah, that's what's going on in the world of politics.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by AccountingSuite. AccountingSuite is cloud accounting software that acts like a customizable ERP system. It lets you start out with just the features you need today and, in the future, as your business grows, you can easily add AccountingSuite extensions to give you the features you need.A major strength of AccountingSuite is its robust set of inventory management tools. It includes multichannel inventory and has many integrations to many online stores, like ShipStation, Shopify, and Square. You can track inventory levels, orders, sales, and deliveries from anywhere at any time.AccountingSuite has an extension for multi-channel online sales. After connecting your online marketplaces, AccountingSuite will download all your transactions for you to approve prior to entry into the accounting system. It's similar to working with bank feeds.AccountingSuite is offering Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners 50 percent off forever by using the promo code "CAP_50_2020." To take advantage of this exciting offer and to learn more about how AccountingSuite offers an upgradable path for your firm and company's future, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-S-U-I-T-E. AccountingSuite is here to help you grow.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:23:44] Where do we wanna go from here? We have another voicemail. Maybe we should break things up and listen to that. David Leary: [00:23:49] We could do the voicemail, and a review, and then, let's jump into surveys. We have all kinds of surveys. Blake Oliver: [00:23:53] We'll hit the survey data at the end of this. So, let me pull up our second voicemail from a friend of the show, Hector Garcia. Hector Garcia: [00:24:02] Hi, folks. This is Hector Garcia. I am a fan of the Cloud Accounting Podcast. I love the podcast. I love the content. I wanted to chime in on this stuff you guys were talking about on value pricing on the last episode. What I wanted to tell you, from what I've learned about implementing value pricing in my practice, there are three rules I learned from Ron Baker, which I think are really important. [00:24:27] Rule 1) in the real world, debits do not equal credits. Basically, that means that whatever the customer's spending and what you're receiving in an accounting ledger, it is a transfer of money. As accountants, we think it's just $100 moving from one place to the other, but in the real world, your customer values your services above the amount that they're paying you, and you value your customer's $100 more than the alternative of not doing anything with your time or not serving that particular customer. It's a win-win transaction. [00:25:04] Rule 2) value is subjective, but pricing is contextual. Value is subjective because every single person values things differently. Whatever your customer values your service for, you will never know. However, with pricing, you can contextually get closer and understand what the customers value the most. Also, when you offer options in fixed prices, where you have a package that's a lower tier, a package that's a middle tier, and a package that's a higher tier, customized based on their needs, the customer will now, with the context, understand where the value potentially is. They will pay more to get more. Plus, they can compare that with other people's quotes, and if a competitor gives them one quote, and you give them three quotes, you basically triple your chances of getting a deal versus a competitor because you gave the customer three choices. [00:25:59] Lastly, "Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice" basically means that we should not jump to the solution; we should not jump to offer what we think the customer needs. This means you need to take your time to understand your customer's needs. Have a deep conversation. Without the value conversation, you cannot have value pricing. Many of us make the mistake of jumping the gun and offering what we think the customer needs right away, instead of taking the extra 20 minutes, 30 minutes, hour to conversate with a client in depth and know what they need. Hopefully, these three rules help you implement value pricing much quicker and in a much effective way. David Leary: [00:26:41] This is a great voicemail. Blake Oliver: [00:26:43] Yeah, right? Super-helpful. Thank you, Hector, for those insights. Hector is summarizing some of the key tenets of Ron Baker, the guru of value pricing, I would say, in the profession. If you want to learn more, check out Hector's YouTube channel. David Leary: [00:27:00] So, his third point in that, I have a question on. Basically, he's saying to have the value conversation, you have to have a longer conversation to determine how you want to price the value of this. Blake Oliver: [00:27:09] Yes. David Leary: [00:27:09] Is that a psychological struggle for accountants and bookkeepers? Because, in your brain, "My billable time, it's my time. Time is money. Time is money. I can't have two hours of free phone call." Is there are some gamble, if you wanna value-bill people, that you're gonna have waste? You have to accept the fact that you might have some wasted conversations with people that maybe aren't the right fit; maybe won't ever value-bill? Maybe you have a two-hour conversation, you make zero money on that person, and they walk because the offset of getting the true value from one or two clients is just monstrous, and it offsets the losses? Psychologically, I can't see a lot of accountants and bookkeepers being okay with, "I'm talking to this person for free." Blake Oliver: [00:27:48] I think you nailed it with that question. I have a possible solution - what I did in my own practice. That is a huge problem. You get people calling you; you don't wanna spend hours on the phone with them, giving them what feels like free information. You just wanna start working. You just give them your hourly rate and say, "You wanna work with me, there it is," right? Obviously, that is not ideal, so how do you deal with this? How do you deal with all that time you're gonna spend up front, before you get to the value, before you can give them a proposal? [00:28:22] The way I did it in my firm is I had an assessment fee. This was for bookkeeping, and payroll, and bill pay. We're talking bookkeeping work, lower value, relatively lower value type work. We didn't charge a lot of money, but we charged $500 for an assessment. That would mean I go through your QuickBooks, or your Xero file with you. I learn about your business operations. I do basically an hour-long assessment call, and then I would spend another hour - two hours all in - doing a write-up. They actually get a deliverable at the end. They get a document that says, "Here's what you're doing now, and here is how we can help you." David Leary: [00:29:02] So, it's like a known package you have: "I'm gonna provide X service at this price." It's a flat fee.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:09] Right. When people called up, I could talk to them for 15 minutes. and then I could say, "Look, if you want to talk more, here is the assessment package. This is the way that you get started with me. If you're not ready, come back to me when you're ready to invest the $500." I didn't say it that way, but that was the implication, that I'm not gonna give you any more time for free. I found this to be a great barrier to entry that helped weed out the people who weren't really serious, who were just looking for free consulting and allowed me to cover the cost of my time to do these initial calls. [00:29:38] I think, in a larger firm, actually, it might be worth not doing that. I don't know. It just depends on are you willing to have a loss leader type of service? Can you dedicate the time of a salesperson to just have those free calls? I think it definitely could have eliminated some people who didn't wanna pay up front for that. For me, it was a way to protect my time, when I didn't have a lot of it, so it worked out for me. I also think it just sort of sets an expectation, like, "If this guy is charging me $500 for an assessment," do they really expect to pay less than that per month for bookkeeping? No. It kind of sets that in their head. So, that's my recommendation. That's what worked for me. I think those were really great points, and I liked the last one a lot. Thank you, Hector. Actually, there's quite a bit of relevant data in some of these surveys that we could get to. David Leary: [00:30:26] Let's jump in. Blake Oliver: [00:30:27] Okay, let's see ... Canopy, or Bill.com? Maybe we'll start with the Canopy survey. The headline here is: "Clients disappointed with tax refunds, expect more from accountants." According to a survey by practice management software provider Canopy, over half of tax clients aren't positive that their accountant fully minimizes their tax payment. 46% were disappointed by the size of their tax refund last year. Now, nevertheless, 85% of those surveyed would recommend their accountant. David Leary: [00:31:00] Disappointed in it, but still would recommend their accountant. Blake Oliver: [00:31:03] Or they don't have full confidence, I suppose, in it. They're not totally sure that they got the biggest refund they could have gotten. I've been thinking about that since I saw this stat. I'm thinking, what does this indicate? What is the problem here? I think it has to do with client expectations, perhaps, or maybe the way that firms are communicating with clients. I think a lot of the time, firms simply deliver a tax return and that's it. "Here's your tax return. Sign this; send this in; we're done," right?  David Leary: [00:31:33] Is it a problem with the CPA branding? You just assume they've all got the same certification, they're all the same. If you're picking a dentist, a lot of times, your health insurance is gonna give you a list of six dentists. You're like, "That one's close to the house," and you pick it. They're all dentists.  Blake Oliver: [00:31:48] Hmm.  David Leary: [00:31:48] Do you think it's a little bit of a branding problem where people just don't have ... It's not that they have low expectations, but they don't have any expectations to get any different experiences anywhere else. Blake Oliver: [00:32:01] Right.  David Leary: [00:32:01] The CPA brand is so strong, in a way, it lowers ... People's expectations are like, "You're just a CPA, they're a CPA. It's all the same. I don't have to go ..." There's no way to differentiate between one CPA and the next. Now, you and I are deep in the weeds here, and, of course, that's not true, but think about the average person. They don't know.  Blake Oliver: [00:32:17] That's true, and so, that's an opportunity. That's one of the highlights of the Canopy survey. Crazy enough, only 2% of the respondents said that their accountant offers an online portal. That seems insanely low to me. Does that seem low to you, David, 2%? David Leary: [00:32:39] I think there's a lot of accountants that offer online portals, but they can't get their clients to use them. Blake Oliver: [00:32:45] Or maybe the clients didn't even know about it, or something? David Leary: [00:32:46] Didn't know about them, or even wanna use it. Even if the accountant communicated to the client about their online portal, the client ... It's the lowest thing in their priority list to remember- Blake Oliver: [00:32:55] Which is funny because online portals are the thing that all the tax-preparation companies are trying to differentiate themselves with. 78% of taxpayers surveyed said that the technology their accountant uses to make tax preparation easy is important. So, nobody's using portals, but technology is important. If it's not portals, then what is it? David Leary: [00:33:16] I always felt like the portal should be the other direction. Somebody like Intuit should offer- I have my portal at Intuit if it's my business. Then, I invite an accountant to my portal; I invite a lawyer to my portal; I invite these other professional services that I need to my data. Why, as the business owner, do I need to go to three or four different portals and upload the same documents many times? I always felt like the whole concept of portals is completely upside down. A company like Intuit actually has probably a perfect position to do it.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:46] I can't tell you how many times I've tried to share documents securely with professionals that I utilize. I send them a Google Drive link, and they can't figure out how to open it.  David Leary: [00:33:59] Oh, yeah, and send you a PDF with confidential information over the internet as a postcard. Yeah, I get it. You can't win.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:03] The top technologies that customers cited for improving the way that they work with their accountants is an online way to send and receive documents - Hmm, I wonder what that would be? - text chat for questions and answers, and the ability to set and change appointments online. So, they wanna be able to send and receive documents more easily, text chat for questions and answers, and the ability to set and change appointments online. Doesn't seem like they're asking for a lot if you ask me. I can do that with a lot of businesses. I don't know if I can do that with a lot of accounting firms, though, or tax firms. David Leary: [00:34:39] Yeah, and you can do it with a lot of other ... I think it's from a consumer standpoint, right? You probably will, now that you're in Arizona, with the heat; you're gonna get a rock that hits your windshield. Blake Oliver: [00:34:49] It already happened. It happened the first month I was here. I had- David Leary: [00:34:53] The heat's gonna make it crack in like 10 minutes, and you're gonna have to have it replaced. I don't know if you've use that Safelite Auto thing. It's all done through the app. You book it. The whole thing's a calendar appointment. You get notifications when they're on their way. The experience is pretty good. So, you're right, if accounting firms could give a little bit more of that insight, like, "Hey, we've started to return ..." Almost like your delivery - you can see your package from each facility and from Amazon, then it gets to the delivery truck, and now, it's almost in your neighborhood. It's not so much a portal, it's a communication device [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:35:24] Status update. Even just being able to text .... To have clients text with you instead of email with you ... I can't tell you how annoying it is for me, personally, when I'm working with the service provider, if I can't communicate them with them via chat. If I have to actually remember to call them during business hours and then leave a message and not know if the message is received ... I would much rather just open up my phone and text with them. You can do this these days, securely. RingCentral has texting capabilities, so you can deploy virtual phone numbers to your firm and allow people to text. If you use a help desk software, like Ryan Lazanis recommends as being one of the game-changers for your firm, a lot of those services now allow you to have a text message channel for support requests that can then be routed to the right people. [00:36:11] Last bit of insight from this Canopy survey: apparently, many tax clients are unaware of the post-filing services offered by their accountants. One out of three clients didn't know if their tax accountant provides audit protection services. 37% of the tax clients polled said they don't know if their tax accountant provides legal tax services. So, if you do, then your clients aren't finding out about it. If you don't, maybe you could have referrals. If you're referring people to folks who do provide those legal tax services, then that could increase your business, in return.  [00:36:45] Just kind of shows a lack of marketing follow-up and nurturing of clients that needs to happen. So, stay in touch with your clients throughout the year. Have an email distribution list, where you remind them of the things that you do. Pretty simple; not complicated stuff, not expensive stuff to do. Again, like having a way for them to securely share documents with you, to chat with you, to make a calendar appointment online - this is all stuff that you can set up very cheaply for your firm. David Leary: [00:37:16] This goes back to thinking about packages. Package your services in some three-tier lineup, to where, "Hey, if you just want a return and never talk to me, it's this much a year. If you want this package, or this package ..." When you do that exercise, it forces you to list the services you offer in a nice three-column approach. You could build this in Excel, people! You could do this in Excel. Blake Oliver: [00:37:36] That's the benefit of the three-tier pricing. Again, if you wanna show clients everything you offer, that's where you have that super-premium offering that has everything that you do. That way, they at least know that you do it. Even if they're not gonna ever select it, they can see there that you offer audit support, that you offer legal services, that you offer financial planning, that you offer advisory type services. They'll know because it's in your pricing. That's the one thing that everybody looks at really carefully is the pricing. David Leary: [00:38:02] Yeah. They don't go to the services page of your website, they go to the pricing page. So, if you list your services as part of the pricing model, they're gonna see your services [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:38:08] That's right. I'm surprised that more and more firms don't package audit defense with their tax prep because if you have a big enough client base, you can figure out how to do it in a way that's not gonna bankrupt your firm. It's like an insurance policy that your clients buy. It's the same way they do it with TurboTax; you pay an extra blah-blah-blah, X dollars, and now you have Audit Defense. Why don't accounting firms do that, too? David Leary: [00:38:33] I have some work-at-home survey from Adobe. You wanna jump into that? There's some neat learnings here. Blake Oliver: [00:38:38] Yeah! Let's hear about working from home. David Leary: [00:38:41] They studied 1,000 currently employed people who usually work in the office to see how it's going, working at home and with COVID. We've beat this one to death. 34% say they're starting to experience video-conference fatigue and they see this keep churning up. People are starting to feel the fatigue of this. What's happening now is  - and that's the theme of this - there's a shift to email that we'll talk about. What's happening now is 78% of workers are using email to connect with colleagues, and 56% are starting to prefer just to make a phone call. They're starting to get sick of it. [00:39:15] One thing is they're saying is this working remotely has helped a lot of parents, themselves, feel more connected to some coworkers that are also parents because they can easily bond over the homeschooling nightmares and all this other stuff that's happening as being a stay-at-home working parent. It's given them a whole new way to have a working relationship with people because they're going through the same at-home situation. [00:39:34] The other thing, going back to email, they're starting to keep the work/life separation a little better because what they're doing is, they're waiting and only checking email, when it's truly work hours. Before, you'd be at home, and you'd check emails outside of your normal work hours. People are starting to put a boundary around when they check the emails. Blake Oliver: [00:39:51] That's super-important. When I start my day, I try not to check my email for the first hour or two. David Leary: [00:39:57] The reason they're starting to see email becoming the top go-to now is because instant messaging, the video conferences, Slack ... Those conversations never end. You can't be productive with that, and they're super-interruptive, and intrusive. Even on-demand video is kind of intrusive. You have to drop what you're doing, and you have to be on video. You can see what I'm doing. I can see what you're doing. So, you're starting to see a shift back towards email because it gives you control over your schedule, your time when you wanna check it, when you're gonna respond. It lets you collect your thoughts. Blake Oliver: [00:40:28] Yeah. David Leary: [00:40:28] Every time people think email is dead, the pendulum's swinging back. Blake Oliver: [00:40:32] I don't like using Slack most of the time for a lot of work because it's not like I need an immediate response, and I know that I'm bothering somebody; I'm interrupting them, if I send them a message on Slack. David Leary: [00:40:41] My Slack is just all red. I just have zillions of reds everywhere ...  Blake Oliver: [00:40:45] It's too much. David Leary: [00:40:48] I don't know what I should read or not read ... Yeah, so, the shift to email is coming back. Blake Oliver: [00:40:53] Well, and the best, in my opinion, is a project management software, or task management software that allows people to get all of the notifications via email. That way, people who prefer using their inbox as a to-do list, or a way of managing their tasks, or whatever you wanna call it, they can still do that, but then, you can also have the structure of project management software. David Leary: [00:41:14] Yeah, I've changed ... I've been struggling, myself, personally, on this. There were some stragglers this week, but as it's going forward, I'm kind of ... Mondays and Tuesdays, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., jump on my calendar. It's wide open. I don't care. I've kind of just written those off as bankrupt. Whatever. On Wednesdays, after 1:00 p.m., no more meetings, no Zoom calls, nothing. On Thursdays, after 11:00 a.m., and on Fridays, I'm not taking any calls. I did this Friday. It was so productive. I could think, and I was calm, and my brain got into a good space. I just- I can't ... You can't do these calls nonstop. You have to create a situation ... It's hard. It's super-hard to protect yourself, I think.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:57] I try to keep my afternoons clear so I can do flow work. And I'm just working on anything that requires a lot of thought. You need a few hours just to get into that flow and start working. And then if notifications come in, it ruins that . It takes you a long time to get back into it. So, I totally agree with you. I think that's really smart. All right, I've got one more survey for us. [00:42:19] Perfect.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:19] Bill.com and CPA.com came out with a survey that they did in partnership with Hinge. There's tons of goodies in here about the service offerings that accounting firms have, the buyer-perceived value of the various service offerings, and even how much you are possibly leaving on the table by not offering certain services. The one chart that I really liked is this matrix that shows the common versus uncommon services in accounting firms, meaning there are some services that lots of firms provide, like tax prep and bookkeeping. Then, there are services that not very many firms provide, like forensic accounting, or cash flow analysis. [00:43:04] What this survey did is it broke out those services by the perceived value that buyers have for them. It suggests areas that you could go into. If you're looking to expand services, you want to expand into those that have high perceived value, so people are willing to pay for them, and ones that other firms are not doing yet. Get where I'm going with this? David Leary: [00:43:28] Yeah, It's blue-ocean strategies. Blake Oliver: [00:43:32] Yes.  David Leary: [00:43:32] You wanna be in the blue ocean, where nobody's competing and create your own market. Blake Oliver: [00:43:34] Yeah, and there's lots of money to be made, right? I'll go through these quadrants. I'm actually gonna start with ... They labeled them funny, too. I'm gonna start with the quadrant in the bottom left. This is lowest perceived value and the most common service, and that is bookkeeping, and financial statement closures - closing the books, low value, very common. [00:43:53] Now, you move up. This is also common services but with higher value. You have financial reporting, and advisory/consulting, and tax prep. If you're a firm that's doing a lot of bookkeeping, if you add financial reporting, or advisory, or tax prep, you're gonna increase your value. Now, let's move to the bottom right. This is an uncommon service that has low value, so you may not want to necessarily get into providing this. Interestingly enough, cash flow analysis is listed here. So, it's a service that not many firms are providing, but it also has relatively low value. That surprised me. David Leary: [00:44:34] Low value perceived by the buyer, the actual customer. Blake Oliver: [00:44:37] By the buyer, yeah. We have all these apps out there that are talking about helping with cash flow, helping your clients with cash flow, but apparently that is not the thing that they are looking for or willing to pay for as much as you might think. David Leary: [00:44:51] Was this a survey of customers, small business owners, people that consume tax? Blake Oliver: [00:44:56] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:44:57] Is this catching all the entire accounting industry? How did they determine- who'd they survey for the perceived buyer value? Blake Oliver: [00:45:04] They surveyed over 650 individuals representing accounting firms and companies. There are three size categories: small, midsize, and large, where small is less than 10 employees, midsize as a 10 to 99, and then large is 100 or more. It's a mix of buyers across the spectrum. On the buyer side, when we're talking about perceived value, over half are on the small side, about a quarter on the midsize side, and 15% or so are on the large side. So, it's a mix. David Leary: [00:45:35] Got it.  Blake Oliver: [00:45:35] So, relatively lower value - cash flow analysis. Also, on this bottom right of uncommon service/lower value is benefits administration, lean processes, outsourced/virtual CFO, and payroll. So, payroll doesn't surprise me because that's kind of become somewhat of a commodity by itself; just running payroll is not super-high value. But I was surprised to see outsourced and virtual CFO on that bottom right quadrant. [00:46:05] Advisory/consulting is in the top left quadrant. Advisory/consulting has high higher value than outsourced/virtual CFO. I'm wondering if that is simply a marketing problem, that when people think virtual CFO, that's not what they want. They want advisory/consulting. Really, those are kind of the same thing to me. Are they different to you? Do you think they're different? David Leary: [00:46:33] I think it's the same thing. This is a brand- Blake Oliver: [00:46:36] A branding problem, right?  David Leary: [00:46:37] A branding thing, in the way it's been referred to. Arguably, financial reporting, even cash flow analysis, that's really advisory, and consulting, and financial reporting. There's something ... As I'm really sitting here staring at this more and more, as you're talking, this thing doesn't totally add up to me. It's a little ... Blake Oliver: [00:46:56] Well, again, I think it's terminology. What does this mean to different people? When you talk about cash flow analysis, I think a lot of business owners think of short-term cash flow - the next eight weeks - which maybe they have lower- they perceive lower value because they're doing that themselves; they know how to do that.  [00:47:14] To be a successful business owner, you kind of have to be able to manage your short-term cash flow, otherwise, you'd be out of business ... I think most of the businesses that fail in the first few years, it's because of cash flow issues. The ones that are still around seeking accounting services already figured this out. That's just my theory. [00:47:30] Let's continue on. We've got one more quadrant. This is the money quadrant where you have an uncommon service not offered by a lot of firms but has high perceived value by the buyer. This is where we should be expanding. David, you're gonna be happy, I think, to see that accounts payable/bill pay is on there. David Leary: [00:47:45] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:47:46] Now, the survey was also sponsored by Bill.com. So ... [crosstalk] Who knows? Who knows? That actually doesn't surprise me because that was my number-one value-add service in my firm when I did virtual bookkeeping. David Leary: [00:48:00] So it's interesting if you compare this third quadrant graph to their very next graph, which is basically the buyer demand for these groups, that's where this doesn't reconcile. Blake Oliver: [00:48:10] Well, let's go through the rest of the services on this upper-right corner, and then we'll go to that. We have bill pay/accounts, managing that for clients - high value. Not a lot of firms do it. Forensic accounting - that makes sense to me. Not a lot of firms do forensic accounting. Data and analytics, and technology services. So, hey, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners, you're into technology because you're listening to this show, right? That's a good place to be. Not a lot of firms are offering integration work, setting up ERP systems or accounting systems, all that stuff. [00:48:44] That's it. We've got those four quadrants. If you're gonna expand into stuff, probably wanna expand into areas with high value. On the common side, if you're not doing it, you should be doing financial reporting, advisory/consulting, and tax prep. If you wanna expand into that blue-ocean territory that David mentioned, forensic accounting, AP/bill pay, data analytics, and technology services. Now, what's the confusion with this next chart here? David Leary: [00:49:11] So, the perceived value I get. They don't value bookkeeping. But the demand is the second largest behind tax prep. Obviously, tax-prep people are like, "I don't wanna deal with this at all. I'm gonna have somebody else do this for me," which I get why there's such a high perceived value and demand. Bookkeeping is high up on the demand; financial reporting is high up on demand- Blake Oliver: [00:49:30] Again, perceived value versus demand, very different things, right? David Leary: [00:49:34] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:49:34] Demand just means I want this; not necessarily that I'm willing to pay a lot of money for it, but ... It's interesting. Tax prep, by far, outstrips everything else. 68% of buyers surveyed currently purchase tax prep and another 4% is unmet. So, there's even room for expansion in tax prep. Bookkeeping is next on the list. 40% of buyers currently purchase bookkeeping with 7% unmet demand. Then we've got financial reporting ... That advisory/consulting bar that we're looking at here, David, fourth down on the list - crazy unmet demand. Only 15% of buyers are currently getting advisory/consulting services from their firms and another 28.6% want to buy it. David Leary: [00:50:20] Even look at the top box thing - forensic accounting. It's high perceived value, uncommon service. Blake Oliver: [00:50:27] Mm-hmm. David Leary: [00:50:27] Te reason it's an uncommon service is because it's the lowest in demand [crosstalk] Right? This is why it's uncommon. Nobody offers it because nobody wants it. Blake Oliver: [00:50:37] Interesting.  David Leary: [00:50:37] Do you see why I'm trying to reconcile these two charts?  Blake Oliver: [00:50:40] Oh, yeah.  David Leary: [00:50:40] It just doesn't ... Of course, it's uncommon. Nobody wants it. Blake Oliver: [00:50:44] Exactly, not high demand for that. If we're gonna put our eye on this chart and tell people where to go, it looks like-  David Leary: [00:50:52] Well, if we're building an accounting firm, what services do we offer? Blake Oliver: [00:50:55] We obviously offer the top ones that people want - tax prep, bookkeeping, financial reporting. I think that goes- that's a given, right?  David Leary: [00:51:01] Because you can't do the other ones without bookkeeping.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:04] Advisory/consulting, you can't do without bookkeeping and kind of hard to do it without also managing their tax, if you're doing tax planning, which I would roll into that. Payroll's optional. I think that makes sense. A lot of companies can run payroll themselves these days, with ADP, Gusto, Paychex. Those services are quite good. Accounts payable/bill pay, definitely. Cash flow analysis, here, right? 10% of customers get it, but there's 18% demand. More than half of the people who want it are not being served by cash flow analysis. David Leary: [00:51:37] Yeah. So maybe this is where - you think about this chart - you have to do the low perceived value things, and that's where your fixed package is. "We're gonna do your basic bookkeeping for this much a month, etc., but we're gonna do forensic accounting for you, and we're gonna ..." That's what you value-bill on, these smaller niche-type services. You probably can't do them all. You probably can't offer forensic accounting, and lean processes, and tech services. [00:51:59] It could be hard to do all this, but you could probably do one of those, a niche, get really good at it, and that's where you bring higher value, and you could charge more for those services. If you just built a firm, like, "We're gonna forensic accounting, accounts payable, and data analytics," it's not gonna work because there's not enough demand. It's an interesting survey of this whole ... It's deep, though. They break it down by every industry, perceived value of what you're doing for them. Blake Oliver: [00:52:22] There's a breakdown of what advisory services mean to buyers - the areas inside of that. I was excited to see that 65% of buyers said revenue growth, and business modeling is an area of need inside of advisory services. Of course, that's what we do at Jirav is business modeling, financial modeling. That's pretty cool. Going down the list: budgeting, tax planning, risk management, advanced KPI reporting, cash flow, business valuation. Then, we dip down below 30%. Financial dashboard's still 27%. Help with pricing, 27%. A lot of opportunities inside of that advisory services realm. [00:53:05] The last thing I wanna offer here with this survey, there's a bunch of stuff about pricing. So, if you're trying to convince your firm to offer advisory services, it can be challenging because it takes a big investment, and it's kind of unknown how much more money you're gonna make, especially if you're trying to do value pricing. Not easy to convince a partner who's used to pricing hourly to go on value-priced, or fixed-price advisory services, or whatnot. [00:53:32] This survey actually quantifies how much money is being left on the table. Small buyers are willing to pay 31% more if you add advisory services. Whatever they're paying now, they're willing to pay 31% more to add advisory services to their package. Midsize buyers present an 11% growth opportunity. Now, interestingly, large buyers, over 100 employees, they actually wanna cut their costs. They don't wanna pay anything more. [00:54:05] Kind of interesting, if you can package advisory services for the small customers with less than 10 employees, that's a huge growth opportunity. I think you need automation, or you need to standardize it. You can't do a one-off. With large customers, it's not worth going after them for that, at least according to this survey; you'd be better off helping them save money with automation, and tech, and all that. David Leary: [00:54:29] If you think about Hector's voicemail, and you go back to that first survey, you talked about, where people aren't aware of what services you offer, it all comes down to packaging. Now, this survey is actually telling you, hey, if you do package it, you have a 30% margin you can add on to your prices.  Blake Oliver: [00:54:43] Last bit here, the average monthly price paid for accounting services for buyers who do not currently purchase advisory services, it's about $1,100 a month. They would be willing to pay another $5654 per month to add some advisory services. Buyers who currently purchase advisory services, they're paying an average of about almost $1,600 per month. [00:55:06] So, that actually tracks that the buyers who do not currently purchase advisory services, but they have some sort of accounting services, they're paying an average of $1,100 per month in this survey, and they'd be willing to pay another $500-$600.  [00:55:18] That tracks with the amount that buyers who are currently purchasing advisory services pay. So, there is good data supporting that. There's a huge growth opportunity. If you're not doing it and you don't have to go get new clients. If you're serving small clients, you can increase your revenue 31% just by adding advisory services. David Leary: [00:55:39] Especially if you already are doing this. If you already offer this service at your firm, and you're not selling this in a good way to an existing client ... It's your God-given right to make more money off of your clients instead of trying to go hunt in the market for a new client to sell a teeny advisory service ... You have to show your customers what you offer, package it up in a way that's attractive that they'll buy it, and they'll pay more, if they know they're getting more value from you. Blake Oliver: [00:56:05] If you wanna look at the survey, yourself, you can head to the link in the show notes, or you can search for business model trends for accounting advisory services, and you'll find that on the Bill.com website. That's all that I've got this week, David. David Leary: [00:56:24] That's it for me, as well. We have one review. We should probably read that quickly. Blake Oliver: [00:56:27] This is from Teff7, five stars. "After making a decision to make a mid-life career change from government funding to accounting, I started listening to accounting podcasts to get my head in the game. The Cloud Accounting Podcast is by far the best. I nailed my first (and consequently only) interview for a finance job, in no small part thanks to David and Blake. I was able to talk confidently about technology and was even able to enthusiastically inform them about the brand new (at the time) Xlookup function in Excel. Thanks, guys, David Paitai." Wow!  David Leary: [00:57:02] This is great. So, you can impress your coworkers if you listen to The Cloud Accounting Podcast, and you can get jobs, if you listen-  Blake Oliver: [00:57:09] You can get a job from listening to The Cloud Accounting Podcast! Wow. Thank you so much, David. Thanks for listening, and I'm so glad to hear that you got that job. I think we need to include maybe more Excel information in our show, David. We did with Power Query, today. David Leary: [00:57:25] Well, Excel's been in the last three episodes in a row, by the way, because the bug with the DNA strands, the naming [crosstalk] Excel's been popping up a lot in the show, which is funny. Again, there's this pendulum swinging back to email; now, there's a pendulum possibly swinging back to Excel. More things stay the same, the longer we go down this timeline. What I would love everybody do is, yes, leave us voicemails, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:57:50] Yep.  David Leary: [00:57:50] They can call and easily leave us a voicemail. Blake Oliver: [00:57:53] You wanna say that number again, David? David Leary: [00:57:55] It's (202) 695-1040.  Blake Oliver: [00:57:58] Just note, you have a three-minute recording limit on that. David Leary: [00:58:01] We'd love if you left reviews on Apple Podcasts, or on Podchaser. We'll read your reviews. We're obligated, like Blake says, to read your review on the air. We'll read your review, and we'd love to see more voicemails. I love the fact that listeners are reaching out and doing that. Blake Oliver: [00:58:15] Yeah, and again, your voicemail can be about anything you want. Let us know if something that helped you that you wanna share with our listeners. I love that, like what Hector did when he called in with that advice. Fantastic. Feel free. If something is working in your firm and you wanna share it, let us know. We will share it with the world. If you wanna contact me online, I'm @BlakeTOliver on Twitter. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:58:38] I'm on Twitter, as well - @DavidLeary. Blake Oliver: [00:58:41] David, great to chat with you, as always. I'll see you here next week. David Leary: [00:58:45] All right.____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication. Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. 

Sponsors APD Marketplace: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 10:01 - Mnuchin: Trump Is Serious About TikTok - PYMNTS 12:14 - Before BigCommerce's 200% IPO pop, Intuit offered $1.5 billion for the software company - CNBC 16:18 - Square Tests Small-Dollar, Short-Term Loans - PYMNTS.com 17:25 – Afterpay lets US consumers pay by instalments with their NFC mobile phone - NFCW 18:53 -  Gusto is launching a new product called Cash Reserve – Gusto 20:10 - FreeAgent launches CoPilot in the UK – FreeAgent 21:09 -  QuickBooks Live adding enhancements – Intuit QuickBooks Live 21:43 - FreshBooks Launches Mileage Tracking App for iOS – Small Business Trends  22:12 - Routable Raises $12M For Digital B2B Services | PYMNTS 23:20 - Xero releases CoA templates in Xero HQ– Xero 25:21 - Revolut partners with Dublin accounting software firm Bullet - Siliconrepublic.com  25:34 - FinTech Revolut's Losses Triple | PYMNTS  26:21 - AmEx in advanced talks to buy SoftBank-backed Kabbage – Bank Innovation  28: 24 - Trump’s executive order only guarantees $300 per week in enhanced unemployment for some workers – CNBC 28:44 – Trump Signs Payroll Tax Deferral Executive Order - National Law Review 29:41 - Employers Cast Wary Eye on Trump Payroll-Tax Deferral - WSJ 30:14 – AICPA Asks IRS and Treasury for Clarity on Trump's Payroll Tax Deferral – News Break 32:47 - Derailment of small business rescue clouds U.S. recovery - Politico  34:19 - These business owners who took PPP money will have their loan forgiveness reduced - CNBC 35:24 - Trump advisers urge delisting of U.S.-listed Chinese firms that fail to meet audit standards - Reuters 36:55 - Wirecard, the fintech behind a $2 billion accounting scandal, leaves the DAX by August 21 after a new rule kicks in - Markets Insider  37:23 - The former COO at Wirecard has fled to Russia – WSJ 38:05 - Wirecard’s Jan Marsalek added to Interpol’s most wanted list – Accounting Today    38:49 - Former Wirecard Exec Reported Dead - PYMNTS 39:52 - Almost Half Of Wirecard’s Debt Stemmed From SoftBank’s $1B Investment - PYMNT 41:27 -  Ex-MyPayrollHR CEO Pleads Guilty to Fraud, But Can He Pay It Back? – Spectrum News  Former MyPayrollHR CEO Michael Mann pleads guilty in company's collapse – Times Union  42:22 - New York attorney general seeks to dissolve NRA in suit accusing gun rights group of wide-ranging fraud and self-dealing 51:52 - This 'Almost-Rockstar'-Developed 10-key Is the Best Thing to Happen to Accounting Since Microsoft Excel - Going Concern  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! 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DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with ADP Marketplace, a digital HR storefront. Be a more trusted advisor to your clients by recommending apps to help streamline HR processes and free up time to focus on people. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Marketplace, later in the episode.  Blake Oliver: [00:00:19] If you think about it, really, going virtual is forcing the schools to adapt to the new world of work. The traditional education where you sit at a desk and you have a bell that rings every hour is based on the factory model, and it was designed to teach children to be good little factory workers someday. That no longer exists, so teaching them to be good remote workers on Zoom and collaborate asynchronously, using Google Classroom, that's what we do as workers, so why wouldn't they be doing it as students? ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. ClockShark is the leading GPS, time-tracking, and scheduling system built for local construction and field-service companies that want a simpler way to track time, run payroll, and understand job costs. With the capabilities of crew tracking, scheduling, jobsite geofencing, teams, and project segmentation, automatic labor allocation, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking system to handle the unique challenges that face your clients.  With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like overtime, paid time off, unpaid time, hours per job, and tasks, as well as the crucial data needed for certified payroll. With the integrations ClockShark has, you'll be able to connect to one of many ADP payroll platforms through ADP Marketplace and process payroll in minutes with the click of a button. ClockShark's pricing starts at just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before September 30, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. ____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:02:46] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast, I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:50] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:52] So, David, I had two virtual experiences this week. David Leary: [00:02:55] Two virtual experiences? I only had one. Blake Oliver: [00:02:58] Well, who wants to go first? David Leary: [00:02:59] You can go first because one of my virtual experiences was trying to have virtual experience with you. Blake Oliver: [00:03:03] Oh, all right. So, I think we're talking about the same thing. It was the Boomer Virtual Summit, this week – Sunday through Wednesday. It was a virtual conference on the VirBELA platform, which is like a video game. You walk around with an avatar and you can talk to people. It automatically turns your mic on, so people can hear you when you're in proximity to them.  [00:03:43] We had a virtual booth. People went to sessions, like walked ... You actually walk in the virtual world, from the expo hall into your sessions and into the main expo hall. Very interesting. Apparently, you could drive a boat, and you could also play soccer, but I never made it out of the expo hall; just like in real life, I never got to go enjoy anything. David Leary: [00:03:44] Well, yeah, I asked you to give me an invite, and I was like, "All right, I'm gonna jump in and do this," and I just got too busy. So, I finally jumped in, I think, Wednesday night late. Nobody was there, so I was just in this world by myself. My daughter walks by. She's like, "What are you doing? I'm telling on you! You're playing video games in there!" It's just like a virtual world. There was a fireworks going off. I could explore and climb up to the top of a tower. I was on the soccer field. [00:04:08] I went everywhere because it took me a long time to find the expo hall, because that's all I wanted to see, as I walked around and looked at it ... There was nobody else in the world, when I was there. 100% ghost land. It was still kinda cool to run around, but it has those same video-game problems, like when, sometimes, you get to the edge of a map, or it has hills ... Blake Oliver: [00:04:33] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:04:33] I'm like, "Oh, I'm gonna run down the side of this hill," and I'd get stuck, and then I gotta go around until you get out of it. It was a very Roblox, or Fortnite type of ex.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:33] Yeah, it was interesting. It was unique. I'm curious how the attendees liked it, but it seemed to go well. It was definitely better than sitting on a Zoom call all day long, like some conferences. David Leary: [00:04:45] The part I couldn't grasp, I guess, was ... People's booths were there, and some of the booths had some static images you had on the booth. Then, some parts of the booth almost looked like it was a presentation or a slide deck.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:56] Yes.  David Leary: [00:04:56] Is that something I would walk up, and press play and just sit there and watch and I would hear it through my headphones? I didn't know. Blake Oliver: [00:05:01] No. David Leary: [00:05:02] How do you present something in a conference like this? Blake Oliver: [00:05:03] We were at the booth and you would walk in and then we could advance those slides or share our screen onto that main screen in the booth, just like you were at a conference. David Leary: [00:05:13] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:13] That actually worked pretty well. David Leary: [00:05:15] I think I went into some room that had big round tables in it. They were like hot zones, so if I sat at that table, I could actually just talk to people at that table, like at a real conference.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:23] Yes. It would create an audio channel just for the people in that space. David Leary: [00:05:28] Cool. Blake Oliver: [00:05:29] Yeah, so that was the virtual experience on the work side. Then, my son had his first week at kindergarten this week. School is not back physically in session, but they tried to do it via Zoom, the Scottsdale Unified School District. I did not have high expectations given that he's in kindergarten and I can't imagine that his kindergarten teacher has spent a lot of time using Zoom. They spent most of the time learning how to unmute, mute, switch from speaker view to gallery view - all the basic Zoom stuff. Thomas learned it really fast, so I was joking that now he's better at being a remote worker than 75% of American office workers because he knows how to mute and unmute himself on a conference call. David Leary: [00:06:14] Well, I think I saw you posted something on Facebook, but it's a testament- he was just so excited to be first day of kindergarten, even though it was remote. He didn't care. He was just so excited about being ... It kinda puts some perspective on that whole thing.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:23] Yeah! Children are so adaptable, and they don't have preconceived notions about the way things are supposed to be. So, for him, he was really excited to get on Zoom with his classmates and learn, and he was paying attention. They obviously didn't do it the whole day. It was like two hours a day because that's the most you can ask kids to sit in front of a screen at this age. That's a lot. David Leary: [00:06:44] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:06:45] Although, they've been trained by having- David Leary: [00:06:47] To sit in screens. Yeah, that's all they do is sit in front of screens.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:49] Actually, all that screen time we gave him by being bad parents, we're actually good parents because he was able to sit in front of the screen. He was so happy because he's seen Mom and Dad do Zoom calls, and now he's doing them, too, so he feels like he's growing up. He's happy. It was an inspiration to me. Let's try to get rid of our preconceived notions, and let's be open to this. It was good. He did his homework. He learned some stuff. That's all we can ask for, especially in kindergarten. Now, for the older kids, I think it's a little bit harder because there's academic stuff they've got to learn. If he were in second, or third grade, I'd be a little more concerned. David Leary: [00:07:25] The school districts are kind of, "We'll either Google ..." There's Google School, or whatever they call it, or it's the Microsoft Teams platform. That's kind of the two platforms all the school districts and schools are using. You're either in one or the other. Really, now, thinking about it, after experiencing that virtual world at the Boomer conference, why are they not using that for these kids? They could go and play and goof around a little bit in an area; they could pretend to go outside with their friends; they'd get to sit at a table and talk to their friends only. It just seems to make so much more sense. Blake Oliver: [00:07:55] Yeah, actually, that's a great idea. David Leary: [00:07:57] They should just create a virtual school.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:58] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:07:58] Why is nobody doing that? It would be ... Actually, if I had to guess, the kids would embrace that way better than accountants and bookkeepers would. Blake Oliver: [00:08:06] You're right, actually. That's a brilliant idea. All those kids of a certain age, like eight through 12, who are playing Minecraft ... The whole 3-D virtual world is completely natural to them-  David Leary: [00:08:17] Yeah, and they could sit a table with your friends [crosstalk] at the table, and you instantly get a microphone connection. You can talk to them, and you can walk away. Maybe there's areas outside, and it's got guns and ... You know, all the typical video-game stuff, right? [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:08:30] Guns? Yeah ... That's one of the things that we don't have in virtual school that I think is a good thing, right?  David Leary: [00:08:36] Okay, but you know what I mean. There's other stuff ... There's things to do. I don't know. It's just interesting ... Blake Oliver: [00:08:39] Yes.  David Leary: [00:08:39] The schools are basically putting- they're turning kids into little corporate worlds. "We're on Microsoft Teams, and all your work is in here; upload your documents here." Then, in the meantime, we're doing conferences with us playing in a Fortnite environment.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:55] If you think about it, really, going virtual is forcing the schools to adapt to the new world of work. The traditional education where you sit at a desk and you have a bell that rings every hour is based on the factory model. It was designed to teach children to be good little factory workers someday. That no longer exists, so teaching them to be good remote workers on Zoom and collaborate asynchronously using Google Classroom, that's what we do as workers, so why wouldn't they be doing it as students? David Leary: [00:09:25] That's right, so we're training them early now.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:26] Anyway ...  David Leary: [00:09:26] We should probably get to the news, huh? Blake Oliver: [00:09:29] Let me go through my highlights. BigCommerce and Intuit - Intuit tried to buy BigCommerce, but then they went public. That was really crazy. What else do I got? Oh, we have to talk about the Trump payroll-tax deferral. We kinda skipped that last week because it had just happened, but I wanna talk about that, and the executive action there, and the questions that accountants have. We should talk about some fraud stories. I got some follow-up on Wirecard. Also, the NRA is now involved in a lawsuit about financial fraud. David Leary: [00:09:57] I got fraud. We have Michael Mann, and MyPayrollHR back in the news.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:01] Yes!  David Leary: [00:10:01] The one I think that doesn't fit in, but it does fit in - TikTok. Everybody wants to ban TikTok. Well, not everybody, but Trump wants to ban TikTok. I don't know why- I'm trying to understand why Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is weighing in on this. He officially went on CNBC, and he came out against the social media sharing app.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:24] Really? What was his argument? David Leary: [00:10:27] Well, he said that President Trump has decided it cannot be allowed to go on as it's been. I get it, fine, if Trump's administration and Trump wants to go after it, but I just don't know where the Treasury fits into this. Blake Oliver: [00:10:37] The reason that the Trump administration is concerned with TikTok is because - and this is a legitimate concern - the app is owned by a Chinese company, and it aggressively collects data on American citizens, when you load TikTok ... There have been people who have said ... Before all of this happened, independent security researchers were saying, "Do not install TikTok because it is mining your data worse than Facebook, even ..."  David Leary: [00:11:05] And it's owned, basically, arguably, by the Chinese Communist Party, essentially ...  Blake Oliver: [00:11:08] Right, because ... Maybe that's a little aggressive way to put it, but every company in China that's big enough, if the Chinese government asked them for data, they're gonna give it to them, right? It's an authoritarian country. So, yeah, that's a big concern, and that's legit. The Treasury Department has a Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., and that is the committee that has the power - an incredible amount of power - to force a business to either stop doing business in the U.S., like a foreign business, or to be sold, like this Microsoft situation. David Leary: [00:11:42] So, this does roll up to him, then. He does have some say and control over this. Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:11:45] Yeah, it's a committee in his department that has the power to regulate foreign businesses like this. They can basically force TikTok to either stop doing business or to sell. It's a national security thing [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:11:59] -Mnuchin, and the SBA, as well, didn't jump on TikTok to communicate and release everything about all those PPP guidance things they keep releasing on Friday nights. They could've just done it on TikTok. Blake Oliver: [00:12:10] Yeah, exactly. Right? You wanna talk about app news?  David Leary: [00:12:12] Yeah, why not? There's a lot.  Blake Oliver: [00:12:14] So, we talked last week about how Intuit has agreed to purchase TradeGecko, the Singapore e-commerce company, but apparently before that, they were going after BigCommerce. This was a report in CNBC; that's where I saw it first. BigCommerce just went public. They had their IPO. They're an e-commerce platform that targets a lot of medium-sized businesses. They've kind of gone upmarket since they started as a small-business e-commerce platform. I guess the big news out of the IPO was that they just popped way up from their initial price-  David Leary: [00:12:54] They were up 200%. Blake Oliver: [00:12:55] Intuit, I guess, tried to buy them before that, right? David Leary: [00:12:58] Yeah, tried to buy them. It looked like some internal leaders at BigCommerce did wanna take the deal, but the founder really pushed- or the CEO pushed against it and took the big gamble because if Shopify is out there ... Shopify has been kind of the darling over the last four years. Combined with the amazing run Shopify has had on Wall Street, and then combine that with so many more people, because of the pandemic, are shopping online, he really took the bet and said, "You know what? We're gonna go and IPO instead." Blake Oliver: [00:13:26] I bet he and the other investors are really glad they did that, because the market cap, as of at the close of the market on Friday, August 14, was over $5 billion. So, it's now valued at 45 times revenue and Intuit's offer of $1.5 billion was only 11 times revenue. They basically made four times as much money versus the acquisition, on paper anyway. David Leary: [00:13:52] Yeah. The more I'd like to think about ... Intuit's sniffing in this a little bit, looking at BigCommerce and trying to go down that path. It really strikes me with what Hector Garcia- he sent me a text, or a Facebook message, four or five weeks ago, like this whole concept of Shopify buying an accounting platform, and specifically FreshBooks, because they're both neighbors, essentially ... Then you start thinking about how big Shopify is now. They're 20 times bigger than BigCommerce, and they're still growing faster than BigCommerce. [00:14:21] It really is like, okay, if Intuit's interested in acquiring - "Hey, we need to have a full e-commerce suite underneath our accounting app" - it makes me wonder, well, you know, obviously nobody's gonna buy Shopify, at this point, but does it make sense for Shopify to buy an accounting system? This just keeps ... Every day, it's constantly in my head; at least once a day, I think about it. That's gonna be game-changing if that happens. Blake Oliver: [00:14:47] Your theory is Intuit is worried about a threat from Shopify expanding into accounting, since it already handles pretty much everything else for e-commerce sellers. That's why Intuit is interested in BigCommerce. Didn't achieve that, but it got TradeGecko. Even if they don't integrate it into QuickBooks, it's a good investment because e-commerce is growing so much right now. Shopify, by the way, is bigger than Intuit. I don't know if people realize that. In terms of market cap, Shopify is at $119 billion, and Intuit's around $80 billion. Put that in perspective. I don't think most accountants are aware of just how massive Shopify is now. David Leary: [00:15:26] Yeah, Shopify is starting to become a threat to Amazon. That's how big Shopify is, at this point. They probably look at BigCommerce and laugh now, maybe, because they used to be kind of identical, and they were almost at equal footing before. Shopify has just completely taken off. I think a lot of this comes down to, especially Intuit's motivation, owning the customer. Whoever owns the customer is gonna win. [00:15:48] If the customer is spending 12 hours a day inside of Shopify running their business, they're not in front of Intuit. They might still use QuickBooks; they might be a QuickBooks customer, but ultimately, they're not spending their time there, which means now you can't push a loan product on them. Shopify loans is gonna be more successful. Shopify will have a bank. This is all about owning the customer. You're seeing that Intuit is really- every time you turn around, they're buying another app from the ecosystem. Blake Oliver: [00:16:12] Right. You wanna be a business management platform, not an accounting platform, because- David Leary: [00:16:16] Or a bank, yeah. You don't wanna be a bank either. Blake Oliver: [00:16:18] Yeah, you don't wanna be a bank. Well, let's talk about banking. Square is continuing to push into this banking world. In their Cash app - the app that you can use to, as a consumer, pay people money, get paid - they now have a feature that allows users to borrow up to $200. I can, in the app, borrow 200 bucks and then pay it back over time, like a payday loan-  David Leary: [00:16:43] It's exactly a payday loan. You can get as little as $20. Blake Oliver: [00:16:47] It's about 60% APR, if you work out the fees, but that is lower than your average payday loan- David Leary: [00:16:54] Which there, I think, pushing the 300% range, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:16:55] I think with this low amount of $200, they're testing the waters. They could easily offer more, and they know so much about their users - they see the whole payment history - they could probably very easily increase that amount. Then, like you said last week, they're are also going into the business. They're gonna start letting people use Cash app for business transactions. David Leary: [00:16:55] Yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:17:16] People have been doing it informally, but now it's gonna be formally business. I think, then, why not let people borrow $2,000, $20,000, depending on their credit worthiness, right? David Leary: [00:17:25] Oh, I can see the connection to that. Really, if you look at ... There's an Australian startup called Afterpay that's starting to roll out in the U.S. Essentially, it's finance. You wanna buy that fancy guitar, Blake, and you go there to the guitar shop to buy it, but it costs $2,000. They offer, "Hey, you can Afterpay," and somehow, you use Afterpay to pay for it, and then you have a loan [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:17:47] Installment payments, right?  David Leary: [00:17:49] Kind of installment payments, yeah, but the way it's done, it's done at the point of sale, almost instantly. I haven't seen it, or used it, but it totally makes sense. You're gonna go to pay for something at a Square cash register. It's gonna be expensive, and boom, your Square app's gonna give you the option to finance it instantly. Blake Oliver: [00:18:06] There's a payment service that's targeted towards CPA firms that I've seen that does this, where you can offer your customers the ability to pay in installments, and they'll take on the risk of this. This is like a big popular thing for big purchases. I can't remember the name of that. What is that app?  David Leary: [00:18:22] It's QuickFee. They sponsored us, if you remember, before, when they came to the U.S.[crosstalk] Essentially what they do is instead of you having to create an installment agreement with your client and keep track and get them to finish paying you and chase the money, QuickFee will just give you the money and then they'll handle chasing that down and set up the payment structure with the client. Yeah, QuickFee's very specifically focused on accountants, and I think they're going after lawyers a little bit. The Cash app, and these types of services are really for retail, right there at point of purchase.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:53] On the same line of thinking with the apps becoming banks, Gusto sent me transactions       mail. It's a feature called Cash Reserve. I had to actually log in to Gusto to see what this looked like, to see the information about it. It is a feature where an employee can choose to have a percentage or set amount withheld from their paycheck every pay period and put into a bank account that Gusto manages for them with a partner bank. It is a bank called NBKC Bank, and it's FDIC-insured. They can transfer the balance into their other accounts whenever they need it. Interest of 0.45%, unlimited transfers. You can create and track personalized goals. It's called Cash Reserve. David Leary: [00:19:37] All right, so I have a company; I have employees, and I've been writing them checks, and now they're like, "I really don't want checks anymore, but I don't have a bank." You could just be like, "Hey, good news! You're just gonna get an instant bank through payroll. It gonna be automatically set up for you. Here's your debit card, and you just got a bank." Every app's gonna offer a bank service here, soon, because it's all ... The APIs, the banks, Visa, MasterCard - they've all set this up in very easy ways for apps to build on top of these. So, yeah, every app is gonna have a feature of, "We'll open a bank account for you." That's my prediction - every app's gonna have a bank account. We'll stop talking about this because it won't be news soon. Every app's gonna have its own bank account built in.  Blake Oliver: [00:20:10] Some news from the UK: FreeAgent has launched a service called CoPilot in the UK. It looks like QuickBooks Live - an expert accountant right by your side in FreeAgent. CoPilot is a revolutionary, ordinary way of working with an accountant directly within FreeAgent. Apparently, you work with this certified accountant directly in the app. They will help you manage it and you'll get their expert advice. You're assigned a CoPilot accountant. It sounds like it's not a team approach; you actually get somebody. [00:20:41] It's very, very, very cheap. For 0-2 employees, if you're a sole trader, it's like £30-£45 a month. If you're a limited company, it's £60-£75. This is really cheap. It caps out at £75 a month. I'm curious if any of the accountants in the UK who listen are threatened by this, or if it's just not something they're too worried about. It seems like really low pricing to get an accountant on demand. David Leary: [00:21:09] It's interesting because I think Intuit, this week, I saw, just rolled out ... They kind of raised the level of connecting with your accountant and getting support at a higher level in QuickBooks Online. I know on Facebook, and Twitter, some people got a little upset about it, but in the grand scheme of things, even with all the news and how much Intuit's pushing QuickBooks Live, I'm really not hearing this massive exodus of people leaving their bookkeepers and accountants that they already have to go to QuickBooks Live. You're right, it might be people getting more upset about this than they really need to be. Maybe it is really a non-issue. They've definitely moved it up in the menu to make it more easier to get to. [00:21:43] I have a couple more articles on apps, if you wanna jump into those; just couple of quick ones. FreshBooks is launching a mileage-tracking app, just like QuickBooks did two years ago. You can get a FreshBooks mileage-tracking app, which is interesting because that tells me FreshBooks is now ... Their sweet spot used to be a lot of people that just did professional service - I'm a website designer - things like that. This means they're starting to get people that have to do things in person more, possibly, and they need to track that mileage.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:10] They're expanding out. Yeah.  David Leary: [00:22:12] Yep, expanding out. Routable ... Routable does B2B payments, services, and accounts payable automation type services. They just took a $16 million- they took a $12 million round, and now they've raised $16 million overall. What I thought was interesting is their quote from their founder. It's really clear where they're going. He really talks about sending 1,000 business payments a month is different than somebody sending 10,000, or 100,000. The rest of his quote's like, "Finance departments deserve the best software and support as they scale ..." It's very clear Routable's going up market, right? They're going for teams of people that need to automate thousands of bill payments a month. Blake Oliver: [00:22:52] One thing that amazes me about the B2B payment space is just how much competition there is in there. It seems like there are just dozens and dozens of options for payments. Why is that? I guess it's just such a big market, right? crosstalk  David Leary: [00:23:05] Maybe in the app space, though, it's not just that. I mean, forecasting and dashboard apps ... Every slice of the market has like 70 or 80 competitors. It's crazy. Blake Oliver: [00:23:20] Xero has released a chart of accounts templates in Xero HQ. This is for accountants only, it looks like. So, I logged into my Xero HQ, and I saw there are now templates for C Corps, S Corps, legal, LLCs, not-for-profits, partnerships, retail, services, and sole proprietors. When I create a Xero account, I can select one of these, just like the old QuickBooks Desktop editions, right? David Leary: [00:23:47] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:23:47] I can select a chart of accounts for those industries and apply that and then customize further. David Leary: [00:23:52] That's always been a best practice. You get your templates, and you have those ready to go, and you import them into QuickBooks. People have been doing this for years, but you're right, why doesn't the accounting software just provide it? Blake Oliver: [00:24:03] Yes, exactly. That was one of my number-one ingredients in my secret sauce, when I had my practice, was I had some really good templates set up. We kept those in a CSV file, and we could import them into Xero, and it made things so much easier. [00:24:17] The thing I don't like about this, and I hope they add it, is you can't customize this at the practice level. They're just locked in place. If you don't like them, you have to then customize them every single time for your clients. Maybe give accounting firms the ability to create a custom version of this and then have it available at the practice level for people to install. Because if they don't do that, then ultimately, we're still gonna have to do this CSV-file upload.  David Leary: [00:24:40] We've talked about, in the past, Revolut. They are the online bank that kind of started in Europe and has been rolling out, and now they're starting to come to The States. They spun out. They have a business division, Revolut Business. They have now partnered with Bullet. It's accounting software, AI-powered accounting software. It's an Irish company.  [00:24:57] Here it is, it's one of the new banks. They know they need accounting software, so you're starting to see ... This is another example of this, that basically they're going to help the Revolut Business customers reduce their tax bills and automate their company accounts. It's just a bank play, essentially ... It's a new bank; it's not a traditional bank, but they're making a play at accounting services- Blake Oliver: [00:25:21] Yeah. I wonder how Revolut is doing in the pandemic, because I spotted a story this week about how their losses tripled in 2019 due to their rapid expansion. They had a loss of $139.6 million (£106.5 million) for the year ending December 31, which is up significantly from 2018. David Leary: [00:25:44] It was hard to read those articles. They just blame everything on growth, so it's hard to know, is this a real issue that they're down, or is it just they're growing in too many different directions too fast, and it's just blowing money.  Blake Oliver: [00:25:55] The data is so stale. I guess this is because of the pandemic that we're only getting this 2019 financial information in August.  David Leary: [00:26:03] Three times, I kept going back and looking at the article - is this really an article from this week? I did that three times on the news. Okay, good, it's not just me who questioned that. We talked a little bit about OnDeck getting acquired last week, and there was a hint, or rumor, or something about Kabbage. It looks like American Express now is definitely in advanced talks to buy Kabbage for just under $1 billion. American Express would then become a huge lender to mom-and-pop shops. They already are the largest U.S. provider for credit cards at those same shops. Basically, you get your business credit card from Amex, and now, you start taking loans from them. Blake Oliver: [00:26:40] Interesting, interesting.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Marketplace. How can you be a more trusted advisor for your clients as they face new challenges? By recommending solutions from ADP Marketplace, ADP's digital HR storefront. With ADP Marketplace, clients can try, buy, and implement highly rated HR apps that can share data with ADP. With secured data integrations, it's easy to streamline HR processes and adapt to new business needs. Help your clients discover new ways to recruit and onboard employees, boost performance, offer unique financial-wellness benefits, and much more.   With integrations for popular business software, like Expensify, PayActiv, Slack, and ClockShark, clients can add value to the tools they already use by simply and securely connecting them to ADP. Have clients in field service, or construction? ClockShark can help them track time to quickly and accurately run payroll, all integrated with ADP. Visit ADP Marketplace at apps.ADP.com, or right from your Accountant Connect dashboard. Not set up with Accountant Connect? Sign up today. It's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. ADP has your back with ADP Marketplace.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:27:58] Well, that's it for app news. Let's talk about politics, David. Let's talk about economics, payroll tax, the Trump executive actions. As our listeners undoubtedly know, Congress has been at a stalemate over further stimulus. They can't come to an agreement on unemployment. They can't come to an agreement on bailouts for states. Nothing. They're just stuck. So, President Trump issued executive actions that have been controversial, to say the least. There is the unemployment-insurance executive action, where he has reallocated money from the pandemic to provide $300 in additional weekly benefits, if the states also contribute $100.  [00:28:44] So, there's that, but the big issue I wanna talk about is the payroll-tax deferral. Starting September 1, in 15 days - we're still a very hazy on the details - employees are going to have the option to defer their payroll taxes until some unspecified date. That is how this executive action is working. It's not actually cutting the payroll tax. It's just saying to the Treasury Department, and the IRS, "Allow employees to not pay their payroll tax." They'll still owe it because the President doesn't have the power, according to the Constitution, to just cut a tax. Congress has to do that. He can change, though, the collection date. So, it's just gonna be deferred indefinitely and then collected at some later date. [00:29:27] I guess the strategy here is that Congress will then decide to forgive this, and actually cut the tax, and people won't have to pay it back. What if they don't do that? Employers are worried. The Wall Street Journal had an article about how employers are wary that they could be on the hook for these payroll taxes because employers are on the hook for uncollected employee payroll taxes. It's a huge liability. If you don't do it, you can be personally held responsible, and it can follow you forever as a business owner. So, the question is, what's gonna happen if an employee leaves the company, or gets terminated, or something? Anything? Who's gonna be on the hook for paying these taxes?  [00:30:10] There's questions about then are they gonna have to pay it back, because there's actually not a deadline. The AICPA sent a letter on Wednesday asking Assistant Treasury Secretary David Kautter, and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to provide guidance to address these concerns. Who's an eligible employee? Does the $4,000 limit apply separately to each employer of an employee, or is it collective because if it's collective, I don't know how they're supposed to figure that out? [crosstalk] How are the employees gonna pay back those taxes? It's a huge, ambiguous mess, and it's all supposed to start in two weeks. David Leary: [00:30:41] So, instead of an employee taking initiative, getting a W-4 form, and saying that they have 99 dependents, and turning that in, and then basically getting no taxes withheld from their paycheck, they're making this to where, from a media and marketing play, now employees are just gonna go to their employers and be like, "I don't wanna pay taxes," and employers are gonna be like, "All right, I guess I'll off, or I'll change it to zero every week on your paycheck." Ultimately, you're right, if there's not another ruling, you're just kicking the can down the road, and you're gonna have to owe those taxes when you file at the end of the year. Blake Oliver: [00:31:11] Right. If Congress doesn't act to forgive this, then the tax is still owed. Then, there's the question of, well, are we gonna be in this situation, around Christmas time, when employees don't get a check because they haven't been paying payroll taxes, and now, it's all got to be paid back all at once? Again, the big question is who's on the hook for the taxes, if something happens to that employee, if they leave? Who is going to pay back these taxes? Is the employer gonna be held responsible? Because that's the way the law is, right now, is employers are responsible for withholding this tax and remitting it to the government. [00:31:44] Just the implementation of this ... I feel so sorry for two groups of people. One, the accountants who are manually doing this for their clients because there's a lot of firms that still do payroll, and they do it the traditional way, calculating it, and doing all the forms. I feel bad for them; or there's business owners who do that still. Then, the payroll services - the ADPs, the Paychex, the Gustos, the Ripplings - have to figure out, suddenly, in a very short amount of time, how to put in a mechanism for employees to opt into this, for employers to opt into this, for the taxes to be deferred, for that to be tracked, for it to be repaid. I mean, what a disaster this is gonna be. David Leary: [00:32:29] Well, I mean, ultimately, this is a bigger disaster of our leadership in D.C. If you really step back and look at this, this is just small businesses being stuck in the middle of this- Blake Oliver: [00:32:38] Battle!  David Leary: [00:32:38] -pandemic relief. Now, they can't come to an agreement because the pandemic bill has all this other stuff in it. There was an article in Politico about the Paycheck Protection Program. There's some small revisions that they think everybody agrees on, in the Paycheck Protection Program, they wanna put in, but it's stuck in the middle of this stupid, bigger bill. The small business owners aren't getting the relief they need and the guidance they need. [00:33:02] The same thing with this, right? Because of them having a stalemate, Trump does executive order, and then small business owners are now caught in that. Things like the automatic grant - essentially, if a PPP loan is under $150,000 - they pretty much agree on that. That's just stuck in this bigger discussion. The Democrats want a $3 billion package-  Blake Oliver: [00:33:22] Yeah, they're at like $3.5 billion, and the Republicans are at $1 billion, and they can't meet in the middle. It's like they can't ... One of the big sticking points is that relief for state governments, and they're not getting anywhere. David Leary: [00:33:36] The one thing they're all in agreement on, a little bit, is the PPP stuff, and they can't get that out the door because it's stuck now in all the other stuff. So, again, small business owners are getting screwed. Not only that, the banks are very aware of this now. Some of the banks are discouraging clients from rushing to file their applications, even though the SBA started accepting the applications on Monday. Blake Oliver: [00:33:55] Oh, yeah.  David Leary: [00:33:55] Vice President, or Vice Chairman Cynthia Blankenship of Bank of the West, she said they are, "Encouraging our customers to wait for any possible Congressional action that might streamline the forgiveness process." So, they just are basically telling their customers, "Don't apply for forgiveness." Blake Oliver: [00:34:10] I'm saying to everyone, "Just wait as long as possible to do this because it's gonna change, and you don't wanna have done all this work and then have to redo it." David Leary: [00:34:19] Can you refresh my memory on one thing here? So, there's article on CNBC, and it's talking about how owners that took the PPP loan and the $10,000 emergency loan grant, the EIDL?  Blake Oliver: [00:34:28] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:34:28] Apparently, that $10,000 goes against your PPP loan. It's not like you get your PPP loan, and you get another 10-grand forgivable, right? You can't combine the whole thing ... I think from day one, it's always been like that, but the way this article ... It's acting like this is a surprise to small business owners now. I feel like if any communications about these two loans have been clear, it's you can't have both. One's gonna offset the other one. Apparently, small business owners now are confused by this. The article's really written up like this is some sort of surprise being popped on everybody now. Blake Oliver: [00:35:04] Well, you know, this stuff's complicated. I mean, maybe it doesn't seem that way if you've been living it like we have, but if you're a small business owner, you're not listening to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. If you are, that's great. Thank you for listening. But most aren't, right? It's just not- they're not interested in the technical details of compliance and all this stuff. It's way too complicated. [00:35:24] What else do we got here in the politics world? The Trump administration is urging delisting of U.S.-listed Chinese firms that fail to meet audit standards. David, you know, I don't agree with the Trump administration on a lot of stuff, but I'm on board with this. This is really interesting. We talked about Luckin Coffee, that massive $300 million fraud - at least that - in China with that startup that was challenging Starbucks, and it turned out that they were faking $300 million in revenue with essentially what were gift cards that never got used or were never even sold. [00:35:56] Well, part of the reason that kind of stuff happens is because audit requirements in China are not nearly as strict as they are here. So, the Trump administration is saying if you wanna be listed on a U.S. stock exchange, and you're a Chinese company, you need to submit to inspection by U.S. regulators. The idea being, hey, let's actually make sure that companies are on equal footing. U.S. companies have to abide by GAAP. Chinese companies should have to do so as well and have rigorous audits. I thought that was really interesting. Big news in the international audit world, if that actually comes to be. David Leary: [00:36:30] That's ultimately the problem, and we can transition over to Wirecard, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:36:33] Yeah, let's talk about fraud.  David Leary: [00:36:33] I don't know if it was completely like a lack of standards, but it was a lack of quality auditing.  Blake Oliver: [00:36:41] Oh, yeah. They didn't even bother to do bank confirmations. The most basic audit technique in the book is send a letter to the bank, make sure that those accounts are real, and the amounts are accurate, as of the date of the financial statements. They didn't even do that. David Leary: [00:36:55] So, just like Trump's saying that those companies can't be listed on a U.S. exchange, the DAX Index, which is like the German blue-chip index, they happened to have made a ruling, now. They're gonna start taking out insolvent companies out of that; so, they're gonna be dropped from the DAX Index; Wirecard will be. Did you see the other Wirecard news?  Blake Oliver: [00:37:11] Well, there's quite a bit that I've saved up because we haven't talked about it for a few weeks. Maybe you're gonna talk about this, Jan Marsalek, he has fled to Russia. Did we talk about this? David Leary: [00:37:20] He was missing, but now you've tracked him down, Blake?  Blake Oliver: [00:37:23] Well, I mean, I didn't track him down, but this newsletter that I subscribe to tracked him down, apparently. He was thought to have been in the Philippines. That is not true. Apparently, they were faking that so they could find out if he had an Interpol record, which would get him arrested at the border. This is all speculation, but after he had somebody run an immigration check in the Philippines, he went to Russia. Apparently, he has brought significant sums of money into the country in the form of bitcoin from Dubai, and he's hiding out in Russia with the help of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. He's got a private house in Moscow and stuff. Now, Interpol is trying to find him and get him out of Russia, but good luck with that, right? David Leary: [00:38:05] Well, in the article I had, he's now on Interpol's Red Notice list. He is one of the most wanted criminals by Interpol. Blake Oliver: [00:38:11] That's amazing. By the way, the reason this guy is so wanted, he's the COO who was in charge of the third-party relationships that are at the heart of the $2 billion fraud. He's only 40 years old. He joined the company when he was 20, and he's been there the whole time; made it up to COO, as they grew. He has this reputation for just dropping insane amounts of money in restaurants. He sounds like a typical tech- David Leary: [00:38:36] Well, it's not tech. It's a typical criminal. All these guys. It's all the same thing. You hear about these crazy cocaine parties they were doing. They steal this money and they just go crazy. Here's your conspiracy hat. Another former executive of Wirecard, who lived in the Philippines - younger guy; he's 44 years old - he conveniently died July 27, in the hospital in the Philippines, due to natural causes- Blake Oliver: [00:39:03] Yeah, right. David Leary: [00:39:04] -just conveniently. Basically, him and his wife ran a tour bus company and another company called PayEasy. They were involved in some of this moving the money around stuff. They're tied to this, even though he downplayed it. He's like, "I don't have any influence. I'm on the board. I don't do any of the day-to-day management." They're part of the investigation. I just find it interesting; you know, he just happens to die of natural causes. Blake Oliver: [00:39:31] So, one last piece of string to add to our Board of Conspiracies around Wirecard. Visualize this:  guess who invested $1 billion last year in Wirecard. David Leary: [00:39:40] Softbank? Blake Oliver: [00:39:41] Yes, our favorite, Softbank. They seem to come up- in every single bad story we've got, there's a Softbank investment. I mean, either they're throwing so much money around there, in everything, or they're just making really bad decisions. So, yeah, they invested $1 billion last year, which apparently helped to quiet investor concerns about Wirecard, before the collapse. Think about this - it's a $2 billion fraud, right? $2 billion are missing, and Softbank gave them $1 billion right before this all went down, so they're on the hook for half of this.  David Leary: [00:40:10] Speaking of frauds, you wanna talk about MyPayrollHR, or do we still have more Wirecard fraud? Blake Oliver: [00:40:16] No, no. Let's talk about MyPayrollHR. Let's go to a relatively small fraud. What's new with our friend, Michael Mann? David Leary: [00:40:22] Yeah. For those who may be new to the show, if you go back, this was last September/October timeframe, I think.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:29] Yep.  David Leary: [00:40:29] All of a sudden, there were reports around the country that people's paychecks were being opposite-withdrawn from their bank accounts [crosstalk] -then the company pulled the paycheck back out of your bank account. This was a domino effect. The company that moved the money around, Cache Financial Services, they're the ones that would deposit the money in your bank account. They provided that service for payroll companies. They had the money taken out of their account, so they panicked and started taking it out of other people's accounts to recover their $16 million. Now, they basically had to go bankrupt, but this was all a domino tied to this one guy, Michael Mann, who had-  Blake Oliver: [00:41:08] He ran a payroll service- David Leary: [00:41:10] Well, that was one of his many fraudulent things. So, he had a payroll service, and it's just dominoed. He basically has committed $100 million of fraud, and the dominoes have just impacted ... The amount of people that have gone bankrupt, or had to be folded now, because of this ... He was actually in court this week, and he pled guilty. The Times Union has a really good article that breaks down the whole web of it. We don't have to cover the whole thing here. It's 12 pages of this this web and the breakdown of it, in the document. [00:41:38] Essentially, it was just creating fake documents; creating bogus companies. But he had inside people at some of these other companies, and he was able to get like this 20-year-old kid ... This 20-year-old kid's probably facing a 20-year prison sentence now. He paid them off with $11,000 in Amazon gift cards. This guy's helping somebody ... Think about it. Okay, Blake, I'm gonna help you create ... I'm gonna help you cover tens of millions of dollars of fraudulent invoices. I'm gonna help you in this scheme, and I'm gonna agree to $11,000 in Amazon gift cards? Not even a million bucks?  Blake Oliver: [00:42:10] Yeah, not worth the risk. Yes, definitely, you should ask for more money. David Leary: [00:42:14] It's that dumb criminals thing, right? Golly! So, he's going to jail.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:18] Let's get on back up to larger frauds.  David Leary: [00:42:22] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:22] I don't know if you'd heard that the NRA is being sued by the New York Attorney General. They are accused of- well, the executives; one executive in particular - CEO, Wayne LaPierre - is accused of draining $64 million from the nonprofit in just three years. Regardless of how you feel about gun rights, let's separate that. This is a not-for-profit that is supposed to advocate for people who believe in gun rights. Just setting aside the politics, they should be exercising fiduciary responsibility for this money that people are donating, right? [00:42:55] Well, the accusation is that LaPierre was making a ton of personal expenses. The way he did it was he had their PR agency spend the money, buy him tickets. He went to the Bahamas on private jets. He went to Europe, all sorts of crazy stuff; like I said, $64 million, right? Then, the PR company, or the advertising agency, whatever you wanna call them, would invoice the NRA, like a one-line invoice with no detail, and the NRA would pay it. [00:43:28] Just the fact that that was happening, if that, in fact, was happening - this is alleged - I mean, that just is shady. If these expenses were legitimate, then you would simply expense them as normal. You would not route them through your PR agency. That, to me, indicates that there's something shady going on here. It's kinda crazy. This is such a huge, influential organization, and it could be taken down by really what is a ... I mean, not petty, but just expense-report fraud, essentially, by the by the president of the organization.  David Leary: [00:44:03] Is the NRA- are they nonprofit. I'm assuming they have a board, right? [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:44:06] They're a nonprofit. That's the thing - there has been a lot of infighting, apparently, in the board. I think it was Oliver North was the president of the board, and he was forced out by LaPierre, after he pressed for an internal financial review. So, they've been arguing about this quietly, and now it has blown into public view.  David Leary: [00:44:26] So, a criminal charge to that, okay ... This is not a political showing, a political hunt. They had problems internally, and now they're just coming to light to everybody else now. Interesting.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:39] Yeah, and the State of New York is pressing to dissolve them completely. That's how bad this could be. It could be like Trump's charity, right, where they completely dissolve them. Of course, they could just reconstitute in another state and everything, but this could look really bad for LaPierre.  [00:44:50] Actually, where they could get them is the income taxes because if you benefit from personal expenses through your business- if you spend money in your business, and it's personal in nature, and not business expenses, that is personal income to you, if the business pays for it. You're supposed to report that on your taxes. If there's millions of dollars of benefit that he got, then that's income, and he didn't report it. So, he could be on the hook for tax evasion and stuff like that. That's where they end up getting these guys.  [00:45:18] So, anyway, I just wanted to bring that up. I thought that was interesting. I guess the lesson here is - if you are auditing - look for these kind of things, because it's a very, I think, classic way to hide expenses, to commit fraud. You have a third party pay for something and then bill your company for it. You benefit from that payment. It's not a business expense. It looks like one, though, because your accounts payable team is getting an invoice from your PR agency that looks totally legit and they pay it. David Leary: [00:45:44] Should we wrap up on an awesome feel-good story? Blake Oliver: [00:45:47] Yeah, and we also have a listener voicemail that we gotta get to.  David Leary: [00:45:51] Oh, yeah. Do you wanna do the voicemail first, or do that ...?  Blake Oliver: [00:45:52] Let's do that voice mail. We actually have a number that you can call, and you can leave us a message. Somebody did, believe it or not, in response to the story last week about hourly billing. Will Akers: [00:46:08] Hey, Blake, and David, my name is Will Akers, I am in Knoxville, Tennessee; got a couple of partners that own the firm in Knoxville with a couple-hundred clients, a few dozen employees. Just recently listening to your episode on when time-based pricing works ... Before I go into that, thanks for what you do, by the way. Love what you guys do; really entertaining, and love staying up to date with the news you guys present.  [00:46:35] I just had some thoughts on this. We are a remote-based firm, cloud accounting; 99.9% in cloud-accounting software, and do everything on a recurring basis. We are more fixed fee, if you twist my arm, rather than value-based, so that's part of my voicemail, and part of my question. I just wanna ask the question of how you guys differentiate between value versus fixed fee? Because I feel like value is kind of in the eye of the beholder.  [00:47:01] It kind of reminds me of squares versus rectangles, in the sense of all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. That would mean that all value-based billing is fixed fee, but all fixed-fee is not value-based. You know what I mean? [inaudible] understand where he's coming from; understand where you guys are coming from, as well. Every now and then, we run into projects where we can't possibly know how big of a dumpster fire this is, and we still try to quote it. We don't bill by the hour; we don't do any of that, but it doesn't mean that it's not right. [00:47:33] Sometimes, we come across those projects and it's very scary to know, did I price it right? Anyway, this is an interesting conversation, but there could be a blurry line between value and fixed. Just really interested to see what you guys think about it, and would love to hear when to use ... Number one, how you differentiate between those two- Blake Oliver: [00:47:55] Thank you so much, Will, for listening. That's a really, really great question - fixed versus value, what is the difference? David, I've got my opinions. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. David Leary: [00:48:07] I feel like in my brain, fixed is- you have packages, like, "Hey, pick one of these packages. Here's the services I'll provide you, and this is the fee." You kind of stick within that guideline. You're buying the value meal #1 at McDonald's, and you're gonna pay this much for it, and that's it. [00:48:25] But I think of value pricing as, really, how much is that worth to me? If I haven't ate in three days, McDonald's could probably charge me a lot more for that value meal. It's gonna have more value. For me, when I think about quoting a value price, really trying to figure out not what my costs are- almost like, how much is it worth to them, and maybe figure out what their costs are. Well, maybe they have- if they wanna do this thing, they'd have to hire two employees on their staff. That means, right there, it's worth $200,000 to them.  Blake Oliver: [00:48:56] For a different company with a different cost structure, maybe that number is different. Maybe they're paying different salaries. I like, Will, what you said about all value pricing is fixed pricing, but not all fixed pricing is value pricing. I think, generally, that is true that a fixed price is we're setting the fee in advance, and we're gonna tell you the price in advance before we do the work. [00:49:21] That's very different than hourly billing, where you may tell them your hourly rate, but you don't tell them what they're going to actually pay until after you have done the work and you present the bill. In some cases, people will just do the work and not even tell the client the hourly rate and then, they're really surprised. Fixed fee is you set that in advance, and generally, I think it's the same for everybody. [00:49:40] That's the sort of thing where you could put it on your website. You could say, "I charge $1,000 per month for this," and everyone who comes to me pays the same price. With a value price, you don't put that on your website because it could change for every customer depending on the value that they place on it. Maybe it's the same set of services, and you give a different price to different customers based on their ability to pay, or their industry, or the value that they perceive. [00:50:03] There's so many different ways you could do it, and that's what makes it so hard. Value pricing isn't always fixed in that I might attach a percentage to a value-pricing engagement where I could say, "If I increase your revenue by X dollars, I'm gonna get 2% of that, or 5% of that or something. Make it more like a-  David Leary: [00:50:20] Or it could be an equity play.  Blake Oliver: [00:50:22] Right, equity.  David Leary: [00:50:22] You could have your fixed fee for your base services you provide, but there's this whole extra stuff they really can't afford to pay you for. Maybe you exchange out equity, and you're just helping them grow through this.  Blake Oliver: [00:50:34] Yeah, and that's definitely not fixed. Although, I guess the percentage relationship is fixed, so I'm not sure if technically that would qualify, but yeah. That's- David Leary: [00:50:42] It's still a debate. If everybody else wants to leave a voicemail on this ...  Blake Oliver: [00:50:46] Yeah, let us know what you think. If you're doing value pricing effectively in your firm, let us know. I would love to hear an example of maybe a time it worked; a time it didn't work, too. Hey, I'm a big fan of value pricing, but I do agree there are times when it fails spectacularly. Let us know. What is that number, David? You have that handy? David Leary: [00:51:10] Yes, the number is (202) 695-1040.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:11] (202) 695-1040. Give us a call. It's a Google Voice number. You can leave a message; it goes straight to voicemail. We get that as an MP3 file. We'll listen to it. It caps out at about three minutes, so do keep it ... What is the word? Pithy? Pithy is a good word. Try to keep it short and love to hear from you. If you wanna connect with us online, we're happy to do that, as well. I'm on Twitter. I am @BlakeTOliver. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:51:40] And I'm @DavidLeary. I do wanna end, though, on this one feel-good story. Blake Oliver: [00:51:45] Let's hear it. David Leary: [00:51:45] It's arguably the best story I read this week. It's so great. This was on Going Concern. Let me ask you a question, Blake. Have you ever gotten anything from Kickstarter before, or have you ever put money into a Kickstarter? It's always like crazy things, like it's a wallet that folds six ways, and it's also a butter knife connected. It's always crazy [crosstalk] you don't need.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:04] Yeah. So, I've wanted to; I've been tempted to. I don't think I've ever actually done Kickstarter because I've heard of so many never delivering that I just am afraid of it. David Leary: [00:52:13] I think I found one for all of us to get behind. There's an article in Going Concern, and arguably, this is one of the better Going Concern articles I've seen in a long time. They discovered this Kickstarter project and they give the background story on it. There's so many little things I love about this story. So, Dave Lemke, they describe him as a public accounting grunt. When he started a few years ago at his Big Four job, they gave him a laptop. What do laptops- what are they missing? 10-key.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:41] Oh, yeah, 10-keys. Yes, a lot of them- David Leary: [00:52:43] You don't have a 10-key. Nobody has a 10-key basically on their laptop, right? You either take out an old keyboard, plug it in your computer- you can buy an external 10-key pad. He just was upset with it and he realized, "I'm an Excel all day." So, he designed, on a piece of paper, a 10-key for everything he needs to do for his job. Just by dumb luck, his brother was good with the 3-D printer, and they built a keyboard. They actually LemKey, L-E-M-K-E-Y. Remember, his last name was Lemke. He just happened to have a name - key - in this thing. [00:53:18] So, what he basically did is he ... You can do everything from this. You have your dollar sign, your equal sign, so that way you can start your 'if' statements right from your 10-key. F2 and Escape, so you can get in and out of cells. He has an Alt key on it, so you can [inaudible] access to other tools, and switch tabs, and change ... You never have to use your left hand [crosstalk] you just use your 10-key.  Blake Oliver: [00:53:36] It's an improvement on the 10-key that would, by default, come with my keyboard because it's designed for accountants. David Leary: [00:53:43] That's correct. Blake Oliver: [00:53:44] Oh ... Cool.  David Leary: [00:53:45] It even has the section symbol on Windows, so you can set tax codes. It's everything you need to do, as an accountant, or bookkeeper, in a 10-key. Blake Oliver: [00:53:55] Well, David, I think that we should help support this Kickstarter as the podcast because it's got like $6,500 pledged of a $10,000 goal. 92 backers, 27 days to go. David Leary: [00:54:07] Well, here's the best part - you can get it branded. You can put your own logo. We could have Cloud Accounting Podcast 10-keys.  Blake Oliver: [00:54:11] Oh, that's awesome.  David Leary: [00:54:11] I think I'm gonna order one because I've been kicking around the idea of having a 10-key anyways. This actually makes so much sense to be able to have this. Blake Oliver: [00:54:23] That's awesome.  David Leary: [00:54:23] It's almost in a way ... You can get those separate gaming 10-keys now, for gamers, and they're ergonomic. We're in an environment, building something like this and getting it out to market's not hard. It's just nobody's ever considered the needs of accountants, or bookkeepers. A 10-key, we would probably be number-one consumer of the 10-key functionality. Blake Oliver: [00:54:40] So, if you wanna support this Kickstarter, you can find it on Kickstarter. It's the LemKey 10-Key, and the link will be in the show notes.  David Leary: [00:54:50] As soon as we get done recording here, I'm gonna go on, and put in my credit card, and buy one.  Blake Oliver: [00:54:54] Sounds great. David, so good to talk to you as usual. Stay safe, stay healthy, and I'll see you here next week.  David Leary: [00:55:00] Bye. ____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. 

Sponsors ADP Marketplace: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark Relay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay Show NotesComing soon!Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad:https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with ADP Marketplace, a digital HR storefront. Be a more trusted advisor to your clients by recommending apps to help streamline HR processes and free up time to focus on people. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Marketplace, later in the episode. Blake Oliver: [00:00:19] Well, apparently, they didn't even talk. He didn't even talk with the client about what it would cost at the beginning. He presented his bill after the fact, and the client accepted it- David Leary: [00:00:28] Which tells me they got a lot of value out of it, and they didn't put up a fuss. He undercharged it. He left value on the table. Blake Oliver: [00:00:36] That's my feeling, too. Just because you can't think of a way to do a value-based bill for this doesn't mean that there isn't a way.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. ClockShark is the leading GPS, time-tracking, and scheduling system built for local construction and field-service companies that want a simpler way to track time, run payroll, and understand job costs. With the capabilities of crew tracking, scheduling, jobsite geofencing, teams, and project segmentation, automatic labor allocation, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking system to handle the unique challenges that face your clients.  With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like overtime, paid time off, unpaid time, hours per job, and tasks, as well as the crucial data needed for certified payroll. With the integrations ClockShark has, you'll be able to connect to one of many ADP payroll platforms through ADP Marketplace  and process payroll in minutes with the click of a button. ClockShark's pricing starts at just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Relay Financial. Wouldn't it be great if you could open a new business bank account 100-percent online without having to go to a physical bank branch? Relay is a 100-percent online bank that is 100-percent focused on small business. With Relay, you can effortlessly collaborate with team members, manage payments, and issue corporate cards all from a bank.  Accountants and bookkeepers love Relay because they get a partner portal, can manage staff access without compromising security, and enjoy enriched direct bank feeds to QuickBooks Online, and Xero. To sign up in less than 10 minutes and enjoy stress-free banking with no monthly fees, or monthly minimum balances, head over to CloudAccountingPodcast.promo/relay.  ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:42] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver.  David Leary: [00:02:46] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:47] So, David, after last week, I felt like we had so many stories, I said I would bring five stories today, and I think I have 25. I just can't do it. I can't cut it down enough. I'm going through my list, and I'm trying to highlight the ones that I do think are the top five. I've got the Intuit acquisition of TradeGecko. That's a big one.  David Leary: [00:03:07] That's correct. That's a big one.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:07] Rippling raised a ton of money. I've got an article in CPA Trendlines, an opinion piece - "When Time-Based Pricing Works." I don't know ... What do you got?  David Leary: [00:03:17] A lot of smaller ap news. Different people did raises. Related, on the other side of Intuit's acquisition of TradeGecko, Webgility announced a partnership with QuickBooks Desktop, which I find was like, okay, here's a competing product, but in the Desktop space. What direction is the train headed here? That was a little confusing.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:39] Well, I think we should then dig into app news. We are The Cloud Accounting Podcast, let's start with that, but first, we have a review, right? David Leary: [00:03:45] We have two reviews. Blake Oliver: [00:03:46] This is from Joe, via Apple Podcasts. Five Stars, Great content and timely on current events. "Great podcast with timely and relevant content for forward-thinking accountants. Much easier and better analysis, in my opinion, than reading weekly newsletters. Now, I can stay up to date on my morning walks." That's from Joe Harris. Joe, thanks for listening! Let's get to app news. Let's talk about TradeGecko and Intuit. Intuit has agreed to acquire TradeGecko for $80 million. David, you're the app expert. Seems like you know all of these 800 or so apps that are in the ecosystem now, especially in the QuickBooks Live world. So give us the rundown on TradeGecko, for those of us who are not familiar. David Leary: [00:04:34] TradeGecko is an inventory app, but they really kind of specialized in more of that ecommerce level of inventory, where you have ... Nobody just opens an e-commerce website, or just only has an Amazon shop. They have an Amazon shop, an Etsy shop, something on BigCommerce. They have another thing over here ... Well, if you're selling T-shirts, and you sell one medium T-shirt, you've gotta have that updated in all your shopping carts across the whole interwebs. Blake Oliver: [00:05:00] It could be like a handful or even dozens, right? I think the term for this is multichannel. David Leary: [00:05:06] Multichannel, or omnichannel, yep, exactly. Sometimes, you even have your own brick-and-mortar, and you have to deal with that. It's something I think Intuit's wanted to get into for a while. I think they even made some attempts to build it themselves, but it's very hard to solve. It's crazy hard to solve. Blake Oliver: [00:05:25] Right, because the inventory in QuickBooks Online has been always the number-one reason why people stick with Desktop. It's just not that great. David Leary: [00:05:32] Yeah. There's a lot of reaction to this, and it was actually my reaction, as well ... I saw somebody tweet, "Oh, great, this is gonna QuickBooks Online finally get all the inventory features it needs ... People were saying that when they bought- there's an inventory app called Lettuce that QuickBooks bought. Blake Oliver: [00:05:49] Yeah, whatever happened with that?  David Leary: [00:05:52] How many years ago? The first QuickBooks Connect, they were already acquired by then, so it's going seven years, seven-and -a-half years ago? Seven years ago, they acquired Lettuce Apps, and I'm not really sure. I think some of the concepts or ideas maybe got integrated in, but I don't think it was ever like wrapped, or fully integrated.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:10] It was never Lettuce-wrapped?  David Leary: [00:06:11] Yeah, that's pretty funny. Blake Oliver: [00:06:14] Thank you. Thank you. I'm here all weekend.  David Leary: [00:06:16] On the other side, there was an article ... You just made the comment about people couldn't leave QuickBooks Desktop, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:06:23] Right.  David Leary: [00:06:23] Because the inventory is just so much deeper in QuickBooks Desktop. Webgility announced that they have a partnership with Intuit's Desktop QuickBooks point of sale, now. Blake Oliver: [00:06:33] So, this is like a press release about their integration with QuickBooks Desktop? David Leary: [00:06:36] Yeah, basically, it's a Desktop integration, but Webgility does basically what TradeGecko does.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:41] Oh ...  David Leary: [00:06:41] It's like, well, if Intuit's doing deals here on the Desktop side, I feel like it's confusing to the market. If you're Intuit, isn't your number-one goal, right now, to get everybody onto one platform - QuickBooks Online - and move them forward?  Blake Oliver: [00:06:56] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:06:56] So, it's strange that, over here, they're still doing this deals with Desktop because if you're using Desktop, and now you add on Webgility, why would you use QuickBooks Online with the new TradeGecko product? Blake Oliver: [00:07:09] You can't get away from it. There's just too many users.  David Leary: [00:07:13] Well, I think you just don't keep giving them carrots. If you put all the carrots on QuickBooks Online, people will eventually go there, but if you're on . But if but if you're on Desktop and they're being a stubborn horse, and you give them another carrot as a reason to not move, they're not gonna move. Blake Oliver: [00:07:28] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:07:28] People keep tossing them carrots when, really, just put the carrots on QuickBooks Online, and they'll come.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:33] Well, that's what's happening, right? If they can successfully integrate TradeGecko, and the two founders are moving over to Intuit to work there ... If they can make it happen, they can build it into the product, then, yes, finally people will move, but if you don't get good inventory into Online that's as good as Enterprise, people aren't gonna move. David Leary: [00:07:52] Yeah, and it'll be interesting how it gets integrated in because I know these enterprise-level inventory cloud packages ... I don't know what TradeGecko's pricing was, but they run $500 to $1,000 a month SaaS; these heavy-duty inventory packages. Will this get integrated into the UI, or is it gonna be more of ... You know, like when Intuit acquired the backup program, ChronoBooks?  Blake Oliver: [00:08:16] Yes. David Leary: [00:08:19] It's kind of like just an add-on. It's almost like they're taking a bunch of add-ons, and they're bundling it as a full-blown price. Is it gonna be a kind of a standalone app that gets all framed in, or is it going to actually be part of the actual QuickBooks Online code base? That is not clear. Blake Oliver: [00:08:35] And is it going to be part of Advanced, or will it be part of Pro and the other editions? Because I saw another announcement about QuickBooks Online. QBOA Advanced is going to include Bill.com, the full functionality of it integrated into QBOA, which is interesting to me because, David, your company, Melio, is now the bill pay for, it seems like, all the other editions? Is that what's happening here is they're splitting it up? David Leary: [00:09:00] That, I'm not very clear about because I think we're in QBO Advanced, as well; Melio is.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:04] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:09:04] I'm not totally clear on that. I saw that press release. I'm not totally understanding what that is. It's almost like- and even Xero when they bought Hubdoc. They're starting to integrate apps in, which makes you wonder, are we starting to see a closed ecosystem now versus the last six to eight years? Even when I was at Intuit, we were building an open ecosystem-  Blake Oliver: [00:09:22] Right.  David Leary: [00:09:22] -to where apps starting to be purchased or functionality is being built into the accounting software. Or, is it where things are gonna be built in but there's still gonna be multiple players? It really feels like things are in transition from the previous model of the last six to eight years, where it was QuickBooks Online and just add-ons. Blake Oliver: [00:09:41] Yeah, we'll see. David Leary: [00:09:42] It's getting gray.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:43] Well, people need help, so I think that's what this is designed to do, is just give people a solution. I mean, hopefully, they won't eliminate the other options. Small business owners who are making these decisions on what to integrate, they don't have enough advice. Accountants aren't giving it to them. There's not enough accounting firms and consultants doing this kind of work, so it's up to Intuit to say, "These are the default apps you need to integrate, and we are gonna do it for you. It's all gonna be set up. You can go use other ones if you want, but here's the ones that we partner with and we recommend." David Leary: [00:10:14] Yeah, just out of the box, this is what you get. I guess we'll find out because it definitely feels like the pendulum is swinging towards build it all in-house again and acquire a bunch of things. I've seen this pendulum. Companies do that, then they realize, "We're not really good at all these other things. Let's spin them off again and let somebody else who's really good at it build it separately." It'll just be interesting to see how this iterates through over the next 12 to 24 months. Now, the price on that, that was being reported, was $80 million - that acquisition price. Blake Oliver: [00:10:43] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:10:43] Remember last week, when we talked about OnDeck, and they got acquired for $90 million? Blake Oliver: [00:10:50] Yeah, one of those online loan companies.  David Leary: [00:10:52] Online loan company ... Kabbage, which is a competitor to OnDeck, they are they might be seeking a sale. They think they want up to a billion dollars. We talked about Kabbage had a little rough time with the downturn. They laid off like 600 employees. What Kabbage did  ... Kabbage exploded. They really did a good job partnering with the community banks, and they helped 270,000 applicants get $6.5 billion in PPP loans. So, they got a piece of that action. Blake Oliver: [00:11:19] Right.  David Leary: [00:11:19] But, the bump, they're saying, could just be a one-time thing because it may not be sustainable, because Kabbage apparently hasn't resumed handling non-PPP loans. Blake Oliver: [00:11:29] Interesting. David Leary: [00:11:29] Their core function- I know they spun up that little small business bank thing they're trying to get off the ground, but their core function of giving just normal small business loans, they're not in that business right now. It kind of feels like if OnDeck was only sold for $90 million, is Kabbage really gonna get a billion? Either OnDeck was completely undervalued and sold for nothing ... I think you said even like two years before, OnDeck's value was $2 billion, I think you said last week? Blake Oliver: [00:11:59] All these valuations, it's just investors put in a slice of money and then that creates the valuation for the company. It's imaginary ...  David Leary: [00:12:10] It only matters if it's the last one [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:12:10] Right, exactly. It only matters if you go public or you get acquired. So, yeah ...  David Leary: [00:12:15] It'll be interesting to see where this goes ... We kind of talked about this; some of these loan ... The balance sheets were looking weird or bad for these guys. You're starting to see either consolidation now, or you're gonna start seeing them sell. I'm wondering where Kabbage can land. Blake Oliver: [00:12:30] Yeah, I mean, Kabbage ... I don't have the numbers in front of me, but they made a lot of PPP loans. Now, they have, basically, a ton of new customers that they could sell to. I think that's the value is whoever acquires them now has this group of people who are depending on Kabbage for this loan forgiveness application, and maybe they're gonna be paying back the loan over time, or a portion of the loan over time. That's a big opportunity, and Kabbage showed that it could pivot. David Leary: [00:12:54] Yeah, I guess you're right. If half of all small businesses go under because of COVID, of those 270,000, that's still what, 140,000, 135,000 small businesses that they now have a relationship with. Can they move them to their bank offering, or whatever it might be?  Blake Oliver: [00:13:09] The ones that got these PPP loans are much more likely to stay afloat than the ones that didn't, so it's a good group of customers, probably. Speaking of crazy valuations, Rippling raised $145 million in their Series B at a $1.35 billion valuation. David, I'm gonna do it again to you. Do you mind explaining what Rippling does? David Leary: [00:13:33] Rippling is - in the short, easiest answer - a payroll app, but not really just payroll. Rippling, the theory is ripples. So, when you hire an employee, that's the thing, when you put them into your payroll system, that should trigger everything else. So, if I'm gonna hire ... I'm a slightly bigger company. That's who this is gonna be for. It's not a small business. I'm a slightly bigger company, Blake, and I'm gonna hire you. As soon as I put you into the payroll system, it's automatically gonna issue your new laptop; it's automatically gonna set you up on Google Apps, and the other 500 things I might be doing in my company, and it's gonna onboard you to all the other processes that's necessary to onboard an employee. That's the genesis of it. Now, what's interesting about Rippling is the founder is the former founder of Zenefits. Blake Oliver: [00:14:19] Yes. Parker Conrad, is it? David Leary: [00:14:22] Yes. This is his second unicorn because Zenefits quickly became a unicorn, and then had its drama. Blake Oliver: [00:14:31] Rippling is following a similar trajectory. $145 million for a Series B is just enormous. I found an article with some stats from a podcast interview in April. Nathan Latka's podcast is very popular among startup founders. And when you go on that show, you have to reveal some information about your company. You can't just talk in generalities. You have to actually- David Leary: [00:14:54] People pitch, right? They're always pitching their ...  Blake Oliver: [00:14:56] Yeah. So, Rippling, in April, said it had 2,000 customers paying an average of $700 per month. I did the simple math and that comes out to $1.4 million in monthly recurring revenue, which is $16.8 million in annual recurring revenue. So, at a valuation of $1.35 billion, that is 80 times their annual earnings, right now. That is a pretty substantial multiple to raise money at, but clearly, the investors believe in Parker Conrad, and his CTO, who also was at Zenefits. They said that they are quickly on their way to doubling that $16.8 million and ARR, heading to like $35 million, which is impressive. If they can actually do that in this downturn, that's a really good sign. David Leary: [00:15:47] My observation is he's running this differently than Zenefits. Zenefits came on. They were the fastest growing SaaS company since Salesforce. They were making this claim everywhere. They were very salespeople heavy, so their culture was sales, sales, sales. They had people lying to pass the insurance exams. It just spun out of control ... Zenefits is still around, but in a way, they were there too heavily weighted with salespeople, and marketing, and not actual engineers. It feels like, if I look at Rippling, what they've built, the amount of function- there's a lot of functionality and it's almost like they learned their lesson, and now they're investing ... The ratio of engineers and product that's being created versus sales feels like it's completely different. There's more of a real meatier product here. Blake Oliver: [00:16:35] It's a really unique approach to payroll/HR in that they're designing a payroll/HR information system. I guess that's the technical term for it is HRIS - Human Resources Information System - where this is everything about your employees; not just how much they make for payroll purposes, but also everything else you need to do to onboard them and then execute those workflows through integrations with other applications.  [00:17:04] Like you said, when I hire Blake, on his first day, automatically provision him a Google Apps account; automatically put him in Okta; automatically add him to Bill.com, or Xero, or all of my other apps. This was a problem for me, as a cloud accounting practice owner. When I got a new bookkeeper on staff, I had to add them to like 12 different apps, and it took my entire morning.  David Leary: [00:17:27] I'm assuming the opposite is true, that like when you get rid of an employee, it unripples all of that back, in theory. Blake Oliver: [00:17:34] Yeah, I would hope so, because that's also a huge problem. I ran into this actually when I was working at a big firm. We had bookkeepers who still had access to Bill.com after they left, six months later. They could have theoretically logged in because it wasn't a single sign on kind of situation if they knew their password. Just total security holes. Yeah, it's really cool. They're a very unique business. You can see other companies have started to copy them. Gusto has added in some of this functionality now, where you can provision email accounts as soon as folks are hired. That, to me, indicates that they are onto something here. David Leary: [00:18:11] Yeah. They're merging together the IT department with the HR department. Blake Oliver: [00:18:14] Apologies to any IT folks listening, but we wanna get rid of you. Accounting firms do not want IT people.  David Leary: [00:18:23] There goes a whole section of audience [inaudible].  Blake Oliver: [00:18:28] Hey, let's continue on. I've got a few more things here. David Leary: [00:18:30] Yeah, I've got some teeny app news, as well; just a couple small one.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:32] Well, here's a big one, though, because we were talking about Intuit. Intuit is now under investigation by the Department of Justice for their takeover of Credit Karma. That's according to PYMNTS.com. Listeners may recall, as we talked about on the podcast - I think it was a few months ago - Intuit agreed to pay $7.1 billion to purchase Credit Karma, the free credit report app that does a whole lot more. You give it your information, it gives you your credit report, and then it also sells you a bunch of credit cards and all this stuff. It's actually really cool. I've used it to get my credit report for free.  [00:19:09] Apparently, concerns have been raised within the Department of Justice that this is anti-competitive because Credit Karma also started doing taxes for free. That was an existential threat to TurboTax, because why would you pay to do your taxes when you could do them completely for free? That's really all the news there is, is that the investigation is open. It will probably take a while. It could get unwound. They may stop it, and it probably depends on who's president. David Leary: [00:19:37] Yeah. It could also depend on how ... I mean, in the grand scheme of the whole tax space, Intuit doesn't have a monopoly power. There's tons of ... They're gonna be able to probably argue that there's tons of competitive options out there. Blake Oliver: [00:19:51] I'm curious about that. What is the market share of TurboTax? Because I know they are just absolutely gigantic. I found it. I love Google. TurboTax has 67 percent of the market; two-thirds of the market. David Leary: [00:20:03] I wonder if that's just for paid products or third-party products? Not versus all tax returns filed. Blake Oliver: [00:20:09] Credit Karma's market share is only three percent but growing fast. So, to me, this kind of looks a lot like Facebook's acquisition of Instagram many years ago, where Instagram was very small and Facebook bought it for, what, a billion dollars? The argument that Facebook has made - that Mark Zuckerberg has made - is, "Oh, it wasn't anti-competitive because they were so small. We didn't know that they would end up being so important to our business." Look, you'd be kind of stupid not to do this. If you were Intuit, and you have this threat coming, why wouldn't you extinguish it when you could? David Leary: [00:20:42] The market share thing ... You have to look at all tax returns, I think. It's the same thing with QuickBooks. Yes, QuickBooks Desktop dominated in the late '90s, 2000s. I think QuickBooks Desktop, at one time, was pushing 92 percent market share, but, at best, they only had 25 percent of small businesses. Everybody else was still doing pens and papers. Blake Oliver: [00:21:00] Right, right, right.  David Leary: [00:21:00] Do they have 60 percent of just like paid or free returns, or is it they're only doing 45-50 million of all the tax returns that are filed? There's plenty of options and competition out there. I don't know ... They have to look into it. They should be looking at all these major acquisitions like this, ultimately, for the consumer. I have something interesting on Jobber. Jobber, they are ... Think like lawn-mower guys, snow-plow drivers, those type services - really small field-service type jobs; maybe a pool guy. Blake Oliver: [00:21:35] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:21:35] Jobber is software for that, but they have gotten a deal with Stripe, and they're gonna offer real-time access to funds. Your pool guy comes over, and now he's got to go to Home Depot and buy chlorine to do your pool, or whatever he needs to do - those pool supplies. He'll charge you through Jobber, and they're using Stripe, and it's gonna be in his bank account in seconds, even on non-business days. Blake Oliver: [00:21:59] So, all this real-time deposits thing is getting bigger and bigger because we were just talking about this last episode. David Leary: [00:22:04] Yeah, which is huge, if you think about it from the use case for a contractor- Blake Oliver: [00:22:08] Oh yeah. David Leary: [00:22:09] -who's just doing these small jobs by jobs ... They can't float customers. You can't float a customer, especially if it's a one-time job, and they may not pay you later on, and you just bought the supplies for their job. I think it's a big announcement, from the spirit of it, of what this means for contractors. Blake Oliver: [00:22:25] So, as I think you can infer just from our discussion here, the cloud is doing really, really well in the pandemic. The fact that Rippling was able to raise all this money in the middle of the pandemic, that TradeGecko is getting acquired, cloud is doing great. We got some numbers in a big-picture sense, from the Wall Street Journal. Cloud spending worldwide is up to $34.6 billion ... $34.6 billion on cloud technology worldwide among all types of businesses. That is 11 percent higher than last quarter, and 30 percent higher than the previous year. [00:23:03] This is one of those areas that is doing really well. It's obvious, of course ... We're all working from home. We can't go to the office. We can't sit around and maintain servers. It just has to happen. Now, one company, though, that didn't do so great is Rackspace. Are you familiar with Rackspace? They kind of have declined in recent years, but former competitor to Amazon for webhosting, I think Xero used to be on Rackspace, and then they migrated over to Amazon Web Services. Ring a bell? David Leary: [00:23:31] Yeah, because I want to ... Basically, I'm renting a machine from them, if you wanna call it that, but I'm responsible for putting the software on that machine, spinning it up, maintaining it. Blake Oliver: [00:23:42] I can run a virtual server, or I can actually have a full server. They had an IPO. This is actually their second IPO. I guess they had an IPO, years ago. They went private. Now, they're back going public. They had priced their shares at like $20 or something, and they fell 20 percent, right away. They started at $21 on Tuesday, and they fell down to $16.85 on Wednesday. What's crazy is how much debt they have. They were taken private by Apollo Global Management in 2016 - a deal valued at $4.3 billion - and they currently now have $3.9 billion in debt.  [00:24:23] This is like one of those classic private equity deals, where the private equity firm borrows billions of dollars, buys a public company, takes them private, and then, supposedly fixes them up, and then sells them back onto the public market, but with all this debt. Rackspace's revenue is ... What is it? It is expected to be between $655 million and $657 million in the second quarter. They have a lot of debt for their revenue, even if they're making like, let's say, $650 million per quarter ... That's, what, like $2.6 billion? Their debt is greater than their total annual revenue. David Leary: [00:25:07] It sounds a lot like the Hertz thing. We haven't talked about it on the podcast, but if you've been following the Hertz, they kind of ran this game - somebody buys them, they take on more debt ... It goes back to what you were talking about modern monetary theory. The money is so cheap that it's just easy for big companies like Hertz just to keep taking more of it, and they just keep taking so much debt. Blake Oliver: [00:25:26] And for private equity firms to do this kind of stuff, right? Because it's very easy for them to raise the billions of dollars to do these private equity deals. So, kind of meta, because this is about a hosting company, but I think relevant to the whole cloud-computing discussion. ____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Marketplace. How can you be a more trusted advisor for your clients as they face new challenges? By recommending solutions from ADP Marketplace, ADP's digital HR storefront. With ADP Marketplace, clients can try, buy, and implement highly rated HR apps that can share data with ADP. With secured data integrations, it's easy to streamline HR processes and adapt to new business needs. Help your clients discover new ways to recruit and onboard employees, boost performance, offer unique financial-wellness benefits, and much more.  With integrations for popular business software, like Expensify, PayActiv, Slack, and ClockShark, clients can add value to the tools they already use by simply and securely connecting them to ADP. Have clients in field service, or construction? ClockShark can help them track time to quickly and accurately run payroll, all integrated with ADP. Visit ADP Marketplace at apps.ADP.com, or right from your Accountant Connect dashboard. Not set up with Accountant Connect? Sign up today. It's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. ADP has your back with ADP Marketplace.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:26:58] One last story here before we wrap things up- David Leary: [00:27:01] And I have one, too, so we have two last stories.  Blake Oliver: [00:27:03] Two last stories, here. Square had amazing results. They posted $1.92 billion in revenue, which is a 64-percent increase in total revenue, year over year, in its Q2 earnings. Now, one piece that's really interesting about that, a ton of that revenue - 45 percent of their total revenue - was from bitcoin transactions. So, the Square Cash app- David, you've talked about this on the show. David Leary: [00:27:29] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:27:29] You can transact in bitcoin on the Cash app. You can use your Cash app balance to purchase bitcoin; you can transfer it to people; you can convert it back into cash. Every time you do that, Square earns around 1.75 percent. So, the more bitcoin that is going on, the easier they make it, the more they make, just like with credit card transactions. It has really, really, really paid off. It was only five percent of their total revenue in Q1 of 2018; now it's 45 percent. David Leary: [00:27:58] I think I heard that. In their conference call with investors, they actually have talked about how they're going to start really pushing their Cash card, or their Square Cash accounts, towards small business owners now. Right now, it's been really kind of consumer-facing a little bit [crosstalk] Now, they're really gonna start pushing it at the small business year, which obviously, they already have. Following Intuit's announcement last week, it really makes sense that they're ... You're gonna take advantage of that press cycle, right? If QuickBooks is creating a product, call it QuickBooks Cash, and Intuit'll spend millions getting it out there to everybody's vernacular, then Square should just ride that wave. Blake Oliver: [00:28:35] Oh, I hope so. I hope so. We have finally gotten to the point where every service provider in our household - gardener, pool guy, housekeeper - everybody is charging us with an app. Now, it's not all the same app, but it's all an app. I never have to write a check anymore. I'm just- I'm so happy. I hope that the whole world goes this direction. David Leary: [00:28:55] Yeah. I'm still writing two checks a month for [crosstalk] So, obviously, we talked about ScaleFactor a couple weeks ago - this whole concept, these accounting firms with engineers. Blake Oliver: [00:29:05] Yes. David Leary: [00:29:05] There's another app called Proper, and it's property management for apartment complexes, things like that. Property managers/property owners can use this. It's an AI-powered accounting and bookkeeping service.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:19] Is this Proper.ai? Am I looking at the right site here? This says, "We manage the books. You manage the property." David Leary: [00:29:23] Yes. The headline is: "Proper raises $4.8 million to become the Uber of property accounting." It's got all the keywords for a raise, right? The word Uber in there; you've got "AI-powered."  Blake Oliver: [00:29:34] Oh, yeah, the headline on the website: "Our financial experts use machine learning technology to provide accurate, reliable, flexibly priced accounting and bookkeeping services."  David Leary: [00:29:45] It's interesting, because they're not trying to eliminate ... They're trying, from a cost perspective. They say they're using artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to offer scalable accounting, and bookkeeping services more efficiently and cost effectively than traditional in-house.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:57] Right.  David Leary: [00:29:57] Which is probably true. If you have two or three huge apartment complexes, and you're trying to do all the bookkeeping in-house, it does make sense. Really, the more I think about this whole march to automate all of accounting, I think it's very hard unless you're kind of niche. Blake Oliver: [00:30:13] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:30:13] Because they're only handling apartment complexes. There's gonna be a set of limited use cases, and there's probably a set of limited tools, like everybody uses the same thing to log their rents, or, I don't know, to run their promotions and some ads.  Blake Oliver: [00:30:27] Well, just as simple as the chart of accounts ... You can actually have a standardized chart of accounts that is the same for every single user, and it will work, and it will make sense. Whereas, with a generalized bookkeeping service, you try to do that and, inevitably, the reports are kind of meaningless because they're not customized to the business. David Leary: [00:30:45] They were founded in 2017. The other part that caught my eye in this article was Proper has 40 customers. Blake Oliver: [00:30:55] How much money did they raise with 40 customers?  David Leary: [00:30:56] $4.8 million. Now, obviously, these customers are probably bigger, and high end, because some of them range from either 250 units to 10,000 units across the U.S., and really, their target demographic is property managers with 200 to 10,000 units. That's a lot of money to raise. Basically, it's an accounting firm with 40 clients. Now, high-end clients, but ... Blake Oliver: [00:31:25] Well, so it kind of makes sense because they're bigger clients. They're probably paying like tens of thousands of dollars a month for this sort of bookkeeping-  David Leary: [00:31:33] You're on their website, right now, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:31:34] Yeah, I'm trying to- I'm looking around. David Leary: [00:31:37] There's no pricing. Yes, it's probably $10,000 a month [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:31:41] They don't have pricing on their website, which means that it's ... Yeah, it's gonna be in that five-figures realm, most likely. So, I can see this actually happening. 4.8 is not crazy to raise for that kind of product market fit. This is a good sign that this is doable. Maybe this will be the success in accounting firms with engineers. David Leary: [00:32:06] There's a quote from a Proper customer, Rusty Heyman. He has a great quote. The reason I love this quote is because I feel like ... Sometimes, I've always felt like small businesses understand automation and understand logical things, like, if I type my name and address here, why doesn't it just show up in all the other apps automatically? They get it, at some level - their expectation of APIs, just things working and data moving places automatically. Blake Oliver: [00:32:31] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:32:31] So, he has a great quote here. He says, "Property management is a low-margin, high-volume business. All these companies who are not using some sort of AI for routine tasks will be left behind." Blake Oliver: [00:32:41] There's this big disconnect between what thought leaders are putting out there about AI, and natural language processing, and voice assistance, and chatbots, and whatnot, and what business owners actually need. There's this huge gap that we still have to fill, when it comes to actually just giving them the information they need and then also integrating all their apps together. I think that's the biggest problem is the lack of integrations. This is probably why Rippling is doing so well, is we all want everything just to happen. We don't wanna key in data multiple places. This is not something that requires artificial intelligence to do; it just requires workflow and integration. David Leary: [00:33:17] I agree. We've hit ... Two of the biggest tools we use to get the podcast out the door, we use Zencastr, and we use Transistor.FM. Both of them, I've been hitting up for a year - "When are you gonna have integrations to Zapier?" It doesn't seem like much, but it would be nice if I could just trigger the podcast to be set up, so we just walk in and record, and then trigger links and things back over to Transistor, but it's not there. The expectation- I want them to all work together. A lot of times, it's me, copying and pasting, over and over and over again. Blake Oliver: [00:33:49] So, I lied. David, I have one more tech story. David Leary: [00:33:52] Another app story? Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:53] This is actually a fun story. It's not like a cloud accounting app story, but it is about Microsoft Excel. This was in The Verge. The headline is: "Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates." There are many human genes in the human genome, and 27 of them had names that looked, to Excel, like dates. A good example is MAR1. David Leary: [00:34:21] Ok, I gotcha. Now, I'm following. Got it.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:23] There's a gene called MAR1, or it used to be called that. If you type that into Excel, Excel automatically converts that into the date, March 1. This apparently has been causing problems for years, where researchers would be typing in this information. Excel would automatically convert that column to a date-type field, and there's no way to turn this off. It doesn't exist in Excel. David Leary: [00:34:47] You'd be screaming, right? You'd be cussing and screaming [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:34:49] Right, because it screws up all of your data. Even if you do it correctly, and then, let's say you export your data set into a CSV file, and somebody reimports it into Excel, Excel will automatically format all those cells as dates. So, it's been causing lots of issues.  David Leary: [00:35:05] Even if you format the whole column to just plain text, and then, not [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:35:08] A CSV file is just plain text [crosstalk] formatting information ... Because CSV is the ultimate open database because it's just text. Out of 3,579  published papers, roughly one-fifth had been affected by Excel errors and caused by this sort of problem. Rather than try to get Microsoft to fix it, I guess ... I didn't dig into this to find out if they even tried. They simply decided to rename the genome. 27 human genes have been renamed so that they don't conflict with Microsoft Excel. To me, this just shows you the power of Excel in our world that the DNA that makes up you and me, David, has been renamed by Microsoft Excel, in essence.  David Leary: [00:35:56] A lot of times, you'll see this in software. For decades, some software will have some dumb warning that comes up, and people will just retrain their bodies, and retrain themselves to work around this bad UI design. This is the ultimate ... They're just hat are completely working around an Excel problem by completely renaming their data, which is insane. It's the ultimate workaround. Did Microsoft pay to have these genomes renamed? This a marketing opportunity, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:36:29] I know, right?  David Leary: [00:36:29] It could have been the Microsoft genome. They could've sold this to all the tech companies. Blake Oliver: [00:36:33] Yeah, exactly. It should be an add-on, right? An add-on that you have to purchase for thousands of dollars that prevents this from happening.  David Leary: [00:36:39] Well, no, not that. I mean, if you're trying to fund your project, and you're gonna rename one of the genomes, sell the naming rights. Blake Oliver: [00:36:47] All right, so what do you wanna talk about next? David Leary: [00:36:50] You know what we could talk about quickly is conferences. Visit that quickly. Blake Oliver: [00:36:53] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:36:53] So, Scaling New Heights has been moved. Scaling New Heights originally was in June; then it was moved to September 20-23; now, it's been moved to November 8-11, and that's gonna take place in Orlando, Florida. Blake Oliver: [00:37:07] You wanna make a bet? I bet you $100 it gets canceled. It does not happen in person. David Leary: [00:37:14] Things are not ... Now that my kids are starting school tomorrow, there is no sign that they're actually gonna go back in person. It's not that I'm becoming hopeless, it's just- it feels like there's no light at the end of the tunnel yet in this, at all. Blake Oliver: [00:37:28] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:37:28] You're right, how can you have an in-person event if there's not any light at the end of the tunnel on this? Blake Oliver: [00:37:35] Until there's a vaccine, I don't think these events resume, and that's gonna take until early 2021. Then, it's gonna take months, and months, and months for even tens of millions of doses to get out to people. I'm concerned about next year's conference season. I don't know if- maybe in the fall, we'll get it, but it all depends on how opening up the schools goes. Does that create a huge surge in infections? We're really only ... I think, what, like 10 to 20 percent of the US population has been infected at this point? We've got to get to 60 percent before we have herd immunity; that's the worst-case scenario, 60 percent. That could take years. [00:38:18] But the good news is there are like hundreds of vaccines in development. With that many shots on goal - I think Fauci uses that analogy - it's very likely that one or actually dozens could work. So, I'm optimistic for next year, it starting to become less of a problem. Then, by 2022, we're back to normal. I mean, that would be ... Is that too long? I hope that's not depressing.  David Leary: [00:38:42] It is, a little bit. I really miss everybody. Blake Oliver: [00:38:44] Sorry, David.  David Leary: [00:38:44] On the other hand, Xero, who canceled all their Xerocons that they had planned for 2020, across the world, they've started something new. It's gonna happen this September 14-17. It's called a Xero On Air. Right now, it looks like it's just a couple Xero leaders that are gonna do some sort of speech or keynote/webinar type thing. It doesn't feel like it's very conference-like, so it'll be interesting to see how that rolls through. Speaking of conferences, weren't you gonna do some sort of virtual conference? How'd that go? Blake Oliver: [00:39:16] Yeah, well, that's starting today. It's Sunday, August 9, as we record, and the Boomer Virtual Summit, Boomer Consulting Virtual Summit, is starting this evening with a happy hour on their virtual platform. I'm going to have a drink at my desk, and I'm going to be on the 3-D virtual platform, which looks a lot like Second Life. We'll see what happens. I'll be hanging out at the booth. Hopefully, this episode will get out in time for any folks to hear it who are gonna be at the conference. If you are, come stop by the Jirav booth and let's chat. It'll be fun. David Leary: [00:39:50] Can you get me a guest ticket or a guest pass? I'd like to just click in and experience the virtual world there.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:56] You know what? I'll see what I can do, yeah.  David Leary: [00:39:59] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:59] It'll be cool- David Leary: [00:39:59] Can I make my own avatar?  Blake Oliver: [00:39:59] Could we have a booth and record The Cloud Accounting Podcast like we used to do at the conference? David Leary: [00:40:05] At the conferences ... Can I walk around with a Cloud Accounting Podcast T-shirt? Is this possible? Blake Oliver: [00:40:10] You cannot customize your avatar to that extent, unfortunately; at least I'm not aware of how to do it [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:40:17] Oh, side note, speaking of the Cloud Accounting Podcast T-shirt, my daughter got her yearbook, finally; because of COVID, it took months to get these things distributed out. One of the photos in there, she's wearing a Cloud Accounting Podcast T-shirt in her yearbook. It's awesome.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:28] That's amazing. You've gotta take a picture of that and post it on the Instagram account.  David Leary: [00:40:30] All right, I will.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:33] All right, so let's talk about hourly pricing, hourly billing, I should say. This story has been sitting with me for weeks. This was a byline by Ed Mendlowitz, who is someone that I actually really admire. He's like a traditional old school ... I hope he wouldn't mind if I said that, but I think he would actually agree with me ... Old-school accounting firm partner. He writes prolifically in Accounting Today, and CPA Trendlines about everything he knows and has learned over his career.  David Leary: [00:41:04] He runs that meetup in New York City that- it's like a mixer, but it doesn't look like a mixer. It looks like this old secret- Blake Oliver: [00:41:12] Society?  David Leary: [00:41:12] -you better know the right handshake to get in there type of a thing. Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:15] See, that sounds kind of awesome, actually. I would love to eventually get to meet him; I've been following him for a long time. He wrote an article on CPA Trendlines called: "When Time-Based Pricing Works." So, as you can imagine, this is controversial among folks who believe in value billing-  David Leary: [00:41:32] They're subscription now, yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:33] There's a huge group of accountants, and even bookkeepers who really, really believe in time-based pricing, and the vast majority of large firms still do time-based billing. So, let's talk about this. This is a story that Ed tells- an example of his early career, when he felt that there was no way that he could have done time-based billing and made it work. This is an example of when time-based pricing works, and you couldn't do a fixed fee, I suppose. [00:42:05] It goes way back to 1980. Ed got a large client. The client actually was on a fixed annual fee to start to cover routine work, but then, after three months, he was asked to suggest some methods of compensating highly paid managers and present them at a meeting in two weeks. So, he has to do this special project. When he showed up for that meeting to present his initial recommendations, there were four other people who'd be given the same assignment. He didn't know it, but he was in competition. He ended up winning, and he was asked to go to the meeting of highly paid managers for this company. [00:42:39] He ended up spending many days at this conference, this company meeting; made his recommendations; it was a huge success. He apparently got a standing ovation after his presentation at this California resort with the management group with about 50 people. He said, "Considering everything I did - the time requirements, my needing to drop everything to attend this project, the trip, the drawing on every morsel of experience I had - I do not know how I could have set fixed fees in advance for each facet of the project.  [00:43:05] In retrospect, if I had quoted a fee for the initial proposal knowing the client, he probably would have told me to skip it because he already had other people working on it. Once I started, there were defined projects at each step of the way, but they were all part of the overall goal of presenting it to the management group in California." He finishes by saying, "To this day, I don't know how I would have been able to set fees in advance for each of the many things I did. At the end of the day, the client felt the value was there and I was fairly compensated." This ended up being one of his biggest clients over many, many years. I wanted to get your impression of this, David. Is this an example of when time-based pricing worked? David Leary: [00:43:41] What I don't like about this example is it's on the premise that he got the job; because if one of the other people that were competing for this work possibly provided a quote to the customer that was value-based, they might have got the job. He's saying how right he was, using hourly, because everybody he was competing with was using hourly. If somebody would have, out of the gate ... Even if his idea was slightly better- maybe it wasn't better. Maybe they were all equal. I don't know. We don't have insight to this. Maybe he underquoted. Maybe his hourly rate was cheaper, and that's how he really got picked. I think it's an argument- he's trying to say how this job was saved by the hourly rate, and I just don't know if that's true. Blake Oliver: [00:44:26] Well, apparently, they didn't even talk. He didn't even talk with the client about what it would cost at the beginning. He presented his bill after the fact, and the client accepted it- David Leary: [00:44:39] Which tells me they got a lot of value out of it, and they didn't put up a fuss. He undercharged it. He left value on the table. Blake Oliver: [00:44:26] That's my feeling, too. Just because you can't think of a way to do a value-based bill for this doesn't mean that there isn't a way. Yeah, he probably left money on the table if the client didn't complain about the bill. That's for one thing. So, I was trying to think, how could I, if I were in Ed's shoes, have done this. Look at the project. The project was to come up with a plan for how to compensate highly paid employees - a compensation plan for this company. There were like 50 people there; so probably several dozen highly compensated employees. What is the goal of one of those plans? It's to incentivize them to generate revenue for the company, to generate profits for the company- David Leary: [00:45:29] And to keep the employees there, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:45:32] To keep the employees happy. Maybe, one way, if you don't know how to price something, is to have a conversation with the client and say, "Hey, what is this worth to you? What would be the impact of a plan that works spectacularly well to motivate your employees?" and actually talk through that with them. "What are you looking to do? What are your goals out of this project?" I don't know if that happened, but it doesn't sound like it did. Once you know the goals of the client, then you can start to attach value to the outcomes. [00:46:04] If the client's goal is to increase revenue by, I don't know, $10 million a year, then I, as the consultant, could say, "Well, let's say that I design a compensation plan that helps you do that. What is that worth to you? Would you pay me $100,000 to increase your revenue by $10 million?" The way that I would structure that is to say, "I'm not just gonna create the plan; I am then going to, throughout the year, make sure that the plan is working and help you adjust the plan if it isn't." Now, it's a long-term consulting arrangement around making sure that this compensation plan is acceptable to the employees and is successful in helping grow profits or revenue, and you make that a proportion of the outcome. David Leary: [00:46:47] I think it's an easy sell because it gives you a stake in the game because, now, you actually care. Your money is gonna depend on how successful this program is or not. If you're just getting paid hourly, it doesn't matter if it's successful, you're still gonna send them a bill, and they're still gonna pay you. Blake Oliver: [00:47:02] Let's say that Ed spent a week on this because it sounds like he went there for a few days, probably took days to put this together. I don't know what his billing rate was at the time, but let's say it was really high, in today's dollars. What would be a high rate for an accounting firm partner? Like $500, maybe even $1,000 per hour? Let's say it was $500. That would be- $500 times 40 is $20,000. If you bill hourly for a week of your time, that's the most you can make. [00:47:33] We just said it could have been $100,000. It could have been much more than that, depending on the success of the company. That's the money that's being left on the table there. That's just one idea. I'm curious what our listeners think, how they might have structured it. While I was thinking about this story, I also saw a story about McKinsey in ProPublica. McKinsey is the giant consulting firm that famously does not bill by the hour. They instead bill by the week, apparently; that's what I learned in this ProPublica article.  David Leary: [00:48:03] Yeah, basically they're like the Big Four, but they don't do audit, and that's why they're not an accounting firm. From the consulting side, they're the same as all the Big Four. Blake Oliver: [00:48:12] You wanna know how much it costs to hire a single junior consultant at McKinsey? These are either recent college or business school graduates, and they don't charge for them by the hour. They charge for them by the week. A single junior consultant will cost you $67,500 per week, or $3.5 million, annually. David Leary: [00:48:31] See? Hourly billing does work!  Blake Oliver: [00:48:34] Well, they're not billing hourly [crosstalk] they're billing by the week, and I assume that they're also able to charge that much because they're promising outcomes. If you want two of them, by the way, it's $160,000 per week. So, if you don't think you're leaving money on the table, billing strict hourly and not having this value conversation with clients, McKinsey would tell you otherwise. Well, they won't tell you otherwise because they don't want you to know because they wanna capture all this value.  David Leary: [00:49:00] Wasn't the premise of that article, though, is that they are very good at getting the government to give them these contracts and then encourage the government to not actually do work themselves. Basically, they have projects that tell the government, "Your best option on this is to go find somebody else to work on it. By the way, we do that." Blake Oliver: [00:49:18] Yeah. In other words, like McKinsey has profited greatly off of shrinking government because government then outsources a bunch of stuff to them and they charge exorbitant fees. Yeah, so, maybe not the best ethical example of value-based billing, but value-based billing is not right or wrong. It just has an outcome. If you wanna make a lot of money, you should probably be doing it. [00:49:42] That's my hourly billing story. I wanna hear from listeners. Tell us what you think about this. I love having this conversation. If you disagree, if you think hourly billing would have been better in this situation, let me know. If you have a different way of doing it, let me know. All right, moving on ... David. I don't wanna monopolize things, but I do wanna talk about work from home before we go. David Leary: [00:50:03] Oh, that's a perfect transition. That's a perfect transition. Blake Oliver: [00:50:05] Okay.  David Leary: [00:50:05] My story, in a way, has to do with work from home. Blake Oliver: [00:50:08] Let's talk about your story. David Leary: [00:50:09] So, this is actually a podcast I listen to. It's the Rootworks Podcast, with Darren Root, and his co-host, John Mitchell, who I think is somebody who works at his firm. Rootworks got acquired by Right Networks recently, but they do a weekly podcast- not even weekly; it's a whenever they feel like it, maybe, podcast. It's kind of them decompressing- Blake Oliver: [00:50:28] Oh, that sounds really nice.  David Leary: [00:50:28] -and talking about leadership, and transitions in their firm, and these types of things. This episode that we'll put in the show links, they really had some major views of the world changing because they basically are firm owners. They're now entering their mid-, to late-50s ... Prioritizing of work and just how eye-opening it is for them working from home. They're going through this journey just like everybody else is, and what they've discovered is, many times- and I get this, too - you'd stay in the office, and you'd be working from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; you'd go home and then you really have to cram and get the stuff you wanted to get done from 7:00 to 10:00.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:05] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:51:05] They're adjusting their day, to where maybe, in the middle of the afternoon, they weren't gonna get work done anyways because their creative juices aren't gonna work, and they go for a bike ride, or they go fishing, or whatever it is, and then, they just do their 7:00 to 10:00, and they're just as effective as they've ever been. It's really their observations. It was kind of ... I don't know if firm leader is the right word. He has an accounting firm, but he really has a suite of accounting firms they coach. They're part of a [inaudible] club. Blake Oliver: [00:51:33] It's a similar kind of like structure. It's a consulting firm, and they have clients.  David Leary: [00:51:37] It's very eye-opening, their observations, and just to hear him be open and honest about this change of his opinions on working from home and how it's affected him personally and emotionally. I just thought it was a really good listen, so we'll put that in there.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:52] Yeah. So, on that topic, the National Bureau of Economic Research came out with a study quantifying how long is the workday, now that we're working from home, and how many meetings are we having, and how long are those meetings? David Leary: [00:52:07] Can I guess on the numbers, here, along the way? [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:52:07] Yeah, yeah. By the way, this is from- this is pretty accurate, I think, because it's some application provider, unnamed, that has access to calendars. We're actually looking at the real data of tens of thousands of workers on their calendars, like what is changing now, from in-person to remote. So, the average workday has lengthened. You wanna guess by how much? David Leary: [00:52:34] Previously, your workday was - traditional saying - 9:00 to 5:00. You have eight hours, right? That was previously.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:38] Yeah, 8:00 to 5:00, whatever it is.  David Leary: [00:52:38] I think you're pushing, right now, a 10.5- to 11-hour workday.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:38] Not as bad as you would think. The average workday has lengthened by 48.5 minutes, on average. David Leary: [00:52:49] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:49] That's not that bad, considering that a lot of people's commutes were that long or longer, in the past, especially in large metro areas. I think what's happening there is that people are starting work when they normally used to get on the train, or they'd get in the car, something like that. The number of meetings has increased. Wanna hazard a guess, percentage wise? David Leary: [00:53:08] So, we're at eight hours and 45 minutes a day, you're probably in a meeting for six of those hours. So, percentage wise, I guess, meetings went up 45 percent, 50 percent?  Blake Oliver: [00:53:17] Only 13 percent. The number of meetings has increased 13 percent. Here's the crazy part - the time per meeting has fallen by 11.5 percent. So, all in all, that's kind of like a wash, right? If you have more meetings, but the time per meeting has fallen, it probably doesn't make that much of a difference. Really, all this stuff about how we're all miserable working from home I don't think is true. I think we're working more, but it's because we don't have these commutes, so it's better use of our time. We're probably also saving time, like getting ready in the morning. Like you said, David, you haven't taken a shower in a week, but you do have a pool, so you are at least rinsing, right?  David Leary: [00:53:55] Chlorine clean is what we like to call it.  Blake Oliver: [00:53:56] Chlorine clean. I did that yesterday ... We're saving time in the end, and I find it much easier to focus working from home. So, that's the stat there. I'd be curious to know what our listeners think here. Actually, I think probably most of our listeners do already work from home, given that they are cloud accounting folks. Why not, if you're in the cloud?  [00:54:15] Another story here about working from home that could be more negative, though, has to do with state tax nexus. This was on Accounting Today, and the headline is: "The work-from-home tax crisis we have to see coming." So, this is gonna hit us real hard next year, or maybe even later this year. It's that when people go from an office to working from home, if they are working from a different state, that creates nexus now for that company. [00:54:45] In places like New York, where you've got a bunch of small states all right around there, if people are now working from home, that creates potential nexus in New Jersey, and Connecticut, and all these places that you may never have had if you are a New York employer. By the way, New York is not very friendly to employees, so they still owe taxes in New York, even if they're working from Connecticut. Well, it depends on a state-by-state basis and what rules that they have with reciprocity and all that stuff, actually, so that could be wrong. If you're a California employer, and your employee, like me, moves from California to Arizona, now you potentially have Arizona nexus. David Leary: [00:55:21] What if they don't really move? Because I know there's just a lot ... In a way, New York's a little younger ... Younger professionals; San Francisco is younger professionals. A lot of people have either moved back home temporarily during the pandemic. Now, if you're just temporarily living back at your parents' house for a while, but you're still getting paid by your California company, does that mess around with the nexus? Blake Oliver: [00:55:40] Some of the states have enacted exemptions for temporary, but it's different for every state. This, to me, is a potential huge 'productizing a service opportunity' for accounting and consulting firms. A lot of your clients are gonna have these questions. It's gonna hit them at tax time. So, why not get ahead of it, and productize this, and say, "Look, we'll do a tax nexus study around your workforce (call it something like a workforce nexus study), and we will charge you a flat fee to do this."  [00:56:12] Maybe you tier it based on the number of employees, and you send this out to your clients, and get ahead of it. Say, "We'll put together this report that says ... We'll find out where all your employees are working, where you have potential nexus, and we'll do this report so you're ready at tax time. Here are the potential consequences. Here's how you can ameliorate the potential downsides," something like that.  David Leary: [00:56:33] Oh, and you're gonna have to- my advice to you ... This is practice, right? So, you are going to have to count how many days you were in California versus Arizona. But now, if you go to San Diego for a weekend with the wife to enjoy the weather, you have to count those three days, as well, as being in California. You have to keep track of all this. Blake Oliver: [00:56:51] I actually have to be really careful not to go back to California because I moved here in June. If I spend more than half the year in Arizona, then I don't think I ... I actually have to check this. I do not know if I will owe California state taxes, but I believe if I spend more than half the year in Arizona, I'm an Arizona resident, as far as California is concerned.  David Leary: [00:57:10] I have a rental property there, and we have to count any day, for any reason, I've been in California. It's not just any days you've worked in California; they wanna know any time you've been in California, and they count those as days [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:57:24] I guess I have an excuse for not going to see my in-laws. All right, well, with that, David, I think we're up at the end of the hour. So, before we go, let's read our second review. I'll let you take that one. David Leary: [00:57:38] Great info for accountants! "The Cloud Accounting Pod is my go-to source for all things cloud accounting. As a cloud accountant and firm owner, I feel like Blake and David really are in my corner making sure I have the info I need to do my job better. They tackle the tough issues of our industry and give us the best and most up to date information. Thanks, guys!" Baby Bruce, via Apple Podcasts.  Blake Oliver: [00:57:58] All right! Thank you, Baby Bruce! David, if people wanna get in touch with you, where can they do so? David Leary: [00:58:03] Easiest way is on Twitter or LinkedIn. I'm @DavidLeary, but on LinkedIn, make sure you say you listen to the show, so I know you're not a robot. Blake Oliver: [00:58:09] Same here. Connect with me on LinkedIn. On Twitter, I'm @BlakeTOliver. David, great to talk to you. Stay safe. Stay sane. See you here next week.____________________ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________ Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100.  

Sponsors ADP Marketplace: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark Smansha: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha Show Notes 04:55 – Boomer Consulting Virtual Summit on August 9-12 – Boomer Consulting.  05:14 – VirBELA – Virtual work platform 08:16 – Congressional Democrats, White House still at impasse over coronavirus bill – Reuters 08:53 – New York Times on U.S. Coronavirus Aid -  Twitter   09:49 – IRS offers new procedure for changing accounting method amid coronavirus – Accounting Today  10:30 – SBA watchdog report reveals ‘pervasive’ fraud in coronavirus disaster loan program – The Washington Post  11:56 – Florida Man Took Coronavirus Aid and Bought a Lamborghini, Officials Say – New York Times  13:39 – Tech Executive Charged With PPP Fraud Deposited in Robinhood – The Washington Post 14:48 – Letter to the editor: Accounting firms should repay PPP loans – The Virginia Gazette 17:02 – When Their PPP Loans Didn’t Come Through, These Businesses Broke Up With Their Banks – Wall Street Journal  19:47 – QuickBooks Cash         Intuit intros QuickBooks Cash, a bank account for businesses – Accounting Today          Small Business Bank Account & Debit Card - QuickBooks Cash – Intuit QuickBooks   24:30 – Latest Produce News – August 2020 - Xero         Duplicate Statements Line Report – Xero  25:08 – Enova to Acquire OnDeck in $90 Million Deal - Finovate   25:43 – Why OnDeck is being sold on the cheap – American Banker 26:18 – French Company to Buy Fintech YayPay – CFO 27:03 – New & Improved in FreshBooks: Checkout Links, Tax Time Hub, and More - FreshBooks        New: Get 1-Step Online Payments With Checkout Links – FreshBooks 27:36 – Gusto launches their 'People Advisory' designed to help accountants think differently about Payroll – Insightful Accountant         Become People Advisor Certified – Gusto          Gusto Adds New Accountant Advisory Service to its Offerings – AccountingWEB         Gusto introduces certification program for accountants – Accounting Today 29:32 – Vertex goes public on Nasdaq – Accounting Today 31:06 –  Shopify’s Revenue Nearly Doubles as Covid-19 Pushes Shopping Online – Wall Street Journal  32:28 – Taxfyle forms RMW Accounting, seeks to acquire CPA firms – South Florida Business Journal 33:34 – AI accounting startup Candis raises $14M in fresh funding - SiliconANGLE 37:17 – A disruptive vision: Varo is officially a bank – Bank Innovation 37:44 – Monzo's losses double as popular UK digital bank warns of pandemic uncertainty- CNBC  39:05 – Big bank offers up $500 cash to customers – News.Com.Au 39:34 – ZenBusiness Acquires Joust, the Leading Fintech for Small Business Entrepreneurs – Business Wire 42:54 – Review!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with ADP Marketplace, a digital HR storefront. Be a more trusted advisor to your clients by recommending apps to help streamline HR processes and free up time to focus on people. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Marketplace, later in the episode. Blake Oliver: [00:00:20] This is huge! David, what is QuickBooks Cash? Why is this such a big deal? David Leary: [00:00:24] QuickBooks Cash ... Essentially, you no longer have to get a separate bank account. You can just, in QuickBooks, sign up and get a bank account. Not only that, the bank account pays interest. Blake Oliver: [00:00:36] Yeah, it's pretty good, actually. One-percent interest, pretty high yield; I mean, relatively speaking.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. Back in October of 2013, I became ClockShark's first Twitter follower. Today, ClockShark has grown into a highly rated and very-much-loved time-tracking app that is now used by over 5,000 small businesses globally. With features like crew tracking, scheduling, overtime notifications, routes, geofencing locations, job costing, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking app to handle the unique challenges that face your mobile workforce clients.   Their technology has been helpful as their clients work through the COVID-19 pandemic. Your clients will need accurate records of their expenses, and losses, and technology like ClockShark helps. With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like paid time off, and other important data to provide the necessary proof for CARES, and FFCRA Acts' benefits. This lets them get straight back to work without too much disruption after the pandemic has passed. ClockShark's standard plan is just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-L-O-C-K-S-H-A-R-K. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Smansha. The line between a successful business and a bankrupt one is often how much cash they have in the bank and how long they are able to remain cashflow positive during challenging times. Keeping an eye on your clients' cashflow is now more important than ever. Smansha integrates with QuickBooks Online, and Xero to help put an end to cashflow problems. By using daily, weekly, and monthly forecasts, cashflow calendars, and powerful, customized 'what-if' scenarios, you can visualize your clients' finances in clear, and intuitive ways, so you can take action and reshape their cashflow by getting them funding with one simple application. Smansha identifies when extra cash is needed and can match your clients with multiple financing options via more than 50 screened lenders, and you can advise on the best offer suited to your clients' needs. Just for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast, Smansha is offering its fully functional unlimited-companies license for free until August 31, 2020. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash S-M-A-N-S-H-A. ____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:03:02] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast, I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:03:05] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:03:06] So, how's life in quarantine? David Leary: [00:03:08] It's good. I took my laptop apart yesterday and put it all back together. Blake Oliver: [00:03:12] Oh, wow. That is a real act of desperation there. But no, you actually had a broken keyboard. David Leary: [00:03:16] Yeah, the Z, X, C, and V keys wouldn't work, so it was very, very hard to- Blake Oliver: [00:03:20] How long-  David Leary: [00:03:20] That's cut/copy/paste. It was pushing 90 ... Well, it was slow. First, the Z key wouldn't work; then, it was the X key; then it was the contract, then the V. It was spreading like a disease across the keys. Blake Oliver: [00:03:32] How were you even working? David Leary: [00:03:33] I bought a USB keyboard, and I had that on top-  Blake Oliver: [00:03:36] Okay, got it.  David Leary: [00:03:36] -of the other keyboard. I was using that. I had this laptop with a keyboard on top of the keyboard. Blake Oliver: [00:03:40] Too bad you can't go to Starbucks because that would be real impressive, right?  David Leary: [00:03:43] So, I found a replacement on Amazon; ordered it in from China. It took like 12 weeks to ship. It finally shows up. I tear my whole laptop apart, and I get to the last part, and the keyboard is soldered- it's not soldered, but it's riveted in. Blake Oliver: [00:03:56] Oh, no.  David Leary: [00:03:56] I had to break all- I had to break like 75 plastic rivets to get it out fully, and then put the new one in, and then basically use a little Super Glue to fix all the rivets. It's working! I can type, I can cut/copy/paste. Everything's perfectly fine. It's a successful rebuild. It was one of those ... Sometimes, you'll see- I mean, the keyboard, you can replace from the front. Blake Oliver: [00:04:17] Yeah. David Leary: [00:04:18] I literally had to take every single part of the laptop out to get to the keyboard to put it back in. Blake Oliver: [00:04:23] You're making me nervous just listening to you. That's scary. I'm an Apple guy. I can't take that apart. I just take that to the Apple store. David Leary: [00:04:32] For a couple of seconds, I was like, "Shit, how are we gonna record the podcast tomorrow?" Because when it was a part, I was like, "I can't get the keyboard out. Now what?"  Blake Oliver: [00:04:38] Well, it's a good thing you're handy with that. David Leary: [00:04:42] It was a little risky. I didn't have a contingency plan. What if I would've broke my laptop yesterday?  Blake Oliver: [00:04:46] That would've been bad.  David Leary: [00:04:46] We couldn't record. Blake Oliver: [00:04:48] Well, I had my own adventure in technology. Jirav is participating in the Boomer Consulting Virtual Summit on August 9-12. That summit, as you can tell from the title, has gone virtual, like everything this year. David Leary: [00:05:04] Are they gonna rebrand that now? No, I know it's his name, but ...  Blake Oliver: [00:05:07] To what?  David Leary: [00:05:07] Because everybody- this word "boomer" has such a negative connotation now. I know he had the brand, way before, right? But it's almost like ...  Blake Oliver: [00:05:14] They have selected a platform for the virtual conference called VirBELA. It's a virtual world, David. Did you ever play Second Life back in the day? David Leary: [00:05:30] No, but I'm aware of that stuff.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:31] Or any online multiplayer video games, or your kids, maybe? Think of Fortnite, but instead of blasting people with laser rifles, you are in an office, walking around, talking to people. You have an avatar that you control. You can shake hands with people. You can look at a screen and control it on the wall. You can sit down in a chair. One of the neat features is this microphone proximity. You turn on your microphone. There's no webcam, which is kinda nice, actually, and when you walk up to somebody, if you're in a common area, you can just start talking to them. It's already working. If you walk too far away, you can't hear them anymore. David Leary: [00:06:14] Okay, so there's a little meeting room, and if you walk in it, it's quiet. As soon as somebody else walks in, you both can hear each other. Blake Oliver: [00:06:22] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:06:22] I get it. All right.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:23] Yeah. You can have a screen on the wall, like a conference-room screen, and then you can put up web pages on there. You can put up a presentation, and you can talk about it. It's like kind of being in an office. Some companies are using this as their virtual office. Folks are using this for conferences. That's what Boomer Consulting is doing. They're gonna have an expo hall, and they have all the rooms that you would expect. What's great is it can be the most beautiful expo hall you've ever seen - super-neat and modern. It's gonna be interesting. I have a virtual booth that I'm creating marketing materials for; uploading images and branding it with our logo and whatnot. We're gonna staff it for three days and see what happens. David Leary: [00:07:07] So, the conference has not happened yet, the virtual conference has not happened.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:10] No, it happens on August 9; starting on August 9. David Leary: [00:07:14] Okay, you'll have to keep us [inaudible] Blake Oliver: [00:07:14] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:07:14] Because, a lot of times, these virtual tools, the conference day comes, and I don't know how many people they have attending, but then,  we've heard story after story of these things crashing, not working.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:24] Yes.  David Leary: [00:07:24] So, that'll be ... That's the real test. Blake Oliver: [00:07:28] Hopefully, it'll work. This is quite a large platform, and I've already tested it out. You can actually go and download the client and try it. There's a free area, where anybody can go and try it. Then you pay to have your own private area, your own private world. Check it out - VirBELA.com - if you're looking for a solution. I am going to have to upgrade my computer, though, because my laptop, which doesn't have a graphics card, is kind of struggling. It works, but I really would like a smoother experience, and now I get to justify buying a new computer. David Leary: [00:08:01] Always.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:01] Yeah, so that's that's my adventures in virtual reality, but let's get back to reality and the news that is oh-so-important to the economy, which is unemployment benefits that expired on Friday. Discussions between Republicans and Democrats didn't come to anything last week. Negotiations are going on over the weekend. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has been meeting with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. He did that yesterday, on Saturday. As we record this on Sunday, staffers are purportedly working together to try and get a deal going, but so far, we haven't heard anything, and we've got a $600 per week federal unemployment benefit that is expired. Now, all that's left is the state unemployment benefits, which can be as low as a few-hundred dollars. Some serious challenges in that, if there isn't a deal soon. David Leary: [00:08:53] The New York Times has a great series of tweets, where they have a slide deck, basically, showing the Republican plan, what's already been passed, in the middle, and then, to the right, the Democrat plan. If you look at these two plans going forward, they are very far off. An example would be small-business aid. The Republican plan has $200 billion for small-business aid. The Democrat plan has zero; zero of a $3.4 trillion plan. The Republican plan is $1.1 trillion. Remember, we've already had $3.2 trillion in between. There's no alignment on any pieces of this - the tax breaks for businesses, stimulus checks, unemployment benefits. Even the state-to-state and local municipalities, nothing is aligned whatsoever. Blake Oliver: [00:09:37] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:09:37] Unless some miracle happens on the Hill tomorrow, or today possibly - I'm sure they've worked all weekend- Blake Oliver: [00:09:45] This is not good news, but I do have a little bit of good news, which is that the IRS is making it easier to change your accounting method during the pandemic. There's a form called Form 3115, which you file with your income tax return to change your accounting method from cash to accrual, vice versa. You used to have to actually mail a duplicate copy of that to the IRS - you file one with your tax return and then you mail a duplicate copy. Now, the IRS is really moving into the future and you can fax that form. David Leary: [00:10:18] There was an article about more fraud in the in the disaster loan program, not PPP program. Blake Oliver: [00:10:25] The EIDL? David Leary: [00:10:25] The EIDL. The thing to take away from this article for me - it was in The Washington Post - was they're indicating there's widespread fraud. It's way more than it was. They said that $1.9 million of these loans went to bank accounts outside the United States. A banking service provider said that about 3,000 were suspicious transactions totaling $73 million. A federal credit union told the Justice Department that 59 out of 60 SBA deposits it received appeared to be fraudulent. Blake Oliver: [00:10:56] Wow.  David Leary: [00:10:56] 59 out of 60. The article also talks about how they were overwhelmed. One of the takeaways, which I did not know they were doing ... The first six weeks, they only got through 38,000 loans. It was less than one percent of their backlog. Blake Oliver: [00:11:10] Is this the EIDL program you're talking about, still?  David Leary: [00:11:12] Yes, the EIDL. Remember, pretty much nobody could find anybody who successfully got an EIDL loan in the beginning. Then, they got through their backlog, but the way they did it, and I did not know this, they hired 1,200 loan evaluators and outsourced much of the work to Rocket Loans and other consultants. Rocket Loans is Rocket Mortgage. You've heard of all that. Blake Oliver: [00:11:34] Yeah. Yeah. David Leary: [00:11:34] They're using third parties to just plow through this loan paperwork. Then, by the time it was done, by July 15, they approved 2.6 million loans. They really, in a short amount of time, burned through all these loans. Again, like we talked about before, there's gonna be fraud if you do this many loans this fast. Blake Oliver: [00:11:52] Well, hey, I can one-up you on these fraud stories here. New York Times is reporting that: "Florida Man Took Coronavirus Aid and Bought a Lamborghini, Officials Say."  David Leary: [00:12:04] The title really says Florida there-  Blake Oliver: [00:12:05] Florida, yeah.  David Leary: [00:12:05] -because my daughter showed me some trend you could do on Google. If you do "Florida Man" and put in your birth date, there's always gonna be a news article on Google News about "Florida man ..." continue your article. It's that headline. Blake Oliver: [00:12:18] Well, it's a trope, right? It's a joke now, and "Florida Man" is the quintessential ridiculous headline story. We finally got one for PPP. David T. Hines, 29, was arrested and charged with three felonies after spending his PPP money on- the big-ticket item was a $318,000 Lamborghini. David Leary: [00:12:39] Did he get a custom plate that said PPP? Blake Oliver: [00:12:41] I don't know, but he should have. Apparently he actually had some real businesses. He said he operated four businesses with 70 employees and had $4 million in monthly expenses. He received three payments totaling almost $4 million. After that money came in, he continued submitting requests for more funds. Eventually the requests totaled $13.5 million. Then, he went on a spending spree with the money that he had received but obviously got caught. He made two payments in May totaling $30,000 to a person listed as "Mom," officials said. The same month, he paid more than $4,000 to Saks Fifth Avenue. In June, he paid more than $7,000 to the Setai Hotel in Miami Beach, and $8,500 to the jewelry company, Graff. The biggest purchase was, of course, that Lamborghini. Monthly expenses for his businesses, in reality, averaged around $200,000 -far below what he claimed on his federal loan applications. David Leary: [00:13:38] Another fraud one - former Microsoft executive, Mukund Mohan, was arrested for a $5.5 million fraud for PPP. Basically, he applied, and he took the money, and he put some of it into his Robinhood brokerage account, so he could play stock games and gamble with it. He applied for eight loans for six companies. Now, mind you, he's a CTO at a real company called BuildDirect.com. It's for home contractors; some middleman software for you to- if you need to get a drywall guy, or an electrician, you could use this website to do that. He was really blatant about it. He applied for the loan; said that he paid more than $2.3 million in payroll in 2019. The reality is he bought this other company in May and it had zero employees. Blake Oliver: [00:14:23] I just wonder what what they- how they think they're gonna get away with it because that's so easy to check. You just look at the the payroll filings, the federal 941s, or whatnot. If there's no payroll related to that EIN, you're gonna get caught pretty easy. Anyway, people are dumb. Criminals are dumb. David Leary: [00:14:42] Speaking of dumb, and I don't know if this is dumb or not dumb - I'll leave this up to everybody arguing - this is from the Virginia Gazette. It's a letter to the editor. I'm gonna read the letter, itself - Accounting firms should repay PPP loans - "As a practicing CPA I was glad to see July 15 finally arrive and signal the end of a long busy season. It has provided some time to reflect. I was shocked when I heard that CPA firms had received PPP loans.  Some firms received millions of dollars. Of course, in April, nobody knew what was going to happen. But now I believe most accounting firms have revenue, as of the end of July, that is close to the revenue they had earned during the same time frame in 2019. [00:15:33] If these firms have kept their expenses the same for 2020 compared to 2019 and they received a Paycheck Protection Program loan, then, when the loan is forgiven the entire amount of the loan will increase their net profit. As a former partner in a large regional firm, I do not think the purpose of the PPP loan program was to enrich individuals that already earn far more than the average American. In my opinion, accounting firms that received PPP loans should pay them back. Bryan G. Goetsch, Williamsburg." Blake Oliver: [00:15:50] I wonder what our listeners think of that. Law firms and accounting firms were some of the top recipients of PPP loans. Why is that? It's because we knew how the system worked, so we were able to go and get the money for ourselves, in addition to our clients. That's just how it was set up.  David Leary: [00:16:06] Yeah, because if the accountants and bookkeepers are helping small businesses get the money, you're not gonna not fill out an application for yourself along the way. You just did 45 of them for clients.  Blake Oliver: [00:16:14] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:16:14] As a percentage of the industry, I imagine- you're right, it's probably 99.9 percent of all accounting, and bookkeeping firms applied for the loan. Blake Oliver: [00:16:25] Now, rather than return the money, here's what I would say. If you feel guilty about this, having received this money, do some pro bono work for businesses that are struggling. Maybe that's a solution.  David Leary: [00:16:34] I'd imagine that's already happening [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:16:36] Yeah, it probably is. There's a lot of firms that aren't billing for PPP services and stuff. Anyway, I think it's kind of ridiculous. What are you gonna do? Ask everybody who didn't really get ...? What is the definition of hurt? What is the definition of need for this money? There isn't one. So, what are we gonna do, make one up? I'm interested to know what our listeners feel about this. Let us know. Hit us up on Twitter. [00:16:59] In the meantime, I got one more PPP story here, which is a story in The Wall Street Journal about how business customers are bailing on big banks and switching to community banks due to PPP loan issues, which was anticipated. I think we've talked about that as something that might happen, and we have some stats on that. According to a survey of 931 firms, conducted by Barlow Research Associates, 28 percent of businesses that secured PPP funding got their loan from a lender with whom they had no prior relationship or a bank that wasn't their primary one. 44 percent of those borrowers said they would move at least some of their accounts and loan to the bank that came through for them during PPP. That's a lot.  [00:17:40] Then, there's a bunch of anecdotes in the article about businesses that got really pissed off at Wells Fargo, or Citigroup, or Bank of America and have moved their assets. The banks with less than $10 billion of assets account for just 14 percent of the industry total, but they handled 52 percent of the loans that were approved in the PPP, and 44 percent of the program's dollars. They really came through, and it seems like they're they're reaping the benefits. David Leary: [00:18:11] Well, again, this is just like with- in general, using the PPP loan to acquire ... Accounting firms to acquire new clients to provide service to build up that relationship. The smaller, smarter banks were able to do that, and the bigger banks were just overwhelmed with applications. Who they took care of was their most important customers, the Shake Shacks, etc.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:33] One of the banks mentioned in the article is called InBank. They added 350 new customers because of PPP, mostly from large banks, said chairman and CEO, Ed Francis. It would normally take that bank, which has $423 million in assets, as of March 31, as long as two years to bring that many aboard. So, they got two years' worth of clients in a matter of months. David Leary: [00:18:53] Wow. Blake Oliver: [00:18:54] Sort of reminds me of all the stores that are selling home gym equipment. I went out yesterday trying to look for an elliptical or a treadmill, and all the stores that I went to said that they did two or three years' of business and two or three months, and everything's on backorder until the fall. David Leary: [00:19:13] I remember going to Target, right after things started to lock down. They don't have a huge fitness section; it's just like one aisle of yoga mats, and some weights. Blake Oliver: [00:19:21] YeAH.  David Leary: [00:19:21] It was like a robbery. There was nothing there. Then, the whole bike shelf, all the bikes were gone, too. People are really desperate to get some home workout equipment. Blake Oliver: [00:19:34] So, let's get to app news!  David Leary: [00:19:34] Apps. I was gonna say, let's chat apps.  Blake Oliver: [00:19:41] We gotta start with QuickBooks Cash. This is huge! David, what is QuickBooks Cash? Why is this such a big deal? David Leary: [00:19:47] Yeah, so QuickBooks Cash. Essentially, you no longer have to get a separate bank account. You can just, in QuickBooks, sign up and get a bank account. Not only that, the bank account pays interest.  Blake Oliver: [00:19:58] Yeah, it's pretty good, actually. One percent interest, pretty high yield, I mean, relatively speaking. David Leary: [00:20:04] According to Intuit, it's 25 times higher than the average rate for small business accounts. Blake Oliver: [00:20:09] Yeah. Then, there's no fees. That's pretty amazing, too. No minimum balance, no required daily balance, no monthly service fee. That's a big deal because a lot of businesses pay a lot in fees. David Leary: [00:20:22] Because it's Intuit's account, you connect your merchant service to it; do instant deposits. There's no more waiting that extra day and a half, two days for ACH. You can get instant deposits to that account free of charge. You get a debit card, so you can actually do spend. They have a cashflow planner. The cashflow planner that I currently see in my QuickBooks Online, it's only historical - the last 12 months. I'm not seeing a future look yet, on that. Apparently, that's something you get when you get the QuickBooks Cash account. They also have the QuickBooks Pay. It's QuickBooks Online bill pay, powered by Melio. That's available, and that ties into the whole thing. The thing that I found interesting ... Remember, we talked about personal finances before? I stopped using mint and I switched to You Need a Budget. You Need a Budget uses kind of that envelope budgeting system. Blake Oliver: [00:21:10] Yes. David Leary: [00:21:10] They have this concept of envelopes, and I'm not sure ... Is this subaccounts? Would these be treated as separate bank accounts, the way I can do that with Relay, or this is this just like a budgety thing? I couldn't tell from the screenshots and some of the UI things I looked at. It looks like, with the the cashflow planner, it's gonna be a little bit more where you can actually put in scenarios, like, "I'm gonna buy a boat on this day," and you can start putting those types of things in. It's not just gonna take the data and the bank feeds and create a cashflow projection. It's gonna allow you to put in events, and transactions, which is funny because, full circle, that was one of these things where there used to be this calendar in Quicken, 25 years ago, and people could go and take this calendar and then, just put transactions they know are coming up in the future on this calendar. Essentially, it was a cashflow planner. So, it's like full circle. This is coming back to old Quicken functionality - envelope budgeting, cashflow planning, that type of stuff. I did sign up for it. I did try to get it set up.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:07] How'd that go?  David Leary: [00:22:07] It's interesting because I didn't get as far as I thought I would. I clicked the thing to sign up. I said I'm already a QuickBooks customer. I clicked "Getting Started." Then, it took me to another screen that said "Payment Account Application." It said, "You're good to go. We got your information. Charge on." I hit an "OK" button and that's it. I think they already have my information because I have a merchant services account at Intuit, but then, that's it. I didn't get an email that said, "Hey, your application's pending. Your QuickBooks Cash is on the way. Congratulations." It just was like a dead end. Blake Oliver: [00:22:38] Hmm.  David Leary: [00:22:38] So, I don't know if  ... It was very kind of like a marketing kind of screen, like, "We've already got information. Charge on!" I was excited. I was gonna click "OK," and I thought I'd see something, but I don't have anything in there. There was an article on Insightful Accountant that linked to the actual Envision. Envision's a way for companies to do mock-ups, almost like an interactive slide deck of a feature. I was able to click on that and look at the mockups of it, but I don't have any of those screens in my QuickBooks. I can't find them anywhere. I'm in QuickBooks Cash limbo. Blake Oliver: [00:23:12] Well, keep us posted on that.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Marketplace. How can you be a more trusted advisor for your clients as they face new challenges? By recommending solutions from ADP Marketplace, ADP's digital HR storefront. With ADP Marketplace, clients can try, buy, and implement highly rated HR apps that can share data with ADP. With secured data integrations, it's easy to streamline HR processes and adapt to new business needs. Help your clients discover new ways to recruit and onboard employees, boost performance, offer unique financial-wellness benefits, and much more. With integrations for popular business software, like Expensify, PayActiv, Slack, and ClockShark, clients can add value to the tools they already use by simply and securely connecting them to ADP. Have clients in field service, or construction? ClockShark can help them track time to quickly and accurately run payroll, all integrated with ADP. Visit ADP Marketplace at apps.ADP.com, or right from your Accountant Connect dashboard. Not set up with Accountant Connect? Sign up today. It's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-D-P. ADP has your back with ADP Marketplace. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:24:30] I've got updates on Xero. Xero Premium customers can now sync Xero smart lists to Mailchimp, the popular email service, in real time. What does that mean? Well, it means that you could use the smart lists, which allow you to create dynamic lists of customers and contacts, and then trigger email sends in Mailchimp, based on stuff like overdue invoices, and payment confirmations. I think that's pretty neat. There is a new dashboard in Xero Projects with an at-a-glance view of project profitability; a few other miscellaneous features. I'm really excited about that Mailchimp thing. I think that's pretty neat.  David Leary: [00:25:08] OnDeck got acquired. You're familiar with OnDeck, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:25:09] Yeah. They're one of those modern lenders, right?  David Leary: [00:25:15] Yeah, for small business-focused ... Modern lenders. Probably, the interest rates are a little high. They're a little bit more high-risk loans. Their balance sheets were getting a little wacky because of the crisis, etc. They were acquired. Now, OnDeck has been around for a decade and a half or so. They started doing funding in 2006, and they funded $13 billion plus to small business loans. How much do you think they were acquired for? It was only $90 million. Blake Oliver: [00:25:40] I'm looking at this article right now, in American Banker, and they're saying that it's less than 10 percent of what its market value was in 2015. That's crazy. David Leary: [00:25:51] Yeah, and only $8 million of it was paid in cash. Blake Oliver: [00:25:53] Wow. So, they must not be in a good situation at all. I bet you a lot of these online lenders lending to small businesses are in trouble because they're never gonna be able to collect on a lot of these loans. David Leary: [00:26:04] In the meantime, they're probably getting pressured because all these companies are smaller fintechs ... They have to earn trust in market. Then, in the meantime, QuickBooks Capital, and Xero has a product now, a loan product, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:26:17] So, speaking of acquisitions, YayPay was acquired by a French company called Quadient. It's a publicly held company purchasing YayPay for $20 million in cash. YayPay, if you're not familiar with it, they're an automated accounts receivable application - invoice delivery, collections management, credit assessment, payment and cash application solutions.  David Leary: [00:26:42] They're up-market, right? I think their client base was like Nike, and-  Blake Oliver: [00:26:45] They're more of mid-market ... I think I saw them over at NetSuite SuiteWorld and that sort of thing. They integrate with NetSuite, Dynamics, SAP, Sage, those kind of solutions, ERP systems. I've got news about FreshBooks, as well, and Gusto. David Leary: [00:27:02] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:27:02] FreshBooks now has Checkout links. These allow you to collect payments on fixed-price items and services using a simple URL. You just create the link, share it with your client online, and then FreshBooks provides them with an automated receipt. I guess it's a simpler way, rather than sending an invoice, you just send them a link, then they can purchase. They've also got some improvements to their in-app timer. Now, you can create an outstanding invoice banner on the client view. When your client logs in to look at their invoice, if they have any outstanding invoices, they'll see a big banner at the top that says that they have an outstanding invoice due to you. [00:27:36] Finally, we've got the big Gusto announcement. Gusto announced a new People Advisory certification for accountants at their online Gusto Next conference this past week. That was a really nicely done virtual conference presentation on Zoom, sort of like a webinar on steroids. This certification is four hours, online training, and it "will enable accountants to combine their financial advisory expertise with new services for clients in areas such as payroll, benefits, and HR as People Advisors. You can sign up at Gusto.com/partners/accountants/certification. David Leary: [00:28:18] So, the gist of it is, if my small business owners- instead of me just setting them up on payroll, if they need additional help on hiring, posting for jobs, HR decisions, I can kind of get into that space a little bit and offer that as an additional service to what other services I'm offering them. Blake Oliver: [00:28:36] Yeah, or even more basic than that, I think there's a lot of bookkeeping, and accounting firms that don't even touch payroll, that don't want anything to do with it. All they do is the bookkeeping,and the tax. This is a great way for accountants, and bookkeepers to learn about the benefits of offering payroll management, and HR, and benefits for their clients - to be their advisor, in that regard. I will tell you, based on my own personal experience, having that offering - offering payroll through Gusto as part of my firm - was a huge value-add for my clients. That was the thing they would call me about most. It wasn't about the bank reconciliations, or the financials. It was, "I'm hiring somebody. How much do I pay them? Do I offer them benefits? What kind of benefits do I offer?" Having a way to do that, streamlined in a platform, I think is super valuable. I highly recommend people check that out. David Leary: [00:29:31] Vertex went public on the Nasdaq. Vertex is similar to an Avalara-type sales tax play. Obviously, they're riding the benefits of South Dakota v. Wayfair. The only thing I thought was interesting about this IPO was, on Twitter, somebody asked- an accountant said they've never heard of them. That doesn't bode well, I think, for your IPO, in theory, if one of your target customers has never heard of you. Blake Oliver: [00:29:59] I'm not very familiar with them either. It's Vertex is what you said? Vertex. David Leary: [00:30:05] iseah, Vertex. They've been in the space for 40 years. They have 1,100 employees. Blake Oliver: [00:30:09] I'm gonna guess that they're serving mostly folks who are up-market, right?  David Leary: [00:30:16] They say they have 50 percent of the Fortune 500.  Blake Oliver: [00:30:19] Yeah. There you go. See, that's why, because the folks who are listening to The Cloud Accounting Podcast, it's accountants serving small businesses, but there's this whole world of solutions and software solutions that you wouldn't even know about because you've got to be a giant company paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for this software [crosstalk] You know how you know when something's up-market? When you can't find the pricing on the website. That's how you know that it's not for small businesses.  David Leary: [00:30:49] Yeah, when it says, "Book a demo." Blake Oliver: [00:30:51] Yeah, that's the best you can do, or, "Request Info for Pricing." It's gonna be out of your price range- David Leary: [00:30:55] Or, on the sales form, it asks you what company you're with, first, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:30:58] Yeah. David Leary: [00:30:59] It's like, "What company are you with?" The choices for number of employees, they give you that 50,000 or more box, and that's the only one they really want you to choose. Sorry ...  Blake Oliver: [00:31:06] Shopify had an amazing quarter. The economy might be going down the toilet, but e-commerce is doing great, as a small segment of that. Shopify's revenue nearly doubled as COVID-19 pushes shopping online. They're an e-commerce platform that allows you, as a small business, to set up an online website, where people can purchase from you, and the shopping cart is all integrated into your website. They've got all sorts of e-commerce integrations. It's the Amazon alternative is, I guess, how I would describe it. Revenue was $714 million in the second quarter, up from $362 million in the year-ago quarter and way above the analysts' forecasts of $511 million. David Leary: [00:31:58] Yeah, Shopify, they are putting pressure on Square, and they're putting pressure on Amazon. It's really interesting to see how much they've really separated from everybody else in their pack, as far as the big commerce, and the other e-commerce players, these online shopping carts. Shopify has completely separated themselves from everybody else. I still watch. I would not be surprised - them and FreshBooks doing something together. They're neighbors in Toronto. What would make them unstoppable? A GL, right? Taxfyle- you're familiar with Taxfyle?  Blake Oliver: [00:32:29] Yeah, we've talked about them before. David Leary: [00:32:31] They basically play like a middleman. They're like a search engine to find other accountants, or bookkeepers.  Blake Oliver: [00:32:35] They connect business owners with tax preparers. David Leary: [00:32:38] They formed an accounting firm called RMW Accounting, and they're seeking to acquire CPA firms. This was in the South Florida Business Journal. Blake Oliver: [00:32:49] Huh ...  David Leary: [00:32:49] They're basically looking for owners that wanna liquidate or sell parts of their business. Blake Oliver: [00:32:55] This sounds like another potential issue, though. We've got all these tech companies that are getting into the services business. I mean, maybe this is because they can't get enough professionals to do the taxes on their platform, so they're just gonna create the the market on both sides. David Leary: [00:33:10] It's interesting because, in a way, they're a little Uber-like, where it's on demand. I need taxes done. They just match me up with one of 2,700 CPAs. Blake Oliver: [00:33:18] Right. David Leary: [00:33:18] Now, they're- it's like Uber hiring their own drivers. Blake Oliver: [00:33:21] It would be like Uber becoming an actual taxi company. It doesn't make sense. I don't get it. David Leary: [00:33:25] Yeah, I don't either. It's just, this is their plan. It's been formed, and they're heading down that path. Then a last piece of app news: I have a another AI accounting startup, Candis, raises $14 million in fresh funding. Blake Oliver: [00:33:38] What are they doing?  David Leary: [00:33:40] It just feels like more of this overly cocky AI type game. Candis, a German startup company working to automate companies' manual accounting workflows, today, announced it has raised €12 million euros, about $14 million USD. Candis provides a cloud-based accounting platform, uses machine learning to reduce the amount of time needed to organize a company's financial records. One of the main use cases for the platform is automating payment reconciliation. [That’s the] process wherein the accounting department compares a company’s various transaction logs with one another to ensure that all the sums match. So, it sounds  bank feeds, right? It's just ... It's bank feeds.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:15] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:34:15] Candis imports transaction logs from a company's financial systems and automatically matches each record to the associated invoice. They're making it sound super-complex here. Blake Oliver: [00:34:26] It's just bank recs, right?  David Leary: [00:34:28] Essentially, it's bank recs. The best part is it goes a little bit deeper in here. This is a quote from the co-founder, Christian Ritosek: "Our machine-learning-based technology disrupts a whole industry in which the majority of tasks are still very manual." Another part of the article says: "The startup claims that its platform features are together capable of automating about 80 percent of classic accounting processes involved in managing an organization's books."  Blake Oliver: [00:34:54] Oh, boy ...  David Leary: [00:34:54] 80 percent, and they got $14 million ... The thing is, and we're seeing this, going from 80 to 82, 80 to 85, breaking that 90, it gets harder and harder and harder. So, somebody tossed them $14 million for them to do what everybody's getting out of the box, right now, with any accounting software package.  Blake Oliver: [00:35:14] Here's the problem - that 80 percent, which I dispute that- David Leary: [00:35:18] You think it's lower?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:18] I mean, maybe traditional accountants are spending 80 percent of their time on this stuff, but most of us who have already moved to the cloud are not. We've automated this ourselves. So, even if it is 80 percent, though, there's not a lot of value in automating that 80 percent, or there's not a lot of value in that work. Even if you automate it, you can't charge much for it. Like you said, it's already built into a lot of these GL packages. David Leary: [00:35:42] Everybody thinks bank feed is bookkeeping, and accounting. They take the bank feed and categorize it automatically, which is easy when it's a Starbucks transaction. Blake Oliver: [00:35:49] You know why I think these startups keep getting founded? It's because there's some entrepreneur, and he starts a business, and he has to do his own bookkeeping- David Leary: [00:35:57] Ah ...  Blake Oliver: [00:35:57] -and he gets really tired of doing it. He's like, "Oh, this is a problem! In my next business. I'm gonna solve bookkeeping, and I'm gonna automate it," not really thinking that the GL apps are building this themselves and gradually improving it, so it's not as much of a problem anymore. Do you really need a third-party solution for bank feeds and automating that? Also, once a business gets to a certain size, they hire a financial professional and then, that person is responsible for all this stuff. [00:36:26] Are they gonna pay for a tool that does this when they could just kind of do it in the GL? Like you said, there's diminishing returns. It has to get so automated that I don't even have to touch it. But to get to that point, nobody's figured out how to do that. I still have to go in and review all the transactions anyway to make sure they're coded correctly. I can't just trust the AI to do it. David Leary: [00:36:47] I think this transitions well into new banks because, ultimately, it's a banking-feed world, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:36:52] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:36:52] All the banks are coming after, arguably, the GLs, and what is a bank is even getting confusing. I have some articles just about new banks. One of them really gets into some numbers. There was an acquisition that took place, and it really explains QuickBooks; what QuickBooks' motivation here is.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:12] You mean why QuickBooks created QuickBooks Cash? David Leary: [00:37:14] QuickBooks Cash, exactly. One is Varo. We've talked about Varo. They are a consumer- but they are officially a bank now.  They got their bank charter, so they're one of these new bank startups-  Blake Oliver: [00:37:24] Wait, you mean they're a consumer bank- David Leary: [00:37:28] They're a consumer bank. It's another one of these new banks, but they got a bank charter.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:33] Okay, got it. Now, they don't have to work with a partner anymore. They can do it themselves. David Leary: [00:37:37] That's correct. The Federal Reserve signed off on them, so they're out there as a real-deal bank now. There's another one that- there's an online bank called Monzo. They're having opposite luck. Their losses have doubled, and the UK digital bank warns of pandemic uncertainty. Their annual losses more than doubled and warned that its ability to continue operating had become more uncertain. So, on one hand, these digital banks are really crushing it, and on the other hand, they seem to be struggling.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:09] Yeah, well, it kind of makes sense because the whole idea of these digital banks is that they cut costs because they don't have physical locations, and they are able to then eliminate a lot of the fees that are charged to consumers, the bank fees. The way they make money, then, is when you spend on their card, they get a cut of that processing fee, but if people aren't out spending on their credit cards, like at payment terminals, they're gonna have a hard time making money, right?  David Leary: [00:38:36] Yeah. It's like you read the article or something. The big challenge for Monzo, now, is to figure out how to make money from its 4.4 million users. The challenger bank currently generates most of its revenue from fees generated every time a customer uses their card, but people aren't using the card. They're not getting revenue [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:38:52] A lot of the consumers who are using these banks are folks probably the lower end of the income spectrum, the ones that the traditional banks don't want. They're spending the least of anyone because they are more likely to have lost their job.  David Leary: [00:39:05] This is news from down under. Commonwealth Bank is now gonna give $500 to entrepreneurs who sign up to use their small business app. So, here's a bank with a small business app. They have an app that will help them register their business, do invoicing, and do some business plan formulation. If you download this app, they're gonna give you 500 bucks into your bank account. They're coming after the tech, and the data play. They're coming after that. [00:39:34] Another article has a lot of good numbers in here. There's a company called ZenBusiness. They acquired one of these new fintech platforms called Joust. Joust is basically really going after the sole proprietor and independent contractor style, the super-micro-small small business owner. They just acquired them. The deal expands the ZenBusiness service offering by combining Joust's integrated suite of simple, easy to use, enterprise-quality financial tools within the company's already fast-growing all-in-one micro-business platform. I thought was interesting: enterprise-quality financial tools targeting solopreneurs.  [00:40:12] They had a couple of surveys that had some interesting data from it. According to a survey conducted by  Sensibill, 51 percent of solo entrepreneurs in the U.S. do not use a business bank account and commingle their business and personal finances. On average, these micro businesses use more than 10 separate financial products in order to run their business. So, half of all small solopreneurs in the U.S. do not have a business bank account. Does it make sense why QuickBooks created QuickBooks Cash? Blake Oliver: [00:40:38] Absolutely. That's an amazing stat. David Leary: [00:40:41] What accountant, and bookkeeper isn't going to just opt them in? "Guess what? I'm turning a bank account on for you. No more of this messing your funds around." Blake Oliver: [00:40:50] I wonder who this is really for. Is this for the business owners who already have a relationship with an accountant or bookkeeper, or is it for those small business owners who are doing it themselves? Because there's a lot of those people on QuickBooks. I think more than half. David Leary: [00:41:06] I think it's all of the above, right? Blake Oliver: [00:41:07] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:41:07] It's anybody who doesn't have a business bank account because- to be honest, I went to open a business bank account, I had to go to two different banks. It was annoying [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:41:14] Well, yeah, and if you're a solopreneur, the banks do not care. They do not want your business. They make it as hard as possible for you to get that business bank account because-  David Leary: [00:41:22] They tried to sell me checks. I'm like, "I don't want checks. I just want a bank account." Blake Oliver: [00:41:27] This is great. This is really gonna help the people who are left out by traditional banking.  David Leary: [00:41:32] They're saying there's 57 million micro businesses that this could be targeted at. They're guessing by 2027, more than 50 percent of the country's workforce is expected to freelance in some capacity. If you think about how many people ... The gig work, it just keeps growing. More and more people are gonna need a business bank account, so whoever owns their eyes is probably gonna have success in that.  [00:41:56] It started to make me really think, from an industry perspective, who owns the bank feeds? If you own the bank feeds, that's gonna control how the data gets in the accounting system, and you, as an accountant, or bookkeeper, the bank feeds are super-valuable. What happens if banks start blocking you? Because, "Oh, no, we want you to put your clients on our app," or they charge a premium for the bank feeds. That's gonna eat away at your profit margins as an accounting firm. [00:42:20] It's gonna be important where you put your clients. In my brain, it's probably best that you try to put them on alternative banks, at this point. Put them on a QuickBooks bank, or I'm sure Xero will probably have a bank one day. You put them on the banks that are in the accounting tools you use because you can't afford the risk of a bank blocking you. I think the banks just don't know how valuable it is to cloud accountants, and bookkeepers, the bank feeds. Blake Oliver: [00:42:48] That's a good end to this episode, David. We got a review, though. We should read that before we go. David Leary: [00:42:53] Yes, yes. Blake Oliver: [00:42:54] Excellent Podcast! Five stars. "As the co-founder of a technology focused bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO advisory firm, this is a must listen for me. It is the most efficient way to get up to date on industry news and find out about the latest and greatest solutions for our members. We have members which include small to mid-sized businesses from a diverse set of industries and the range of solutions we find for them by listening to Cloud Accounting is priceless. Highly recommend for anyone in the bookkeeping and accounting industry. Period!" That is from Lapdjas, via Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for that. That's really great to hear. David Leary: [00:43:32] It's always great to see the reviews. If anybody else wants to leave us to review, they actually help us a lot because it lets people that are just searching on iTunes or on their phone or searching for accounting podcasts, it gives them confidence that when they listen to The Cloud Accounting Podcast, they're gonna hear information they need and love. So, please leave a review on Apple iTunes, or Podchaser. It really helps the show a lot.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:53] We will read it on the air. So, if you want to tell us what you think, that's one of the best ways to do it because we're required by the rules of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to read your review on the air.  David Leary: [00:44:05] Even if it's bad. We've read bad reviews-  Blake Oliver: [00:44:07] We have had some ... Well, not bad, but critical.  David Leary: [00:44:11] We've had one bad review-  Blake Oliver: [00:44:11] There are no bad reviews. There are no bad reviews, there re only critical reviews. We appreciate the feedback. You can also leave us a voicemail. You can call our Google Voice number at (202) 695-1040, and you can contact me on Twitter. I am @BlakeTOliver. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:44:28] I'm @DavidLeary; also on LinkedIn. I noticed some of you have been saying, "I'm not a robot," when you reach out to me on LinkedIn, which is very nice. Blake Oliver: [00:44:35] I got one of those this week. That was really fun. Tell me you are not a robot when you connect with me on LinkedIn and I'll be sure to accept that connection invite. David, until next week, stay sane, stay safe ...  David Leary: [00:44:45] Buh-bye.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:45] Bye. ____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? 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Sponsors ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 05:55 - What Arizona's Tenuous Coronavirus Plateau Could Teach Us – NYTimes 09:32 - McConnell’s stimulus waiting game turns into race against clock – Accounting Today 10:10 - White House, GOP Agree On $1T CARES 4.0 - PYMNTS.com 11:12 - What Democrats and Republicans want in the next coronavirus relief package – Reuters 14:10 - State CPA society CEOs call for federal relief for state and local governments amid coronavirus – Accounting Today 15:09 - New AICPA tool automates PPP loan forgiveness process - Journal of Accountancy        https://www.pppforgivenesstool.com/ 17:15 - Strip-club stimulus reveals lingering uncertainties over U.S. small-business aid – Reuters 21:00 - Why Zoom meetings really do leave you exhausted - Journal of Accountancy 23:12 - Companies Start to Think Remote Work Isn’t So Great After All – Wall Street Journal  24:41 - Staff do worse when asked to report frequently, accounting study shows – CFO Dive 25:23 - 66% Working from Home Say They're More Likely to Work Nights and Weekends – Small Business Trends  27:41 - Employees Want to Return to a Physical Workplace – Small Business Trends 30:25 - ScaleFactor Raised $100 Million In A Year Then Blamed Covid-19 For Its Demise. Employees Say It Had Much Bigger Problems. – Forbes 48:20 - Siri Srinivas on Twitter on the Forbes ScaleFactor article - Twitter   52:12 – A listener's feedback on our brief discussion on modern monetary theory – Twitter  58:37 - The Rescues Ruining Capitalism – WSJ 1:00:58 Jirav scores $8M in Series A funding – Accounting Today 1:01:03 - Lawsuit Alleges Plaid Violated User Privacy - PYMNTS.com  1:01:20 - Kabbage Rolls Out Checking Accounts For SMBs - PYMNTS.com  1:01:24 - Brex Offers FDIC Insurance - PYMNTS.com  1:01:31 - FinTech Revolut Raises $80M In New Funding - PYMNTS.com 1:01:41 - Painting the Art of the Possible, with Brad Smith - Shift Addendum: Scale Factor Botkeeper story we broke in FEB 2019  https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/its-not-a-bot-the-truth-about-botkeeper-the-google-funded-ai-powered-bookkeeper-replacement-9c3f42d230b6 https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/60 https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/61 https://www.facebook.com/davidleary/videos/10157125979906477/  VisorTax's failure  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/think-your-2018-tax-season-tough-check-out-visors-attempt-david-leary/ https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/70   Our past Scalefactor coverage https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/55 https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/104 https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/160 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Smansha: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptAre you listening to this ad right now? Do you see how effective podcast advertising is? Do you want your product to have weekly exposure to the most connected accountants and bookkeepers on the planet? Stay tuned to hear more about sponsoring The Cloud Accounting Podcast later in the episode. David Leary: [00:00:21] ... That mindset cannot be there with small businesses. Delivering avocado toast? Fine. Be a bull$%*& company; fake it. If you're gonna get into our space - accounting, and bookkeeping - you need to do it correctly!  Blake Oliver: [00:00:32] Yes. David Leary: [00:00:32] That's it. If not, get out of our space. Go work on avocado toast deliveries. It kind of pisses me off that this attitude is there ... ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. Back in October of 2013, I became ClockShark's first Twitter follower. Today, ClockShark has grown into a highly rated and very-much-loved time-tracking app that is now used by over 5,000 small businesses globally. With features like crew tracking, scheduling, overtime notifications, routes, geofencing locations, job costing, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking app to handle the unique challenges that face your mobile workforce clients.  Their technology has been helpful as their clients work through the COVID-19 pandemic. Your clients will need accurate records of their expenses, and losses, and technology like ClockShark helps. With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like paid time off, and other important data to provide the necessary proof for CARES, and FFCRA Acts' benefits. This lets them get straight back to work without too much disruption after the pandemic has passed. ClockShark's standard plan is just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-L-O-C-K-S-H-A-R-K. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. I recently had two Zoom calls with accountants that use BQE Core for their professional service clients, like architects, engineers, consultants, and lawyers. One accountant called it the missing link for professional services. Another said that BQE Core is the only game in town for job profitability in the cloud. My biggest takeaway from the conversations was how you can 100 percent use BQE Core as your standalone accounting system or pair it up with either QuickBooks Online, or Xero.  Either way, you get to take advantage of all the advanced features of BQE Core, like adjustment invoicing, budgets, labor cost, forecasting, contract analysis, and approval processes. Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before September 30, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:49] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver David Leary: [00:02:52] and I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:53] So, you're back from your California vacation, Venice Beach. How was that, David? David Leary: [00:02:57] Yeah, I unplugged for two days. I did not touch a computer, or laptop, and it was really, really hard not to, on the phone, touch Slack. It was good to get out of Arizona. Got to be in some 78-degree temperatures. It was interesting because we hung out around Venice Beach a little bit, but with L.A. being kinda shut down, it didn't have that California busy-ness- Blake Oliver: [00:03:17] Were there restaurants open? Bars open?  David Leary: [00:03:18] Yeah ... Because I think the weather's nice, compared to Arizona, a lot of restaurants just set up tables on the parking lot, and people can just dine on the parking lot. It was interesting, even people that were ... Normally, you go to a restaurant, and you wait in the lobby for your table. People are just standing in the parking lots drinking. The enforcement just didn't seem to be there. Venice Beach wasn't too packed, but Santa Monica, it was like looking at Phoenix. I mean, people were just everywhere. It was packed [crosstalk]   Blake Oliver: [00:03:42] Were they wearing masks?  David Leary: [00:03:42] I'd say it's probably 75-percent masked. Even myself, I'd have my mask off. If I saw somebody walking down the sidewalk towards me, I'd put it back on, that type of a scenario. If you're by yourself, you take your mask off. The beach, everybody stayed pretty much spread apart. People were sitting- you could sit on the beach, but you had plenty of room. Nobody was around you for 25-30 feet. I've been to L.A. before, and when you wanna do something, you're gonna do that one thing in one day. We were able to take my daughter to the UCLA campus. We did Koreatown. We did three different stops in Koreatown. We did a K-pop store because she's into that K-pop music, right now. Then, we did ... We literally parked at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, street parking. Everywhere we went, we had street parking for two bucks.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:24] Wow!  David Leary: [00:04:24] We knocked out like six things in the city of L.A. - Rodeo Drive, everything - in a four-hour timeframe because there was no traffic. Blake Oliver: [00:04:32] That's amazing. David Leary: [00:04:33] You could just do anything you wanted. It was really like ... If you had to go visit L.A., do it now because nothing's busy. Blake Oliver: [00:04:38] Good tip!  David Leary: [00:04:38] It's easy to get around. Blake Oliver: [00:04:39] That's great. Well, I was here in Arizona, in Scottsdale, in my new home, and I experienced my first monsoon. David Leary: [00:04:47] Yes! Finally, it's raining here-  Blake Oliver: [00:04:49] Now, I should qualify that by saying it didn't actually rain on our place, but the huge thunderclouds came overhead, and I've never seen anything like it. They're flat on the bottom, like almost completely flat, at least these ones were. I think it has something to do with atmospheric pressure. Anyway, there was dust; there was wind. It didn't actually rain right over us-  David Leary: [00:05:10] The haboob, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:05:10] -and we had the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen afterward. But, yeah, it's interesting; in L.A., the clouds just come over and they just blanket the city. You don't get patches of sky and cloud. So, I feel like we have more nature here, in a way, in the desert. Also, I saw an article about how coronavirus is going in Arizona. I could not believe this. You know that I'm not a big fan of lockdowns. I mean, part of the reason I moved from California to Phoenix is because I was not optimistic about how the state was handling lockdowns. I have a kid in school, and my wife, and I both work, and we wanted to continue our lives. We couldn't imagine spending the next year in a form of lockdown and not having the schools open and all that. [00:05:55] The New York Times is reporting- the headline is: "What Arizona's Tenuous Coronavirus Plateau can Teach Us," seeming to acknowledge that this staying open with reasonable restrictions and wearing masks is working in Arizona; at least the last few weeks are showing that. We didn't hit 100-percent ICU capacity. We just grazed it, like 80-90 percent. Everybody's wearing masks because the vast majority of people in Arizona live in two counties that have implemented mask requirements, and it's working. Restaurants are open, people are wearing masks, people are going out shopping. It can be done. It doesn't have to be this politicized, partisan issue, where it's one or the other - either we're all open, and we're all just gonna get COVID, and we just accept that ... That's not realistic/reasonable. Also, just locking down and staying at home until this goes away is not either. David Leary: [00:06:47] Yeah, I've switched my focus just to focus on Pima County, where I live. I watch the numbers every day, here. It's trending down again. I always thought this in the beginning - we'll figure out the balance. For lack of a better word, it's not supply and demand, but it's like risk/reward. It'll start to climb too high, and people will scale back their activities. Then, it'll start going down, and people will feel comfortable and go out. It's probably gonna find this magic flat line. It's very clear, also - I was looking at the graphs this morning. I was thinking about this ... It's coincidental that we both were looking at this ... We actually, in a weird way, as a society, can control the graph now.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:23] Right, yeah.  David Leary: [00:07:23] It's happening naturally based on people's individual actions. On the whole, that's affecting the graph more than anything, probably.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:31] That's the thing. Personal responsibility is far more important than government mandates. Like you saw, if people don't want to obey these rules, there's no way for the State of California to enforce it. So, it's about getting people to do this. I feel, as accountants, we're in this interesting place because we are small business owners ourselves; we have clients that are struggling, and we want them to succeed. We want to balance the economy with public safety, and there are ways to do this. It doesn't have to be Republican versus Democrat, liberal versus conservative, libertarian versus authoritarian. We can make sensible decisions. David Leary: [00:08:13] The free market's figuring it out, right? It's coming into balance on its own. Blake Oliver: [00:08:18] I've got more stories about the pandemic and about the stimulus and shifting into the accounting news, I know you have a big story about ScaleFactor; follow-up on that- David Leary: [00:08:26] ScaleFactor, yep. Blake Oliver: [00:08:29] I have some listener feedback on our last episode, and a bit of nerdy Modern Monetary Theory economics to talk about. Did I mention stimulus? I think I did.  David Leary: [00:08:39] Yep, stimulus. Blake Oliver: [00:08:41] So, I just wanna highlight this right now. The big news ... As we record, it's July 25. The $600 federal unemployment bonus amount is expiring at the end of this month, so there is a ton of pressure in Congress, right now, to make something happen. What's crazy is that the Republicans don't have a plan yet. It's been delayed now, until Monday. It's Saturday as we record, so Mitch McConnell is apparently going to have some sort of plan on Monday for the Republicans to look at. It's a counter to the Democrats' plan.  David Leary: [00:09:11] Last week, we said next week, we'll be talking about some announcements for stimulus, and it kind of stalled this week. Now you're down to ... What do you have? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ...  Blake Oliver: [00:09:24] They do not have a lot of time to get this done, and it's putting the Republicans at a disadvantage. There was an article in Accounting Today. Headline is: "McConnell's Stimulus Waiting Game Turns into a Race Against the Clock," kinda highlighting how waiting until the federal unemployment benefit ran out is probably not the best strategy, because what's going to happen if it runs out, and they don't have a deal? Republicans are gonna get blamed for it. This is critical stimulus for millions and millions and millions of people who are out of work. I just think, like politically, letting it expire completely is just not an option. Yet, the Republicans don't have agreement internally about what to do. The White House is still proposing this ridiculous plan that apparently nobody cares about other than them, which is the payroll tax cut.  David Leary: [00:10:10] I think I saw an article here on PYMNTS.com that the GOP and the White House have agreed on a plan now. So, the White House is kinda ... Basically, the Donald Trump payroll-tax thing is not gonna make it.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:26] Right. Yeah, that was never even close to being in the plan. David Leary: [00:10:31] That's part Mnuchin, but they do favor a stimulus check. They just don't know how. There's no details on it. They also are leaning against doing unemployment for the extra 600 bucks, and they're thinking if there's some way to do like a 70 percent of your income type of a thing. You're right, it's great. Nobody knows what's gonna hit the table. I think, if I understand it correctly, the GOP is like- they wanna do a trillion-dollar package for CARES Act 4.0, as they're calling it ... My understanding is the Democrats are still pushing for a $3 trillion or $4 trillion package. Blake Oliver: [00:11:01] Yep, $3.5 trillion, something like that. It's a lot more. There's a great article on Reuters summarizing what Democrats and Republicans want in the next coronavirus relief package. That's actually the title of this story: "What Democrats and Republicans Want in the Next Coronavirus Relief Package." This was written on July 22, so it's a few days old. Hopefully, things haven't changed too much. I can just highlight what they agree on, what they disagree on. Republicans and Democrats agree on direct payments to Americans. As you said, those $1,200 stimulus checks, where you get another, I think, $500 for a child. That's gonna happen. It's most likely gonna happen where the IRS is gonna send out those checks. It makes sense because the IRS has already got the systems in place to do it, right?  David Leary: [00:11:44] I still haven't gotten mine. I need to track that down. Blake Oliver: [00:11:47] Apparently, like 12 million people have still not gotten their checks, so that's an issue. Aid for school: both sides are backing roughly $100 billion in support for schools and universities. I think that makes total sense. If Trump wants to reopen the schools, he'd better give them some money so that they can do this safely. That's reasonable. I think that's a compromise we can all agree on. Health spending: more money for hospitals and healthcare providers to treat those sickened by coronavirus. The Trump administration initially opposed money for testing, but now supports it. Duh ... I think that's important. Both sides want to bolster the Paycheck Protection Program and do a number-two round of that. [00:12:26] What do they disagree on? Liability protections. That's a big one. Republicans wanna shield businesses and other organizations from personal injury lawsuits related to the virus, and Democrats oppose those protections. I don't know how you feel about this, David, but I've been to a few businesses. I went to get my teeth cleaned at the dentist's, and I had to sign these ridiculous forms saying that I hadn't been around anybody. I hadn't been exposed to coronavirus - basically just another waiver that ... Like when you go skydiving, you have to sign this giant form saying you're not gonna sue them and all that stuff. I feel like it is unfair to ... We are in such a litigious society here that if we don't do something about liability, it could be really bad for businesses. David Leary: [00:13:07] Oh, I think this fully is the reason Intuit, Google, these massive companies, are having a no-travel policy for their employees, and they're not requiring them to come to the office because it's a eliminating the liability.  Blake Oliver: [00:13:18] Right.  David Leary: [00:13:18] Nobody can say, "You made me go to this conference," or "You made me get on that airplane flight." Then, on top of that, I think once you have a company of 10,000- 40,000 employees, you probably constantly have somebody who has COVID, as well, right? I think a lot of it's just driven by the- it's legal, what's driving that. They'd much rather their employees come in. I have some stats we can get into about- working from home stats. People are starting to get- they're done with it.  Blake Oliver: [00:13:40] Oh, yeah. People are getting tired of it. We're starting to see the backlash. Those are the big ones. Payroll tax cut, I mentioned; nobody's interested in that except the White House. Then, Democrats just have a ton of other funding - U.S. Postal Service, the elections, food assistance, transit systems, student loan relief - quite a range of programs. Republicans just wanna focus the bill on COVID, directly. That's what's going on with stimulus right now. Again, not that much to report. Hopefully, in our next episode, we'll have an actual bill or a proposal to talk about. [00:14:10] Something related - state CPA societies, and the AICPA are calling for federal relief for state and local governments amid the coronavirus. This is something that has also been a sticking point - actually a nonstarter, really, with many Republicans in the Senate -   bailing out, basically, the cities, like New York City, that had to spend a lot of money to fight this thing. I think that's gonna change. As we see, the virus is moving inward into smaller cities. Florida is being hit all over the state, right now. I think you're gonna see those senators change their minds on bailouts, once those local areas that are more Republican leaning start to suffer and can't afford to pay their bills. David Leary: [00:14:48] So, states like, for example, South Dakota, where they're just like, "Oh, we've won this ... We've done so well. We never locked down ..." Eventually, it's going to get there, and their opinions are gonna change, and the way they pass legislation is gonna be affected- Blake Oliver: [00:15:02] Yeah, I think so.  David Leary: [00:15:03] -based on the impact in their own states. That makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. Have you been keeping up with the whole PPP loan forgiveness stuff? Blake Oliver: [00:15:09] So, I saw that the AICPA released a loan forgiveness tool. This is at PPPforgivenesstool.com. It's powered by Biz2Credit. AICPA, in partnership with Biz2Credit, created this online form. It's available to any business, any CPAs. You can fill out the application online, and the tool produces all the forms that you need to submit for forgiveness. David Leary: [00:15:31] Yeah, and the AICPA, they're really marketing this and pushing it hard. They really are. It's all over social media. I'm constantly seeing it come through my feeds, but I'm also seeing from the AICPA, they've had these webinars, and they're telling people: don't apply for forgiveness yet. Wait; just wait; just wait. I feel like the AICPA is sending out a mixed message here. Should people use your tool and apply for forgiveness or should they just wait? Blake Oliver: [00:15:51] Well, and I'm not really sure, what is the relationship here with AICPA and Biz2Credit? Why did the AICPA create a tool that is available to every small business and non-AICPA members? Luke Templin (@luke_templin) on Twitter said, "@DavidLeary @BlakeTOliver, did the AICPA just miss out on an opportunity to add more members or add more value to their current members? I would have considered rejoining to have access to the #PPP forgiveness tool." So, by giving it away to everybody, did the AICPA just reduce value for its members? David Leary: [00:16:25] So, a small business owner now could just Google- find that tool because it has a great domain name. They find the tool, and they just do it there, and then they don't hire their accountant to do this for them. Blake Oliver: [00:16:34] Right. I think the AICPA should be focused on creating tools for its members, not potentially taking work away from them. It's strange. David Leary: [00:16:42] Yeah. It's a confusing message. They're doing a good job marketing it, though. It's a good domain name. Blake Oliver: [00:16:49] It is a good domain name. What else do we wanna talk about? I think that's all I've got about PPP stimulus. David Leary: [00:16:56] You had a PPP article about your stripper stimulus. Do you wanna touch on that? Blake Oliver: [00:17:00] That's a good one. So, I just thought this was another- this is a funny article. Clearly, the reporter had a good time writing this. It's a Reuters story. The headline here is: "Strip-club stimulus reveals lingering uncertainties over U.S. small-business aid." The opening is just quite good. Let's see ... "Backlights off, music quiet and poles bare, strip clubs across the United States closed earlier this year in the face of COVID-19 social-distancing measures that precluded the up-close nature of the exotic dancing industry. Like many businesses, these cabarets, lounges, and gentlemen’s clubs hoped a $660 billion Small Business Administration (SBA) loan program would help them weather the lockdown. But nearly four months since the launch of the loan initiative known as the Paycheck Protection Program, it is still unclear whether the SBA can make it rain for them." David Leary: [00:17:48] Oh, boy ... Is the problem, if I remember correctly, that when they created the PPP structure, and the SBA loans, certain types of businesses can't get them? Blake Oliver: [00:17:59] This was the Trump administration. Trump administration put this in the PPP bill. "Companies that present live performances of a prurient sexual nature are precluded from participating." So, there's a question as to what is prurient? What is a performance of a prurient sexual nature? Does that include dancing? There's a variety of levels of undress. So, this is now going through the court system. Just like all of the tax issues when it comes to these kind of businesses, it can be a little bit entertaining. So, clubs have sued, and two federal judges have rebuked the SBA for excluding the establishments from receiving the forgivable loans. David Leary: [00:18:37] The SBA had a previous policy that restricts organizations, for example, churches and strip clubs, but when they passed PPP, apparently houses of worship got an exemption in the normal rules. Blake Oliver: [00:18:48] Yep.  David Leary: [00:18:48] But the whole point of the PPP is the Paycheck Protection Program- if those people are getting paychecks, if it's a business giving paychecks, I just ... Blake Oliver: [00:18:56] Right. If it's a legal business- this is a business that is allowed to normally operate, but for some reason, they are excluded from the program? That just seems unreasonable. We should be excluding illegal businesses but not legal ones, regardless of what you think of them. David Leary: [00:19:12] Yeah. If they have an EIN numbers, and they're paying taxes- Blake Oliver: [00:19:13] Yeah, let them in on it, right?  David Leary: [00:19:16] -and filing payroll- 941s.  Blake Oliver: [00:19:18] This has an impact on the workers there, like you said. Jordan Lawrence is a dancer who was interviewed in this story. She lost her job in insurance during the pandemic, and returned to her former profession as a dancer a few weeks ago. Even though she had saved up for years, she struggled to pay her bills without her old job. Lawrence said she is frustrated the SBA is squeezing her industry just as she is getting back on her feet and the stage. "These people need to come out here and interact with people like me because they are interfering with our livelihood. We have bills to pay, too." David Leary: [00:19:46] Let's transition from that to working at home. Blake Oliver: [00:19:49] Yeah, we may have spent a little bit too much time on that [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:19:51] It's the fundamental nature of it. It goes back to the fundamental basic problems with the PPP. It's called the Paycheck Protection Program to protect people from getting laid off, and it's gotten- everybody skewed it to their own definition of what that program is. Blake Oliver: [00:20:07] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:20:07] It's gotten so far away from what it was designed ... How many weeks now? It feels like a year ago, but we're at week [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:20:13] The time is irrelevant. There is no ... David Leary: [00:20:16] Sometime in 2020 ... That's how we'll summarize everything. "Back in 2020 ..."  Blake Oliver: [00:20:20] The first year of quarantine ... David Leary: [00:20:22] Maybe these strippers could work from home. I don't know. Is that even possible? I can tell you-  Blake Oliver: [00:20:26] Well, actually-  David Leary: [00:20:26] Do you have a work-at-home article about this?  Blake Oliver: [00:20:29] -there has been an actual humongous uptick in "camming" - these kind of performances on a webcam and people pay. So, instead of going to a club, you can now watch somebody dance on a camera from the comfort of your home and social distance. So, now you have all of these people working from home, too. Just like accountants are working from home, we have dancers now all working from home, too. The whole economy has shifted to work from home. I think that's a great transition to the remote-work topic. David Leary: [00:20:59] Journal of Accountancy had an article about why Zoom meetings really leave you exhausted. Blake Oliver: [00:21:03] Yeah, and I feel this. I don't know about you, David, but if I'm on Zoom for more than a few hours a day, I get a little weird. David Leary: [00:21:10] Oh, I'm not kidding ... I'm only gonna do Zoom calls three days a week, possibly. I cannot ... It's just killing me now. I'm probably on Zooms now, eight to 10 hours a day, five days in a row. You could tell, for us, we used to record the podcast on Friday evenings. I physically text you on Friday afternoon. I'm like, I physically cannot do another ... I cannot get on with you, Blake. Let's push this out to Saturday morning- Blake Oliver: [00:21:35] Because you're tired, yeah.  David Leary: [00:21:35] It's affecting our podcast. I'm physically and mentally exhausted from doing Zooms.  Blake Oliver: [00:21:40] So, what's the reason that Zoom is exhausting? David Leary: [00:21:42] It's techno stress, right? Blake Oliver: [00:21:46] Techno stress?  David Leary: [00:21:46] Techno stress. It's a lot of things, I think, with working at home. It's hard to use these tools in a healthy manner that balances personal and professional. If you think about your warm up to the day, before, you'd eat breakfast, take a shower; you could do all those things. Now, you're waking up, and you start a Zoom call. There's no boundary. I think that's part of it. Then, the physical part of it, different people have different quality of audio. You and I would go out of our way to make sure we have high-quality audio because it's physically exhausting to listen to poor-quality audio. Blake Oliver: [00:22:19] Yep.  David Leary: [00:22:19] I guarantee you every Zoom meeting you're in, most people do not have a high-quality audio connection. Blake Oliver: [00:22:25] Yeah, and you can really tell when somebody invests in like a good microphone, and there's no feedback. It makes a big difference. David Leary: [00:22:31] Yeah. On top of that, they're saying it's exhausting to watch The Brady Bunch view, where you have the table, and you have everybody's teeny little head on all those things. Blake Oliver: [00:22:40] Because you're trying to focus and see what's going on with all of them at once. You can't ... It's really hard to do that. I turn that off. I just look at the active speaker at a certain point-  David Leary: [00:22:51] I'm always trying to figure out who's speaking ... You can't find out. So, there's that going on, but I think, in general ... There's a bunch of articles I saw this week about people wanna return to physical workspaces. They're working too many hours now. There's statistics about people do- staff does worse when working from home if people aren't checking on them. Blake Oliver: [00:23:10] Yeah, there was a story in The Wall Street Journal: "Companies start to think remote work isn't so great after all." It's basically that idea that the productivity that we saw right after the pandemic caused everyone to start working from home, that was due to people being afraid that they might lose their jobs. So, everyone's just hustling at home, trying to get a bunch of work done. We all were like, "Oh, wow, remote work works!" because we're all being productive at home, but that was a temporary- at least, that's the gist of this story. [00:23:38] Cracks are emerging; projects taking longer; training is tougher; hiring and integrating new employees are more complicated. Now, this is all anecdotal. I don't think there were any studies done of this yet, but it will be interesting to see if the studies that do inevitably follow back up that long-term remote work is more challenging than we thought. David Leary: [00:24:01] I have some stats about remote work from three different studies that just give some insights to where I think we are, right now, in this work-from-home thing. I know that I'm personally- I'm feeling trapped. I can't go to Starbucks ... I've worked remotely, and that's the difference, I think. Working remotely and having freedom to go to a Starbucks, or anywhere you wanna work, where I can take my backpack and work is much different than being locked in, forced to work at home. Blake Oliver: [00:24:24] 100 percent. I used to get out every day. I would go have breakfast, I would go have coffee, I would go out to lunch. I made sure that I got out. I rode my bike. I was always out and about, even though I was working from my apartment.  David Leary: [00:24:37] Let me jump into some of these articles. This an article on CFODive.com. "Staff do worse when asked to report frequently, accounting study shows." This is actually specific about accounting review. Staff were frequently asked to report on their progress ... Basically, Blake, I hit you on Slack every hour: "Is that project done? Is this done? Is this done?" Staff who frequently are asked to report on their progress, perform their work more poorly than staff who aren't subject to the same reporting requirements. Blake Oliver: [00:25:03] By reporting frequently, you mean, my boss says, "Every day, when you get to work, tell me what you're gonna work on. Then, every day before you log off, tell me what you did." David Leary: [00:25:12] Yes. If you're being micromanaged, you're gonna be less productive. Blake Oliver: [00:25:16] It makes sense, right? It would be kind of stressful, too, to have to do that every single day. David Leary: [00:25:22] There's another article on Smallbiztrends.com: "66% Working from Home Say They're More Likely to Work Nights and Weekends." It just goes through that.  Blake Oliver: [00:25:29] Yeah, absolutely. David Leary: [00:25:31] 19 percent of home workers, they're starting their day earlier and finishing later because of the quarantine. Blake Oliver: [00:25:37] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:25:37] So, you probably used to have a 9-to-5 job, where you spent an hour on both ends commuting. Now, you're just filling that with work. Blake Oliver: [00:25:43] Well, work expands to fill the time you allocate to it, right? That's the classic phrase. So, if you have no boundaries between work and home because you're always at home, then you'll just work all the time. David Leary: [00:25:54] Yeah. This was a survey of 2,000 Americans that typically work in offices but now have been working remotely because of the pandemic. So, I guess you and I probably wouldn't fall into that, in this survey, but less than half of them - 49 percent - said they feel their boss trusts them when working from home. Blake Oliver: [00:26:10] Less than half. Wow.  David Leary: [00:26:10] Less than half. About 43 percent think their bosses trust them, for the most part; seven percent believe their employer does not really trust them at all. Blake Oliver: [00:26:19] I have a theory about this whole remote-work experience- experiment, if you will ... Which is that what it is revealing, that is causing stress for both managers and employees, is that we are actually really, really unproductive going to an office every day; that the amount of work that you actually do is not that much. Studies bear this out. We've talked about this in the past on the podcast that most knowledge workers do four hours of work a day and the other four hours in the office is wasted. The office experience hides that. It masks that because you spend time at meetings, you're walking around talking to people. You feel like you're getting a lot of stuff done, even though you're not, when you actually measure it. Then, when you take away the office and all the trimmings and trappings of that, and you sit at home, you're only doing like four hours of actual work, and you feel really unproductive, and you feel crappy about yourself, and your boss is wondering what the hell you're doing all day long. David Leary: [00:27:17] Then, on top of that, going to meetings physically is not as exhausting as all these Zoom meetings. Then, you're beating yourself up because you're just like, "I didn't get any work done, but I can't even bring myself to try to do some work because I'm so beat up. Blake Oliver: [00:27:29] Well, because meetings, most of the time, aren't actual real work in an office setting. You're not actually accomplishing anything; you're hanging out in a lot of cases. David Leary: [00:27:38] I have another survey that's also on Small Biz Trends. This is: "Employees Want to Return to a Physical Workplace." This is from a survey done from some company called Hibob. This is another 2,000 people they've surveyed; different survey, though. 36 percent of employees prefer to work from the office. 43 percent of employees would like to return to the office once or twice a week. Only 21 percent of employees actually work from home- Blake Oliver: [00:28:02] Want to work from? David Leary: [00:28:03] Yeah, regularly. So, people want some balance. I think a lot of this is it's freedom ... I wanna be free from being micromanaged. I want the freedom to be trusted that I'll work correctly, and I'll get work done when I'm at home. I also want the freedom to go to the office. I want freedom to work ... It's coming down to an almost full circle- swinging back the pendulum to what you started, about this balance of being locked down versus the risk of COVID. Right now, the work-from-home shift swung way too far the other way, and now the balance is gonna have to swing back the other way. It's just gonna have to; people are gonna have to have some options to go work in an office for part time, some part of the day. [00:28:45] This article actually has some tips in here, as well, on ways you can prepare your office. Using a guideline - CDC or your local government's providing - you wanna disinfect and remap your seating arrangements. I've heard a lot of companies that are doing- swapping days. There's a sign-up form, and only 10 people a day can sign up, then come into the office. You can't have 30 people in the office, but you can have 10. So, there's ways for companies to do this and get this balanced. But, yeah, it swung too far the other way, and people are gonna start rebelling against it now. I mean, it's human nature. We just can't be locked down like this. Blake Oliver: [00:29:16] We're social animals. We need to be together for a certain amount. But there's a compromise. Again, going back to the theme at the beginning of this episode, it's not one or the other. Perhaps there is a happy medium.____________________Hey, I'm hoping that you're enjoying this episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast. Normally, this is part of the podcast there'd be an ad for a great product or app, but as you've probably noticed, this episode is missing a sponsor. Blake and I could really use your help. If you know an amazing product or service that is looking to get in front of forward-thinking accountants and bookkeepers like yourself, please send them our way by emailing [email protected]. Make sure they tell us that you referred them, and I'll be sure to send out a nice Cloud Accounting Podcast Fan Package to you and your firm. Be sure to tell them to hurry. There are only 10 slots still remaining for 2020. Now, back to the show.____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:30:12] Should we talk about ScaleFactor-  David Leary: [00:30:13] Yeah, let's jump into ScaleFactor.  Blake Oliver: [00:30:13] -I feel like that's the elephant in the room. David Leary: [00:30:15] It's massive, massive, massive. So, I think we talked about ScaleFactor two weeks ago? Blake Oliver: [00:30:21] Two weeks ago. Yeah, I thought this was all gonna be over. Then, Forbes came out with this story you've brought this week that just is like an exposé on a ScaleFactor and what went down there. So, perhaps you could summarize it for us. David Leary: [00:30:34] Yeah, so, it was two, three weeks ago- three episodes ago, ScaleFactor announced they were shutting down. We talked about that then. So, ScaleFactor, those of you, if this is your first time ever listening to our podcast, and you've never heard of ScaleFactor, ScaleFactor is one- I like to call it ... It's an accounting or bookkeeping firm with engineers.  Blake Oliver: [00:30:50] VC-funded. They had raised $100 million dollars in a year to disrupt bookkeeping. David Leary: [00:30:58] I'll put links to some of our old podcast episodes, where we have talked about them because we've questioned the numbers a lot ... What are you doing with that $100 million? When they've come out in their press releases, they said, "We only have 500 customers ..." or 750 customers. The math never worked. It never made a lot of sense. Blake Oliver: [00:31:16] The fundraising rounds kept getting bigger and bigger, and we weren't seeing the results. We've been following them since they were like a Series-A company. First, they raised $10 million; then, not that long after, they raised $30 million. Then, not long after that, they raised $60 million.  David Leary: [00:31:28] The reporter that released the Forbes article about ScaleFactor shutting down three weeks ago, and it was all blamed on COVID, he actually ... I talked to him. He actually called me for an interview. Blake Oliver: [00:31:39] This is David Jeans? David Leary: [00:31:42] David Jeans. Yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:31:43] David Jeans. David Leary: [00:31:43] I don't have any dirt other than only from our perspective of  ... Anything we've [inaudible] I've cited some of the links to the podcast ...I think, for you and I, what we bring to the table is we have this perspective because he didn't know these other companies existed, like TaxVisor, who we've talked about. That was a few months ago.  Blake Oliver: [00:32:03] Visor, yeah.  David Leary: [00:32:03] Visor, right. They promised to do everybody's taxes, and they didn't file people's tax forms ... This combination of tech and a service. We've talked about this a lot over the last 18 to 24 months, on the podcast. I gave him some of those insights just from an industry perspective, where things are at. I actually invited him to come on the podcast because he said, "Oh, yeah, there are some other things going on I'm chasing down, from a story perspective." He didn't leak. He wouldn't give me a bite. Nothing. Now, I know why because this week, he dropped a major scathing article about ScaleFactor. Blake Oliver: [00:32:34] Yeah. You mentioned this just a moment ago, that ScaleFactor - Kurt Rathmann - blamed COVID-19 on ScaleFactor needing to shut down; that COVID hit; they lost 50 percent of their clients; therefore, there was no path to profitability, and they decided to shut down and give the money back, that was left, to the investors. David Leary: [00:32:58] Yeah. Maybe we should just go through this article a little bit. I have not highlighted an article 20 times, since Visor Tax, when I chased down that story. There's just a lot here to unpack and we can just kind of go through it, highlight by highlight. We can talk through it. To summarize our conversation last time, you suspected that the VCs, they didn't see the numbers they wanted, so they pulled their money out. You were thinking this is the VCs' fault. They got scared. They thought there was an easy out, and they pulled their money back because they just wanted to save what they could of their investment. Blake Oliver: [00:33:27] Yeah, and after the $60 million investment, I would be surprised if they didn't have control to do that. It'd be crazy to give $100 million dollars to this startup and not be able to take it back if you wanted.  David Leary: [00:33:38] My take, at the time, was like, I'm not really surprised by this, because remember we talked about how, at QuickBooks Connect, they rented a booth, and they never showed up the first day. They just had a bunch of cardboard boxes sitting there. There were just these little- I keep calling them half-assed signs that the boat wasn't right. There was just little signs. If you step back and watch it over the past year, you could ... A lot of things did not make sense, behavior-wise. Well, this article- let's go through it, line by line, because there's a lot of really shocking things in this article to talk about. Blake Oliver: [00:34:04] Give it to me. Give it to me. David Leary: [00:34:05] Basically, the gist of it is many customers started to find out, and these were like ... Like a café, it's like a coffee shop. They're starting to figure out that instead of producing financial statements, they basically found out that it's not AI or software doing it, it's dozens of accountants doing it manually-  Blake Oliver: [00:34:20] In The Philippines. David Leary: [00:34:22] Then they found out it was in The Philippines, as well. It's kind of similar to what we discovered three years ago, or two years ago, with Botkeeper. It wasn't made very forward what was happening with that.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:33] Well, it was explicitly sold as this amazing software that does your accounting for you. David Leary: [00:34:40] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:34:40] And it wasn't. Hardly any of it was, right?  David Leary: [00:34:44] Yeah. Then, ultimately, a lot of customers are saying they received their books filled with errors and then they had to rehire other accountants or clean up the mess themselves. To summarize this, not only were they not delivering on their software promise, they actually sucked at just being a bookkeeping firm, as well, apparently. Blake Oliver: [00:35:05] It kind of makes sense. They're software developers trying to do accounting- be an accounting firm. It couldn't be more different. David Leary: [00:35:12] Yeah, and getting down to the gist of this article, it talks about this whole- that mindset of "fake it til you make it." VCs are wanting to throw money at these companies until the product comes up to expectations. Because of that, that causes these companies to just use super-aggressive sales tactics, and chase capital-  Blake Oliver: [00:35:29] Like you said, the Facebook ads that they must have spent millions on, potentially [crosstalk] You saw them everywhere. David Leary: [00:35:37] Everywhere, yeah. Constant Facebook ads.  Blake Oliver: [00:35:37] They were going after small accounting firms, like Cruze Consulting, and targeting them with ads, trying to steal their clients. David Leary: [00:35:45] Or like we talked about that last week or a couple weeks back, when we talked about ScaleFactor, they were going after Acuity. They were really hammering ... Creating this impression ... They were chasing revenue and putting all their efforts into selling a product instead of building the product, and it catches up. This is a quote that was from some accountant that remains unnamed. "That's what I found out. ScaleFactor is pretty much a glorified bookkeeping firm," says one accountant who, like other former ScaleFactor employees that spoke to Forbes, asked to remain anonymous because they signed non-disclosure agreements and feared retaliation from the company. When I read that, you know what that reminds me of? Blake Oliver: [00:36:23] What? David Leary: [00:36:24] Elizabeth Holmes and the- Blake Oliver: [00:36:25] Theranos. Yeah. David Leary: [00:36:26] This intimidate your employees and customers, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:36:33] Before we get to the customers, you mentioned the outsourcing thing. I think this deserves a little more emphasis. Not only was ScaleFactor not using AI/machine-learning software to do the bookkeeping, they were using accountants and bookkeepers - people - to do it and kind of selling it as software behind the scenes. They didn't even have their own outsourcing operation. They outsourced that to a company called The Outsourced Accountant, which is a firm that specializes in offshoring in The Philippines.  David Leary: [00:37:06] TOA Global - they have sponsored the podcast. We know the TOA Global team, and this doesn't make them look good now because essentially the tool is glitchy and it couldn't be relied on to accurately sort transactions. Then, ScaleFactor's like, "Let's hire our own in-house accountants and bookkeepers," and then, apparently, it still was not correct, so they had problems. Now, they went to TOA Global - The Outsourced Accountant - and they still had errors in customers' books. No matter how they attacked us, they just couldn't seem to be good at bookkeeping. They weren't even good at outsourcing the bookkeeping, which is even crazier; like playing middleman.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:36] Just a total disaster. Now, let's get to this customer. There's a great example in the article of a customer who was harmed by this. David Leary: [00:37:44] Yeah. A customer, last April, canceled her contract. Her name is Lindsey Reinders. She complained online that she found out a ScaleFactor employee had incorrectly credited $17,000 to a customer of her ecommerce business. By the time she realized the error, it was six months after the fact. Blake Oliver: [00:38:04] So, she was out $17,000; couldn't collect it.  David Leary: [00:38:04] $17,000. She couldn't get it back- recoup it from the customer. When they started with ScaleFactor, they had a really good clean set of books, when they hired them. Blake Oliver: [00:38:15] Let's take that with a grain of salt because I think every business owner, when they start with you- David Leary: [00:38:18] Okay, that's true.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:18] -they're like, "Oh, my books are super-clean. It'll be super-easy for you." David Leary: [00:38:22] Maybe it was a brand-new, empty Xero or QuickBooks file, right? Literally, there's not any data in the books. So, what happened ... This is the really bad part. ScaleFactor finally agreed to offer a partial refund on her annual $23,000 contract, but only if she signed a non-disclosure agreement ... It just says, "Non-disclosure," but it's really a non-disparaging agreement, barring her from talking about her experience, and she said she did not sign it. Blake Oliver: [00:38:49] That's a pretty, pretty big mistake. David Leary: [00:38:51] There's a good quote from a coffee-shop owner. There's a San Francisco-based coffee shop, the owners, Cornelia, and Robert Stang, they're currently hiring a new accountant to fix months of erroneous bookkeeping. They argue, basically, "We're just a coffee shop, and if you can't fix our problems, you can't fix anybody's." Blake Oliver: [00:39:09] It's not that complicated, right? David Leary: [00:39:10] The reason this article existed a couple of weeks back is Kurt Rathmann, and ScaleFactor, they approached Forbes to write an article. "Hey, would you like to cover us and how we had to shut down because of COVID?" Now- Blake Oliver: [00:39:24] Why would they do that? David Leary: [00:39:26] So, now that the reporter has written this scathing article, basically they ... I'll read this - it's actually in the article itself - so I don't misquote this: "ScaleFactor declined to make Rathmann available for an interview for this article and would only respond to emailed questions replying, 'The email below is filled with numerous factual inaccuracies and misrepresentations,' said Rathmann in emailed statements sent by a spokesperson. 'I have no further comment.'" Blake Oliver: [00:39:51] So, just saying it's inaccurate, but not specifically what's inaccurate. David Leary: [00:39:54] Yeah. There's other stories about customers that they just finally canceled the contract because they didn't deliver on the promise. Blake Oliver: [00:40:00] That's the thing that's really like ... I don't know. I find this troubling - they had an internal policy to slow-play customers who wanted to cancel. There was a quota that you couldn't allow more than a certain number of customers to cancel, so they would play all sorts of games with them to try and keep them on the hook. David Leary: [00:40:16] Oh, yeah, we can get into the games. They played lots of different kinds of games. Blake Oliver: [00:40:19] Let's talk about it.  David Leary: [00:40:20] When they started to go for the next round, some investors on their due diligence started to discover, like, wait a minute, this is more of a service company and less of a tech company. They're starting to discover- Blake Oliver: [00:40:29] I feel like anybody who did any due diligence should have realized that. We'll talk about that at the end. David Leary: [00:40:35] Actually, there's a whole Twitter thread ... We could talk about the tech, and VCs, and their defense of ScaleFactor, which- we can talk to about tech culture and that separately, a little bit. Not only, like you said, did they prioritize refunds, and they slowed churn, and they tried not to let customers [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:40:54] They DE-prioritized refunds.  David Leary: [00:40:55] Yeah, because they didn't want it to affect their numbers when they'd go to get more VC money. Blake Oliver: [00:40:59] Right.  David Leary: [00:40:59] Not only that. They actually put  - creative accounting ... They put all of the customer service team under cost of goods sold. Blake Oliver: [00:41:07] Well, no, they didn't. So, that's the thing- David Leary: [00:41:10] Oh, yeah, sorry. The opposite, yeah. Go ahead. I'll let you do this.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:10] Yeah. This is the accounting trick: if you run an accounting firm, the labor to do the bookkeeping is part of cost of goods sold. That's cost of service. They were putting it under operational expenses, right?  David Leary: [00:41:26] Yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:26] So, it made their business look like a tech company because they had very little cost of goods sold ... You're selling software. They had buried it all in operating expenses. For a firm that supposedly does accounting to do this to its investors, I bet they were pissed when they figured that out. David Leary: [00:41:48] Yeah. Then, did you see what they did with their employees? Because they were pushing for so much sales; they needed sales numbers to get more money, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:41:57] The incentives, right?  David Leary: [00:41:59] Incentives, yeah. They basically had their sales team. They came out and they said if the team could sell $800,000 in new bookings for the month of June, ScaleFactor would double the team's bonuses, several employees say. For some employees, that was the chance of a lifetime. By the time it was all done - they summarized this - they celebrated; they had a big party. They hit their numbers. They even had arts and crafts. They had the big, huge checks, like those, you know, for photo ops. "Look at this big, huge bonus check I got!" Then, a few weeks later, they basically were told some of the deals weren't good and that they're not legitimate; the team did not hit their goal, and they're not gonna give that money. In the meantime, during that time, because ScaleFactor "hit the numbers," ScaleFactor was able to get that next round. Blake Oliver: [00:42:40] Wow. Wow. So, I, as an investor ... Figuring this out, that ScaleFactor had distorted their financials by misclassifying ... Major accounting irregularity to misclassify the service to do the accounting and bookkeeping, not put that in cost of sales, or cost of goods sold, I'd be pissed about that. Basically, that's lying to your investors. Then, to do that to the sales team? To have them hit this goal, and then, "Oh, they didn't really hit the goal," and use that as a way to get your next round of funding ... We don't have the other side of the story here because ScaleFactor has not commented on this. We should probably go ask them. David Leary: [00:43:22] I've reached out in the past. In a weird, stupid way, I think I've ... Even when I was still at Intuit, I've reached out to Kurt Rathmann before. I reached out to him then; I reached out to him when I was at AutoEntry. I reached out, as the podcast, as well. I've reached out to him a couple of times ... I think I reached out after their first round of layoffs before, when we were wondering about the numbers, and just never got any replies back. Some part of me is like, well, yeah, of course, because if they ever talked to me, or you, we would've smelled everything, instantly.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:51] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:43:51] It could be completely just me inflating my own ego, but at some level, like I feel like ... I've talked to Pilot ... We've obviously talked to Botkeeper. We've talked to every other player in this space. I've talked to the founders of Bench. I've talked to everybody except for ScaleFactor. I finally talked to ScaleFactor boys at QuickBooks Connect, and then had a Zoom call with them a little bit later on, but I always felt like it was really hard to get a hold of them, in general, for me. Usually, I reach out to a company; I'm like, "Hey, I'm David Leary, blah-blah-blah. I was at Intuit for 20 years ..." They get on a Zoom with me. I just felt it was really, really hard to connect with them.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:32] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:44:32] There were a couple of conclusions that came in here. One of them is, at the end of the day, the only tool that had any automation in it was an internal workflow engine, basically, a guided to-do list. The best way I could think about this, it's essentially- Blake Oliver: [00:44:46] It's a practice-management tool. David Leary: [00:44:47] Yeah, or it's more similar to a Process Street, where some of that, you do some of the manual process, and you hit a button, and then, that kicks off a Zapier, or something. It runs [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:44:59] Workflow automation. David Leary: [00:45:00] Yeah. That's about where they're at, and if I had a bet anything, it was onboarding. It was all about how do you take that Facebook ad, turn that customer and onboard? It was probably all on that side. Then, at the very end of the article, and I'll just read this word for word: "At the end of the day, Kurt Rathmann explained to Forbes last month, customers were craving a person, rather than a computer to do their accounting. 'We really thought we could automate the entire back office of a small business,' Rathmann said. A lofty goal that more money couldn’t achieve."  Blake Oliver: [00:45:29] They never even got close to automating any of it. That's the thing that I don't understand. Did they have tools in development that they just never managed to get out there? If all they really had was a workflow tool, then they really didn't spend the money on building the software, or they completely failed. One thing I would add to the end of this is the VC due diligence. I wonder- I really wonder ... I have questions as to how much due diligence did these VCs do and how did they fundamentally misunderstand the business, to not realize that ScaleFactor was essentially a service business masquerading as a software business? The SaaS metrics - Software as a Service metrics - just don't work in the service business. You are never gonna get the growth that you need to get to get the returns that you need. That's why VCs typically don't invest in accounting firms. It's a slow-growth strategy. David Leary: [00:46:21] It makes me wonder about the due diligence because there's this concept of "eat the dog food," and I'm doing it right now at my job with Melio. I run my business on Melio, so I know what's well, what's bad, what we need to fix in Melio, etc., right? That was the same when I was at QuickBooks. You eat the dog food. I was on the Intuit Payroll team, and you really used the product. You'd either find a business to volunteer for it ... You would actually use the product. If I'm an investor ... If I'm gonna invest in Uber, I'm probably gonna take some Uber rides. Do investors for a company like this, are they like, "All right, here, ScaleFactor, do my books and I'll decide if I'm gonna invest or not?" I don't see that happening- Blake Oliver: [00:46:56] Yeah, no chance.  David Leary: [00:46:56] How is the due diligence then? Who's eating the dog food? Is it just you're making decisions on slide decks, and promises? Blake Oliver: [00:47:03] There is so much money in the VC world chasing the good deals that if you're good at selling your idea, your concept, your startup, if you're good at presenting it, there isn't actually a lot of due diligence that happens, unfortunately, because the VCs don't have a lot of time. They've got a lot of money. They need to spend it. They're just throwing it at you. This is a perfect tie-in to Modern Monetary Theory, David, believe it or not. David Leary: [00:47:31] Let's not skip to that yet. Let's not skip to that yet because I wanna talk about the VCs. There are people out there defending ScaleFactor. Many of them are from outside our space.  Blake Oliver: [00:47:37] Oh, yes, yes.  David Leary: [00:47:37] Like, on Twitter, everybody who's in the accounting/bookkeeping space are just like, "This is embarrassing." It really does- it makes accounting ... I mean, Kurt's a  CPA, right? Blake Oliver: [00:47:48] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:47:48] It makes CPAs look bad. It makes bookkeeping firms look bad. It creates weird price pressure and weird expectations because they marketed it so well and, ultimately, they messed up small businesses' businesses, and that's the worst part about this. I see this defense, this startup culture, like, "Oh, well, it's startup culture life here. There's gonna be mistakes. These things happen." I'll read a quote from somebody on Twitter. This is a VC investor. He's really criticizing ... Just like we went through this article and talked about the article, he went through and criticized the article. Blake Oliver: [00:48:20] I don't think you mentioned his name. It's Siri Srinivas. David Leary: [00:48:23] He basically went through the article line by line, or point by point, and criticized the article because he's trying to defend that articles like this are kind of out of context. This guy clearly has no idea about ScaleFactor because he writes ... One thing is that this is just qualitative feedback. 'You named three whole companies without knowing any details.' He said, "I surmise that ScaleFactor had hundreds, if not thousands of customers. The article presents no numbers. I can bet the best companies have three grouchy customers." This guy obviously has no idea that ScaleFactor only hit like 500 customers. Blake Oliver: [00:48:56] Right.  David Leary: [00:48:56] At best, maybe 750, in their one press release. Blake Oliver: [00:49:00] I got some feedback - I don't remember who it was from - after that episode that we did on ScaleFactor that you have to take into account customer churn in the number of customers that they had. So, it's not that they spent millions to get a few-hundred customers or a thousand customers, whatever it was ... We don't think it was more than a thousand, right? But that they potentially had many thousands of customers over those years, and they just lost them. David Leary: [00:49:24] Well, I don't even know if that's true, and here's the reason why, anecdotally speaking. Usually, I hear from accountants, and bookkeepers, "Oh, my God, I just got a client that was at ScaleFactor, and their books were a mess." I hear it through the grapevine. I didn't ever hear this much about ScaleFactor, and the reason why is I don't think they had enough volume. Blake Oliver: [00:49:42] So, yeah, there's a defense from the other startup folk - it's unfair that they've been targeted this way for failing - but I think, if you really dig into it, it's pretty bad. David Leary: [00:49:53] Yeah, and then he talks about the lady who lost the $17,000, and it's like, "Oh, this shit happens. It's gonna happen." It's very this like, "Uh-oh, startup life ... Sorry, you lost $17,000."  Blake Oliver: [00:50:02] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:50:02] That really pisses me off because it's complete bullshit. It's okay to make it and fake it if you're making a $14 avocado-toast delivery. If you f*^& that up, it's not a big deal, but if you f*^& up people's small business by $17,000, you could put a small business under. Blake Oliver: [00:50:18] You could.  David Leary: [00:50:18] It's just not ... That mindset cannot be there with small businesses. Delivering avocado toast? Fine, be a bullshit company. Fake it. But if you're gonna get into our space - accounting, and bookkeeping - you need to do it correctly. Blake Oliver: [00:50:29] Yes. David Leary: [00:50:29] That's it. If not, get out of our space. Go work on avocado-toast deliveries. It kind of pisses me off that this attitude is there of like, "Oh, well, a small business owner got f*^&ed? Who cares?"  Blake Oliver: [00:50:40] So, successful deserves blame. I think the VCs deserve blame for not doing their due diligence. This easy money pouring into startups enables this attitude, this "fake it till you make it," "collateral damage is acceptable" attitude of running a business.  David Leary: [00:51:01] We saw that with the Visor Tax. Same thing.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:03] Yeah, exactly. It's like, "It's okay, because we're ..." crosstalk  David Leary: [00:51:04] "We didn't file your taxes. Oh, well."  Blake Oliver: [00:51:07] "We're failing fast. We're breaking things ..." What was it Zuckerberg said? "Move fast and break things" was the motto at Facebook for a long time. We see where that got us, as a society, right? There is economics at play here. This is not just something that's caused because people are, I don't know, unethical or whatnot. In the end, everything comes down to economics- David Leary: [00:51:28] And behaviors, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:51:29] -and money determines behavior. So, here's the tie-in to Modern Monetary Theory, which we touched on a little bit in the last episode. We actually didn't talk about it, but I do wanna talk about it. David Leary: [00:51:41] I made a joke about my kids having to pay back the loans or something like that, and-  Blake Oliver: [00:51:46] Right, right. So, last episode we were talking about the stimulus and the billions of dollars of PPP. I said I really hope that this did the job, that it actually saved 50 million jobs because it's a lot of money, and our kids are gonna have to pay for it, and we were arguing about that. We were joking about that. That's an argument against spending a ton of money on stimulus, is that, hey, this all has a price - how much is appropriate to spend, and whatnot.  [00:52:12] One of our listeners, Sean Birdsell ... Thank you for listening, Sean. He had a really enlightening take on this, and it made me think a lot about economics and about what you and I were talking about. I'll read this thread here. He said, on Twitter, @SBirdsell, "Disappointed to hear @davidleary and @BlakeTOliver make a few amateur mistakes on the @CloudAcctPod in discussing how the US debt will impact future generations. A few thoughts: You need to look at debt service vs GDP, or debt service vs total federal spending. It doesn't matter what the debt is in absolute terms, it matters what the servicing costs are relative to your national spending ... You also need to consider Debt to GDP. You don't "repay" the debt, you just grow the economy. If you consider #Covid_19 to be on par with a war, you're doing just fine. Yes there are risks associated with the unprecedented quantitative easing undertaken by your central bank, but this broad notion of "my kids will need to pay for all this stimulus," or "we'll have to raise taxes to pay for all this PPP funding" is simply false." [00:53:14] So, basically, disputing that idea that we are going to have to pay this back someday because that's not how federal spending works. This concept is broadly known as Modern Monetary Theory, which is that the federal government prints money and has a monopoly on money. If you think like an accountant, you're gonna think there's always a debit for every credit. So, if I create money- if I create an asset, I have to create a liability. That's how a balance sheet works. I think most of us intuitively think that way. When we think when the government prints money, someday, we have to pay that back, right? Or we spend money in the federal government, we someday have to pay that back. David Leary: [00:53:57] Well, I mean, that's when, I think, in the '80s, when they started these debt clocks, or whatever.  Blake Oliver: [00:54:01] Right. Yeah, we're burdening future generations. So, economists in this Modern Monetary Theory world say that, actually, that's not necessarily true because the federal government can simply print money. We can use our ability, our monopoly on money, to simply print it and spend it and increase the money supply, and it never actually has to get paid back. The only time it becomes a problem is when you have too much inflation. Basically, as long as you can keep inflation under control, you can just print money. Some economists are saying we should do more of this, and that's how we should dig ourselves out of the COVID recession is just print money, give it to people, let them spend it. I'm vastly simplifying, of course, these economic arguments, but that's one, and that we shouldn't be focused on the debt too much. [00:54:47] Here's the tie-in to the whole VC thing - over the last 10 years, ever since the financial crisis of 2008, this easy money policy of the government has existed. Since 2008, the Fed has doubled the amount of money in the economy; doubled the money supply. What they have done is push down interest rates to almost zero percent to create economic growth. We've made money really cheap. That's had a good impact in that we've been able to sustain a long period of economic growth. But the downside of it - and we can see this in ScaleFactor - is that there's so much money in the economy sloshing around that it doesn't always have a place to go, and it doesn't always get allocated to the best places. So, the idea is like, when money is cheap, you, as a venture capitalist, can easily obtain it, so you're not really that concerned about where you invest it. David Leary: [00:55:38] Then, I guess if you're a rich person, who has lots of money, and if interest rates are only paying one percent, you're gonna be more willing to just start giving it to VCs. Like, "Go try to make some real percentages on this money." Blake Oliver: [00:55:49] Right, because you can't get it in a savings account. Those interest rates are like nothing. It's hard to get it from bonds because bond interest rates are super-low because the federal government essentially can control that with federal interest rates. So, the only place for the money to go where it can get a decent return is capital markets - the stock market or private investments. That's what happens is rich people have a ton of money because it's cheap, and they go put it into assets. That's why the stock market is at record highs, even in the middle of a pandemic, not because the fundamentals are good, but it's because the money just doesn't have anywhere else to go. [00:56:31] So, I went back and forth with Sean on Twitter about this. I get that concept, and I think there is merit to it that, at times, you can just spend your way out of a crisis and not worry about paying it back yet, because if the economy grows, that's great, but there are costs to making money cheap. There's costs to this kind of policy. The cost is that when capital is super-cheap, people don't spend it wisely; they don't invest it wisely. Then we get these long periods of mediocre productivity growth because, you know, you have companies like Hertz that finally went bankrupt, but probably should have gone out of business 10 years ago, but they were able to keep going because they could just borrow and borrow and borrow and borrow at zero-percent interest rates, practically. David Leary: [00:57:17] Isn't that the whole- the Main Street lending program that was part of the stimulus bill. It's giving out- is it the U.S. Treasury? Blake Oliver: [00:57:25] That is the Treasury; they're directly providing loans crosstalk  David Leary: [00:57:29] -the Fed's gonna give loans at ridiculously small prices, or interest rates. Blake Oliver: [00:57:35] Yeah, and they're buying ... This is something that's new - for the first time ever, they are directly buying corporate debt. The idea is let's get these bonds off of these corporations' books and then, they can go out and borrow more money. In the end, you're just propping up something that may not be working. I think the term I read is "zombie corporations," these ones that are not really creating value. They are able to keep existing even though they're slowly failing. David Leary: [00:58:01] There are signs of this all over the economy ... The colleges, right? Because there's so much money giving out in student loans, the colleges keep raising prices to get bigger student loans, and that cycle, over and over again.  Blake Oliver: [00:58:11] They're not necessarily creating value. You  get all of these sort of mid-tier schools that are honestly providing a mediocre education. They're able to exist because everybody needs a college degree, and all this money is floating around and pouring into them for that reason, because the money's easy. Yeah, there's a cost. The Wall Street Journal has a great Saturday essay that just came out yesterday called: "The Rescues Ruining Capitalism." The subtitle is: "Easy money and constant stimulus have undermined the basic dynamics of the free market. We've paid the price in low growth and productivity, falling entrepreneurship, and rising inequality."  [00:58:46] This is the counterargument to Modern Monetary Theory, which is that, yes, you can print money; you can make money cheap; and you can keep the economy going that way, but the price is low growth and productivity. In a capitalist system, you need companies to go bankrupt. You need jobs to be destroyed so that new businesses and new jobs can be created that create more value. If you don't allow that to happen, then you stamp out innovation. Apologize to our listeners, if that was a little too wonky, but I think it all ties back to the stimulus, and it all ties back to monetary policy. Although we may not pay that much attention to it on a day-to-day basis, I think it's really critical. David Leary: [00:59:31] It's an interesting balance because there's some portion of the economy, and some portion of citizens who really need that money, or they're not gonna- they're gonna lose their home. They're gonna be homeless, right? But there's a lot of people that don't really need the money, but there's so much of it out there that they can be careless with it. Careless is a broad word, but that's kind of what it is, like, "Ah, well, then throw it at that startup. What do I care? I'll just get some more free money from the government." Blake Oliver: [00:59:54] What's crazy is that The Wall Street Journal is not exactly known as being a publication that brings up class differences very often. They like to ignore that. But, in this article, there's a mention here of how the current policy is really stimulus for the rich. It's a subsidy to the rich, because if you can borrow- if you have the ability to borrow money, like you have relationships with banks, it's cheap. So, it really helps you, as a wealthy person, take money and invest it. Poor people are honestly left out of this. So, it's not a good policy for the poor in the end. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. Take a look and read that. Hey, if you wanna have this conversation with me on Twitter, please, I'm at @BlakeTOliver. I'd love to talk to you about it. I find it fascinating. There's a few more stories here that I wanna hit on, but we're almost over our time here. Actually, we are over our time. David Leary: [01:00:46] I can do a turbo app-news one.  Blake Oliver: [01:00:47] Okay.  David Leary: [01:00:47] Where it's just the headlines quickly. So, congratulations to you, Blake. Jirav just took in an $8 million Series A funding.  Blake Oliver: [01:00:59] Yay! Thank you, David. Yeah, that was a big deal. David Leary: [01:01:03] Apparently, there's a class action suit against Plaid. So, Plaid's what everybody uses to access their bank-feed data. Visa bought Plaid. It's all your bank-feed data. Apparently, there's a lawsuit in California that it's violating people's privacy rights. We're gonna have to keep an eye on that. That's a story that's gonna be brewing. Kabbage, the loan app, the app, Kabbage, they now offer checking accounts. Brex, now, with their bank account, they're offering FDIC insurance. The other startup bank we've talked about, Revolut, they got $80 million more in new funding. Remember, they bought a bookkeeping firm in April? Blake Oliver: [01:01:34] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [01:01:34] That wraps up app news. I think, to go out on a positive note, I heard a podcast this week called, "Painting the Art of Possible" with Brad Smith. It's on the "Moves the Needle" podcast-  Blake Oliver: [01:01:45] Former CEO of Intuit. David Leary: [01:01:47] Former CEO of Intuit. It really just gives his life story a little bit and kind of what makes him tick. There's lots of little bullets on productivity hacks you could implement into your own daily life. You really understand the DNA and culture of Intuit after you listen to it. I think it was recorded way before COVID. It just finally got edited and then put out ... It's a light thing to listen to that takes you out of this world we currently live in. So, we'll put a link in to that and add that podcast in.  Blake Oliver: [01:02:17] Nice. I already mentioned my Twitter handle. I'm @BlakeTOliver. David, if people wanna reach you online, where can they do that? David Leary: [01:02:25] I'm @DavidLeary. Blake Oliver: [01:02:28] Until next time, David, have a great week.  David Leary: [01:02:31] Bye, everybody.  Blake Oliver: [01:02:31] Bye.____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________Smansha integrates with QuickBooks Online, and Xero to help put an end to cashflow problems. 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Sponsors Accountant Connect: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 06:40 – Faulty data collection raises questions about Trump’s claims on PPP program – Washington Post  10:41 – New York City Didn’t Get Fair Share of PPP Loans, Comptroller Report Says – Wall Street Journal   11:59 – Public Favors Small-Business Funds Going to Non-Chain Restaurants, Medical Groups, Private Schools - Morning Consult  13:18 – Kanye West says he’s running for president – POLITtransactions 13: 51 – Last week's discussion on PPP agent fees  14:08 – How banks are trying to hurt small business in a time of crisis - Newsweek  15:10 – Accountants predict 2020 will be worst year for economy since World War II – Accounting Today   16:00 – Wall Street’s Earnings Forecast: Cloudy With a Chance of Turbulence - Wall Street  Journal 16:50 – 5 reasons borrowers shouldn’t rush their PPP forgiveness applications - AICPA Insights Under stress, accountants seek new tech to get through the pandemic – Accounting Today  17:54 – Under stress, accountants seek new tech to get through the pandemic – Accounting Today  29:25 — U.K. Regulator Orders Big Four to Separate Audit Practices by 2024 – Wall Street Journal   32:27 – Debating the CPA License: Martin Zych + Blake Oliver + Brian Tankersley - CPA Review & More  33:40 – FASB Concepts Statement No. 8 – Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting ... – FASB  34:49 – Zoom for Home is Here to Empower Remote Workers – Zoom Zoom introduces all-in-one home communications appliance for $599 – TechCrunch   38:45 – Right Networks Releases Enhancements to Transaction Pro for QuickBooks Online – AccountingWEB  40:51 – Coconut Notches $3.15M For SMB Accounting - PYMNTS.com 42:15 – Stimulus Package May Be Unveiled Next Week - PYMNTS.com 44:28 – Fact check: Americans could get a $4,000 tax credit for domestic travel in stimulus – USA Today Sen. Schumer Calling for more Federal Funding for Small Businesses and Schools in the S. Tier – WENY Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Smansha: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with Accountant Connect. Their award-winning multi-client payroll management and analytics platform is a  remarkably effective tool for adding value to every client engagement. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Accountant Connect, later in the episode. Blake Oliver: [00:00:21] Most accountants are working harder and longer since the pandemic began, which is really interesting because I've seen other stats or articles saying that productivity is down. So, I don't know how this squares up, but accountants, themselves, are saying that they're working longer hours. Almost half are working longer hours; 38 percent have lost sleep due to work-related stress. David Leary: [00:00:41] I believe both those stats. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. Back in October of 2013, I became ClockShark's first Twitter follower. Today, ClockShark has grown into a highly rated and very-much-loved time-tracking app that is now used by over 5,000 small businesses globally. With features like crew tracking, scheduling, overtime notifications, routes, geofencing locations, job costing, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking app to handle the unique challenges that face your mobile workforce clients.   Their technology has been helpful as their clients work through the COVID-19 pandemic. Your clients will need accurate records of their expenses, and losses, and technology like ClockShark helps. With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like paid time off, and other important data to provide the necessary proof for CARES, and FFCRA Acts' benefits. This lets them get straight back to work without too much disruption after the pandemic has passed. ClockShark's standard plan is just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-L-O-C-K-S-H-A-R-K. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before September 30, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:44] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:47] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:48] So, David, we're recording on a Thursday so you can have a long weekend. Where the hell are you going?  David Leary: [00:02:52] I'm gonna go to California, believe it or not.  Blake Oliver: [00:02:54] Oh, really? David Leary: [00:02:55] I just can't ... I gotta get out of the house? I gotta get someplace where it's not 107 degrees for a couple of days. For four days, I'm just gonna go. Got an Airbnb in Venice Beach area. I'm just gonna do nothing but eat Cheetos and drink beer or something. I don't know, just do nothing.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:07] Nice. Venice is fun. David Leary: [00:03:10] That's what I've heard. Blake Oliver: [00:03:11] Hopefully, it won't be too crowded. I had a client down there. I got to go hang out at the bars and the beach. It was great. David Leary: [00:03:18] Well, I'm gonna get a mask that's the Arizona flag and then people will stay extra away from me. I guess California has their own COVID issues, right now, a spike. Blake Oliver: [00:03:27] Yeah, Venice is full of nonconformists, so I'm curious to know how many people are social distancing, wearing masks down there. That should be interesting. You'll have to let me know. David Leary: [00:03:37] Yeah, definitely. The real talk here is we are one day post-Tax Day.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:40] Yay!  David Leary: [00:03:40] Congratulations, everybody. Blake Oliver: [00:03:44] Hopefully, you're taking a little bit of a breather; maybe a vacation ... Not that you could go anywhere, but-  David Leary: [00:03:48] There was a lot of tweets on #TaxTwitter of big bottles of alcohol being opened last night, I noticed, on the feed through Twitter ... Bottles of wine ... Yeah, this has been a tough one to get to the finish, but people made it. Blake Oliver: [00:04:03] I've got some stories on our favorite topic - PPP. Questions about that data from that CSV file that SBA released on all those loans over $150,000. What else here? Wall Street earnings forecasts: a lot of companies have withdrawn their earnings forecasts, so we really don't know what's gonna happen. Accountants are pretty gloomy, unfortunately. I've got a survey here, by AvidXchange, about how accountants are seeking new technology to get through the pandemic. Apparently, there's quite a bit of adoption of cloud technology, as you might expect. Then, finally, Big Four in the UK - UK Regulator of Accounting has ordered the Big Four to separate their audit practices by 2024. Oh, and finally, remote work; Zoom is getting into the hardware game. David Leary: [00:04:53] I heard about that. I was thinking about that. I heard about that coming out. Well, just as we wind up this PPP stuff,  Congress is reconvening next week, and we might see new stimulus next week and new packages, so we can talk about some of that stuff that's coming down the pipe. Blake Oliver: [00:05:10] Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised because isn't the unemployment bonus amount of $600 per week, isn't that ending at the end of this month? David Leary: [00:05:18] Yes, at the end of July. Blake Oliver: [00:05:19] Yeah. That's a big problem because a lot of people have been relying on that during shutdowns, and a lot of states are spiking. I saw recently- the number keeps changing every day, but 41 states are having increases of coronavirus at this point. It's just all over the place. It's just spiking everywhere. So, the idea that we can get by without more stimulus- direct stimulus to individuals is hard to believe. David Leary: [00:05:42] Yeah. We can talk about that. What else? A little bit of app news. Right Networks- remember we talked about they acquired Transaction Pro? They have a little bit of news about that.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:51] Cool.  David Leary: [00:05:51] I guess this ties your PPP news; there's an article about "5 reasons borrowers shouldn’t rush their PPP forgiveness applications." Blake Oliver: [00:06:00] If you even can. I don't even know if the banks are allowing you to do that yet.  David Leary: [00:06:04] I think my lender sent me some website with a link, and I have yet to click on the link. I'm just gonna wait. Blake Oliver: [00:06:09] All right. What do you wanna start with? David Leary: [00:06:10] Why don't you start with this PPP data? That's always fun.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:14] Okay. So, that giant CSV file ... You can actually go download it; if you're listening, go to the SBA website, and search for Paycheck Protection Program loan data. You'll be eventually directed to a page where you can download a giant CSV file that you can open in Excel. It's 125 megabytes; massive file with thousands- hundreds of thousands of loans that were over $150,000. Blake Oliver: [00:06:40] The Washington Post, like a lot of news outlets, was poring through this after it came out, and they published a story raising quite a few questions about that data because it's really inconsistent. There are businesses- they found something like, I don't know if it was half a dozen or a dozen businesses that they actually spoke to, where the number of jobs saved in the column - this is Jobs Saved - didn't match anywhere close to how many employees that those businesses had. There were cases where a business might have had a few dozen employees, and they were listed as having 500 employees in the Jobs Saved column. I'm interpreting that as, even though it was called Jobs Saved, it was just number of employees on the application. They're calling it Jobs Saved because the administration wants to promote how many jobs were saved, right?  [00:07:31] Big picture, the Trump administration is saying that the 4.9 million loans supported or saved 51 million jobs. That's the number of jobs at businesses, in aggregate, that received these loans. But, as we have seen, if you call up these businesses, we find that many of them, the numbers don't match. So, the question is, what is going on there? Was there some sort of error in the database? Was there an error when the bank submitted these applications? Apparently, Wells Fargo didn't submit any employee data for any of the loans to the SBA. I guess they weren't required to; that's according to a spokesperson at the bank, that they were able to apply for these loans on behalf of their clients without even submitting the number of employees. So, all those loans are blank. David Leary: [00:08:18] So, we won't have that data til the forgiveness paperwork goes through, assuming they make anybody actually file forgiveness paperwork. Blake Oliver: [00:08:23] Right. Basically, there's a big question as to, is this number right? Did 51 million jobs get saved? Economists are saying probably not; seems very unlikely. The Washington Post has a diagram here showing some of the industries where the jobs supposedly supported by the PPP, according to this document, are greater than the entire jobs in that industry in 2019. For example, employment placement, specialty food stores, cattle ranching, grant-making, and giving, performing arts companies oil, seed, and grain farming.  [00:09:02] Those industries do not have as many jobs as the administration is saying were saved. So, no one has any answers, at this point, as to why there's this big discrepancy, and the SBA hasn't said why. Landscape architecture is a great example. That's way different. They're reporting that 114,000 jobs were supported in that industry - landscape architecture - but that's three times the number of people who worked in the industry last year. Doesn't make sense. David Leary: [00:09:27] Yeah, none of the numbers add up. There are some indicators that maybe it did save some jobs, because I think I remember, at week eight of the PPP loan, or week nine, unemployment went- the number of new claims went up. There was new ... Things started to open up, so there was new hiring happening. Blake Oliver: [00:09:42] Yes.  David Leary: [00:09:42] It was like 7 million people were new unemployment claims ... The companies ran out of their PPP and had to let employees go. If anything, it kept people employed for a little while. I'm not sure it saved jobs; it just delayed the inevitable a little bit. Blake Oliver: [00:09:58] Yeah, there's no doubt that millions of jobs were saved, and that millions of people didn't go on unemployment. We just don't know how many millions. Was it 50 million? Was it 5 million? That's a big question. I think it's an important question to answer because this program cost us $571 billion, so far- David Leary: [00:10:20] That's our kids' problem to deal with. We don't have to worry about this, Blake.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:21] Uhh, I'm hoping ...  David Leary: [00:10:21] It's two generations from now. They can worry about it.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:25] I'm optimistic about my life span, David, so I think I'm gonna end up probably paying these taxes at some point; I have some concerns. Anyway, there's one more bit of PPP news before I'm done with that. It's that The Wall Street Journal is reporting that New York City, which was hit the hardest by the pandemic, did not get its fair share of PPP loans. That's according to the comptroller of New York City. Just 12 percent of small businesses in New York City got federal aid. That is compared with 20 percent in states that were much less economically harmed, such as North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. We have reported on this previously; we didn't have hard numbers like this, but we said based, on the data, it looks like the Midwest seems to be getting way more loans. It was a result of many more small banks- small businesses having direct lending relationships with these banks already, and they were able to work the system in a way that small businesses served by giant banks, like Bank of America, and Chase, and Wells Fargo, just weren't able to do. David Leary: [00:11:31] Yeah, and I think in a lot of the Midwest, you have a lot of farms, and those farms already have loan relationships with banks. For a lot of small business owners, this is the first time they ever went to get a loan or talk to the bank, beyond just opening a checking account for their small business, or a merchant service, or something. It's unfair just because people never thought they'd be in this situation. There's nothing that's been all that fair about this. [00:11:54] I have two PPP-kind-of-related things. One is there was a survey done by Morning Consult. They interviewed 2,200 adults; they interviewed them last week, so this was right in the heat of all the 'who got PPP money' news. Remember, last week, all the headlines? So, really feeling out, "Do you support these businesses that got it? Do you don't know, don't have an opinion, or do you oppose?" Overwhelmingly, support non-franchised restaurants? 65 percent, they feel non-franchised restaurants should be getting it. Private K-12 schools should be getting a PPP loan. Blake Oliver: [00:12:26] Who is this a survey of? I missed that.  David Leary: [00:12:29] 2,200 adults. Blake Oliver: [00:12:29] Okay, just people in the country. Got it.  David Leary: [00:12:32] That's correct. At the bottom, 56 percent opposed dating apps getting the money.  Blake Oliver: [00:12:38] Like Grindr? You mentioned Grindr got a PPP loan-  David Leary: [00:12:38] I think Grindr. 55 percent opposed celebrity clothing companies, like Kanye West's company, Yeezy, which is sad because more people opposed that than companies with ties to lawmakers. Companies tied to lawmakers, only 50 percent opposed that. Religious organizations, 35 percent opposed that. 40 percent of people support- they're okay even with restaurant chains; it was still 45 percent. Medical organizations, 47 percent. Blake Oliver: [00:13:06] Well, speaking of celebrities and their clothing lines, we mentioned Kanye West's Yeezy brand got a PPP loan. He's on the ballot in Oklahoma. I don't know if you saw it. Kanye West is gonna run for president in Oklahoma. David Leary: [00:13:23] So, he's checking both boxes now. He's checking the companies tied to political people [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:13:31] Exactly. Maybe getting that loan inspired him to enter politics, so that he can get more money through influence. I don't know where I was going with that, but I do have some pandemic-related news. David Leary: [00:13:44] Before you jump into that, I have something else with the PPP. Remember, last week, you're like, "Hey, we haven't heard much about this whole PPP agent-fee stuff. Blake Oliver: [00:13:51] Yeah, the banks get the 1-, 3-, 5-percent commissions. The accountants aren't getting those agent fees that were supposedly in the bill. David Leary: [00:13:59] Yeah. So, remember Newt Gingrich from the '90s?  Blake Oliver: [00:14:01] Who can forget Newt Gingrich? He won't go away. David Leary: [00:14:05] Won't go away ... He wrote an article; it's an opinion piece in Newsweek about: "How Banks Are Trying to Hurt Small Business in a Time of Crisis." He writes this article and basically, it's about how the banks fought and lobbied to get the agent-fee stuff removed from the PPP. The argument is: most of the PPP agents are really just small businesses, themselves, with revenue under $300,000; approximately 45 percent of them are in minority and women-owned businesses. He doesn't go on to actually mention accountants in this, but it's really how the banks went out of their way to avoid paying agent fees to, essentially, small businesses.  Blake Oliver: [00:14:40] Yeah, because why would they wanna split the commission? It makes sense, right? They have all the influence, and the small firms don't. David Leary: [00:14:47] I read the article three times. I was like, "Did he say accountants in here?" No, he just says PPP agents, PPP agents, over, and over, and over again.  Blake Oliver: [00:14:52] Yeah, who exactly are those? It's usually gonna be the accounting firms, but ... I don't know. I'd be curious to know who else, other than bookkeepers, and accountants, were trying to get those agent fees, and weren't able to.  David Leary: [00:15:04] Processing that paperwork, yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:05] So, speaking of some bad news, I suppose, accountants are predicting that 2020 will be the worst year for the economy since World War II. That's according to the Q2 2020 Global Economic Conditions Survey conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants. Now, accountants in North America are surprisingly more optimistic than in other parts of the globe, but overall, accountants are not particularly optimistic. Now, let's put that in perspective-  David Leary: [00:15:37] When was this survey done? Blake Oliver: [00:15:39] This was done in Q2. I don't know exactly when, but- David Leary: [00:15:44] I feel like there were surveys in Q1 where people were pretty optimistic, but I guess this ebbs and flows with the waves of COVID, maybe. Blake Oliver: [00:15:52] Absolutely. It makes sense, right? Wall Street is having the same challenge, where they were feeling really optimistic, and now, according to The Wall Street Journal, more than 180 companies in the S&P 500 have pulled their earnings guidance in the wake of the new coronavirus pandemic, or the second wave, or the beginning, or the end of the first wave, whatever you wanna call it. This is the widest dispersion in earnings estimates in the years. It's leaving investors with really not a lot of ... Well, they don't have guidance because companies are pulling that guidance. They aren't willing to say what their earnings are gonna be. David Leary: [00:16:30] Let's see what else is ... We could jump into five reasons you probably don't want your clients to fill out that forgiveness application. Blake Oliver: [00:16:37] I know the AICPA is saying, "Hey, just hold tight; wait; more things will change. It's better just to wait now." We have, what, like 11 months to actually submit this thing? That's quite a while.  David Leary: [00:16:49] Yeah. This is directly from the AICPA. Number one is most lenders aren't ready, which you already mentioned that. Many are developing technology tools, such as 'Forgiveness portals,' so we'll see how that goes-  Blake Oliver: [00:17:01] Well, because we know how well the actual application process went, right?  David Leary: [00:17:04] Yeah. Now that you can opt into that 24 weeks to use the money, you just have this elbow room. You just have this time. There's no reason to rush at all. Since payroll costs are a significant component, now, a lot of the payroll companies, or software companies are actually building custom reports to report out this data out of your payroll software. So, if you just wait, the reports will just be done for you nicely; compliant reports will just be provided for you. There's a benefit to procrastinating here. You're not even required to make a payment until 10 months after your covered loan period ends. Then, applying for forgiveness might be easier if you use the EZ form, instead of doing the standard ... I still think there is a sixth, that they're just gonna tell people, "Don't worry about it."  Blake Oliver: [00:17:47] They're certainly not gonna be able to audit all these. All right, let's talk about accountants and technology during this pandemic. AvidXchange did a survey that was published in Accounting Today asking: "How are you responding to the pandemic using technology?" There are some interesting insights in here. "How many solutions have you added to your tech stack since the pandemic?" That's one question. About 12 percent of respondents said they have added four or more new solutions to their tech stack since the pandemic started. The largest group, over a third, 36 percent said two to three. Then, about 26 percent said one. Only about a quarter of accountants have added no technology since the pandemic started. This makes sense. People are working at home. They need to add tech. David Leary: [00:18:36] Yeah, so the quarter who didn't, it's either ... Is it 12 percent that were 100-percent already cloud and another 12 percent are people that just don't ever change, or is it there's just 25 percent that have already been there, and they didn't really have to do much new tech? Blake Oliver: [00:18:48] That's my guess. There was about a quarter that are already in the cloud. They were already set up. They didn't have to change anything, really, because they were already set up to work from home. Then, you have that 10-or-so percent, where they had nothing, and they had to add the four or more apps. Then there are the folks who are in between. David Leary: [00:19:03] It makes sense. I mean, nobody could buy a webcam. What used to be a $19 webcam, I think were all going for $220 on Amazon, for a little while there. You couldn't buy any video-conferencing type tools at all.  Blake Oliver: [00:19:16] Well, I've got a story that I'm saving for later in this episode about that Zoom hardware. Basically, it's like a $600 webcam. We'll talk about that. But continuing on with this survey here, there's another question: "New tech will make my job less stressful during COVID-19. Almost 80 percent of survey respondents said that new technology would make their job less stressful during the pandemic. Accountants are very positive about the impact of tech on making their jobs less stressful. David Leary: [00:19:46] That feels like a very different answer than would have happened two years ago or three years ago. Blake Oliver: [00:19:50] I think things are changing so rapidly, right now. I mean, it's not just accounting. Everything is changing. E-commerce, before this pandemic, was really actually small compared to the overall retail economy. It was less than 20 percent. I bet, coming out of this, it's gonna be half. I would not be surprised if we started spending half of our money on e-commerce versus in-person retail. Maybe that's a little bit extreme, but I could see it happening; at least doubling.  David Leary: [00:20:22] It almost feels like the retail locations are almost pushing you towards that. I was trying to look up an audio receiver, and I was poking around on Best Buy's website, BestBuy.com. You can't really go to the store. None of them are available. It's all, "We'll deliver it to the store for you, or ship it to your house. So, it's almost to the point where I'll just order from Amazon, then, or just use any e-commerce site, there's no ... You really can't just go in and buy something [crosstalk] food and grocery type stuff, it feels like.  Blake Oliver: [00:20:49] It's changing behavior. We never ordered groceries online ever, before this. I'm a big Amazon person, but I'd always bought things in boxes. I never bought food. I never bought furniture online. I've done both of those for the first time, now, and it was a great experience, and we'll probably keep doing that. People are getting used to this order online, and then you drive up to the store, and they put it in your trunk kind of thing, which is super-convenient, right? I love that. Everybody is getting used to this, and once they get used to it, then the behavior sticks. It only takes, what, three months for a habit to stick, right? We, as a society, have been doing this for more than three months now. So, even once, once the pandemic is over, I don't expect our behavior to go back to normal.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Accountant Connect. How can you stay on top of your game and still have time to think more strategically, or how do you keep up with all the COVID-19-related stimuli programs to make sure your clients have the documentation to get their piece of the pie? By using ADP's award-winning multi-client payroll-management and analytics platform called Accountants Connect. Be your clients' go-to guru by leveraging Accountant Connect's tools and resources to strengthen your strategic advisory role while boosting the efficiency of your traditional tax and accounting services. With ADP Accountant Connect, you can process payroll and easily integrate payroll data to the popular accounting systems, like QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage, and handle their clients' needs anywhere, anytime. Because ADP Accountant Connect was designed by accountants for accountants, it includes so much more. You can take a CPE course on trending topics, provide your clients with benchmarking data, access the tax-resource library, calculators, e-books, even template letters for communicating with your clients, and it's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-D-P. ADP has your back with Accountant Connect. ____________________David Leary: [00:22:50] Does this survey talk about the relationship with clients? Is it easier to get your clients to adopt technology, now? I know, previously, sometimes that was always the excuse: "Well, I can't get my clients to move to software. Why would I move?" Blake Oliver: [00:23:01] No, it hasn't. This survey doesn't ask about that. It has some information about disaster-preparedness plans. Apparently, about 17 percent of firms did not have a disaster plan in place before and now have put one in place. That's quite a significant number. Only 15 percent actually had a plan that they considered robust. David Leary: [00:23:23] So, basically they wrote up a plan and they just implemented it the next day because that's kind of where we're at ...  Blake Oliver: [00:23:28] Yeah, and it's funny because there were some quotes here in the article about people and their disaster-preparedness plans. A lot of that, in the pre-cloud era was "Who's gonna take the printer home? Who's gonna take the check stock home?" That sort of thing. I think actually that's probably the most urgent thing to do because getting payments out with paper checks is the thing you gotta do every week, if not every day. One other thing before we move on ... Actually, this has so many good stats. Just give me a few more stats before we move on. David Leary: [00:23:56] This is this your thing. I'll give it to you. Blake Oliver: [00:23:58] So, most accountants are working harder and longer since the pandemic began, which is really interesting because I've seen other stats, or articles saying that productivity is down. So, I don't know how this squares up, but accountants, themselves, are saying that they're working longer hours. Almost half are working longer hours. 38 percent have lost sleep due to work-related stress. David Leary: [00:24:20] I believe both those stats. Blake Oliver: [00:24:22] "Has your firm's productivity been affected by more staff working from home?" This is the thing that doesn't quite make sense. 62 percent said that productivity has decreased. So, somehow people are working more hours, but productivity has decreased. That would be unfortunate- David Leary: [00:24:41] Unless you bill by the hour. Blake Oliver: [00:24:42] Right. This is weird because ... I mean, maybe it's the fact that they're having to work more hours to accomplish the same amount of work. I guess it depends if you're billing hourly, or if you're fixed. It depends how you measure it. That's the question. David Leary: [00:24:56] I mean, subjectively speaking, I feel like I've gotten a lot of stories from accountants that everybody's working tons more than they ever have, and they're busier than they've ever been. But at the same time, there's also just more distractions. It's harder to focus ... It's not this ideal situation where you're working at home and nobody else is there. Kids are there- Blake Oliver: [00:25:16] Right, right.  David Leary: [00:25:16] It's like the days never end. I'm sure there's plenty of accountants and bookkeepers that are working Saturdays and Sundays because what's the difference between a Saturday and a Monday, or a Wednesday? Blake Oliver: [00:25:26] That's kind of the genesis of this podcast, right, David? It's so that you and I can get away from our families? David Leary: [00:25:30] Sometimes ... Sometimes, that's the plan.  Blake Oliver: [00:25:31] Sometimes. A few more stats here. "Will your firm allow employees to work from home permanently?" Of all firms, 82 percent, just the vast majority, 82 percent plan to allow employees to work from home permanently. They say it's very, or somewhat likely; it is slightly fewer, if the firm is under 50 people; that's 78 percent. If they are 50-plus, it's 88 percent.  [00:25:58] What are firms planning to do with their physical offices? Of all firms, 65 percent plan to keep their offices and locations as they are; six percent plan to significantly alter their office configuration or function, and 18 percent plan to significantly downsize space and locations, going forward. Now, the one thing that's interesting here is, if they're are large firm with 50 or more employees, that jumps to 31 percent; almost a third plan to downsize their space going forward. [00:26:28] Now, last stat in the survey: "How do you feel about your firm's response to the pandemic? Positive, somewhat positive, or negative?" 65 percent of folks responding to the survey had a very positive feeling about their firm's response to the pandemic. 24 percent, somewhat positive. Somewhat, or very negative was 11 percent. So, overall, the accounting profession did pretty good; 9 out of 10 positive, somewhat, or very, but there's about one in 10 firms, where it was not a good experience.  David Leary: [00:27:03] It feels like, in general, I think the Big Four were a little slow to do the work-from-home policies, but I think a lot of firms did it. They sent people home. The work was still there. There's tons to do. It could have been the other way; it could have been a traditional tax season where everybody needs to come in and work on Saturdays. Remember, we've had pictures of that; people taking pictures of their parking lot on a Saturday afternoon at some of the firms and the cars are still in the parking lot. I think it could have been 90 percent disapproving, but accounting firms have stepped up this year and handled this properly. Blake Oliver: [00:27:37] What's really interesting about this is that the larger firms were a bit slower, it seems, initially, to send people home, but they are now being slow to send people back. I just saw a story about I think it was PwC, or ... No, it's Deloitte is just not gonna send people back for a while. That kind of makes sense because they've got a lot more worries about lawsuits, employee liability;  they've got to deal with that, from an HR perspective, so they're gonna be a much more careful, I think, than smaller firms.  David Leary: [00:28:07] Plus, it's harder to control, I guess. A smaller firm, they can ... It's probably easy for a small firm to implement, like an every other day schedule. "Only 10 can be in the office a day. Sign up on this form. Come in, and you can be in the office, and we keep our social distancing," etc. I think a big, huge, gigantic firm, that's probably impossible to plan or work around. Blake Oliver: [00:28:26] I mentioned the Big Four, so maybe I should talk about the Big Four in the UK. David Leary: [00:28:32] Yeah, because this is all indirectly tied to Wirecard, right? [crosstalk] their previous downfall they've had, as well [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:28:41] Yeah, so the Big Four in the UK- Wirecard was German, so I guess that doesn't really count-  David Leary: [00:28:47] I think it's resurfaced, this news about all the fiascos they had in the UK over the last two years ...  Blake Oliver: [00:28:53] Yeah. There have been a string of corporate failures in the UK that really pushed public opinion against the Big Four there. To name a few: the construction giant, Carillion; the coffee-chain operator, Patisserie Holdings; the travel company, Thomas Cook Group. These are big public companies that collapsed, and everybody was asking, where were the auditors? Why didn't they see what was going on? [00:29:21] Their consequences are coming. The Financial Reporting Council, the UK's accounting, an audit watchdog, has asked the Big Four to separate their audit practices. Now, they aren't asking them to spin them off completely into completely different legal entities, which is the more extreme approach that some people were recommending. They didn't decide to do that, but they're gonna basically put up, it seems to me sort of like a wall inside of the firms between the audit practices and the consulting practices. So- David Leary: [00:29:58] That's gonna work, I'm sure. Blake Oliver: [00:29:59] Yeah, and that's the problem-  David Leary: [00:30:01] It's gonna create the outside impression, but ... Blake Oliver: [00:30:04] So, what does that mean? It means that audit practices are gonna have to publish their own profit and loss statements separate from the overall firms and make sure there are no material structural cross-subsidies from other parts of the business. What does that mean? I take that to mean that an audit partner couldn't earn a commission for upselling an audit client on consulting work. That would not be allowed anymore. Audit partners' pay has to be based on their contribution to the audit-practice profits, nothing else. The firms have to be more transparent about their audit business and for audit professionals to demonstrate ethical behavior and professional skepticism. That doesn't really sound like much to me. [00:30:41] There are some other recommendations in here. I really wish they'd gone the full- all the way, and I wish they would do that here in the U.S. We all understand human behavior, and I just don't think that auditors can truly be independent when other parts of the firm are earning fees from clients on other work. They just need to be separate entities. Audit firms should just do audit, and ideally, they wouldn't be paid by their clients. They would be- David Leary: [00:31:08] Where's the real money? Is the money in the consulting or is the money in the audit?  Blake Oliver: [00:31:12] The money's in the consulting. There is a chart here in this-  David Leary: [00:31:16] That's why you don't wanna report it, right? Because you might lose the consulting contract. Blake Oliver: [00:31:19] Right. That's the obvious conflict of interest is that [crosstalk] Big Four firm, you have an audit client, you do a bunch of consulting-  David Leary: [00:31:28] If they break it up, what partner's gonna be like, "Aw, sure, I'll go to the audit company ..."? Blake Oliver: [00:31:33] Audit division? Yeah, because the audit division doesn't make much money, right?  David Leary: [00:31:35] Yeah, you're gonna wanna stay with the consulting division. I don't know how they're gonna do this unless there's some sort of government subsidy for audit companies to encourage them to be more independent. Blake Oliver: [00:31:45] Well, and what would actually make them independent is if some independent third party selected the auditor, not the client, and if there was a way that the audit fee could be determined and paid that was independent, as well. So, the auditors, they can't be independent if they're paid by the client. It's just impossible. When you're getting paid by somebody, you can't be independent. You have a financial relationship. You have a conflict of interest, inherently. There's nothing that you can do, from an ethics standpoint, to mitigate that. There's gonna be a conflict there. I mean, this is better than nothing, right? So, that's it from the Big Four standpoint, for me. The only thing else I've got to talk about is Zoom. What about you? David Leary: [00:32:24] I have some homework for you. One of my articles this week is actually- you were on a podcast. You were on the , so you're on the Yaeger CPA Review & More podcast, and you were debating the CPA licensure with Martin Zych, and Brian Tankersley. I listened to it - I listen to a lot of podcasts - and this was really, really good-  Blake Oliver: [00:32:42] Oh, good! Thank you!  David Leary: [00:32:42] One of the things- I almost wanted to treat it like ... I must say, one of the things you said was that it's a trade. Now, you corrected yourself because you didn't wanna get people upset. So, maybe I could say it's a trade. I can say it's a trade, as being somebody who grew up in construction. You just can't go to school for construction and then build the house. You just won't have the skill set to do it, if you never swing a hammer; if you've never hammered in a nail; you've never used a power saw. You just can't do it. You could teach it in  theory, but you're not-  Blake Oliver: [00:33:07] Accounting is. Yeah, I mean, it has elements of a trade. It is a profession. I guess what I meant to say on that show is it is a profession, and I think it would be better if we taught it more like a trade than like an academic subject. David Leary: [00:33:24] Yeah, I agree. That was really good, and we'll put that in the show links. People should listen to it. I thought it was a very great argument. Blake Oliver: [00:33:29] Thank you.  David Leary: [00:33:29] I also have homework for you, Blake.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:31] Okay.  David Leary: [00:33:34] You like to dig in on these things, and this just came out today. There's a 48-page PDF attached to this for you. Blake Oliver: [00:33:39] Oh, boy!  David Leary: [00:33:40] The FASB is finalizing changing some of the conceptual framework. So, the document, which has been a work in progress since FASB's formation in 1973, is supposed to serve as a manual to help FASB make decisions about new accounting. They're changing concepts. Revenue and expenses are getting new proposed definitions. Blake Oliver: [00:34:01] Very exciting. I'm gonna have to check this out. David Leary: [00:34:02] So, this is on your table now. I thought it was gonna be easy. I clicked on it; I was like, "Oh, this'll just be 10 words and definitions ..." No, it's a 48-page document. I was like, "This is up Blake's alley. I'll toss this over the fence to Blake."  Blake Oliver: [00:34:13] Well,  48 pages for FASB, that's pretty good, given that a lot of pronouncements come in at hundreds of pages. So, hopefully, it won't be too much extra credit for me. But thank you, David. Now, I have something to do this weekend, while you're on vacation. David Leary: [00:34:29] So, let's talk about your Zoom, and then, I have two app news, and then, we can talk about possible stimulus we might see next week.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:34] Yeah. I know a lot of folks invested in Zoom and have done really well. Zoom is the darling of the tech world right now. I mean, we're all using it, right? It's either Zoom or Teams, at this point. The big news about Zoom is that they are getting into the hardware game. People are frustrated about using Zoom at home. I know I am. I get tired of sitting at my computer with Zoom on my computer screen, doing zoom calls for hours, and hours, and hours every day. David, I think you do way more of that than I do because you're working with-  David Leary: [00:35:07] I bought a tablet just to do- only for Zoom calls because I wanna still use my computer. Zoom just sucks up all my resources. Blake Oliver: [00:35:15] Yeah. My problem with Zoom is that I have it on my screen, but then I have to move it off to the side if I wanna do something while I'm zooming with somebody, and then I feel like I'm not really focusing on them or talking to them. So, I, too, have longed for that device that's dedicated for Zoom, like in a huddle room. I've been spoiled to work at companies where we have dedicated Zoom rooms. Some of them are small, some of them are big. You just go in, you press a tablet, you start your meeting, and you can look at a screen on the wall. You feel like you're there in the room with somebody. [00:35:46] I've wanted that experience at home, but all of the Zoom-room setups are thousands of dollars because they're designed for businesses. I even thought about buying my own mini PC and hooking that up to a big-screen TV in my office and then getting a webcam and setting that whole thing up, but I just couldn't figure out if it would be smooth enough to wanna do that on a regular basis. Then, I saw that Zoom has decided to make a hardware device to solve this problem. [00:36:16] It's called Zoom for Home - DTEN ME ... It's being produced by partner DTEN. It's a standalone 27-inch screen, essentially a large tablet equipped with three wide-angle cameras designed for high-resolution video, and eight microphones. The idea is that this device has really good video/audio quality, so that you sound good, and you look good. You don't have to worry about anything. You don't have to put on a headset. It's just gonna work. David Leary: [00:36:49] I heard that. I think it's just gonna work. You don't even have to set it up. You just type in a pairing code, essentially, and it works. Blake Oliver: [00:36:55] It just works. It logs into your account. It's touchscreen, so your meetings are there on the screen. You just click to start. You can have this on your desk. You can have this over on another table. I'm thinking about putting it over on a high-top table in my home office, where I can walk over there with my laptop and kind of sit there and have a meeting, like I would with somebody across the table; kinda give myself that feeling. David Leary: [00:37:20] How much are these devices gonna be? Blake Oliver: [00:37:22] They're $599. David Leary: [00:37:25] Oh, they're gonna put these into Costcos at $499, and they're gonna sell. People will impulse-buy this when they're at Costco. There's no doubt.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:33] It seems kind of crazy to spend that much on a dedicated device. The one thing that it has going for it that makes it more versatile is you can use this device as a secondary screen, or a third screen, so I think people [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:37:45] Oh, so when you're not in a meeting, you could use it as a extra monitor. Blake Oliver: [00:37:48] Exactly-  David Leary: [00:37:48] That's efficient.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:48] Yeah. So, I could set it up on a table where I can walk over with my laptop and go use that. I was talking with somebody who says they wanna buy it just for their parents to be able to use as a video-conferencing device that's high-def. David Leary: [00:38:03] Probably better than having Facebook being in your house [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:38:05] Yeah. No ... Zero chance I will ever let Zuckerberg into my house with a microphone and a camera. Are you kidding me? The people who buy those? Man, they're insane. Don't trust Facebook.  David Leary: [00:38:16] I have a little bit of app news. Blake Oliver: [00:38:18] What else is ... Oh, well, I just wanna say, I have preordered one of these devices. David Leary: [00:38:21] Oh, you have? [crosstalk] Wow!  Blake Oliver: [00:38:23] Yes. So, I'll review it. My justification is that this is a podcast story, so get ready for me to expense this, David.  David Leary: [00:38:31] Oh, perfect. Perfect. You just have to cut it in half. Blake Oliver: [00:38:36] Exactly. I'll send you half of it [crosstalk] Maybe we'll just split it. You can have it one month. I'll have it the next month. David Leary: [00:38:44] So, some app news. Right Networks, who purchased Transaction Pro Importer last year- actually, last year- it's almost two years ago now it's taken place. They just announced a bunch of changes to it, and one of them's a big, big change. What they're doing is- Blake Oliver: [00:39:04] So, before you get into that, what is Transaction Pro Importer?  David Leary: [00:39:06] Transaction Pro Importer essentially would take any table data you had - if you had CSVs, or Excel - and you need to get that into QuickBooks, they could put it all in. They wrote to every single field of QuickBooks Desktop, and every single field of QuickBooks Online. When they created their cloud product, Transaction Pro Importer for the cloud, one of the biggest gripes people had about it is you had to pay per subscription. If you had 10 clients, you had to buy 10 separate subscriptions and sign them up. Some of that, Transaction Pro is a small business. They're trying to maximize their own revenue. I think, with Right Networks, their goals are much bigger than just this one product. They have a suite of offerings to sell somebody now; not to mention the coaching; they've got rubrics. So, they're actually are opening this up. They're giving people a dashboard now, and they have it- basically, unlimited users with unlimited access to unlimited clients.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:57] Wow, that's great. David Leary: [00:40:00] Everything's rolled into one subscription now.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:02] You said this is a cloud product now? Because I used Transaction Pro Importer once, a long time ago, and it was a desktop app.  David Leary: [00:40:07] Yeah, they had their desktop and then, when they went to cloud, they changed their pricing model and all of that. Blake Oliver: [00:40:13] That's great.  David Leary: [00:40:13] They've been around ... They were easily within the first 20 apps, probably, I helped get on QuickBooks. They've been around a long time. Blake Oliver: [00:40:19] This is the version for QuickBooks Online. That's what we're talking about-  David Leary: [00:40:22] That's correct. Blake Oliver: [00:40:24] Got it. So, if I need to get a bunch of data into QuickBooks Online, this is the way to do it. David Leary: [00:40:28] Which is an interesting play, right? Because you have Right Networks, who really, their game is to host QuickBooks Desktop, but they're not ... I've said this before. I think, of all the desktop-hosting companies, Right Networks is one of the only ones  that's really trying to reinvent themselves. Blake Oliver: [00:40:44] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:40:44] They obviously are doing things around cloud, and they have a tool just for QuickBooks Online.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:50] Well, that's great. David Leary: [00:40:50] I have another smaller article. There's a UK company called Coconut. They are more of a small business finance app. They had a raise of about $3.15 million USD to build out accounting software. So, it's another competitor that's coming into the market that's going to-  Blake Oliver: [00:41:10] They're like a general ledger, an accounting application? I never heard of them before. David Leary: [00:41:14] Yeah, I've never heard of them either. They're building out to become more of a general ledger. They're gonna build an SMB accounting platform. I cannot believe-  Blake Oliver: [00:41:20] I'm looking at the website now. It says, "The financial companion for self-employed people." Okay, now, they're a self-employed play David Leary: [00:41:26] It's just amazing how many people are ... It's not QuickBooks versus Xero anymore. It's QuickBooks and Xero versus the world. Everybody and their brother is starting an accounting package. The reason why is I think it's that whole competition with the banks want GLs because they know they're gonna lose if the GLs become banks. There's a lot of upside, right now. If you have a GL, you could probably possibly sell it to a bank in the next five years; there's probably a high chance that's gonna happen - a bank would acquire you, or some other company that wants to be getting into the space. Do you wanna talk about possible relief packages that we might be seeing next week?  Blake Oliver: [00:42:05] Do you mind if we just wait until next week when they actually release? David Leary: [00:42:09] When it's news?  Blake Oliver: [00:42:09] Yeah, because these things change so much. What's the point in talking about the hypotheticals? David Leary: [00:42:15] I think one of them's called the Restart Act, and I was looking at the paperwork on that. The best part of it is, if it does pass, they give the SBA 15 days to roll out the program.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:26] Great. That's definitely gonna be successful. David Leary: [00:42:29] That's exactly what I said. I was like, this is not ... We're already setting this up for failure. It hasn't even been passed yet. 15 days to stand up the program.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:35] If I worked for the SBA, I'd just quit, at this point ... Go get a job at a bank or something.  David Leary: [00:42:40] The SBA has a pretty nice budget. They have a huge-  Blake Oliver: [00:42:43] Oh, yeah, you mentioned- what was it? It's like $300 billion or something for 3,000 people?  David Leary: [00:42:48] It's ridiculous, that budget. They do pretty good.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:50] They probably get paid pretty well then. David Leary: [00:42:53] Yeah, so that, and then, next week, we'll find out probably, because federal stimulus runs out; all the unemployment payments are running out. There's proposals on the table that you might get paid for being employed. So, if you go to work, you're gonna get like $450 extra. That could be on the table. They were talking, one of the things, like UBI ... People would just get a $2,000 check every month now instead of the stimulus that never showed up. We're gonna see a lot of talk next week ... The PPP-4 ... It's just gonna be a lot next week we're gonna be talking about.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:28] Jerome Powell and the Fed just gotta oil up that money printer, get it ready to go.  David Leary: [00:43:35] More checks ... If this was not an election year, I really wonder how much of this stimulus would be going out. Blake Oliver: [00:43:42] Yeah, that is a good question. I guess we're lucky that it's an election year, in a way. I mean, if you believe that the stimulus is the way to solve this, which, I tend to think it's better to err on the side of printing more money than not printing enough, given the great lesson of the Great Depression, and the Great Recession was that we didn't do enough. David Leary: [00:44:06] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:06] Let's not do not enough. Let's do more than enough if we have to.  David Leary: [00:44:09] At least this gives us an illusion of control. We don't have control over the virus. At least this is ... We can control how much money we print. Blake Oliver: [00:44:18] We can do that. That one thing we can do. Maybe they should print the money in the form of face masks. Then people would wear them. David Leary: [00:44:26] This is a good one I just saw. A $4,000 tax credit/travel bonus, if you took a vacation at least 50 miles from home. Blake Oliver: [00:44:33] Oh, that's our senator here in Arizona. Martha McSally. Is that it? David Leary: [00:44:41] I think so.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:41] Yeah, that was the most bone-headed proposal ever. She wanted to give a tax credit to families for taking a vacation during a pandemic.  David Leary: [00:44:51] This is how crazy it's getting. They're talking about eliminating student loans. This was crazy Bernie Sanders talk, 12 months ago, and now it's seriously on the table. We're gonna have a fun week next week when things start panning out-  Blake Oliver: [00:45:04] I have a hard time believing that'll ever get anywhere in the Senate, or anything, but, hey, you never know. Well, David, this was a pleasure as always. Enjoy California. Say hi to the water and the beach for me. I'll be here in the desert soaking up the radiation- David Leary: [00:45:22] Yes, exactly, the radiation. Blake Oliver: [00:45:24] If our listeners wanna reach you while you're on vacation and bug you, where should they do that? David Leary: [00:45:30] Twitter's probably gonna be best. I'm @DavidLeary on Twitter. You could also do LinkedIn, but I probably won't check it much, unless I'm sitting in the passenger seat while the wife's driving the car or something like that. I really wanna ... I wanna cut out! I wanna cut out for two days. I really do. Blake Oliver: [00:45:44] Well, good. Do that! Disconnect. I am @BlakeTOliver. David Leary: [00:45:47] What if people are done with their tax season now, and they're drunk on Friday night, and they're partying it up, could they call us and leave us a ... Drunk-dial us!  Blake Oliver: [00:45:58] Nobody calls that number, David. David Leary: [00:46:00] I know.  Blake Oliver: [00:46:00] I think people are just too shy, or all of our numbers are wrong, and we really don't have as many listeners as we think. But if you do wanna give us a call ... I don't have the number in front of me. Do you, David? David Leary: [00:46:12] (202) 695-1040. You're right, I think they are a little shy because I've had people vent to me, either in Slack or something, and I'm like, "This would be great! Call and leave a voicemail!" They never do it.  Blake Oliver: [00:46:24] Until next time-  David Leary: [00:46:25] Have a good weekend, Blake, or week.  Blake Oliver: [00:46:25] Have a great trip. Thanks, David. David Leary: [00:46:29] All right. 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Sponsors AccountingSuite: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite Jirav: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/jirav BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 00:18 –  Hasan Does Tax ASMR, Patriot Act Digital Exclusive, Netflix – YouTube  03:47 –  SBA, Treasury release names of some PPP recipients - Journal of Accountancy  05:01 – PPP millions went to firm identified in Ukraine money-laundering suit – Crain's Cleveland Business 05:11 – The billionaires who received small business loans from the government, plus everything else you missed in business news - CNBC After Hours Kanye West’s Yeezy Got Millions From Federal Government’s Paycheck Protection Program – 2 CBS Chicago 05:16 – Small business aid winners include Five Guys, Planned Parenthood, Grindr - POLITICO  05:31 – Millions in aid from small business relief fund went to "hate groups" – CBS News 05:43 – In sign of the times, Ayn Rand Institute approved for PPP loan – Reuters The Ayn Rand Institute bootstrapped its way to a PPP Loan of at least $350K – Literary Hub 06:03 – Grover Norquist’s Anti-Tax Group Took Money From the Paycheck Protection Program - Slate 06:25 – Religious organizations receive $7.3 billion in PPP loans, megachurches amass millions - Newsweek  U.S. Catholic Church Received Billions in Taxpayer Funds From Paycheck Protection Program - TIME 06:43 – A List Of Rich & Famous People Who Got Small Business Loans From The Government – Refinery29 Here are the eyebrow-raising Paycheck Protection Program loans in Florida – Tampa Bay Times 07:16 – Trump’s Waikiki Partner, Kushner Family Among PPP Borrowers – Washington Post 07:40 – Let the Paycheck Protection Program Shaming End! | LinkedIn  09:09 – Small business coronavirus relief loan database contains some big errors, firms say - CNBC 11:49 – Here Are the Accounting Firms That Received PPP Loans Because We Know You Want to Know - Going Concern   12:12 –  Accounting Firms Take Billions in PPP Payouts – CPA Trendlines 15:52 – IRS to start collecting overdue tax payments as AICPA urges continued relief – Accounting Today 16:40 – Mnuchin: Any PPP Extension Would Be 'Targeted' - PYMNTS.com  17:43 – ProPublica: Tracking PPP Loans - ProPublica 19:38 – Wells Fargo Sets Out Its $400M Plan For SMB aid - PYMNTS.com  20:16 – Banks Could Get $24 Billion in Fees From PPP Loans - WSJ 21:31 – How small NJ bank Cross River distributed $5.4B in PPP funds – New York Post  23:08 – Latest product news – July | Xero Blog 26:39 – Welcoming the Stitch Labs Team to Square - Square  28:58 – Venmo Pilots Business Payments For Micro SMBs - PYMNTS.com  29:38 – Big jumps seen in tax prep fees: Survey – Accounting Today 31:00 – More AICPA tax talk from last week's episode  32:08 – Supreme Court grants N.Y. access to Trump taxes, blocks House – Accounting Today 33:57 – Why Doing Taxes is So Hard - YouTube  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! 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DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Smansha: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptDo you have some clients that need more than what your current cloud accounting software can offer - more robust inventory tracking, more connections to online sales channels, more users, more permissions, more reports, more control, more customization, more flexibility? Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, AccountingSuite, later in the podcast. Hasan Minhaj - Patriot Act: [00:00:18] Hello, everyone, it's Hasan Minhaj. Tax Season is officially here, and I know how stressful that can be ... Let's go ahead and talk about 1040 forms. 1040. 10 ... 40 ... (from Hasan Does Tax ASMR, Patriot Act Digital Exclusive, Netflix )____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Jirav. Jirav sounds a lot like giraffe, and that's no accident. Giraffes are the tallest animal in the world. That gives them a great view. Our goal at Jirav is to give you a similarly great view of what's going on with your business. We do that by helping you understand where your business has been and, most importantly, predict where it's going.  Jirav connects your cloud-based accounting, payroll, CRM, and billing data together to automatically update shareable online dashboards, monthly reporting packages, and sophisticated financial plans, and budgets in real time. Learn how accounting firms are using Jirav to deliver connected insight, strategize growth, and help their clients make more profitable decisions. Visit Jirav.com, and start your 30-day free trial. That's J-I-R-A-V dot com. See farther with Jirav. ____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that The Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before September 30, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:31] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:34] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:35] Well, it's July 12, and I just remembered that I need to do my taxes. Tax Day is coming up.  David Leary: [00:02:41] Yeah, three days. Three days. Blake Oliver: [00:02:43] I've got three days to get it together. I don't really want to. David Leary: [00:02:46] I'm guessing, for a lot of our listeners, though, by the time they listen to this, they'll be done with Tax Day, so we should say congratulations and welcome back! Blake Oliver: [00:02:52] You made it! David Leary: [00:02:53] You've made it to the end, just in time. Blake Oliver: [00:02:57] I've got some tax stories this week about tax fees jumping significantly. So, that's some good news, I suppose, if you are reaping the benefits of that yourself. As a partner, it's nice to know that tax fees are rising more quickly over the last two years than in the past. I've also got, of course, a ton of PPP news. The PPP loan amounts were released by the SBA, and Treasury last week; I think on the day we recorded. So, we missed it, but that's good because there's been a whole week of news all about all the people who received the PPP. David Leary: [00:03:32] Oh, it's just great headlines. Blake Oliver: [00:03:34] Oh, yeah. David Leary: [00:03:35] The headlines, we could just read, and read, and read, and read, which ... I feel like that summarizes the whole week. Should we just start with the PPP? Should we start with- Blake Oliver: [00:03:42] Yeah, let's do the PPP. That's the big news. David Leary: [00:03:47] All right, the big news [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:03:47] If you missed it, the big news is that, on July 6, Treasury, and the SBA released loan-level data regarding PPP loans. All loans over $150,000 were reported with names, addresses, NAICS codes, the industry code, zip codes, business type, demographic data, nonprofit information, the name of the lender, and the number of jobs that were supposedly supported by the PPP loans, allegedly, and then, a range. [00:04:21] They didn't give the exact loan amounts, but they gave a range, such as between $350,000 and $1 million, or between $1 and $2 million. Because it was only loans over $150,000, it's only about 15 to 25 percent of the loan dollars approved. All the loans below $150,000 stayed anonymous, and the SBA just released aggregated information. So, David, I wanna ask you, of all the headlines that came out this week, what were your favorite? Who are your favorite famous PPP loan recipients? David Leary: [00:04:54] All my articles are up here, and I have all my headlines, and I also have all the little thumbnails of images. To show you how vast and wide this went, one of them is about- it's a picture of The Westin, in Cleveland, and how a Ukraine money laundering company from a decade ago is tied to this loan here. I got a picture of Kanye West and his companies.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:13] Yes!         David Leary: [00:05:16] Grindr, the dating app, which I actually thought was my funniest of all, because - I'm gonna go back to seventh-grade humor - Grindr, the dating app, they were able to retain 69 jobs. I thought that was a little bit funny. Blake Oliver: [00:05:28] Really?! David Leary: [00:05:30] So, there's that, and then millions for hate groups. I got a picture of a Confederate flag. Religious organizations, P.F. Chang's again. My favorite - Ayn Rand Institute. Blake Oliver: [00:05:41] Yes. David Leary: [00:05:43] They took a loan.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:43] I was gonna save that one for the end because that is my best, but you saw that, obviously. [Ann] Rand, author of- or Ayn Rand, I should say - Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead ... The whole philosophy of Objectivism, where you should not be dependent on the government at all. The organization that promotes her ideas took a PPP loan. Just the irony of that is fantastic. Grover Norquist, the famous anti-tax guy, who once said, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub," took a PPP loan; at least his organization, his Libertarian organization did.  [00:06:19] As you mentioned, Kanye West, and Yeezy - it's a billion-dollar company - received millions of dollars. Catholic Church got a bunch of money, which, depending on your position on the Catholic Church, that's either good or bad, given that a bunch of these dioceses that got the money also are paying millions of dollars into settlements for sexual-abuse cover-ups. You mentioned a few others- P.F. Chang's. I had Pearl Jam; Pearl Jam, the band. David Leary: [00:06:45] Oh, I did not know that-  Blake Oliver: [00:06:46] They got a loan between 350K, and a million. Jeff Koons, the famous artist. He got a loan of $1 to $2 million, or at least his business did. Fun fact, Robert Mnuchin, the current Treasury secretary's dad once bought one of his paintings last year for $91 million dollars. The Soho House Members Only Club, TGI Fridays ... Church of Scientology got a loan. Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's husband, one of his businesses got that. Of course, a bunch of businesses connected to Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump got loans. I thought that there were some political outlets or some news outlets to try to go after the Trumps for this, and I felt like it kind of fell flat because basically everybody took this money on both sides of the aisle - liberal, Democrat, Republican, conservative- as we saw, Libertarian even, which I think is the funniest thing about all of this.  David Leary: [00:07:40] Everybody is being called out. There's an article from Stephen Brown. He and his wife have an accounting firm, Ledger Gurus, and he wrote an article on LinkedIn; an editorial type article about let the Paycheck Protection Program shaming end. Because this is very- it's very headline-based; it's very sensationalized. He tells the story about how their firm, themselves, they took a loan and how it really helped them. Then, to see the help that it's caused for all their clients, as well, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:08:09] Right.  David Leary: [00:08:10] There's a lot of good that has come out of the PPP loan from the people that actually got the money. But, in a way, I don't have a problem with who got the money. My thing is it was stacked unfairly in the beginning. Blake Oliver: [00:08:23] Right, as we have-  David Leary: [00:08:24] It was supposed to be first come, first served, and it was not set up to do that. Blake Oliver: [00:08:30] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:08:30] As long as the money was- the loans were taken out, and the money was used to pay employees on payroll, and that all reconciles through, I don't think there's problems with this ... You're right, it made great headlines this week, but as soon as you dig into the articles, there's really not much there - over, and over, and over again. Blake Oliver: [00:08:48] Well, some businesses knew that the negative PR was coming and wisely decided not to take the money. Venture capital companies, in particular, were very aggressive with telling their portfolio companies not to apply for PPP money. One of them got caught up in some of the loan-database errors. I don't know if you saw this story on CNBC; came out right after the big CSV file came out from SBA. [00:09:16] Apparently, two big names were on that list in the tech world - Bird, the scooter company, got listed as having received a loan, so the press was going after them. Apparently, they only talked with their bank about applying, but they never did; but they got on this list because the bank- it sounds like the bank applied for them in advance, but then never filled out the loan, or never completed the loan. [00:09:41] This is one of the issues with the whole SBA database and process that we've pointed out in the past, which is that the information is only flowing one way to the SBA. That document, the big CSV file, that's like 125 megabytes with- they have hundreds of thousands of loans on it. That's just what was applied for, not necessarily what was actually disbursed. We only have a partial picture in this information, and there are a lot of errors. So, Bird is listed, even though they never received it. A Wisconsin woman, named Geraldine Brimley, is listed as having been approved for a loan worth up to $10 million - an individual. She apparently- David Leary: [00:10:21] I think I read in the article, didn't she only get like $3,200 or something? So, completely-  Blake Oliver: [00:10:26] She applied for $9,300, less than $10,000, through Radius Bank. She only received $2,300, but because of an error when somebody entered her loan, they put in a bunch of extra zeros. So, it showed her as having applied for $9.3 million, and that's what made it onto the SBA's spreadsheet. She was obviously very confused, when CNBC contacted her to try to find out how she, as an individual, got a loan for that amount.  [00:10:51] Something close to our industry, in particular, our world, Pilot, the online accounting-bookkeeping company, is listed. So, this is very strange. Index Ventures, the firm that- it was one of the investors in Pilot ... Pilot is like Scale Factor, one of those accounting firms with engineers ... Their firm, their VC firm, one of their investors, Index Ventures, was listed in this document as having been approved for a $2 to $5 million loan. CNBC and the press started calling up Index Ventures because they're one of the only ones. [00:11:21] Apparently, it's listed as Pilot having applied for the loan, but somehow, Index Ventures' name got on the list. So, the question is, did Pilot get an SBA/PPP loan? If so, is Index Ventures gonna make them give it back? This is all a big deal because they are VC-funded, and it's kind of considered bad form to take a loan if you're VC-funded. A little bit of a PR nightmare, I imagine, for the folks over at Pilot. David Leary: [00:11:49] Well, Going Concern is tracking ... They have already, apparently, been tracking a layoff database, or a layoff spreadsheet of Top-100 firms who are laying people off. They've been tracking this during the COVID pandemic. Now, they've crisscrossed it with the people who've taken out loans. Now, they're now they're tracking the Top-100 accounting firms who've taken out PPP loans, because that's in the data, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:12:12] Yes. A lot of firms got PPP loans. So, I'm also cross-referencing this with the CPA Trendlines analysis that they did. CPA Trendlines says that 6,610 tax, accounting, payroll, and bookkeeping firms, so far, received millions in SBA-PPP money. Then, you have that Going Concern article with the Top-100 firms. Somebody on Reddit went through and correlated the firms with the Accounting Today Top-100 list. So, this is really interesting. David Leary: [00:12:43] Yeah, it's a crisscross of some data from ProPublica, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:12:46] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:12:46] Again, this was a great headline: "Here Are the Accounting Firms That Received PPP Loans Because We Know You Want to Know." Essentially, it's just kind of like a blanket report of data. It's not even- it was more exciting to read it, the headline, than when I sat down to digest it and look at it. I was like, okay, they're just ... Somebody's crisscrossed all this data. Ultimately, if anybody should be taking these loans out, it should be the accounting firms because they're the ones that had to employ people to actually process them for everybody else. Blake Oliver: [00:13:15] Well, but there's also a question as to did these firms really need the money? Did they have that need, given that accounting firms are busier than they've ever been? We have more work than we can handle. Isn't that what everyone's complaining about? David Leary: [00:13:28] And that was supposedly one of the first qualifying factors is you have this economic uncertainty. Blake Oliver: [00:13:33] Right, which just proves that that term is completely meaningless. If 68 firms on that Accounting Today Top-100 list, who are probably busier than they've ever been because they're helping clients with PPP; everybody's needing new cashflow projections ... If you're a good accountant, you have more work than you can handle right now, as long as you're willing to do different things than you've done in the past. [00:13:55] So, 68 firms out of the Top 100 got these loans. I think everybody above 20 was too big because you had to have 500 or fewer employees. Of those 68, eight of them have done layoffs or have cut pay. That includes Carr, Riggs & Ingram, Friedman, Prager Metis, Whitley Penn, Berdon, Aprio, Grassi & Co., and   SingerLewak. Singer, for instance, laid off 25 percent of their staff and got a $2 to $5 million PPP loan. The spreadsheet says that they retained 291 jobs. But I guess you can do that- you can lay off 25 percent of your staff and get a reduced forgiveness amount because you have to keep 75 percent of your staff or 75 percent of your payroll employees.  David Leary: [00:14:44] You didn't even have to take the loan out for your entire payroll, either. Blake Oliver: [00:14:47] Right.  David Leary: [00:14:47] You could've figured, hey, when this is all said and done, we're only gonna have 75 employees and just take out the loan for 75 employees. Then, if you have a layoff, it's not- you're not breaking any part of the deal here [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:14:57] You can keep partial forgiveness. You can make that choice. So, interesting, right? There's some comments in the thread. Goodwill_Impairment said, "It's super-frustrating that our elected officials did not make these loans need based. I saw a ton of businesses that remained open and are likely in their best fiscal year ever. They took out loans that essentially act as a bonus for the owners." Then, a reply to the comment is, "If that were the case, it would have taken months at best to get the money issued. They said that they knew it wouldn't all go to the places that needed it, but they wanted the money to be issued and jobs to be saved as soon as possible. Had they waited, people would have been asking what took so long?" That's your argument, David, in the past, which is we've got to get the stimulus money out as quickly as possible, so we can't put all these strings attached to it, right?  David Leary: [00:15:42] Yeah, it can't be locked up. Blake Oliver: [00:15:43] No.  David Leary: [00:15:43] The point is, it has to be spent. It's got to get out there and spent. There's some good positive PPP news that's kind of out there-  Blake Oliver: [00:15:51] Okay, what's that? David Leary: [00:15:52] A couple of things that are interesting. The AICPA had another one of their weekly webinars. The real takeaways in this is A) people are gonna be doing forgiveness applications all the way in 2021; then, they're kind of half-hinting that we're gonna see a lot more clarity and more sophisticated forgiveness tools and finally, more complete guidance. There's so many questions that need to be answered to just kind of wait before you apply for forgiveness. Blake Oliver: [00:16:21] Well, that's why they're saying, "Don't apply now. Wait until we have more information." David Leary: [00:16:26] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:16:27] That's why what's gonna push all this into the fall is it's quite a long timeline in terms of the deadline for applying for forgiveness. We've got quite a while. David Leary: [00:16:35] Then, your buddy, Steven Mnuchin, he is talking about, they wanna do another PPP. They wanna do an extension. Blake Oliver: [00:16:40] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:16:40] He's working with Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin, so it's across party lines- on doing another extension, but this extension would be super-super-targeted to just businesses that really need the money and small businesses. He's talking about that's on the table. We were talking about before, the PPP-four with the four Ps.  Blake Oliver: [00:16:58] Yes. David Leary: [00:17:00] If you've taken a loan, and you've used it, there's gonna be this program to take another loan. That's starting to come down the pipe, as well. He does get into a little bit about PPP forgiveness. This is where - we talked about it before, 100-percent rubber-stamp forgiveness could be coming. He said, "In terms of PPP loan forgiveness, the vast majority of these loans were hardworking businesses where the money went to pay employees, and they will be forgiven." Mnuchin indicated that PPP loans in excess of $2 million will go through a thorough review before they are forgiven. So, essentially, the way he's saying this is, if it's more than $2 million, it's gonna get reviewed. If it's under $2 million, it's just gonna be forgiven. I think we're going to see rubber-stamp forgiveness come through. Blake Oliver: [00:17:43] We're talking millions and millions of loans. They're gonna have to be really picky. So, by the way, if you want to go look at this data for yourself, ProPublica put together an interactive website, where you can dig into the PPP loan data. It's at projects.ProPublica.org/coronavirus/bailouts. It's really cool. You can put in your zip code, and you can see what companies got PPP loans over $150K in your zip code. You can put in an industry; you can put in a specific business name; you can put in a business type. Just type it into the search, and it filters the list for you. Really neat.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by AccountingSuite. AccountingSuite is cloud accounting software that acts like a customizable ERP system. It lets you start out with just the features you need today and, in the future, as your business grows, you can easily add AccountingSuite extensions to give you the features you need.A major strength of AccountingSuite is its robust set of inventory management tools. It includes multichannel inventory and has many integrations to many online stores, like ShipStation, Shopify, and Square. You can track inventory levels, orders, sales, and deliveries from anywhere at any time.AccountingSuite has an extension for multi-channel online sales. After connecting your online marketplaces, AccountingSuite will download all your transactions for you to approve prior to entry into the accounting system. It's similar to working with bank feeds.AccountingSuite is offering Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners 50 percent off forever by using the promo code "CAP_50_2020." To take advantage of this exciting offer and to learn more about how AccountingSuite offers an upgradable path for your firm and company's future, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-S-U-I-T-E. AccountingSuite is here to help you grow. ____________________ David Leary: [00:19:36] So, we've talked about Wells Fargo in the past- Blake Oliver: [00:19:38] Yes. David Leary: [00:19:38] -because of boneheaded things Wells Fargo has done, et cetera, et cetera. Wells Fargo has actually done something really interesting with their PPP loans. They brought in $400 million in processing fees from processing PPP loans. What they're gonna do with it - sure, it's a save face, but, hey, they're stepping up; they're doing it - they're gonna take that $400 million dollars and turn it into a small business aid program. I don't know if it's grant-based, or loan-based, but essentially they're gonna create a fund to really help small businesses and nonprofit organizations, which is kind of good, right? They just didn't pocket that $400 million dollars; they're putting it back to work for small businesses. Blake Oliver: [00:20:16] Yeah, and I read that Chase and B of A are doing something similar. They took in even more in fees from the PPP, something like $1, or $2, or up to $3 billion in fees. So, they are going to- they have committed to donate their profits from the PPP to something charitable that targets small businesses; targets their clients, basically. For those who have forgotten, the banks actually did pretty darn well in taking in $24 billion in fees from all of this. [00:20:49] Some of the smaller institutions, more than 30 banks who did PPP loans, could earn, this year, as much from the PPP loans as they reported in net revenue for all of 2019. That's according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. They did pretty good. I haven't heard much recently about any of those agent fees being honored or anything like that, so I don't think that's gonna happen. There were the CPA firms, who were angling to force the banks to pay agent fees. There was a lawsuit that, I guess, people were being recruited; a class action lawsuit against the banks to force them to pay the agent fees. I haven't heard anything about that. Probably, that'll take years to go through the courts. David Leary: [00:21:31] I have an article about a small bank that became a top 10 PPP lender, or actually, they were number 13 of all the U.S. lenders. It's a New Jersey bank, Cross River. They distributed $5.4 billion in PPP funds. Blake Oliver: [00:21:45] So, I used Cross River. That's how I got my PPP loan. They had an online application through their website. It was super-easy, and I was really impressed.  David Leary: [00:21:54] What they did is they automated the process. When it was all said and done, their entire net revenue last year was $96 million. They pulled down $160 million in fees. Blake Oliver: [00:22:06] Wow. David Leary: [00:22:07] They did more than Citi; they did more than BNY. They just had this home run. The way they did it is they partnered with all the tech companies. Blake Oliver: [00:22:17] Hmm.  David Leary: [00:22:17] So, yes, they'll probably have to share this revenue, but they partnered with Gusto, Kabbage, Veem, QuickBooks. They basically turned the gears behind a lot of those loan programs because they built APIs and automation and figured out what they could automate and they didn't have- you've heard about these bank stories of these people working 40 hours a day, just processing the loans physically- the paperwork for these loans.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:42] Yes.  David Leary: [00:22:42] They just automated the whole process and because of that were able to compete with the big boys. Blake Oliver: [00:22:46] That's amazing. David Leary: [00:22:47] Then, on top of that, they didn't have a lot of bugs; they just were a well-oiled machine, so they just crushed it. That's kind of a good story, and kind of transitions us out of PPP into apps and tech, maybe. I don't know, unless you have another PPP story- Blake Oliver: [00:23:00] No, we can jump into- I wanna hit tax, but we can jump into app news first. David Leary: [00:23:08] So, Xero, they had their blog post of some new features that were in Xero. I think the big takeaway there is there's a lot of this catch-up. You can do one thing in QuickBooks, and you can do it in Xero; one thing in Xero, you can do it in QuickBooks ... So, now that QuickBooks rolled out the ability to email in bills to QuickBooks Online and then, they rolled that out in Australia. Now, Xero, you can email a bill to Xero. Blake Oliver: [00:23:35] I thought you could do this already. I thought this was a thing that existed. I saw this, too, and it didn't make sense to me. I don't know ...  David Leary: [00:23:41] I think it was just receipts before, and now, you can send bills. Blake Oliver: [00:23:44] Oh, okay ...  David Leary: [00:23:45] Xero got Hubdoc. Then, you could send those, first. Then, QuickBooks built their own, and that was just receipts. Then, QuickBooks added bills, and now, Xero added bills. Blake Oliver: [00:23:54] Gotcha. David Leary: [00:23:55] You can now email bills to Xero. This functionality is available to all customers on Starter, Standard, or Premium plan, Early, Growing, and Established plans in the U.S.; it sounds like you can do this in the U.S., as well. It's just not in Australia. So, now you can do receipts and bills through email. Blake Oliver: [00:24:09] Oh, there's one that I really liked that I used, in this update. Now, you can export to PDF from the layout editor of all your reports in Xero - the new type of reports. They've still got the old ones, but then they've got that new layout editor. Now, when you are editing, and you're laying out the report, which is in a separate screen, you can preview it very quickly so that you don't have to then save the layout and then go view the published report. Saves so much time; so much better that way. David Leary: [00:24:36] Oh, so the previous workflow was like it prints to a PDF; you have to go open that up in a PDF. You were like, "Aww, I don't like how that's laid out," delete it; go do it again-  Blake Oliver: [00:24:44] The previous workflow was actually worse than that. It was you go into the layout editor, you lay out the report using the hierarchy, then you save that. That takes you back to the view of the report in your web browser. Then, you have to click a dropdown to expert to PDF to see what it actually looked like printed out. So, it was a three-step process. It was terrible. This is much easier. David Leary: [00:25:07] Was this on one of your lists? You know, you had your list of Xero issues you've always wanted fixed forever ... Did they finally solve one of Blake's list issues? Blake Oliver: [00:25:15] No. This was not even on the list, because I'm still annoyed that you can't do a recurring 'spend money,' or 'receive money' transaction. I think that is the most idiotic thing. If I have an automatic debit from my bank account for my rent, I don't wanna have to make a recurring bill that then matches up with that debit. I just wanna put in a 'spend money' transaction on that date every month ... Anyway, I won't go off on a rant.  David Leary: [00:25:42] It's the same thing ... In QuickBooks, whenever I view open invoices, or the Invoices screen, I always click and sort the date column in reverse order because I want the newest wants the top of the report, the ones I just recently entered; not an invoice I made in January to be at the top of the report. I've been doing a lot of Zoom calls with accountants lately, and they all do the same thing. As soon as they get there, they click the date and resort it. I'm like, yeah, this is a problem. Blake Oliver: [00:26:07] Yeah, it should just stick with how you sorted it the last time. It should just remember, right?  David Leary: [00:26:11] Yeah. It's such a simple little thing that would be a huge victory for everybody - the amount of wasted clicking; that date doesn't stick. Blake Oliver: [00:26:18] It's so annoying, and these are the things that really bug us, but they never seem to get priority because they don't bring in new users. They're not big, flashy features that generate revenue. I think they do, long term, because people get frustrated with enough of these little things, and they're like, "Screw it. I'm gonna go to some other system." David Leary: [00:26:39] So, what else? Square bought Stitch Labs. Blake Oliver: [00:26:43] Square is the giant payment processor. Stitch Labs, what is that, for our listeners who aren't familiar? David Leary: [00:26:49] Stitch Labs is kind of an inventory player. When e-commerce really started coming on, there was really hard ways to get your e-commerce data into accounting systems; arguably, it's not perfect yet. I think there are some companies that are doing it better than others, but it's still a little messy to get your e-commerce data moved into your accounting system because inventories have to be kept in order, especially if you're on multiple e-commerce systems. Blake Oliver: [00:27:13] Yes.  David Leary: [00:27:14] If you sell a medium shirt on this site, the inventory's gotta be updated on the other site. They kinda played- they're stitching, all those things together. They built up some expertise, and some inventory management, channel management, fulfillment, and those types of things. They got acquired by Square ... Because Square has their whole seller organization, Square wants to get into the inventory game a little bit.  Blake Oliver: [00:27:34] Well, this makes total sense, because Square started out for in-person point-of-sale transactions with their little card swiper, but that's not exactly the best business to be in, right now, because traffic into physical stores is declining or has, since the pandemic started. Stitch is perfectly positioned for multi-channel e-commerce. David Leary: [00:27:54] Shopify is coming after Square; Square's going after Shopify. This is a way to make Square more robust on the e-commerce side of the business. The interesting takeaway in here, because I know some people have used Stitch Labs before with their clients and connecting it to QuickBooks. I think a lot of people always thought it was a little on the expensive side. So, Square already has stated, "Stitch Labs won't take on any new customers, and the product will continue to operate for existing customers until spring to 2021." But longer term, they just plan to sunset the whole thing and let the team focus on building tools for Square. [00:28:25] This really reminds me of QuickBooks and Intuit's acquisition of Lettuce. That's probably five years ago, six- maybe seven years ago, now. Intuit acquired Lettuce Apps, which Lettuce Apps was a really small add-on for QuickBooks that did inventory. The thought was that's gonna become the inventory of QuickBooks Online. Basically, it's the same model - buy it, kill the app, and use that team to bring their knowledge, et cetera, to the existing platform. So, it seems very, very similar to that acquisition Intuit made of Lettuce back in the day.  [00:28:58] Then [inaudible] some small news ... Venmo is now going to introduce a feature to allow business payments. Right now ... You've probably even done it. You've probably paid somebody. I've done it; I think I've paid a landscaper. I think I've paid a housecleaner before on Venmo. I know it's not a business account, but they're avoiding fees, so they just have their Venmo set up, and I just paid them the money. I mean, ultimately, it's on them. If it's not a business [inaudible], it's on them. I'm just a consumer. They're dipping their toes into the small businesses to accept payments. I saw an article that Zelle is also gonna now offer the ability for peer-to-peer payments for small businesses, as well, for new clients.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:38] Canopy did a survey of tax-prep fees, and there was a big jump in the last two years. That's the big takeaway from this survey that tax-prep fees increased by over 10 percent in two years. Normally, it's about five percent a year. Last two years, it's basically increased annually, at double the rate, which makes sense, given all of the changes in the tax system that have happened recently, right?  David Leary: [00:30:06] These are fees that I'm going to charge my clients to do their returns. Blake Oliver: [00:30:09] Yes. It's broken down by the type of the firm. For an itemized 1040, the percent-fee increase over two years was 11 percent on average; a 1040 with Schedule C, also 11 percent. Now, a non-itemized 1040, that went up 26 percent. Oh, and one other little tidbit from the survey - flat-fee billing has become much more popular now. 81 percent of respondents are using flat-fee billing for tax returns versus the 19 percent that are still using hourly billing. David Leary: [00:30:42] That's a huge jump.  Blake Oliver: [00:30:42] Yeah, although we don't know how many previously were using flat fee versus hourly. That's not detailed here, over time, but it seems like a lot. It seems like a lot more than in the past. David Leary: [00:30:53] Yeah, because I've seen surveys about this from Intuit before. I just don't remember it being in the 80-percent range. Blake Oliver: [00:31:00] So, the Tax Day is, of course, July 15, which is in three days, as we record this. We talked last episode about how the AICPA declined to advocate for an extension- or not an extension, a delay of the tax deadline to the fall. But they are, interestingly, advocating for the IRS to waive failure-to-file, and failure-to-pay penalties until October 15, automatically. [00:31:27] So, I was confused as to what is the difference? If you're gonna waive the penalties, why not just push the deadline out? I guess the reasoning here, which kind of makes sense to me, is that you wanna start the statute of limitations sooner rather than later because the longer you wait, then, the longer the IRS has to do audits. So, you start it now, and you get them to waive the penalties. It's effectively delaying the deadline - effectively - in many ways, but it also pressures your clients to get their paperwork in because they know the deadline is July 15, not October 15. So, it's kind like the best of both worlds. It actually is kind of making a lot of sense to me. Kind of a clever approach. Blake Oliver: [00:32:08] The last bit of tax news I've got is President Trump's tax returns. Believe it or not, we're still talking about that, four years later. Nobody ever got to see Trump's tax returns before the last election, and it looks like we are not going to see them before this upcoming election. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a few decisions. They basically said that the State of New York can still seek President Trump's tax returns. They're not barred from that completely, but they also stopped the House from getting them before the election. [00:32:38] So, the takeaway is, after the election, at some point, the State of New York might be able to get Donald Trump's tax returns. The big thing, in terms of presidential power, it was actually a big decision in that the court rejected the Trump administration's argument that the president is completely immune- a sitting president is completely immune from prosecution. They put a high bar on it, but they said that the State can still proceed, which I think is good, right? Because do we really want a sitting president who is completely immune from all prosecution? I don't think so. I don't think very many people would want that. David Leary: [00:33:14] Yeah, I think it's a sound decision. We're not constitutional lawyers, here, but you're right. The president's, "Hey, just lets me be immune to all laws," doesn't really make a lot of sense. Blake Oliver: [00:33:26] I mean, the president is not above the law, but it's also difficult because you don't want the president getting bogged down in lawsuits by the opposing party constantly, all the time, so it's a tough- David Leary: [00:33:37] Unless they bring it on themselves. Yes, but I agree, this is unprecedented, the volume of this that's happening on there. I have something tax related. Blake Oliver: [00:33:49] Okay.  David Leary: [00:33:49] This goes back to the old stuff we covered before. Remember TurboTax, Free File- all this went down-  Blake Oliver: [00:33:54] Seems like a long time ago. David Leary: [00:33:57] Seems forever ago. Well, it's bubbled up again. There's a short Netflix, and I don't even know how to describe the show. It's called Patriot Act. It's a single host guy. He, I would argue, is a comedian, but what he does is he takes a topic for about a half hour, 25 minutes, and he goes really deep on one topic. Blake Oliver: [00:34:19] Oh, yeah. This is the show with Hasan Minhaj. David Leary: [00:34:22] Yes. He went deep on why doing taxes is so hard and essentially covered the whole ... Which we talked about for episode, after episode, after episode of the TurboTax Free File Alliance, and the Google suppression with the Google AdWords, and the ... This has been covered really deeply. He even played the same clip that we played on our show. Blake Oliver: [00:34:46] I've gotta watch this. David Leary: [00:34:47] If you've listened to us, you're not gonna learn anything new from doing this, but the fact that it's so mainstream, being covered like this is  pretty amazing. What he did, which is really genius, and I don't know why nobody's done this in a decade ... He created a website that says TurboTaxSucksAss.com. It's so simple. All he did is he went, and he got the free file link for TurboTax, H&R Block, TaxAct, TaxSlayer, ezTaxReturn ... Because all these companies are doing the same game. They've been hiding the free-file link [crosstalk] getting into the pay wall, and blah-blah-blah ...  [00:35:23] The IRS has a web page like this already that you can go to and get links to every one of these. It's not like anything's new here, but the fact that nobody else has really taken the time to do this before - just spin up a one-page site with the five links on it, which would just solve this confusion. He's done that. He made fake commercials for it, and everything. So, it's worth a watch. If you have Netflix, go watch this, and go to the site. It's TurboTaxSucksAss.com. Blake Oliver: [00:35:53] Okay, so there's this one video on there. The title is Hassan does Tax ASMR. Do you know what ASMR is? I think it's like when people make- they do sounds into microphones that some people really like hearing, like people eating. David Leary: [00:36:05] Oh, yeah. That's it. It's a really long 20-minute. It's like a 15-minute promo video he has that doesn't even get into the details of the actual thing. Blake Oliver: [00:36:14] I'm just gonna play a little bit of this video for our listeners. Hasan Minhaj - Patriot Act: [00:36:19] Hello, everyone, it's Hasan Minhaj. Tax Season is officially here, and I know how stressful that can be. That's why I put together this soothing ASMR video to help you relax. So, go ahead, put this on in the background, and let's begin. Let's go ahead and talk about 1040 forms. 1040. 10 ... 40 ...  Blake Oliver: [00:37:07] Now he's running his hands over a 1040. Hasan Minhaj - Patriot Act: [00:37:10] Go ahead. Pull it out. Make sure you unclip them ...  Blake Oliver: [00:37:22] So, that's TurboTaxSucksAss.com. Wow. David Leary: [00:37:26] He even had a slide from Intuit. It had the old Intuit logo on it. That slide had to be at least 12 years old, maybe older. He had some video of Brad Smith doing the moonwalk in India. It's worth watching. I mean, I don't think- if you're a  listener  of The Cloud Accounting Podcast, and you were following this story, you're not gonna really learn anything new on it. Also, because you and I are a little bit more in this, in the weeds more, you actually also ... Because of that, I know the parts where maybe he wasn't totally correct. Blake Oliver: [00:38:01] Well, what did he miss? David Leary: [00:38:02] He made it out that Intuit and the tax companies are the ones that 100-percent, no matter what, are the ones keeping the government from doing any tax reform. Missing the point that there's a whole set of people in this country that actually believe that the IRS should not be doing our taxes for us and just sending us a signed statement. So, he kind of left out that piece of it, I really feel. This was done to attack TurboTax, specifically, and rightfully so. ProPublica ... the research has been done. It's hard to deny what happened. Again, if people have never heard about it, for the millions of people that don't listen to The Cloud Accounting Podcast and just watch things on Netflix, they're gonna be exposed to this story now. Blake Oliver: [00:38:44] Well, that's good. He needed to make this stuff interesting, because if it's not interesting, then people don't pay attention. The only way you get change to happen is enough people have to pay attention, and we're not that entertaining-  David Leary: [00:38:52] Well, I'm still mad. We should have spun up a one-page site presented by ... Why didn't we do this? That's what I'm really upset about. We should have spun up a one-page site and had a link to all five of these links on there. Blake Oliver: [00:39:05] Well, next time. Next time, David. David Leary: [00:39:06] Easy, easy ...  Blake Oliver: [00:39:06] We have day jobs. So, did we get any reviews this week? David Leary: [00:39:11] No reviews this week. Blake Oliver: [00:39:14] Oh ... Okay. So, if you want to leave us a review, we really appreciate that. Where's the best place for people to do that, David? David Leary: [00:39:19] Apple iTunes is always easy to do. You can do that from inside the- Blake Oliver: [00:39:23] It's Apple Podcasts.  David Leary: [00:39:24] Apple Podcasts. You can do that right from inside the app. Then, Podchaser's good because then that is really for the non-Apple people. That populates across a bunch of players eventually. Blake Oliver: [00:39:34] So, review us on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Let us know what you think. You can actually write that in the review, and we will read it on the air. If you want, you can give us a call. We have a number. It is (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. Leave us a message. We'll take a listen, and we might even play it on the air. If people want to get in touch with you, David, where can they do that?  David Leary: [00:39:58] I'm @DavidLeary on Twitter, and I'm @DavidLeary on LinkedIn. If you contact me on LinkedIn, please just say you listen to the show. The amount of inbound I get on there, of which I'm sure are robots, is out of control. Blake Oliver: [00:40:10] You can find me on Twitter at @BlakeTOliver. Until next week, David, stay cool; stay healthy. David Leary: [00:40:17] Enjoy your vacation, folks. ____________________ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. 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Sponsors Synder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synder ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 07:02 - Treasury Department, IRS will not extend Tax Day a second time - CNBC 07:09 - July 15 Filing Date — Not to Move – AICPA In March, the AICPA advocated to move the deadlines to October 15 - AICPA  Some AICPA tweet (and replies) about the filing extension issue – Twitter  09:10 - Tax TeleGraf tweet on reasons you can control vs. can’t control: - Twitter 11:10 -  IRS will not postpone July 15 deadline - Journal of Accountancy   12:02 - Wirecard’s Adventure-Seeking No. 2 Was Key to the Firm’s Rapid Rise. Then He Disappeared. - WSJ 12:58 - Wirecard ex-COO Marsalek's entry into Philippines was faked, minister says - Reuters 14:40 -  More Wirecard discussion from last week's episode, 181 16:17 -  Wirecard Scandal Puts Spotlight on Auditor Ernst & Young - WSJ 17:05 -  Wirecard Exposes Big 4 Accounting Lapses Endure Post-Enron – Claims Journal  20:06 -  Your Wirecard E-Cash Was Safe Until It Wasn’t - Bloomberg 21:24 - SoftBank Wants Out Of Wirecard Partnership | PYMNTS.com  22:27 - Corporate audits fell 71% as coronavirus crippled IRS – Accounting Today  22:33 - Millionaires face near-zero chance of IRS audit — for now – Accounting Today    23:12 - IRS wasting millions on audits with no results, watchdog says – Accounting Today  26:05 -  IRS chief pledges to work with Congress on examining tax code's role in racial wealth disparities – The Hill 26:59 - House joins Senate in approving 5-week PPP extension - Journal of Accountancy  Senate passes extension of small business loan program – Accounting Today  27:50 - Has There Been $1 Billion in PPP Fraud? - Entrepreneur 29:19 - Watchdog’s deceased mother one of 1.1M to get stimulus check – Accounting Today  29:58 -  What Should Business Owners Do After They Run Out of PPP Loan Money? - AccountingWEB  33:09 -  In the Covid-19 Economy, You Can Have a Kid or a Job. You Can’t Have Both. - The New York Times  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Smansha: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptIf you've ever tried to get your clients' Stripe, Square, or PayPal transactions into QuickBooks or Xero, you've probably pulled your hair out a few times trying to get the income and fees recorded correctly so the deposit amounts match the bank statement. Did you know you could be using Synder to automatically do this for you? Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Synder, later in this episode.____________________  David Leary: [00:00:23] I think I predicted last week- I was like, "Oh, they're just gonna change the date right before the weekend starts," but they didn't.  Blake Oliver: [00:00:28] They did not, and we have confirmation now - the Treasury Department and the IRS have said they are not going to extend Tax Day a second time, so there's no getting around it.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. Back in October of 2013, I became ClockShark's first Twitter follower. Today, ClockShark has grown into a highly rated and very-much-loved time-tracking app that is now used by over 5,000 small businesses globally. With features like crew tracking, scheduling, overtime notifications, routes, geofencing locations, job costing, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking app to handle the unique challenges that face your mobile workforce clients.   Their technology has been helpful as their clients work through the COVID-19 pandemic. Your clients will need accurate records of their expenses, and losses, and technology like ClockShark helps. With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like paid time off, and other important data to provide the necessary proof for CARES, and FFCRA Acts' benefits. This lets them get straight back to work without too much disruption after the pandemic has passed. ClockShark's standard plan is just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-L-O-C-K-S-H-A-R-K. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before September 30, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:02:37] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:40] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:42] How was your Fourth of July, David? David Leary: [00:02:44] Hot. It's very, very, very hot. Did, last night, go to the one hotel and met somebody for drinks. The hotel was at 50-percent capacity, and you had to serve yourself. You had to go and get drinks from the bar, and you had to bus your own table ... There was nobody around us for 30 feet. If I would've known, I woulda got a room at the hotel and just stayed there the whole weekend. Blake Oliver: [00:03:05] What did you call it? The One Hotel? David Leary: [00:03:07] Oh, no, we went TO a hotel.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:08] Oh, to a hotel. Got it. David Leary: [00:03:11] To a hotel. Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:03:12] I'm in my new place in Scottsdale, and I found out, of Fourth of July, that WestWorld, which is the event space in North Scottsdale, where they have horse shows and stuff, was doing fireworks. We were able to watch the fireworks from our house. It was really, really cool. David Leary: [00:03:27] Oh, nice. You didn't even have to leave the property.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:27] Yeah [crosstalk] didn't have to go anywhere. It's a good thing we could watch them from inside because it was 110 degrees. So, it was really nice to just kind of decompress and not look at my email for a day, but I kept thinking about all of our friends in the tax world who are struggling because they didn't get to take a three-day weekend because the tax deadline is now on the 15th, July 15.  [00:03:52] I've got some discussion about the AICPA and their reasoning for not advocating to move the July 15 date, after previously saying it should be October 15. The logic there is a little bit interesting. We'll talk about that. I've got follow up on Wirecard, the Ernst & Young audit that apparently did not detect $2 billion in money that was missing.  David Leary: [00:04:18] I've got some Wirecard, as well.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:19] IRS news, appropriate for Tax Day coming up. The IRS is struggling, right now, due to coronavirus and just lack of funding. PPP, of course, is still in the news. That got extended. That's what I've got on my plate. How about you? David Leary: [00:04:34] Similar stuff. I've got Wirecard in here; I've got PPP; the IRS, and the lack of audits that's happening-  Blake Oliver: [00:04:39] Oh, yeah, yeah.  David Leary: [00:04:40] Some of that. There's a couple tiebacks to some old things. Remember we were talking about cash, and the acceptance of cash? That's resurfacing again because now, with COVID, now, businesses are kind of like, "Hey, even more reasons not to take cash ..."  Blake Oliver: [00:04:55] Oh, right, right.  David Leary: [00:04:55] So, the bills that are gonna force you to take cash are coming up. Blake Oliver: [00:05:00] We got some reviews. David Leary: [00:05:01] We did get reviews. Want me to read the first one? Blake Oliver: [00:05:03] Yeah, go for it. David Leary: [00:05:04] All right, so this review was on Podchaser. This is from Joel_at_RN, which I'm assuming is Joel at Right Networks. This is a five-star review. "I have become a regular listener and enjoy the consolidated reporting and analysis of the news and events in the accounting industry. But I was compelled to write this review because Blake's take on the industry's recent words about racial reform and equity in the last episode really landed for me. We need to move beyond just words and committees with recommendations to tangible plans, with metrics and performance incentives which drive actual, measurable change. It will take time, but we have an opportunity to begin now. Great work. Blake, and David." Joel. Blake Oliver: [00:05:40] Well, thank you, Joel. This is our second review. "The Cloud Accounting Podcast is my #1 source for current, real-world information and ideas on the leading edge of the new and evolving accounting profession. Blake and David provide hands-on, practical insights with every edition. Informative, entertaining, educational, humorous, authentic, sobering, witty, insightful. Their pragmatic perspectives cut through all the technical and theoretical minutia and all the marketing noise and hyperbole. It's easy (and free) to subscribe. I listen at my convenience and can't wait for each post. CAP is a must for all accounting professionals who want to stay current on the rapid pace of change at the intersection of the cloud and accounting. Thank you, Blake and David, for this invaluable and unique resource - you've helped me and my firm in our journey to the future of cloud accounting and CFO advisory services." So that's Reynaldo Arellano. He's a CPA, PFS, and CGMA. Thank you, Reynaldo. David Leary: [00:06:34] Yeah, I mean, that's what we try to do, right? He's talking about we're just plowing through the minutia and all the noise that's out there and try to bring what's valuable and sift through it. Blake Oliver: [00:06:45] Yeah! Let's talk about Tax Day. It's coming up, right?  David Leary: [00:06:53] I think I predicted last week- I was like, "Oh, they're just gonna change the date right before the weekend starts," but they didn't. Blake Oliver: [00:07:02] They did not, and we have confirmation now - the Treasury Department and the IRS have said they are not going to extend Tax Day a second time, so there's no getting around it. July 15 is the deadline, although, of course, you can still extend to October 15. The AICPA decided, somewhat controversially, not to advocate to extend the tax deadline any longer, which is interesting because back in March, during the whole coronavirus spin-up, the AICPA did advocate to move the deadline to October 15. They put out a couple of blog posts about their reasoning. They did a survey, apparently, at the end of May, and ... I never got this survey. I don't know who they surveyed. It's not really clear to me. They didn't release the specific details of the survey, but they-  David Leary: [00:07:43] You mean like how many people who responded to it or took it? Did they release that type of a number? Blake Oliver: [00:07:48] It just says, "Survey deployed at the end of May," that asked members 2 questions. Number one: based on the current COVID-19 environment and the impact on your tax practice, do you anticipate being able to file returns or extensions for your clients by the July 15 deadline? The second question is: do you believe the IRS should automatically extend the July 15 filing and payment deadline? They received over a thousand comments. Doesn't say if that's a thousand people took the survey. Don't know. Like I said, I didn't get the survey; at least, I didn't see it. [00:08:20] What's interesting is that, although the majority of respondents said they would be able to file returns or extensions on behalf of their clients by the July 15 due date, a plurality of members wanted the IRS to move the July 15 due date to October 15. Some members suggested other dates. Plurality means it wasn't a majority, but the greatest percentage of respondents wanted the deadline moved, but the AICPA Tax Committee decided not to recommend that. There are some reasons for; some against. David Leary: [00:08:52] Just to summarize, most people were saying, "Yeah, let's move it." Blake Oliver: [00:08:56] The largest, yeah. A "plurality." The largest group said, "Let's move it." Then the Tax Committee decided not to make that recommendation and listed their reasoning. There's a tweet from Logan Graf, CPA. He's  @LoganGrafTax. He highlighted the reasons that the AICPA gave for moving it, and then, for not moving it. He said most of the reasons for not changing the deadline were stuff like, "Our clients are gonna procrastinate. We don't want these tax returns hanging over our head all year. Some clients wait until the last minute. Changing the due date is confusing for clients."  [00:09:39] He says, "Well, those are things that we can control." We can explain to our clients what they need to do, and we can [manage] our work. Then, he highlights the reasons for moving the deadline, which is stuff like, "Half the staff are teaching their children and working at the same time; fear of the illness - on my part, as well as my family, and clients - has made the process much longer and not as efficient; there are investment reports, K-1s, and revised 1099s that are not available." He highlights those, and says, "Well, those are now things that we can't control, so why are we not advocating to move the deadline because it's a lot of things that are out of our control." Especially having kids at home. That's ... How do you do tax season from your home office, when you got your whole family there? David Leary: [00:10:25] That could be a reason to not move the deadline because kids are not going back to school, apparently. It's starting to be very clear about this, which means it's not gonna be any better doing taxes in October than it is doing taxes in July. Blake Oliver: [00:10:40] I don't think this was listed in the blog post about the reasoning for not moving the deadline, but I did hear some speculation that the big reason managing partners wouldn't wanna move the deadline is that they collect payment from clients when they file returns. So, if they don't file the returns, if the deadline doesn't stick, and it gets extended again, then clients aren't gonna turn in their paperwork, and the firm is not gonna be able to collect the cash. So, it's a cashflow problem, but that's based on the way they're billing their clients- David Leary: [00:11:10] So, this is a revenue play and it's not a ... I can kinda see one argument of not moving it. They loosely talk about that in the article I saw. The AICPA's Vice President of Taxation, Edward Karl, he said that it's the realities of COVID's uncertainty. I kinda buy into that a little bit because let's just say there's another crazy version of PPP that comes out three months from now because COVID's still not going away. It'll just never, never end. It's almost like, okay, just rip the Band-Aid off. Let's try to get taxes done on this deadline. If you can't, extend the people that need to be extended, because chances are ... It's probably not even chances; probably a very high possibility, accountants are gonna be busy with a bunch of headache COVID-related stimulus work again. If it's not the forgiveness stuff, it's gonna be some new things. Blake Oliver: [00:12:02] Let's talk about Wirecard. Some interesting developments this week. Wirecard filed for insolvency - the German equivalent of bankruptcy - last week, or the week before that. Now, prosecutors- police officers are searching their offices. I don't think they're trying to find the $2 billion. I think we're kinda realizing that didn't ever exist. They're trying to find a trail. In particular, one challenge is that Wirecard's COO, Jan Marsalek, has disappeared. He is on the lam. He stopped responding to messages from colleagues when the company ran into trouble around June 18, on the day that Wirecard revealed that $2 billion was missing.  [00:12:45] This guy, Jan Marsalek, is 40 years old, and he joined the company at age 20, as a payment-systems project manager and ended up basically running a huge chunk of the company. Now, we're not sure exactly where he is, but immigration records in The Philippines cropped up that appeared to show him entering the country on June 23, and then departing the following day for China. But The Philippines Justice Secretary said that those were faked records, and he didn't actually enter the country- David Leary: [00:13:15] Kinda like the bank statements were faked. Blake Oliver: [00:13:18] Yeah. A theory is that Marsalek had these immigration records entered to figure out if there was an international warrant out for his arrest - an Interpol arrest warrant - so that he could then know, wherever else he's going, if he'll be safe. Apparently, he is; he's somewhere safe because he texted a friend on the encrypted-messaging app, Telegram, saying that he's now in a safe place, but nobody knows where that is. So, some spy drama going on with Wirecard, there-  David Leary: [00:13:50] They're gonna catch up to him, right? Blake Oliver: [00:13:51] I don't know. There's a question as to whether the $2 billion ever existed, but maybe some of it did exist, and this guy has it squirreled away somewhere. He's also big in the cryptocurrency world, so maybe he's got crypto that he can live off of. Maybe he's got another identity- David Leary: [00:14:09] Or he's moved some of the money into crypto as a shelter. Blake Oliver: [00:14:14] While the police are searching for Jan Marsalek, the spotlight is on Ernst & Young now, as the auditor that signed off on Wirecard's financial statements for three years before this was finally revealed. They gave Wirecard an unqualified audit for years 2016 through 2019, while these accounts were supposed to exist. It's kind of interesting, we talked a little bit last episode about exactly what happened here, and we have a little bit more information about that now. [00:14:48] The $2 billion, it was supposed to be in The Philippines, but not in normal bank accounts. Apparently, these are trustee-controlled accounts. It's because this is part of a business where Wirecard used third-party partners to process payments for it in markets where it didn't have licenses to process payments, so Wirecard's revenue from those businesses would be deposited in trust accounts rather than paid straight to Wirecard. [00:15:14] The rationale for that, according to Wirecard, in past years, was that the money had to be kept in trustee accounts as a form of risk management. The cash would be available to provide refunds and chargebacks to customers for things such as canceled airline tickets or disputed charges. What got weird about that is that the amount in those accounts became so large- it's equivalent to more than a quarter of the total group revenue for Wirecard in the years 2016 through 2019; a quarter of all of their revenue. David Leary: [00:15:45] This is starting to ... Yeah, somebody figured out a way to pretend that money was there, and they were pulling it out. Blake Oliver: [00:15:51] So, maybe it started small, and then it just sort of ballooned over time? Because the amount is just way too big, from a risk-management perspective. It doesn't make sense. There's no way they would ever have that many chargebacks- David Leary: [00:16:06] But that's what happened with Michael Mann and the MyPayrollHR [crosstalk] that went on, right? It would start at small, small, small; then, eventually, it was like, "I just gotta move the entire payroll to my own bank account, or the entire run."  [00:16:17] Ernst & Young has said, "Oh, this isn't our fault," that this was a sophisticated fraud that many people at Wirecard participated in. Well, you know, this is pretty simple because it was KPMG that came in to do a special audit after investors raised concerns, and they figured it out pretty quickly because they did the bank confirmations; then, the banks said, "Oh, we don't actually have any accounts for Wirecard." I'm thinking maybe this started small and then, it kind of spiraled. The thing that's damning for Ernst & Young is that there's emails that The Wall Street Journal says it saw that say that the auditor had questions about this arrangement as early as 2016. So, they were asking questions, but they never got to the bottom of it. David Leary: [00:17:05] I have an article where the German regulator, BaFin ... Whistleblowers reported to them, so there was oversight failure. I think there's a lot more going on than just these two bank accounts, possibly, we're gonna find out as it goes. Then, EY, they got added to a class action lawsuit against Wirecard on Tuesday. Essentially, this article does talk about how this is really a systemic problem. [00:17:33] BaFin has already come under fire after it took more than a year to report Wirecard for suspected market manipulation, following a tip-off from a whistleblower about irregularities at the payments company. BaFin's Chief Felix Hufeld issued an apology saying that it would share responsibility for the "complete disaster" at Wirecard because it didn't do a good enough job as a regulator. Isn't that their only job and role? If a whistleblower alerts them with an irregularity, as a regulator, you're supposed to investigate irregularities? Blake Oliver: [00:18:03] Yeah, yeah.  David Leary: [00:18:03] There's just a lot of finger-pointing going on. Blake Oliver: [00:18:09] I've read stories about how they did the opposite, where there would be these investors complaining that it doesn't add up. Then, the regulator, BaFin, whatever they're called, they would go after the investors instead of Wirecard.  David Leary: [00:18:25] In the UK, they have the Financial Reporting Council, and a bunch of former partners from the Big Four firms sit on the committees at that council. It's the same problems we're seeing- the governing boards in these regulators are made up of people who used to work for those firms. Why are those firms gonna go after their buddies? Blake Oliver: [00:18:44] Yeah, no, it doesn't make sense.  David Leary: [00:18:45] Especially if they might get a job there three years from now, again, as a partner, or something. The whole thing is just- there's a lot of finger-pointing going on. I think this Wirecard thing's gonna be a much bigger fraud than just these two accounts. It's starting to shape up that way.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Synder. If you've ever tried to get your clients' Stripe, Square, or PayPal transactions into QuickBooks or Xero, you've probably pulled your hair out a few times trying to get the income, and fees recorded correctly so the deposit amounts match the bank statement, so you can reconcile. Synder automatically and accurately categorizes and posts these transactions into the accounting system. Synder can sync all the necessary details, like inventory items, tax, shipping, discounts, classes, locations. It even correctly handles the processor fees.  With tools like Duplicate Detector, and Roll Back functions, you can rest assured your clients' books will never get messed up because you can undo and restore any synced data with literally one click. If you need support from Synder, they offer free help using your favorite means of communication, be it chat, email, or phone. Try out Synder for free, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synder. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash S-Y-N-D-E-R. Synder, smart finance management for online businesses.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:20:06] So, it wasn't just the German entity that had problems. The Wirecard has a US, and UK entity. Now, the US entity is pretty much separate and just sharing the name; they don't really do the same thing that Wirecard does  in Germany, so they're actually okay. They're looking for a buyer, right now. The UK entity, very similar situation, although because of the problems in Germany, the UK regulators shut down Wirecard in the UK, from Friday to Monday.  [00:20:33] Wirecard in the UK processes payments for a bunch of fintechs, so it actually stopped people from being able to access their money at these challenger banks, such as Curve, Pocket, and Anna. These are apps that are banks basically; totally shut off. Now, most of these customers don't use it as their main bank account. It's a good reason not to. The regulation is very different. So, there are calls now, or there've been some folks who've been calling for more regulation of payment processors similar to banks. David Leary: [00:21:08] You're talking about the tech companies. SoftBank, this is the investors; this is the people that invested in WeWork, and we've talked about the other the flopped investments they've been having. They've been having a lot of problems. Massive, massive investments ... They actually they had- they struck a billion-dollar investment deal with Wirecard.  Blake Oliver: [00:21:26] Oh, when was that?  David Leary: [00:21:26] In April of 2019. Now, SoftBank wants out, but essentially, a part of that deal, the agreement was for Wirecard to become affiliated as the digital payments provider for all the companies in Softbank's base of tech firms- Blake Oliver: [00:21:41] I feel like- David Leary: [00:21:42] -and for SoftBank to help Wirecard expand in Japan and South Korea. Blake Oliver: [00:21:46] Wow, I feel like SoftBank just gonna end up collapsing. They've made so many of these terrible investments. David Leary: [00:21:53] Yeah. They're really tied with so many questionable deals at this point. Now, they're trying to separate themselves from this. It's just- it continues on. Blake Oliver: [00:22:04] Right. Should we talk about the challenges the IRS is facing? David Leary: [00:22:06] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:22:07] The coronavirus has created massive problems for the IRS because so much of what they do is still in the office; it's not in the cloud. Particularly, mail; opening mail is something that has to be done in close quarters, generally, and you can't do it when you're at home.  David Leary: [00:22:22] I think we talked about that a couple episodes ago. Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:22] That's actually been one of the big problems with audits. Corporate audits fell 71 percent, this spring, compared with the same time period a year ago. This is a story in Accounting Today. It turns out that part of the problem isn't just people working at home. It's that a lot of this correspondence for audits is done via mail. All of the audits got paused that could be. The only audits that went forward were those where the statute of limitations would make them unable to recover any funds. So, they're gonna have a lot of catch-up to do.  [00:23:01] The problem is they're not very well funded. The IRS has been facing budget cuts for a long time, and they seem to have a problem with talent. There's another story this week. The headline is: "IRS Wasting Millions on Audits With No Results." This is another watchdog report. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said, in a report released on Thursday, that almost half of the audits on large companies from fiscal years 2016 through 2018 resulted in the IRS concluding that no additional tax was due. In other words, they wasted almost $23 million auditing tax returns that resulted in no additional revenue for the federal government. David Leary: [00:23:40] Of course! You know why, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:23:40] Why is that?  David Leary: [00:23:40] Basically, if you have income of $1 million or more, there's less than a one-percent chance you'll get audited; the IRS will call you.  Blake Oliver: [00:23:48] Yeah. That's on the individual side.  David Leary: [00:23:51] Individuals ... In total, the IRS has audited about 0.15 percent of individual returns in 2018; but people who claimed earned income tax credit, which basically is low-income earners, those are getting audited at- Blake Oliver: [00:24:07] 0.6 percent.  David Leary: [00:24:07] -0.6 percent; four times greater. Blake Oliver: [00:24:11] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:24:11] If they audit those ones, because they're kinda easy ... There's no return there except for the income tax credit; they're easy to audit, but it's not gonna produce any revenue unless somebody was fraudulent at that-  Blake Oliver: [00:24:23] Right. It produces revenue if somebody is claiming it wrongly because then, you can claw it back.  David Leary: [00:24:27] What is that 2,400 bucks? What's that, 6,200 bucks?  Blake Oliver: [00:24:32] I think the point you make is valid, which is that it's easy, and these corporate audits are hard. Clearl.com, the IRS is not doing a very good job of choosing which companies to audit. David Leary: [00:24:46] Well, as it goes up ... The higher the return goes up, the less chance it gets audited.  Blake Oliver: [00:24:49] The less chance it gets audited, and the less chance there is a tax due. I think it's because the returns are complex, so the IRS has been losing talented people and not replacing them. They don't have the expertise to audit those complex returns and to argue with the talented people, who are on the other side, who are representing the taxpayers. David Leary: [00:25:08] The other problem is they're doing more returns than ever. In 2010, they received 230 million returns, and they employed almost 14,000 agents. Now, in 2019, they had 253 million returns, so you're talking 30 million more returns, and now they're at about 8,500 agents. Until this gets funded, I don't know ... Again, I think we've talked about this on the show, this is your profit center. You would double down on this. If this was a business, you would double down on your revenue-producing agency. Blake Oliver: [00:25:42] I think the number that you mentioned at the beginning of that story is- we just gotta mention it again. If you earn between $1 million and $5 million, your chance of getting audited for tax year 2018 was 0.05 percent. So, a twentieth of a percent. That's amazing. If you earned over $10 million, then it's 0.03 percent. David Leary: [00:26:05] But, there's good news, right? We talked about the earned income tax credit, and we've talked about racism in taxes, and things like this. The IRS chief, he's IRS Commissioner, Charles Rettig, said Tuesday that he would work with Congress now to examine any ways the tax code contributes to racial wealth disparities. There's no actual data in it, in that statement. He did say that he is a huge proponent of inclusiveness and diversity. [00:26:31] He goes on to say, "I think you're possibly aware of the fact that I'm the first commissioner whose spouse came from a country as a refugee, and I understand how people are treated in different arenas, and we're all in." Virtually, there's no ... Other than him committing to doing it, there's not a lot what he's gonna do. He's just committing to do it, which is good. The fact that somebody's actually saying they're gonna go look at it and try to work with Congress about this is the first step. They could start with the earned income credit, I guess. That would be the easiest thing to start with. Blake Oliver: [00:26:59] Let's talk about the PPP. The PPP - Paycheck Protection Program - has been extended. The Senate passed an extension along with the House; the President signed it, and the new deadline is August 8. There is still $130 billion in funding left. So, hopefully, folks will get it together in the month of July and take advantage of that. We have some details from the SBA on what's happened so far. So far, we've had 4.8 million loans totaling $520.6 billion, as of Tuesday night. There are $669 billion allocated to the program. David Leary: [00:27:36] What's left now? Is it 103?  Blake Oliver: [00:27:36] $130 billion.  David Leary: [00:27:39] $130 billion still left. Blake Oliver: [00:27:41] Now, there's $130 billion left in the PPP. You wanna take a gander at how much fraud there's been so far? The Government Accountability Office released a report saying that the PPP almost certainly fell victim to a significant amount of fraud. Now, they didn't say exactly how much, but Entrepreneur talked to the CEO of risk-management firm ClearForce, who told them that his company estimates there's been over a billion dollars of verified criminal fraud within the PPP program. The Government Accountability Office, for its part, said in the report, "Because of the number of loans approved, the speed with which they were processed, and the limited safeguards, there is a significant risk that some fraudulent, or inflated applications were approved." David Leary: [00:28:31] What's the real number, like from a percentages? Because this is a lot of money that went out the door. Blake Oliver: [00:28:39] Yeah, let's say it is a- David Leary: [00:28:40] Oh, what's a couple hundred million? I think maybe that's acceptable. Blake Oliver: [00:28:43] A lot of money, but in the big scheme of things, I think I agree with you, David, not material, or worthwhile cost of doing business in order to get the money out, like you said- you actually said, at the beginning of this whole PPP program, that one of the lessons we learned from the last recession, the Great Recession- David Leary: [00:29:02] 2008 recession; yeah, the Great Recession, I think they called that one. The lesson learned is they didn't get the money out fast enough is what they learned in that. Blake Oliver: [00:29:11] Right.  David Leary: [00:29:11] You have to take the risk that people- you're gonna send checks to dead people; you're going to have businesses that apply for a loan that shouldn't have applied for it. Blake Oliver: [00:29:19] You mentioned the stimulus checks to dead people, so I just had to bring up this little tidbit from this week. Gene Dodaro, the Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability Office - the GAO, which is releasing all of these reports, the one we just talked about - he told a congressional panel on Friday that the IRS sent his mother a $1,200 payment this spring, even though she died in February of 2018. Doesn't look good for the IRS, right?  David Leary: [00:29:45] He should just file it; claim it on his taxes. He won't get audited [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:29:48] So, he sent it back like he should, but he's worried that a lot of people will cash the checks and don't know that they should send them back. So, that's all I've got this week. David Leary: [00:29:58] Yeah, I think the only other one is the- Billie Anne Grigg wrote up an article on AccountingWEB about what should business owners do after they run out of PPP loan money. She has some tips in here on things they should do, like do an expense analysis, determine determining income target, build a multi-layer contingency plan, build a strong cash position. The whole time I'm reading this, I'm just kind of thinking this is probably good, if you have a brand-new client that just came through your door and said, "Hey, I got the PPP loan. I'm on my own, and now I spent the whole thing. Now what do I do?" If they're a brand-new client. But if you've already had this client, and you helped them get the loan, you should have done these things with that client ahead of time. Waiting til the PPP money's out to build their cashflow, and their future plans just seems a little bit ridiculous. It's not that the article's ridiculous, it's just that's what I was thinking when I was reading ... Hopefully you've done this already. Blake Oliver: [00:30:54] Well, yeah, I guess a lot of times, this stuff doesn't happen until necessity, until it becomes necessary. Clients have to want it. In the good times, it's hard to convince clients to pay for this kind of stuff because their business is working. Everything's working. It's not until it breaks that they really need your help. David Leary: [00:31:13] Maybe at that time they thought their focus and eyes were just like, "I just need that PPP money because, hey, COVID's gonna be gone soon. I've been watching the news. We're gonna reopen. This'll get me by, and that's all the help I need with is just to get the loan." You're right, maybe they're coming back now, like, "Okay, great. I got the loan. It's gone. Now, what do I do?" Blake Oliver: [00:31:32] So, to take us out here, do you have any guess as to when this latest surge of virus will recede? We've talked about it in the past a bit. It's funny because July was one of our estimates, and now it's ... It hasn't even peaked here in Arizona, yet. Supposedly, it's gonna peak mid-July. David Leary: [00:31:55] Is it because people are in these hot states, and you have to be indoors more, versus New York and back East, where they had their spike before- it was in the winter, when they were all indoors. Is that the reason for the difference in the spikes, or is it New York and those places are down now because they got over this major spike? You almost have to get up and over that hump. I don't know at this point. I just know that I'm done. I'm starting to fall into that bucket of does this make a lot of sense anymore. Blake Oliver: [00:32:26] Yeah. Well, I think the thing that's really challenging for both of us is we have kids at home. I have a five-year-old. You've got a bunch of preteens and teens, right?  David Leary: [00:32:36] Preteens.  Blake Oliver: [00:32:38] That's rough.  David Leary: [00:32:39] The reality of our kids not going back to school is here, now. I think, for the rest of the country, it is still eight to 12 weeks out before school starts; during their summer ... A lot of schools just started summer vacation two weeks ago, but we're five weeks out; four weeks out from school, and it already got delayed. Now, it's got delayed into that, "Until we deem it safe," which could be two years. Blake Oliver: [00:33:01] Right.  David Leary: [00:33:01] There's just no knowing when this is gonna stop. Kids are suffering. Not going to school is damaging children. Blake Oliver: [00:33:09] There was a great op-ed in The New York Times about this. It's a blogger who wrote this, who works at home, and her husband lost his job. They're both at home with their son and are trying to imagine a fall in which school doesn't open. They're in New York City. New York City is one of those places that has said that the schools aren't going to open until it's safe. It's challenging because it's creating an environment in which you can't work and have kids. You can't open the economy and not have daycare and not have school. It doesn't work. My wife and I are in that situation. We both work. We like working. One of us could afford, now that we're in Arizona, to not work, but we don't want to, and we're kind of being forced into that situation, potentially, in the fall. It's either that or we have to find somebody who can provide daycare, or a place that can provide it, right?  David Leary: [00:34:04] Basically, in COVID times, you have to choose - do you have a job, or do you take care of your kids? Because it's very hard to do both. You can't be half-assed both. The worst part is, unfortunately, the option's starting to become I have to be a half-assed teacher to my kids because there's no option. They can't do a school. There's no option on the table. Blake Oliver: [00:34:23] I found it. It's called, "In the Covid-19 Economy, You Can Have a Kid or a Job. You Can’t Have Both," New York Times, July 2; by Deb Perlman.  David Leary: [00:34:32] Imagine if you actually were an accountant, as well, and you had tax deadlines on top of all [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:34:36] Yeah, it's hard enough just doing my normal job. I can't imagine being on a tax deadline, and having kids at home, and having to deal with all that. You, and I, David, we're - relatively speaking - very well off, compared to most people in this country; I think most accountants, most CPAs, most EAs, hey, we're professionals. We're gonna be okay. Let's say I'm a cop, and I've got to go to work. What do I do with my kids? I gotta have daycare. I guess there's actually daycares for the essential people. Those are open.  David Leary: [00:35:10] Yes, but did you know what the observation of those daycare centers are?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:13] What? David Leary: [00:35:14] The kids aren't getting sick. [crosstalk] They're not getting sick; they're not dying. We have to figure out what this balance is. I'm gonna say it on the podcast- I'll say it ... I'm starting to wonder what's worse for kids - them having a worst horrible year of lack of education for a year of their life, or possibly losing the grandparents? What's worse? Because that's basically where we're at. It's very clear, the data is- it skews much higher to old people, whether they're aged 55, 65, 75, and it gets worse. Every decade older, the death rates are way higher. What are we balancing out? The long-term impact to the youth of America, or the youth of the world? Blake Oliver: [00:36:00] I had to make a choice pretty early on in this whole thing about what we were gonna do with my son. He's five years old, and he is deaf and has cochlear implants. So, this is a critical point in his development, where he needs to be talking with other kids so that he can learn language and catch up because he's behind. He didn't get these when he was born. He had to wait a year. So, he's already behind. He needs to be with other kids, talking to them, listening to them, interacting with them. [00:36:31] We moved from California to Arizona, specifically because we knew that even if the public schools wouldn't be open in Arizona, that the political climate is such that at least private schools would be open or daycares would be open, which we have been able to find. Those are closed to nonessential folks in California. So, we would have had to, one of us, quit our job and the other one work and then try to homeschool him. It's just terrible for him to be at home; it's gonna create ... If you have these kids home for longer than a year without interacting with other kids, it's gonna really stunt their development. Then, the online education is just atrocious. It doesn't work for young kids. It's hard enough for adults. It's not effective. David Leary: [00:37:14] I think this lockdown stuff and kids not going to school ... The next four weeks is gonna be really interesting because the unemployment- that extra 600 bucks is going away. Blake Oliver: [00:37:24] Yeah. David Leary: [00:37:24] All of a sudden, people who are maybe staying at home because maybe the unemployment was there, and maybe it's not as stressful. You have that money coming in; you're able to pay your rent. But what happens ... That money goes away. Now you can't pay rent, and you're stuck at home with your kids. There's just all these stresses. I think people are starting to get stressed out from this. There's gonna have to be a swing here in the pendulum somewhere. I don't know what it is, but where ...  [00:37:49] Maybe the real fear is just the hospitals, and the volume, and we have to ... If somebody's in a car accident, now, there's no beds for them. I kinda get these things, but also, at some level, this is getting ... The guy down the street, he's 90 years old, lives by himself; super-independent, and literally has the strongest handshake of any person I've ever shook hands with my whole entire life. I was talking to him yesterday morning, and he said he hasn't touched a human being in 90 days. That's not healthy, mentally, for people, either. Blake Oliver: [00:38:21] No, it's not.  David Leary: [00:38:21] I don't know ... I don't have the answers, but it feels like, for me personally, I'm burning out on this. I'm kind of over it.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:31] We need to figure out what the end game is of this, because locking up forever is not a solution, and the cat's out of the bag. This infection has spread so much in this country that we can't- we can't stop it. I heard somebody saying that in order to get rid of it in Arizona, at this point, we'd have to shut down for months, which is not gonna happen. There's no way. It's impossible. So, do we live with it? Is that what ends up happening? We can mitigate it as much as we can - wear masks. Masks work. If we all wear masks, and we go back to school, and work, then hopefully that works. I mean, you look at other countries, like Japan and Korea, that's what they're doing. It's working. David Leary: [00:39:13] They had masks kind of from day one. Blake Oliver: [00:39:15] Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, it can be done. Unfortunately, we've just got this totally screwed-up system, where this has all become really political. I don't know ... I hope we can fix it. I feel you, David. I'm burned out on this, too. I think everybody is. If you're feeling burned out, and you're listening to this, you are not alone.  David Leary: [00:39:36] Give us a call. We'd love to hear what your take is ... Obviously, we just spent eight minutes not talking about anything accounting-related, but it is related, right? Because we're all, all of us, like it or not, are going through this same journey. This is not unique to you, and I, Blake. We're all dealing with this COVID thing. We're now, what, 16, 17, 18 weeks in, 20 weeks in? I mean, basically, we still have half this year to go - 2020 - half the year to go still. Blake Oliver: [00:40:05] I think basically all accountants are going through the same thing right now, which is trying to work from home with everybody at home, with your kids at home trying to homeschool them, while you're at home. Even if you have a spouse that does it, it's being distracted because you're at home while they're at home. Not everybody gets to have an office. Even if you do have a home office, the kids come barging in. That's the big thing, and I think we're all going through that. David Leary: [00:40:29] And the stress of not separating work from home, which is very, very hard right now. Blake Oliver: [00:40:33] Very hard, yeah.  David Leary: [00:40:33] There's no division ... You can't turn off ... Blake Oliver: [00:40:38] If you wanna talk to us about that, if you wanna vent, or just tell us what you think, or tell us we're wrong, or agree with us, leave us a message. We have a number set up. You can call it: (202) 695-1040 That is (202) 695-1040. Call us. Leave a voicemail. We'll listen. And maybe we'll even play it on the air. David Leary: [00:40:58] Even better idea: tell your kids the call, so that way, you can at least get an extra three, or four minutes of getting some work down while they're calling us instead, leaving us a prank jokes or something. That could be kind of funny. I did see something that I really loved. I do not know who on Twitter this was from. It was something about, "Hey, my five-year plan is just getting through 2020." I thought that is perfectly said in just a beautiful perfect way, right now. Blake Oliver: [00:41:25] David, stay safe. Stay sane until the next time we talk. David Leary: [00:41:29] Absolutely. Blake Oliver: [00:41:30] Take care. ____________________ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. ClientHub is a client-communication platform that helps you consolidate client communication, securely share files, and instantly get answers, and much, much more. Get started today with a free trial at ClientHub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ClientHub - frictionless client communication.____________________Smansha integrates with QuickBooks Online, and Xero to help put an end to cashflow problems, by using daily, weekly, and monthly forecasts, cashflow calendars, and powerful customized 'what-if' scenarios, you can visualize your clients' finances in clear and intuitive ways, so you can take action and reshape their cashflow by getting them funding with one simple application. It identifies when extra cash is needed and can match your clients with multiple financing options via more than 50 screened lenders, and you can advise on the best offer suited to your clients' needs. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash S-M-A-N-S-H-A.____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? 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Sponsors Accountant Connect: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp Synder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synder Smansha: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha Show Notes 09:59 – A Message from Founder and CEO Kurt Rathmann - ScaleFactor  12:06 – Fintech Startup That Raised $100 Million From Investors Bessemer And Coatue Is Abruptly Shutting Down - Forbes 14:05 – ScaleFactor is shutting down after coronavirus craters sales – Austin Business Journal 16:58 – ScaleFactor Announces “2.020” Vision, Including Plans to Build Marketplace for On-Demand Financial Solutions – Business Wire 19:45 – Our early ScaleFactor speculations - Episode 70 20:36 – The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch - 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor – The Twenty Minute VC  29:16 – ScaleFactor: Our Response to the News - Acuity  32:18 – Wirecard AG’s former chief executive officer was detained by Munich prosecutors – Accounting Today  33:42 – Wirecard filed for bankruptcy this week – Wall Street Journal Backstory: Wirecard’s suspect accounting practices revealed – Financial Times 34:00 – Softbank sues E&Y over Wirecard - CNBC 38:36 – Nasdaq to suspend trading of Luckin Coffee shares from Monday - Reuters 39:12 – GE KPMG Auditor Swap: General Electric and KPMG Officially Call It Quits – Going Concern 40:38 – Intuit changes tech development focus, lays off 715 – Accounting Today  44:45 ­– IRS sent $1.4B in stimulus checks to dead people, audit finds – Accounting Today 47:42 ­– PPP recipients can apply early for loan forgiveness, SBA says - Journal of Accountancy  48:31 – SBA exempted lawmakers, federal officials from ethics rules in $660 billion loan program – Washington Post 52:39 – Mastercard to purchase open-banking company Finicity for $825 million – MarketWatch  55:40 – Last week's Square discussion – Episode 180 56:35 – Are Intuit and Square dating? - Square Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with Accountant Connect. Their award-winning multi-client payroll management and analytics platform is a remarkably effective tool for adding value to every client engagement. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Accountant Connect, later in the episode. Blake Oliver: [00:00:20] One of the questions I had immediately was where did all the money go? What happened to the $100 million? Because there's no way, with 100 employees, that they burned through $100 million in a year. Not possible. David Leary: [00:00:32] That's a lot of money, but they got 1,000 clients. That's $100,000 per client. I texted somebody who is a leader at a Top-100 accounting firm, and I said, "Hey, can I buy your firm for $100 million?" I got a text back, "Sure ..." So, you could ... If you wanted clients, you could've just bought a big old accounting firm. Blake Oliver: [00:00:48] Right. They could've just bought a firm.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Synder. If you've ever tried to get your clients' Stripe, Square, or PayPal transactions into QuickBooks or Xero, you've probably pulled your hair out a few times trying to get income and fees recorded correctly so that the deposit amounts match the bank statement so you can reconcile. Did you know that you could be using Synder to automatically do this for you? Synder can auto-categorize these transactions, adding additional data, like classes, and locations, and accurately post them into the accounting system. Synder also enables your clients to receive online credit-card payments using the payment service of their choice while trusting it won't create any additional tracking overhead. If you need support, Synder offers free help using your favorite means of communication, be it chat, email, or phone. To try out Synder for free, head over to CloudAccountingPodcast.promo/synder. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash S-Y-N-D-E-R.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Smansha. The line between a successful business and a bankrupt one is often how much cash they have in the bank and how long they are able to remain cashflow positive during challenging times.  Keeping an eye on your clients' cashflow is now more important than ever. Smansha integrates with QuickBooks Online, and Xero to help put an end to cashflow problems. By using daily, weekly, and monthly forecasts, cashflow calendars, and powerful, customized 'what-if' scenarios, you can visualize your clients' finances in clear, and intuitive ways, so you can take action and reshape their cashflow by getting them funding with one simple application. Smansha identifies when extra cash is needed and can match your clients with multiple financing options via more than 50 screened lenders, and you can advise on the best offer suited to your clients' needs. Just for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast, Smansha is offering its fully functional unlimited-companies license for free until August 31, 2020. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/smansha. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash S-M-A-N-S-H-A. ____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:03:03] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:03:07] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:03:08] Oh, my God-  David Leary: [00:03:09] Blake, I had to pour a big old IPA for this episode. It's been a long week.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:14] I'm drinking a glass of wine right now. It is a little after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, June 26. It has been quite a week. ScaleFactor is probably the biggest news in the cloud accounting world in, I don't know ... Since QuickBooks Live was announced? David Leary: [00:03:29] Or since Intuit laid off people on Monday? Blake Oliver: [00:03:33] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:03:33] I thought that was gonna be the biggest story of the week!  Blake Oliver: [00:03:36] I know, right? So, ScaleFactor laid off 100 of their employees or plans to lay off all of their employees, eventually, because they are shutting down completely. We'll talk about that; ScaleFactor, one of those software/accounting firms. You like to call them accounting firms with developers, I think is the term you use?  David Leary: [00:03:55] Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:55] I've got follow-up on Luckin Coffee, and Wirecard, and Ernst & Young, which-  David Leary: [00:04:03] Oh, that's right. The Wirecard guy got arrested, or something. I totally forgot about that.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:05] He did, yes. Gone. The former chief executive of Wirecard, who liked to dress up like Steve Jobs - he liked to play dress-up like Steve Jobs - was arrested in Germany, in Munich. Ernst & Young was the auditor in both those cases, so not looking good for Ernst & Young this year. PPP, some new guidance on early forgiveness; some more PPP transparency news about how the SBA exempted lawmakers from ethics rules, apparently. The Treasury sent more than one million coronavirus stimulus payments to dead people. That's from a new government watchdog report. You mentioned that Intuit laid off 700 people; more than 700 people. So, yeah, a lot's happened this week. David Leary: [00:04:50] Mastercard owns a company that creates bank feeds, so, now, MasterCard and Visa essentially own all bank feeds. Blake Oliver: [00:04:56] Oh, that's, uh, worrisome. David Leary: [00:04:59] All the bank feed APIs. Yeah, we've had a very crazy week. There's just been a lot. We could jump in, but before we jump in, I wanna tell you a little story I have had.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:09] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:05:09] You know how we've talked about in the past, plenty of times, tech companies that are human-powered. Apple/Siri. We've talked about even apps in our own industry, where there's humans powering the tech. Blake Oliver: [00:05:20] Yeah, it's the Mechanical Turk. David Leary: [00:05:22] Mechanical Turk.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:22] It is a machine that looks like it is automatic, but really, there's a small, tiny person inside making the gears move.  David Leary: [00:05:30] Which is interesting because I was just really thinking about this a lot. You go back in time to desktop computers, and desktop software ... Your computer did what you did. You installed it ... Your computer wasn't phoning home somewhere, and it wasn't some human doing something. Coders had to code the code to make shit actually do things. I'm starting to feel like everything's fake. Blake Oliver: [00:05:50] You're sounding an old man, Leary!  David Leary: [00:05:52] I know!  Blake Oliver: [00:05:52] Old Man Leary sitting out on his lawn, yelling at the kids. "You know, back in my day with the desktop computers ..."  David Leary: [00:05:59] I know! I cannot believe I'm doing this ... So, everybody's heard of Grubhub, or Uber Eats, right? There are just so many [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:06:06] Postmates, yes ...  David Leary: [00:06:10] I use Seamless. That's what I'm using. Last night, or two nights ago, I decided, hey, we're at the dog park ... I'm like, all right, let's get some Korean food. Great. So, I pull up Seamless, put in the order, we send the order. About five minutes later, I get to the car, and I'm like, hey, we're driving by there. Why don't we just pick it up, right? So, I call the restaurant and I say, "Hey, can I pick up my food. I just ordered it on Seamless." She's like, "Yes, what's your phone number?" I give her my phone number. She's like, "Yeah, you can come pick it up." So, I drive over there. She said it'd be ready in about 25 minutes. I didn't wanna wait 80 minutes for a delivery, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:06:43] Okay. David Leary: [00:06:44] I drive over there; I pick it up. She's super-super-helpful. Goes through my whole order, boxes it up, etc., then, hands me a ticket. Just to take a step back, any of you, if you've never used Grubhub, or Uber Eats, or any of these type of services, you pay for your food in the app, when you order the food. Blake Oliver: [00:07:05] Right.  David Leary: [00:07:05] She's like, "Seamless didn't pay me. You gotta pay me."  Blake Oliver: [00:07:05] Hmm?  David Leary: [00:07:05] I'm like, "This doesn't make any sense!" I'm very, very confused.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:10] Right. Your card was already charged. David Leary: [00:07:14] So, I'm not gonna argue with her. I'm like, "All right, I'll figure it out with Seamless later." So, I just paid the food. I paid for the food. The very next person who's standing in back to the line is apparently the delivery driver who was gonna come pick up my food and pay for my food. I paid for my meal twice and tipped the guy because I felt bad that he went there when the order should have been canceled. Blake Oliver: [00:07:34] Right. You messed with the system. The app is just an intermediary between a restaurant that has its traditional process, where you pay in the restaurant, and automating it ... It's not actually- David Leary: [00:07:51] But it's not automated. This is the amazing part that I learned. Now, apparently, some restaurants can get a tablet in the restaurant, a Seamless tablet, or a Grubhub tablet, and the orders come through on there. It's a little bit more integrated with their point-of-sale. But a lot of restaurants, like smaller independent ones - like this Korean restaurant I went to - don't. Here's how this works, Blake. I put an order in on the phone. Somebody in India calls the restaurant and says, "This is David." Gives them my phone number and puts in my order. Then, they tell a driver to go pick up my food, say they're David. They pull out a credit card that's like a Grubhub instant spun-up credit card, like we've talked about these services with these instant Visa/instant Mastercard's. Pays for the food, pretending they're me, and then they would drive it to my house. The whole thing is fake! There's no technology moving data around. This is completely ridiculous! It's so insane!  Blake Oliver: [00:08:42] It seems automatic to you. So, the experience for the end user is automated, but the entire process is manual. Yes, you're right, and a lot of things work that way. In our profession, when it comes to all of these apps that talk about using AI, but really, it's people doing the work, and we're just calling them bots. It's the same thing.  David Leary: [00:09:05] I was just so shocked. I felt so bad. I tipped her first, and then, I tipped the driver. It was the most expensive meal I've bought in the whole COVID time. But I learned, though, so much. I came home. I told the wife, I was like, "Oh, don't worry about how much I spent. I learned so much!"  Blake Oliver: [00:09:20] Here's the thing that really kind of is bad about this, is that these services, to create convenience for us so that we don't have to call the restaurant, they charge huge margins; 30-percent fees.  David Leary: [00:09:32] To the restaurants.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:32] Uber Eats, I think, is the worst. It can be up to 40 percent that the restaurant pays just because of our resistance to picking up the phone and calling people. David Leary: [00:09:43] Yeah, so the thing is, it's [inaudible] because ... We've talked about this before that these tech companies are really just a service company, but they're getting multiples on their valuations, like a software play that has 90-percent margins, but they don't have 90-percent margins because they have these people involved, and it kind of ties back to ScaleFactor, ultimately.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:59] That brings us right to ScaleFactor, so let's talk about it. Let's talk about the fintech startup that raised $100 million in the space of 12 months from investors - big-name investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, and Coatue Management. They were launched in 2014. They graduated from Techstars Austin in 2017. If you go to their website, and you look at the services they offer, which, we'll go there right now, and we'll look. [00:10:26] ScaleFactor does a few basic things. They'll do cash, or accrual accounting. They will do your bill pay powered by Bill.com. They'll do payroll that's powered by Gusto for an additional add-on fee - for both the bill pay and the payroll. They're a cash-accounting service. They use QBO or Xero. You get 24/7 on-demand view of your books, automated daily bookkeeping, transactions classified daily; bank, credit card, loan, and payroll reconciliations; annual tax depreciation; expert-checked monthly P&L, and expert-checked monthly balance sheet. Pretty standard bookkeeping services, and that is $399 per month, if paid annually. David Leary: [00:11:08] I think there's some add-ons. I think we've talked about them before, and we've done some math. Maybe their average customer is between $700 to $1,000 a month, depending on what extra services they've sold them.  Blake Oliver: [00:11:19] Yeah, and I think if one of these articles, they say that it goes from $6,000 a year to $30,000 a year, depending on the size of the business, which makes sense, right? $6,000 a year is 500 bucks a month. That's kind of these starter packages we're seeing on their pricing page. Then, the bigger you are, the more they're gonna charge you. They're not gonna charge you $500 a month if you're a $10 million-a-year business. [00:11:41] They also have accrual accounting, but it's pretty much similar, other than that. They'll record your prepaid expenses, do your AP/AR, do AP/AR reporting. It's not that complicated. The thing about ScaleFactor, though, is that they are not marketed, at least to the VC world, as a bookkeeping company, or an accounting firm-  David Leary: [00:12:03] Or, as I like to say, an accounting firm with engineers. Blake Oliver: [00:12:06] Yeah. Back in August, when they raised their Series C, which was $60 million, Forbes described ScaleFactor as this: "ScaleFactor makes online financial software that enables small-, and medium-sized businesses to automate back-office tasks, including bookkeeping and payroll." But ScaleFactor, the only software that they make that I am aware of is the dashboard, which is ... It looks beautiful. It aggregates all of your accounting, and bill pay, and payroll information from QuickBooks, Bill.com, and Gusto, but they're still-  David Leary: [00:12:43] Let's pause there. They basically built a dashboard. Two weeks ago, we just talked about SumAll, who basically built a dashboard, and they went under, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:12:49] Exactly. So,  ScaleFactor is a company that built a dashboard; but behind that dashboard, they're just a bookkeeping/accounting firm, like the kind that I built. We did exactly the same thing. We didn't raise $60 million. We raised more like $80,000 and grew organically the rest of the way. ScaleFactor raised money; raised $100 million, like a tech company. Clearly, there's been a problem now that they're shutting down. They announced this week that they are laying off half of their 100 employees immediately and that the other half will be gone by the end of August. They're winding things down.  David Leary: [00:13:30] That follows the layoffs a couple months back; three months ago.  Blake Oliver: [00:13:37] That was the sign that there were problems before this whole COVID thing happened. I wanna talk about that, but let's just talk about what happened this week. In a blog post, the founder, Kurt Rathmann, announced that they are letting go of half of their employees immediately. They're gonna wind down operations, transition clients away to some other as-yet-unspecified provider. Ten people are gonna remain to wind down the company. The employees are getting 12 weeks of severance and health care until the end of 2020. [00:14:05] What's crazy about this is how quickly it happened. Just last week, ScaleFactor said it was hiring on LinkedIn. They had new people joining. What is the rationale for this? Why did this happen? In the Forbes article, and in an article in the Austin Business Journal, Kurt Rathmann, the CEO, says that they lost half their revenue as a result of COVID-19. Half of their clients went away. They had about $7 million in ARR. I think, David, you have said they had about 1,000 clients. David Leary: [00:14:36] I don't know if they ever hit 1,000. They talked about having 750 when they did the reorg a couple months back. They said it was 750, but they were on pace to get 1,000. My understanding is they also, when they restructured, they actually let some clients go. So, if they hit 1,000, I'd be truly amazed. Blake Oliver: [00:14:57] Right.  David Leary: [00:14:57] Because my understanding of this space, and all the competitors, etc., they raised the most and got the least amount of customers. Blake Oliver: [00:15:04] Yeah, so they had raised $100 million with fewer than 1,000 customers. We've talked about this before, back when they raised the money. We were both skeptical about that. They had a $360-million valuation after that Series C in August; $360 million, with only $7 million in annual recurring revenue. So, they lost half their clients, according to Kurt. Here's the quote from Forbes. "Business owners went into fight-or-flight mode. You don't necessarily need all the planning tools, high-end gadgets. You just get back to the simple pen and paper." [00:15:37] I don't really understand this because, when I look at what ScaleFactor offers, they don't offer planning. They don't offer high-end gadgets. This is pretty basic stuff - the dashboard, the bookkeeping, the payroll, the bill pay. Clearly, some of their clients decided that they didn't need the service, but it's not like bookkeeping is unprofitable. In fact, as we have discussed many times on this show, it's more profitable than it's ever been, which is why more and more accounting firms and CPA firms are getting into the whole client-accounting services game- David Leary: [00:16:11] Yeah, before we go down all these other paths, I wanna just talk about this blaming COVID.  Blake Oliver: [00:16:15] Well, yeah ...  David Leary: [00:16:15] Somebody argued with me on Twitter about this, some Austin startup guy from some other startup. He's like, "Well, if all your clients are in the restaurant or service industry, you're gonna lose them." I think that's a bunch of bullcrap, because I know accountants and bookkeepers that are in this- in our space that are only take on restaurant clients. They don't have 100 million bucks, and they didn't have to fold. Blake Oliver: [00:16:37] Right.  David Leary: [00:16:37] Then, I think about how busy accountants and bookkeepers are. They're the busiest they've been in 30 years. They didn't offer other services ... It doesn't seem like these guys offered, like, "Hey, we'll help you get your PPP loans." They didn't offer any other services. Blake Oliver: [00:16:50] No.  David Leary: [00:16:50] There's no- it's just hard to buy into. I think COVID's an easy out. It's an easy way to get out. Blake Oliver: [00:16:58] Yeah, I agree with you. What happened in February, which you've mentioned already, is a clue. Back in February, ScaleFactor announced a pivot. They said that they were creating ScaleFactor 2.020 - a play on 2020 - and they were gonna create a marketplace, an on-demand financial solutions marketplace. They were going to do an internal restructuring for the ScaleFactor team, where a portion of ScaleFactor's finance professionals would be retained to foster the new marketplace from within, while ScaleFactor would make assistance available to those who wished to start independent businesses as certified pros within its marketplace ecosystem, basically taking their internal bookkeepers, and accountants and letting them go and then, becoming a marketplace provider. "We're gonna hook up businesses with these accountants who are no longer on our payroll and just facilitate that whole thing," which, that's a big pivot from what they were doing, which was doing all the work in-house. David Leary: [00:18:00] Yeah, they were trying to switch over to more like a QuickBooks Live model, or an Uber model, where they just play middleman. Blake Oliver: [00:18:07] Exactly. That must have been driven by the Series C. Now, I'm just hypothesizing here. We don't know exactly what happened, but let's try to figure this out. They get the $60 million Series C last summer, and they raised that money based on some crazy growth metrics that they say they can hit. They've got their CAC, and their LTV, and they're gonna grow double every year, and all that stuff. [00:18:35] Then, it doesn't happen because everybody who has run an online bookkeeping company, or a cash practice knows that you cannot grow that fast. Nobody grows that quickly in the real world. A good growth rate for a people-heavy business like this is 20 percent; maybe 50 percent, but usually, that's when you're really tiny. If you're big, if you're getting big, 20 percent is a fantastic growth rate for an accounting firm. VCs, though, they're asking for double, triple, quadruple. They wanna see you grow 10X every year if you can, right? [00:19:11] So, that clearly wasn't happening, and I think these VCs were seeing that play out. Then, they say, "Well, what can we do to actually make this company grow like a tech company? Well, let's get rid of the people, and let's pivot to a marketplace, and let's just make tech." That's how you scale. If you're gonna raise money like a tech company, you gotta be a tech company. That's what they were pivoting to in February. So, in February, they laid off 40 of their customer-service people. Now, I don't know if those customer-service people were bookkeepers, or accountants, or what, but they let them go, and they started pivoting to this marketplace. Then, COVID hit in March. David Leary: [00:19:45] I think there've been signs along the way. I mean, we've questioned the numbers, way early. We've been questioning this ... I went back. We did episode 70. We're now in episode- This'll be episode 181. So, episode 70, when they raised money, we started talking, like this is a lot of money. They don't have ... To people in the space ... It's been questioned the whole time, right? Blake Oliver: [00:20:08] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:20:08] Some part of me, I've seen ... There's been breadcrumbs along the way; there were questionable behaviors. The interesting thing is, I've heard interviews with Kurt - other podcasts, etc.; he's a CPA first. I actually think he's probably even a good CEO, from a people perspective. Even his letter, or his blog post talked about how they really took care of their employees when this was all said and done. I think there's some money left that they might be giving back to investors. I think he's totally a legit, straight-up dude. There's no doubt there. [00:20:36] But in one of the podcasts I was listening to, he was talking about how they were growing, and they had three offices. They'd drive people around, and they had this bus that constantly ... They put the engineers in one office, and people in this other office, and they're driving in circles, driving people ... It just feels like there's a lot of waste. They're in Austin, which is right behind San Francisco. It's completely overpriced real estate, right now. They couldn't get office space to have everybody in the same building, and he was talking about how it created culture clashes. They have this TV show they did ... There's just been a lot of chaos. I feel like there's been lot of chaos, and it was hard to manage.  [00:21:11] Then, I look at- I don't know if you remember, when we were at QuickBooks Connect this past year, in November. This is going back to November. So, QuickBooks Connect, most of our listeners have been there. They know of QuickBooks Connect. It is possibly the biggest, most important event in our space, and the booths are very expensive. If you rent a booth, it's because you want to be there.  Blake Oliver: [00:21:28] Right.  David Leary: [00:21:30] ScaleFactor rented a booth and made a conscious decision to not go there the first day. They never showed up. There was just boxes sitting in their booth. Didn't have one employee they could've sent to just represent ScaleFactor properly in front of 2,500 accountants and bookkeepers? They blew off the Accountants and Bookkeepers Day to just to focus on the Small Business Day. You see these little questionable decisions, and it kind of makes sense. That is an insane decision. Why even go to QuickBooks Connect? They looked dumb! I'll put the picture up. That'll probably be our cover art. It's their booth with cardboard boxes. It's a [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:22:08] They just had the boxes delivered by the union people, who just dumped it there. It looked like garbage. It was awful. Yeah, with their logo right there. David Leary: [00:22:17] But they made a conscious decision not to do that, which is crazy, which tells me they didn't understand this industry at all. David Leary: [00:22:22] Yeah. So, one of the questions I had immediately was where did all the money go? What happened to the $100 million? Because there's no way, with 100 employees, that they burned through $100 million in a year. Not possible. David Leary: [00:22:53] That's a lot of money, but they got 1,000 clients. That's $100,000 per client. I texted somebody who is a leader at a Top-100 accounting firm, and I said, "Hey, can I buy your firm for $100 million?" I got a text back, "Sure ..." So, you could ... If you wanted clients, you could've just bought a big old accounting firm. Blake Oliver: [00:22:54] Right. They could've just bought a firm. So, clearly, they didn't spend the money. They didn't spend all that money. In one of these articles, Kurt says they're returning some of the money, although he did not disclose how much money is being returned to the VCs. I suspect a lot of money is going back, and I wonder if the VCs forced it. They saw that this restructuring, this 2.020 wasn't gonna happen, and they needed the cash because of COVID, and they said, "We're cutting our losses. We're just gonna take the money back. You guys shut down; lay off your employees."  [00:23:29] If that is true, that is pretty shitty, don't you think? All these people, hundreds of people that joined ScaleFactor, which had its problems, like any firm has its challenges, but they could have survived. They only lost half of their revenue. They could have cut half of their workforce and kept going, or they could've tightened their belts, and taken pay cuts, and kept going like everybody else. Instead, you have VCs that say ... Rich VCs, by the way, who say, "I want my money back. Lay everyone off." Yeah, they got 12 weeks of severance, but that's not much comfort in three months, when you can't get a job because this recession is gonna take years for us to get out of. David Leary: [00:24:07] Well, that's confusing, then. Do VCs believe that this is possible - to automate all the bookkeeping work - or don't they? Because you're speculating that maybe they got scared and backed out of this, but just a week ago- last week, we talked about how VCs put $25 million, or was it more than that?  Blake Oliver: [00:24:23] $25 million, yeah.  David Leary: [00:24:23] No, it was $25 million into Botkeeper, which is very kind of, in a way, a little similar, or not similar, but ... They're trying to automate the bookkeeping process. Blake Oliver: [00:24:32] I think the VCs bought into the vision of automating bookkeeping and accounting so that you didn't need the people. I think that's what they were sold, and I think what they learned is that it is way, way harder to do that than anyone imagined. I mean, an accountant, or bookkeeper would tell you, "There's a lot of stuff that I do that's really hard to automate because just coding transactions is only a tiny part of the value that I create for my clients." But, you know, these are VCs. How much due diligence did they do? Probably not enough. [00:25:02] I have been speaking off the record with a fractional CFO in this industry who has raised half a billion dollars for his clients. I can't use his name because he has a lot of relationships. Here's what he said, though, anonymously. "The place where the VCs may look bad is the quality of their due diligence. It's totally normal for a VC to take a bet and lose. It's not good to take a bet and have your thesis fall apart so quickly. I think the COVID thing is just cover for everyone to try to save face from what was a really, really poor business model in an obviously bad investment decision." You know who's gonna pay for that? It's the people who took a risk on ScaleFactor, the employees.  David Leary: [00:25:43] And Kurt. I actually think Kurt's legit. Blake Oliver: [00:25:45] What happened is I imagine that when he took all that money, he gave up control. So, when the VCs wanted their money back, there really wasn't much he could do. David Leary: [00:25:52] Well, I think I've heard that the Whole Foods founder, I heard him, on a podcast, talk about that. He's like, "Here's the deal with VCs. It's like you're driving, and you pick up a hitchhiker, and he's like, 'I got a credit card. I'm gonna buy gas everywhere we go!' You're like, 'Sweet.' The second you take the wrong turn, or you switch lanes, and he doesn't like it, he pulls out a gun and holds it to your head. From that point forward, you have to do whatever he says." That's where he described the VC market a little bit. That's the Whole Foods founder.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:17] Yeah, it makes sense. So, there's one thing I wanna tie this off with is this discussion about what you can automate in bookkeeping, and is it possible to automate it? I will tell you, having thought about this, I had this idea ... My company was a potential ScaleFactor. When we created our company, Cloudsourced Accounting, back in 2014-2015, around the same time as ScaleFactor, I had this idea that it would be this big, fast-growing online bookkeeping company that would do software, and we would do the same thing. It was the same idea, right?  David Leary: [00:26:51] Now, you're a podcaster [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:26:51] Now, I'm a podcaster. Clearly, I made it! What I realized is, and the reason I didn't pursue that, is because I realized, after three years, that it is impossible to automate what bookkeepers do, because so much of what we do is talking to people. Business owners don't want a dashboard, okay? That was ScaleFactor's product. They don't want a dashboard. They don't wanna look at a dashboard. Dashboards are tools; they have their place, but that is not the product. That is not what the business owner wants. [00:27:20] What they want is an accountant who knows business, who they can call, who will help them with their problems. Those problems, you can't plan for that. Like the PPP thing, you cannot create software that's gonna do that for people in advance. That just happens. They need help with getting business licenses. They need help with local tax issues. They need help with this weird payroll thing that nobody's ever seen. It's not-  David Leary: [00:27:43] Or the daily changing PPP. You need help with that.  Blake Oliver: [00:27:46] Yeah, exactly. David Leary: [00:27:48] You can't automate a thing that changes every single hour, or week.  Blake Oliver: [00:27:51] Yeah, so I think the folks who invest in automating a service business are taking a really big leap of faith because nobody's ever done this before in our industry. You can automate the bank-coding, and stuff, but that's just a small part of what we do. In the end, the problem with scaling of a business like this is that it is so people-intensive, and it's really hard to hire and retain good people. That's the big barrier to growth - churn in your own employees - and the cost to acquire these customers and get them onboarded. It takes months, and months, and months. It's not a software business. It's a services business. David Leary: [00:28:29] So, one thing ... It kinda ties into this. We talked about where'd the money go. One thing ScaleFactor did is they spent a lot on advertising. A lot. They were very aggressive, the way they advertised. I mean, considering how many clients they got, you could argue their advertising failed, but they were very, very aggressive. They attacked Facebook. They attacked Google AdWords. They attacked other accounting firms. So, it's really interesting, like he who got the last laugh ... Actually, I was searching for, "ScaleFactor Forbes," and I noticed Cruz Consulting has some AdWords focused on ScaleFactor in the Forbes article. So, they're running ads against that. Then, Acuity ... We actually did an episode at their site, about mid-fall, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:29:12] Yep. Good friends of the show.  David Leary: [00:29:16] Acuity put out a beautiful blog post that actually looks like a news article; it's like, "ScaleFactor News." They basically made a statement about ScaleFactor, and they're targeting the ScaleFactor customers to come to them. They did take time to put in a little dig at the end because Acuity was one of the people they were purposely targeting. [00:29:36] They were targeting cloud accounting - forward-thinking accounting firms - and trying to steal their clients, essentially, ScaleFactor was. It was a little dirty, I think. I mean, there's so much work- abundance for everybody in this industry. We're all competing with spreadsheets and Post-it notes still, and QuickBooks Desktop, right? There's so much room for everybody to win, and they were going after people who were doing well. [00:30:03] So, there's a blog post from Acuity. At the very end, it says, "A little bit about Acuity. We're 100-percent bootstrapped by our two founders, who are both still active in the business. We've been around since 2004. We're about the same size as ScaleFactor. Throughout our history, our specialty and largest customer segment has been SaaS companies." So, here's another accounting firm, took no money, and they're the same size. Blake Oliver: [00:30:26] Yeah, that really doesn't make ScaleFactor look great, does it? Which makes me think that, actually, unless they somehow burned all that money on Facebook ads, a lot went back to the VCs. I can't see them burning more than a million a month. It's been 12 months, right? That's $12 million out of the $100 million. Obviously, they spent more before that, but I bet like 80 percent of the money went back to the VCs. All right, so that's enough on that. I've got follow-up on Luckin and Wirecard. Do you wanna hit those stories? David Leary: [00:30:53] The arrest? Yeah. I saw the arrest, and I totally forgot about that. I'm glad you put it in your pile, here. ____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Accountant Connect. How can you stay on top of your game and still have time to think more strategically, or how do you keep up with all the COVID-19-related stimuli programs to make sure your clients have the documentation to get their piece of the pie? By using ADP's award-winning multi-client payroll-management and analytics platform called Accountants Connect. Be your clients' go-to guru by leveraging Accountant Connect's tools and resources to strengthen your strategic advisory role while boosting the efficiency of your traditional tax and accounting services. With ADP Accountant Connect, you can process payroll and easily integrate payroll data to the popular accounting systems, like QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage, and handle their clients' needs anywhere, anytime. Because ADP Accountant Connect was designed by accountants for accountants, it includes so much more. You can take a CPE course on trending topics, provide your clients with benchmarking data, access the tax-resource library, calculators, e-books, even template letters for communicating with your clients, and it's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-D-P. ADP has your back with Accountant Connect.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:32:18] Wirecard's former chief executive officer, Braun- what was his first name? Was it Markus? Markus Braun; Steve Jobs wannabe, was arrested by Munich prosecutors for his role, or alleged role, in faking $2 billion of cash that was supposedly held at Singapore's OCBC Bank. But that is not the big story this week. The big story this week is about the auditors, who ... David, you questioned why- how auditors could possibly have missed this for a decade, because Ernst & Young has been auditing Wirecard for 10 years. David Leary: [00:32:58] Apparently, KPMG came in, and in eight weeks figured it out-  Blake Oliver: [00:33:03] Apparently, The Financial Times has been doing a longstanding investigation of Wirecard, and people have been saying, "This is not possible. They're faking their books." Ernst & Young had been signing off flawless audit, unqualified opinion, year after year after year. KPMG came in and figured out that, between 2016 and 2018, for three years, EY did not check directly with Singapore's OCBC bank to confirm the over $2 billion of cash held on behalf of Wirecard that we now have learned is most likely fake; doesn't exist because the bank said they've never even had an account for Wirecard. [00:33:42] So Wirecard file for bankruptcy. That's another big thing that happened this week. All of their loan covenants are out of compliance, now that they're ... They have no way to survive this, apparently, in terms of liquidity. Softbank is going to sue Ernst & Young because they were an investor in Wirecard. There's multiple lawsuits. There's a lawsuit from a German business group of investors. [00:34:08] Some of the quotes in this story in the Financial Times are really great. Here they are. "A big question for me is what on earth did EY do when they signed off the accounts?" said a senior banker at a lender with credit exposure to Wirecard. A senior auditor at another firm said that obtaining independent confirmation of bank balances was, "equivalent to day-one training at audit school." The head of audit at a rival accounting firm to EY said, "It is beyond the realms of reality that EY wouldn't have had the bank-balance confirmations unless they did a very poor audit. Cash is easy to audit. If investors can't trust the cash number, what can they trust?" [00:34:45] Here's what EY is saying about this. They're saying, "There were clear indications that this was an elaborate and sophisticated fraud involving multiple parties around the world and different institutions with a deliberate aim of deception." The company argued that, "Even the most robust audit procedures may not uncover this kind of fraud." Of course, the robust audit procedures that we're talking about are simply calling the bank to ask, "Do you have an account for Wirecard?" [00:35:15] Now, here's the crazy thing - five different EY partners signed off on Wirecard's audit over the past five years, and one of them is now the chief accounting officer at none other than Deutsche Bank, which, giant international financial institution, Deutsche Bank ... Their chief accounting officer signed off on these Wirecard audits. It's just a total freaking disaster. David Leary: [00:35:39] We've talked about this before, how people that are in the audit space, then they move ... They kinda flip flop positions, but they're really just an insider ... The PCAOB in this in the U.S.- people there don't wanna bag on any of the audits, or really audit anything because they go back into the practice and go back to the Big Four firms, and switch back up there. It's beyond belief. Blake Oliver: [00:36:03] Yeah. Real quick, I just wanna hit on Luckin Coffee. So, Luckin Coffee, the other fraud that we talked about-  David Leary: [00:36:09] Before you jump into that, did they say why they arrested the guy. Are they saying he purposely did some sort of fraud, or did they just kind of arrest him to arrest him? That's what was not clear to me. Blake Oliver: [00:36:19] Well, it's hard to imagine that he didn't have something to do with this, given that he's the CEO, and, you know, they faked $2 billion of cash. David Leary: [00:36:30] The Luckin Coffee that you talked about last week, we have some details on how they did it, or what they did, but we just don't have any ... Other than Wirecard, the money doesn't exist. We have no details.  Blake Oliver: [00:36:38] Wirecard was faking bank statements. So, what happened was that EY was simply relying on bank statements and screenshots that Wirecard sent to them, rather than doing their own confirmation of the bank balances. David Leary: [00:36:53] Ohhh ... So, they had the balance sheet, and they're like, "Hey, there's a billion dollars in this bank account. You have a bank statement that proves this?" Somebody hacked up a fake bank statement, and said, "Yep, here you go."  Blake Oliver: [00:37:01] Yep. Not hard to do-  David Leary: [00:37:01] I did not know that. Okay, now I know how they did it. All right.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:06] I can make you a fake bank statement in two minutes with Snagit, David. It's the easiest thing to do in the world. Then, you just print it out, and then, you copy it. Any auditor who relies on that ... Well, that's the thing is it was probably some first-year auditor who's doing this confirmation because this is the job you give to the lowest person on the totem pole. David Leary: [00:37:26] I would love to see these, too. You're right, it's probably really poor, like PaintShop 101.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:32] Yeah, and these people are too young and inexperienced to know any better. Then, the audit partners are too cozy with the execs at Wirecard to ever even bother to look because why would they suspect it? It is kind of an outrageous fraud. Who would ever think that somebody would fabricate $2 billion of cash on the balance sheet? Yes, fake receivables, like what Luckin did, where they had fake gift cards, essentially. That is a- David Leary: [00:38:02] So, is this gonna take down EY, like how Enron took down Andersen?  Blake Oliver: [00:38:06] I don't know. It's the German office, obviously. So, all the Big Four, they have national offices. I think they're  insulated from each other, legally, and they're getting sued, but I don't know what ... This could be a lot of money. We're talking billions of dollars of shareholder value wiped out here. David Leary: [00:38:27] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:27] EY was also the auditor of Luckin Coffee in China. They have not had a good few weeks. So, what happened with Luckin is the chairman, Charles Lu, has been removed by the board. Charles Lu was the founder of Car Inc. in China and is worth $2 billion or something like that. That's some of the news there. Their stock is down 54 percent on Friday and their shares have been suspended from trading on Nasdaq; so no longer gonna be tradable in the United States, which is bad news for the investors there. That's my follow up in the fraud world. Oh, in audit-related news, you found this. General Electric is firing KPMG, and Deloitte is gonna be their new auditor, starting in 2021 fiscal year. David Leary: [00:39:20] That was after 100 years or some ridiculous number?  Blake Oliver: [00:39:23] Yes. I forget exactly the details, but I think KPMG got in trouble because GE had a bunch of accounting irregularities that KPMG never caught and caused a bunch of shareholder losses in the markets. So, the shareholders voted fairly overwhelmingly - I don't remember the exact percent, but it was a lot - to ask the board to replace KPMG. Now, they've hired Deloitte. Going Concern was curious, so they went back to the 2019 filings and found out just what that engagement is worth. It looks like, in 2019, GE paid KPMG $79 million in fees. In previous years it's been more; it's been over $100 million in 2018 and 2017. So, that's a big engagement in tax, too. So, what you got this week, David? David Leary: [00:40:24] I think we should talk about Intuit, which, in theory, on Monday or whenever this happened, Monday or Tuesday, this would have been the biggest news of the week, but it's unbelievable the week we've had.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:34] It's been pushed down below the fold, but it's still a big story.  David Leary: [00:40:38] It i[inaudible]     big story. Intuit had an announcement, and they put it out in a blog post from Sasan Goodarzi, about how they had a reorg; unfortunately, as part of this reorg, they had to eliminate 715 positions. I know people that got let go. It sucks. These are friends, right? Still ... Even though I haven't been at Intuit for two years, they're friends that have got- they lost their jobs. [00:41:00] The blog post goes on to talk about how they have 700 more roles that they currently are trying to hire for. So, 715 are gone, and 700 roles ... People are very confused by this. People are on Facebook posts; people put it on comment threads on posts; I put about it. People are very confused. I can kind of give some insights to that a little bit for any listeners that don't understand this. [00:41:21] Let's take Intuit out of the picture, and let's just look at third-party app developers, or app developers. Moving from desktop to SaaS is very hard. If you have a company that has a desktop app, and all of your cash and your revenue is tied to that app, and your engineering skill set is in that app, and your sales and your support, they're all in that desktop app, it's very hard to transition to cloud. There are only a handful of companies that have done it. I can look at LivePlan; I can look at BQE Core. I think we've even talked to Shafat about this, about how they had to do it. SalesPad has done it. Not a lot of companies have done it, but when you start talking to them, the way they've had to do it is you either have to create a separate division that's completely separate from your company, or you have to burn the boats. You just have to burn them.  [00:42:09] That's what Shafat did. As soon as they built their SaaS product, he stopped selling their desktop product. LivePlan, I've talked to them. Basically, over a four-, or five-year period, they had to replace all their engineers and product managers with cloud-based ones, and Intuit has done the same thing. Five, six, seven, eight years ago, about four or five years in a row, Intuit would lay off 400, rehire 400; lay off 800, rehire 700. This has happened before, and it's a transition of talents is what's happening to match the new talent set. Intuit would've never made the transition from desktop to cloud if they did not replace thousands of jobs over a three-year period. There are a lot of desktop apps that have died now because they never made the transition to cloud. [00:42:49] So, that's what's happening here is Intuit has its next big bets. They talked about how they need to invest more in technology; customer success is being rethought about; sales is being rethought about; how they're doing in ... Really, how they're moving forward the next five, six, seven years into the future. In order to do that, they have different job needs. This is a shift of strategy for Intuit, and Intuit's done it before. This is not a surprise. Intuit does it around this time of the year, right before August. Hasn't been this big in a while, and I think that's what's really shocking for most people. I don't feel Intuit's ever put the numbers out the way they have, in a blog post like this, so it's causing confusion because it's ... It feels illogical. 700 people are being laid off, but you're hiring 700 people. Blake Oliver: [00:43:33] Right. I see the term "AI" is actually in this article quite a lot. There are four mentions of it in Accounting Today story. David Leary: [00:43:44] Does that mean they're gonna have to hire a lot of people for AI? Blake Oliver: [00:43:46] Well, I'm curious, are they leaning into it, or are they pulling back from it? David Leary: [00:43:51] I think they're leaning into it harder is my understanding, because they wanna build that, "expert AI-driven platform." They're still gonna have people involved, but they might have people involved in the QB Live sense, or the TurboTax Live sense of the world. Blake Oliver: [00:44:05] Well, you know, who could have used some AI, or just some regular old intelligence? The IRS. David Leary: [00:44:13] Okay ... What'd they do now?  Blake Oliver: [00:44:14] So, I'm not talking PPP. I'm not talking Main Street Lending Program. I'm talking just those vanilla stimulus payments that went to individuals for $1,200. David Leary: [00:44:26] In theory, the part of the stimulus package that accountants and bookkeepers probably didn't have to worry too much about. Blake Oliver: [00:44:31] Yeah, but of course, if you do individual tax, I'm sure your clients were pestering you, wondering, "Hey, where's my stimulus payment? Where's my stimulus payment?" Then, you just have to tell them, "I don't know, because I'm not the IRS." Well, the federal government apparently sent coronavirus stimulus payments to almost 1.1 million dead people at a total value of nearly $1.4 billion, according to Congress's independent watchdog on Thursday. The GAO said that the payments to dead people came as the Treasury and the IRS rushed to disperse some 160.4 million payments totaling $269 billion after the CARES Act was passed in March. So, let's put this in perspective. $1.4 billion out of $269 billion. I guess that's not too bad an error rate, but a million dead people is a lot.  David Leary: [00:45:23] At the same time, it's only a billion out of 2.6 trillion, if you take all the stimulus stuff together.  Blake Oliver: [00:45:29] Right. I mean, these numbers are big- David Leary: [00:45:34] It's nominal. Blake Oliver: [00:45:35] -but they're small in the totality of it all. The interesting thing to me is how this happened. Apparently, the problem is that while the IRS has access to the Social Security Administration's full set of death records, the Treasury Department, and its Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which actually issue the payments, don't have access. So, they don't have any way- the Treasury Department doesn't have any way to verify or to cross-check to make sure these people aren't dead. The GAO says that Congress should authorize Treasury to have access to Social Security records - death records, anyway - and then require that they use it. [00:46:15] The IRS, you may recall, said that people should return the stimulus payments issued to dead people. There was a question as to would that happen, and would there be penalties for people if they didn't? Apparently, other than making that announcement, the IRS has no plans to actually get the money back. Just a $1.4 billion leak in the CARES Act. That's all. You know, it's funny because [crosstalk] this would have been a huge number in the past, and now, we just are like, "Oh, well ..."  David Leary: [00:46:46] Because there's this delay, and the systems are not talking to each other, when you have a spouse that dies, can you file your taxes for three more years and just deduct them? Just claim them ... [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:46:59] I think it's a common fraud, right? People claiming dependents they don't have that don't exist. How would anyone know? They don't confirm this stuff. Where are they gonna figure it out? David Leary: [00:47:12] If you spend the money, it makes it seem like, "Oh, they cashed the check. They must still be alive."  Blake Oliver: [00:47:16] I think actually that's one of the big Social Security frauds at the individual level is your spouse dies, you don't tell Social Security, and they keep sending the check. David Leary: [00:47:25] How many billions of ...? If you know this data, somebody please send it to us. I imagine it's way more than the amount of this, per month. Blake Oliver: [00:47:33] Yeah, it's probably a lot, every month. I've got PPP news. David Leary: [00:47:39] Yeah, jump in. Blake Oliver: [00:47:42] We had some new guidance. Instead of coming out on Friday, it came out on Monday, now, just to keep us on our toes, David. So, Monday night, the Treasury said that PPP recipients may now apply for loan forgiveness early, but that doing so could cost them money. I guess the issue is that you can apply for loan forgiveness early, but if you do that, you forfeit the safe harbor provision that allows you to restore salaries or wages by December 31, and avoid reductions in the loan forgiveness they receive. For example, if a borrower has a 24-week period that ends in November but wants to apply in September, any wage reduction in excess of 25 percent, as of September, would be calculated for the entire 24-week period, even if the borrower restores salaries by December 31. [00:48:31] The last bit on the PPP is the SBA exempting lawmakers and federal officials from ethics rules around the PPP program. Back on April 13, the Trump administration disclosed that the SBA had blanket-suspended the rule that lawmakers and federal employees who apply for small business funds have to get approval of a Standards of Conduct Committee. This is a normal process. If you are in Congress, or you work for the SBA, you may have a conflict of interest, so you have to go before a special committee that says it's okay for you to get this SBA loan because it's taxpayer money, and you work here. They blanket-suspended this rule, apparently, for everybody. So, even if you worked at the SBA, you could hook up your friends and family with PPP loans all day long, and that wasn't, apparently, against the rules.  David Leary: [00:49:26] That's like when Old Navy and GAP have that Friends and Family discount weekend. It's kinda the same thing, but for the SBA. I get it. I get it. Do we wanna talk- go ahead-  Blake Oliver: [00:49:35] Well, what's kind of interesting about this is that the SBA has said that they're gonna make all the loans over $150,000  public, but everything under that is completely secret; it's not gonna be released at an individual level. So, I wonder how many of those loans were friends and family, or even individuals who worked at the SBA? I mean, without transparency in that regard, how are we gonna know? It's potentially a bonanza for insiders. David Leary: [00:50:04] Good gig, if you got it, right? I don't know if we need to talk about this, but there's the tax deadline, July 15. Mnuchin [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:50:12] Oh, crap! David, thank you for reminding me! I haven't done my taxes yet!  David Leary: [00:50:16] Okay ... So, they're hinting at moving it again, but then, there are arguments online about this. The AICPA is taking a stance - don't move it. My prediction is we'll have to talk about this next week, because, if they do move it, they're going to wait til July 3. People are going to their July 4th holiday weekend. Accountants and bookkeepers probably have canceled their plans for July 4th weekend so they can work because of the tax deadline. Then, they're gonna announce that it's been moved, that weekend, and ruin everybody's holiday weekend. We'll be talking about this next week, so we don't have to discuss it this week.  Blake Oliver: [00:50:47] Even though there was that article with the headline saying that Mnuchin is thinking about moving the deadline, I think he's leaning toward not. It was like, "We might move it, but more likely than not, we won't." So, slim chances, probably. But, hey, you never know, right? At the last minute, they might do it. I think an argument against that, on the government side, is that the longer they delay it, the later the payments come in, and the Treasury really needs that money. Who knows? I think the tax people are gonna kill people if this gets extended again. It's gonna be bad because it's the tax season that never ends if that's the case. Because then you come into September, and you're pushing up the deadline for individuals up against the corporate deadline and all that stuff. It's just gonna be a whole year of tax season. David Leary: [00:51:44] It's like COVID. It never ends. It seems appropriate. Blake Oliver: [00:51:49] I just feel so sorry for the people who work in tax, who are at home with kids, who are not in school, trying to work, trying to get stuff from clients, and the tax season just doesn't end. It's like an unending nightmare is just the way I imagine it to be.  David Leary: [00:52:08] Every day-  Blake Oliver: [00:52:09] Every day. David Leary: [00:52:11] Same as it was the day before. Basically, the only difference is there's new PPP news. That's about the only difference [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:52:15] It's the worst Groundhog Day ever. Yeah. David Leary: [00:52:18] Should we jump into app news quickly? Blake Oliver: [00:52:19] Yes, let's do that. David Leary: [00:52:26] Mastercard is to purchase open-banking company- I can never say this right ... Take the word "financial" and take the word "city" and mush them together. It's Finicity-  Blake Oliver: [00:52:33] Finicity? David Leary: [00:52:33] Finicity.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:33] Oh, God. That's terrible. David Leary: [00:52:39] It's very hard to say. I've known about them for years, and I've never said it right in a bunch of years. Mastercard's purchasing them for $825 million, which is deal of the century, if you compare to what Visa paid for Plaid. What? $5.2 billion, or something? Blake Oliver: [00:52:54] Oh, wow ... It was that much? Wow. David Leary: [00:52:56] Well, so this is nothing. What's bad about this ... Plaid- all those bank feeds you get in all these apps, many times, an app is paying Plaid to go get the data from the banks. Visa owns that. Intuit, I think, builds their own bank feeds. They're not using a third-party service. Intuit has their own bank feeds. They actually had a bank feed API at one time, and they shut it down. They decided to use it as their secret sauce inside of QuickBooks, etc. Now, Finicity, they just got bought by MasterCard; so, now, Visa and MasterCard essentially owned the bank feed APIs. Blake Oliver: [00:53:33] I don't know. Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? David Leary: [00:53:36] I think it's kind of bad in a way, because they also have APIs for their own apps. So, that's why you're seeing all these startups that have instant credit cards, these startup banks that are showing up; even consumer ones. They're using the Visa or MasterCard APIs; they're accessing people's bank accounts via either Stripe or Finicity [crosstalk] They're either accessing it through the services, and now, they control the whole thing. I think, long term, there's- consumer freedom and consumer choice in competition is not there. Blake Oliver: [00:54:14] It makes sense why they would do this, because- David Leary: [00:54:16] Oh, I get why. Yes, absolutely. Blake Oliver: [00:54:18] Credit card fees ultimately are going away. There are gonna be disruptors that figure out how to transfer money without the need for all of this, or they're gonna get put under pressure to reduce those. So, where can they stay involved in all of this transacting and still be able to extract value? It's the data. That's what these feeds provide is just access to enormous amounts of transaction data that they can then sell; they can use themselves; they can mine. David Leary: [00:54:47] Which is more valuable than the swipe fee, etc. Blake Oliver: [00:54:50] Potentially, in the end. That's why Facebook's were so much because it knows so much about us. David Leary: [00:54:56] We've talked about how, before, like Starbucks, and even Square, with their Square app, they're taking Visa and MasterCard out of the game because they're just keeping the money within their own systems. So, yeah, Visa and MasterCard have to diversify-  Blake Oliver: [00:55:10] Well, and long term, you know, Bitcoin- blockchain is gonna get rid of that, long term. It will happen eventually. David Leary: [00:55:17] Maybe this explains why Amex bank feeds are so horrible. They're always going down and breaking.  Blake Oliver: [00:55:25] That they don't have any of these- David Leary: [00:55:25] Well, no, because Amex's competitors are Visa, are MasterCard. So, yeah, make those bank feeds a little less reliable.  Blake Oliver: [00:55:36] It's like Trump with the testing. "Let's go a little slow on that." David Leary: [00:55:40] Yeah, just screw up that bank feed fifth day or so [crosstalk] Just to tie into last week ... I really don't have more app new, but remember last week, we talked about Square. That one article kind of hinted at possibly a Square-Intuit deal; Intuit buying Square, or a Square merger. We talked about this loosely, last week. Blake Oliver: [00:55:57] It suggested it would make sense. David Leary: [00:55:59] I've thought about this a lot over the last week. Then, out of the blue, Hector Garcia, he sent me a Facebook message, and he was just talking about Shopify. He's like, "Shopify buying FreshBooks could be really interesting." They're both in Toronto, right? They're both Canadian. That's why all these companies are making moves. The banks are getting general ledgers; general ledgers are becoming- the accounting apps are becoming banks. Shopify's really big competition for Square, right now, and Shopify's competition for Amazon, right now. If Shopify bought an accounting system, like FreshBooks, that a huge move. Blake Oliver: [00:56:34] Yeah. David Leary: [00:56:35] They can afford to buy them, as well. I actually think, if that was to happen, for sure, Intuit and Square would do a deal. There could be signs of that. I noticed this week that there was a blog post out from TurboTax. TurboTax is doing events with Square. They're doing a week long of events, and these events are actually listed on Square's website, if you go to Squareup.com/us/en/events. Maybe they're dating. I don't know, but it's really interesting to think about that Shopify/FreshBooks thing. When Hector Garcia brought that up, I was just like, "Wow, that makes a lot of sense." They're right in each other's backyard; Shopify has the money to do it; FreshBooks is finally, truly a GL. Blake Oliver: [00:57:18] The only reason why that wouldn't happen, in my opinion, is that FreshBooks primarily targets not e-commerce. Their customers are professional services providers, like freelancers, designers, all that sort of thing; people who track time; where Shopify is obviously e-commerce. That would be the only reason why not. But maybe it doesn't matter, if you have need of the GL engine, that would be worth it.  David Leary: [00:57:44] Yeah, or maybe Shopify wants to go both directions.  Blake Oliver: [00:57:47] It would actually be interesting if you could use Shopify to set up your website for your professional services firm and then all the e-commerce stuff, like productizing your services was already there. Actually, that would be brilliant. David Leary: [00:57:58] Yeah, you could hire your designer right through there; the whole end-to-end.  Blake Oliver: [00:58:02] That'd be really interesting because the trend is let's productize our services. Let's not charge for our time. Let's create a product, and sell it, like an e-commerce company. David Leary: [00:58:11] It's just a little speculation, but I think, as we watch consolidation happen in this industry, you're probably gonna see more of it. If companies are going under, there's gonna be consolidation because companies are going to eat up other companies. We're probably gonna see a lot of that in the next 18 to 24 months. But I truly believe Shopify buying FreshBooks would be massive news, and it would cause huge ripple effects; way bigger than H&R Block getting Wave.  Blake Oliver: [00:58:35] Well, David, that's all the time we have today. If people wanna connect with you online, where should they do that? David Leary: [00:58:43] Probably easiest on Twitter. I'm @DavidLeary, but I'm also on LinkedIn, @DavidLeary, on Facebook, @DavidLeary. Apparently, I'm in TikTok, @TheDavidLeary, but I don't put anything on TikTok yet.  Blake Oliver: [00:58:53] I am @BlakeTOliver; connect with me on Twitter. Until next time, David, have a good one. Stay safe. David Leary: [00:59:02] Yeah. Hopefully, it's an easier week next; a little less news.  Blake Oliver: [00:59:02] Every time you say that, it ends up being more, so don't jinx us!  David Leary: [00:59:09] All right. Bye, everybody.  Blake Oliver: [00:59:09] Bye. ____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? With ClientHub, automate this process and get client answers instantly. 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Sponsors Bill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Synder: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/synder Relay Financial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay Show Notes 06:22 –  U.S. Treasury, SBA to disclose names of most businesses taking PPP loans - CNBC 08:06 – Members of Congress took small-business loans — and the full extent is unknown - POLITICO  08:21 – More on Rubio's flip-flopping record from last week's episode 11:19 – Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief - The New York Times  12:54 – SBA and Treasury streamline PPP loan forgiveness applications – Accounting Today 14:30 – PPP Small-Business Loans Left Behind Many of America’s Neediest Firms - WSJ 18:28 – SBA launches tool to match underserved borrowers with PPP lenders - Journal of Accountancy  20:21 – IRS employees are returning to offices amid coronavirus – Accounting Today 22:10 – Tax Court Will Zoom into Your Living Room - AccountingWEB 22:23 – IRS urged to pursue preparers with overdue returns, debts and penalties – Accounting Today 25:23 – Toronto accounting firm hit by ransomware – IT World Canada  26:50 – Only 1/3 of Small Businesses Inform Employees of Personal Device Security Requirements – Small Business Trends  28:37 – Behind the Fall of China’s Luckin Coffee: a Network of Fake Buyers and a Fictitious Employee - WSJ 33:26 – Wirecard CEO Resigns After Banks Say Missing $2 Billion Doesn’t Exist - WSJ 40:04 – Receipt Bank acquires data quality specialist Xavier – Accounting Today 43:03 – Rewind Introduces Client Data Transfer Tool for QuickBooks Online – AccountingWEB 45:23 – Botkeeper raises $25 million to automate accounting tasks - VentureBeat  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! 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DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Steve Chase’s Excel Bootcamp: https://www.sequentiasolutions.com/bootcamp/ ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad:https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptClients are looking for trusted advice and a sense of stability as they navigate the new normal, and by using Bill.com, accounting firms can free up more time for valuable strategic advisory services by helping clients shift their accounts-payable process online. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Bill.com, later in the episode. Blake Oliver: [00:00:23] So, the chief executive and chief technology officer of Wirecard is Markus Braun, who, the Wall Street Journal notes, is known for his tall ... He's tall, and known for his intense manner of speaking, and adopted the sartorial style of the tech world, wearing black turtlenecks similar to Apple Inc. founder, Steve Jobs.  David Leary: [00:00:44] Oh, and the blood girl ...  Blake Oliver: [00:00:44] Yeah, you remember- Theranos ...  David Leary: [00:00:47] Theranos, yeah. Elizabeth Holmes.  Blake Oliver: [00:00:51] Yes, she also did the same thing, right? Two frauds perpetrated by Steve Jobs copycats.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Synder. If you've ever tried to get your clients' Stripe, Square, or PayPal transactions into QuickBooks or Xero, you've probably pulled your hair out a few times trying to get income and fees recorded correctly so that the deposit amounts match the bank statement so you can reconcile. Did you know that you could be using Synder to automatically do this for you? Synder can auto-categorize these transactions, adding additional data, like classes, and locations, and accurately post them into the accounting system. Synder also enables your clients to receive online credit-card payments using the payment service of their choice while trusting it won't create any additional tracking overhead. If you need support, Synder offers free help using your favorite means of communication, be it chat, email, or phone. To try out Synder for free, head over to CloudAccountingPodcast.promo/synder. 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That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash R-E-L-A-Y.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:45] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:48] And I'm David Leary. Blake, it's Father's Day. Blake Oliver: [00:02:50] Happy Father's Day to you. David Leary: [00:02:52] Yes, and you, yourself. A lot of change. You are now moved. Your stuff's officially been put in a truck. It's no longer in California; it's now at your new [00:03:00] house. Blake Oliver: [00:03:02] I no longer have possessions or residency in California. I am now a citizen of Arizona. The land of the free, as I understand it to be. Is that true, David? David Leary: [00:03:14] It's freer, but, you know, more and more Californians like you keep moving here. Blake Oliver: [00:03:19] It's really funny because the first thing, my new neighbor across the street, I saw them out there going somewhere, and I said hi. Husband and wife. I think they have grown children. They moved in 20 years ago, when the house was built. The husband says, "Welcome. Where'd you come from?" I said, "California, L.A." He said, "Oh, great! Well, I hope you didn't bring your politics with you." I said, "Well, I can't speak for my wife, but I personally am fleeing."  David Leary: [00:03:48] Yeah, I think I've seen some bumper stickers around here. It's like, "Don't California my Arizona," things along those lines. Not so much different because I think Tucson probably, politically, is a little bit more blue-leaning; and different; a [00:04:00] little bit more hippie-dippy. Phoenix is much different. Blake Oliver: [00:04:04] Well, and specifically, we're living in Scottsdale, which I understand is very, very split, like right down the middle. So, should be some interesting conversations with my neighbors. I like politics. I like talking about it. It doesn't ... I think there's a way to do it that doesn't have to blow up in your face. We'll see. I'll keep you posted, but yeah [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:04:22] -the drama.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:22] I'm here. What else is new? Oh, we're all wearing facemasks. They were doing that in L.A. and that just passed in the Phoenix City Council, and I think the Scottsdale mayor issued an order after- David Leary: [00:04:39] When did that start? I was in Phoenix this weekend, visiting my father for Father's Day, and we wound up going up to- there's a lake north of Phoenix, a big water reservoir called Lake Pleasant. We were there. We wound up ... It gets to be so hot; you just have to go inside. So, we went into this bar/restaurant place to eat lunch and nobody had masks on. It was like those photos they've been posting, like, "Look at these people at [00:05:00] spring break!" It wasn't spring-break bad, but at same time, I feel like, yeah, it may not have been the best idea. So, on what day did masks go into effect in Phoenix, or Maricopa County? Because in Tucson, they went into effect Saturday morning. Blake Oliver: [00:05:13] I think it started Saturday or Friday. Friday night, I think is when it started. Everyone in Scottsdale, Phoenix, if you're in a public place within six feet of somebody else, you're supposed to wear a mask. All the stores are enforcing it, and everybody- I've seen everybody wearing them, which is good, because they actually have a very, very, very beneficial effect and can reduce transmission by up to 60 percent, which is exactly what we need to do. I'm all in favor of that-  David Leary: [00:05:39] Maybe those rules aren't enforced at lakes and boating areas. Blake Oliver: [00:05:42] Well, it's ... The governor, Governor Ducey, left it up to local jurisdictions to decide what to do. So, it has to be the mayor, or the city council in that area. Anyway, that's enough- David Leary: [00:05:54] Should we jump into the news?  Blake Oliver: [00:05:54] Yeah, let's get into PPP, because there was some big news about transparency [00:06:00] of the PPP. We were talking in our last episode about a big controversy. The administration, according to Larry Kudlow, Trump's senior economic adviser, and Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, the administration wasn't planning on releasing the names of any people who got PPP loans. Since our last episode, that has changed. So, now, the Trump administration is gonna be more transparent, like they originally promised, and disclose some of the names of the businesses that have received PPP loans. Actually, over 75 percent of the businesses who received those loans are gonna have their names, addresses, NAICS codes, zip codes, business type, demographic data, nonprofit information, jobs supported, and loan-amount ranges in five different brackets will be released. David Leary: [00:06:53] They released this news Friday night, again, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:06:55] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:06:55] Late Friday night. Wednesday, they released news [00:07:00] about the new forgiveness application; we'll talk about that separately. Again, they waited til after Friday evening to drop this news again. Blake Oliver: [00:07:08] Yeah, all the unfavorable news gets dumped on Friday, right? Again, I think this was a negotiation. The administration started from a point of no transparency and compromised. Actually, I'm kind of impressed that the amount is so low. So, any loan above $150,000 is gonna be disclosed. If it's under that amount, it will not, and only aggregated, anonymized data is gonna be released; aggregated by zip code, industry, business type, various demographic categories. David Leary: [00:07:41] Yeah, and they're gonna make sure they don't show home addresses or anything like that. That's all gonna be withheld.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:44] Basically, all the sole proprietors, all the very small businesses that got loans under $150,000 don't have to worry about their name going on some list, and then, getting shit from people. Anyone over that, you do, which is gonna be interesting because what led to [00:08:00] this transparency, I think, was reports that members of Congress received these loans. It was gonna be pretty hard for the administration, and the Republicans in Congress to deny transparency on this program, when at least four members of Congress have taken the loans, according to an article that came out in POLITICO on the 16th.  David Leary: [00:08:21] Before you jump into that article more, though, what I found that's interesting is, remember, last week, we said Marco Rubio was all for ... Last week, he was like, "We're not gonna disclose," and now, he flip-flopped again, and now he's up for- he wants it disclosed now. Blake Oliver: [00:08:32] Oh.  David Leary: [00:08:32] He's saying Americans deserve to know- Blake Oliver: [00:08:34] Of course! David Leary: [00:08:35] -how effective it was. It's just like that guy flip-flops on this PPP stuff more than anybody else I know. It's kind of been amazing. Blake Oliver: [00:08:41] It is. It is. This is beside the point now because they have decided to release this information, but the four members of Congress who are highlighted in this POLITICO article are two Democrats, two Republicans. One of them owns a car dealership [00:09:00] in Texas, Roger Williams of Texas. He's a wealthy businessman who owns auto dealerships, and he's got net worth of $26 million. He's one of the wealthiest people in Congress. I mean, most congress people are millionaires, but he is really, really wealthy, and he got a big loan - well, we don't know exactly how much it was, but we will - for his, I think, it's a Jeep dealership in Texas. That was like a big sticking point for the Republicans in the administration that was gonna be hard to overcome that. So, that's done. David Leary: [00:09:34] Yeah, and somebody else's husband, they had a $15 million loan, but they returned it in full. Blake Oliver: [00:09:40] Yeah, that was one of the Democrats. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell of Florida. I guess it was a restaurant chain that returned the loan. David Leary: [00:09:49] So, with all this disclosure coming out, one of the articles actually hit on the SBA, themselves. Do you have any idea how big the SBA is? Blake Oliver: [00:10:00] I [00:10:00] think they have a few thousand employees - something like 3,000 to 4,000. David Leary: [00:10:04] 3,200 employees and an annual budget shy of $1 billion. Now, keep in mind, and I saw this ... Maybe I can try to track something down more, but my understanding is the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of small businesses have never interacted with the SBA until the PPP loan. Blake Oliver: [00:10:23] Right. David Leary: [00:10:23] So, what has this agency been doing for decades? A billion-dollar budget. A billion dollars! Blake Oliver: [00:10:31] Yeah. I don't know. Is that a lot of money for 3,000 employees? I don't know. David Leary: [00:10:36] From a government-bloat perspective, what are they producing? How many employees does the IRS have? I think you mentioned you saw in the news they're hiring again, or they're shutting down hiring? What are they doing? Blake Oliver: [00:10:47] Yeah. The IRS has decided to start bringing their employees back to their offices, which is a big deal, considering that they had an outbreak in Texas at one of their [00:11:00] centers, recently. We can talk about that. Before we get into that, do you wanna hit on the PPP loan forgiveness application? David Leary: [00:11:08] We could do that, but we could also ... I think there's an article to bridge us there. Charter schools have been getting the PPP loans. Blake Oliver: [00:11:14] How does that work? Not-for-profits or allowed to do it? David Leary: [00:11:19] Charter schools are weird because, over here, you have private schools, which are kind of ran like a business. A lot of private schools, they do not get government money. Charter schools are weird because they are kind of ran privately, but they're part of the school districts, and they get government money because, basically, there's vouchers and grants. You're gonna have to familiarize yourself with this because that is, hence, the school system in Arizona, unfortunately. Blake Oliver: [00:11:42] Okay.  David Leary: [00:11:42] They're trying to have it both ways. Over here, "I'm a business, I get a PPP loan!" Over here, they're not a business. A lot of these charter schools are backed by Bloomberg, and Bill Gates ... They've quietly just have been taking the money. Regular schools can't get it. Some of [00:12:00] them have even taken the money and then laid off teachers, still. Every week, we're gonna see more things exposed. The way they figured this out is they basically ... Because the charter schools, on one hand, are a little bit- they're part of the school district, so they're part of the school board meetings which are public. They basically watched these virtual school board meetings and pored over the meeting minutes and figured out what schools have taken this money. It's been $48 million in funds that have gone to 27 charter schools. Blake Oliver: [00:12:28] That is interesting that they can get access to this money, but a regular school cannot. The normal public schools, whatever you wanna call them, they're gonna face terrible budget cuts, potentially, because now, all these local governments don't have money because tax revenues are down. David Leary: [00:12:44] Yeah. As this gets disclosed, there's gonna be another bucket of people they figure out- these people took out loans, and these people took out loans ...  Blake Oliver: [00:12:54] The loan forgiveness application changed. That was released last week. This [00:13:00] is good news because there is an EZ version of the forgiveness application that applies to borrowers who are self-employed, and have no employees, or did not reduce the salaries, or wages of their employees by more than 25 percent, and didn't reduce the number of hours of their employees, or experienced reductions in business activity as a result of health directives related to COVID-19, and did not reduce the salaries or wages of their employees by more than 25 percent. So, if any of those apply to you, then you can use the EZ application. Then, you don't have to submit nearly as much documentation. It's a three-page form. You're just certifying that, "I didn't reduce the hours more than 25 percent, and I was impacted by COVID," and you can get that forgiveness [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:13:46] The regular application went down from 11 pages to, I think, seven now, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:13:50] Oh okay. David Leary: [00:13:50] That decreased in size, as well. Both applications give you the option for that eight-week versus the 24-week. Blake Oliver: [00:13:56] So, this is good. Hopefully, it's gonna make more businesses [00:14:00] apply for this money because there is still $100 billion left on the table. David Leary: [00:14:04] I think I saw somebody tweet that they attended an AICPA roundtable on PPP, even after these EZ applications came out. Basically, the argument of the AICPA is to still wait. Have your client fill it out when they're done; have it ready; but wait for new guidance. They fully expect new guidance to come out and revisions for these EZ applications, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:14:26] Lovely. Well, you know-  David Leary: [00:14:27] We're still not out of this. We're still not out of it. Blake Oliver: [00:14:30] All that uncertainty is one of the reasons why the money may not be getting to the people who need it the most. I spotted a story in the Wall Street Journal called, "PPP Small Business Loans left behind many of America's neediest firms." We've got some data now. We don't have a ton of data because the SBA hasn't been very helpful. Wall Street Journal compiled what they have and figured out what industries got the most loans, and which didn't and correlated [00:15:00] that with how hard were they hit. [00:15:02] So, the service industry was one of the worst hit, obviously. 67 percent of jobs lost from March to May were in the service industry. They only got 42 percent of the loans, as of May 30, according to economists at S&P Global Inc. The hotel and food services industry shed 40 percent of its jobs - 5.7 million from January to May - the most of any sector. As of June 12, it had received only eight percent of the loans. David Leary: [00:15:32] I think if I remember correctly, if we take a time machine back three months ago, the way this was written, they did not want the loans because they were pretty sure they weren't gonna reopen. Originally, they did not want the loans. They wanted other considerations ... I think there's a whole 'nother part of the stimulus that's really set up for hotels. Blake Oliver: [00:15:49] Well, I guess, maybe, but ... I guess that's part of it, but you would think that if the idea is to keep people on payroll and not on unemployment, then the [00:16:00] industries that are losing the most jobs, you would wanna keep those people on payroll. The whole program was built for eight weeks, originally. Everyone's thinking this is gonna be over in two months. Yeah, no chance of that, right? As they were creating the program, we all realized it was gonna last a lot longer than that. [00:16:19] What ended up happening is that the companies that were hit the least by the pandemic ... An example is professional, scientific, and technical-services providers. They only lost 480,000 jobs - five percent of total jobs - but they got 13 percent of the loans. Professional services, scientific/tech services, these are the kind of businesses where you can work from home, so they were hurt the least by this; and accounting firms are in there. They were able to take advantage of this program because they could keep their people employed. [00:16:54] The question I have is - did this program actually save [00:17:00] jobs or did it just supplement the earnings of companies that were going to survive anyway? How successful is this program? What did we get for the $600 billion, or, I guess, $500 billion because we haven't spent the other- the last 100 yet. David Leary: [00:17:16] Yeah, it's about $120 billion that's still left.  Blake Oliver: [00:17:18] Did it just end up supporting businesses that continued to operate? Because if it did that, then what's the point? Obviously, there's examples of businesses that survived because of this, but that may not be the majority even. It may be a small group of businesses that actually were able to survive as a result, and the rest just got free money. It's interesting because you look at the map of the United States, the businesses that got the most money or the greatest percentage of businesses, I suppose, that got the money, they're all in states that were hit the least. Some of them are. North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska had the highest percentages of businesses getting these [00:18:00] loans of all the businesses in those states.  David Leary: [00:18:02] We talked about that before, too. A lot of it is just because it's a lot of firms and they have banking relationships, and those banks [inaudible] ... It was the states, like California, where the average small business owner, they all go to Wells Fargo, and, Wells Fargo- how do they prioritize any of those loans, right? They're overwhelmed with the volume.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:17] States that were really hit, like California, and New York, Washington, Oregon, got the fewest loans, percentage wise.  David Leary: [00:18:28] It'll be interesting to see what that was over time because, in the beginning, it was very, very, very- not in very good balance. I wonder if it's coming down or turning the other way. I did see that the SBA launches a tool to match underserved borrowers with PPP lenders. They have a tool called Lender Match, online. Think of it as a marketplace. I can go on, I can search. I need a loan, and they're gonna give me approved SBA lenders. [00:18:54] They're launching this, and this is gonna help connect people, minority- depository institutions, [00:19:00] certified development companies, farm credit system lenders, micro lenders. So, it's really gonna only connect them with even small lenders. It's small lenders connecting to very small and disadvantaged businesses. The thing is, they announced this Friday to turn it back on, 11 days before the June 30th deadline. The kicker in this is this program, this website, Lender Match, they launched it in 2017. Then, what they did is they turned it off. They turned it off in March, so they could work on the stimulus stuff. Blake Oliver: [00:19:34] Oh, so it was a website for their traditional lending programs. David Leary: [00:19:37] They already had a system set up to help underserved businesses and minority-based businesses get money. They had a system set up. Then, they turned it off. Then, they flip it on like, "Hey, good news. You have 11 days left to apply now." It's maddening.  Blake Oliver: [00:19:54] The whole program was not designed to help the people that needed it the most. That's my conclusion. It helped [00:20:00] a lot of businesses, but not the neediest ones. David Leary: [00:20:02] We'll get the data soon. If the SBA, and the Treasury don't turn over the data ... Did you see U.S. Democratic lawmakers are sending letters straight to the CEOs of banks asking for them to release the documents? Blake Oliver: [00:20:13] No, I hadn't seen that.  David Leary: [00:20:13] They're gonna bypass the SBA entirely and just basically squeeze these large banks [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:20:21] Get them to give us the info. Interesting. I mentioned that IRS employees are returning to their offices. IRS employees in Utah, Texas, Kentucky, began reporting back to their buildings in the first week of June, according to the National Treasury Employees Union. More facilities in other states began opening this week. Three IRS employees tested positive in Austin, Texas, according to Bloomberg Tax, which is causing a bit of distress among the employees there. [00:20:50] The plan is, according to the IRS commissioner, Chuck Rettig, that all of the facilities will reopen in all the other states on July 13. [00:21:00] Part of the urgency is that they have a ton of unopened mail. The IRS employees have actually been doing pretty good working at home, apparently, but you can't open mail that's at the IRS processing center from home. The IRS still gets a ton of paper returns, and they receive one million new pieces of mail each week; one million pieces of mail. They have been closed for weeks and weeks and weeks, so now they have 11 million pieces of mail that are unopened that they have to go back and open-  David Leary: [00:21:33] I imagine that's one of those jobs where you stand right next to somebody else and do nothing but open up mail, so you're not gonna be able to have social distancing very well, trying to open up all that mail.  Blake Oliver: [00:21:41] Yeah, mail rooms are not exactly well-ventilated, generally. They're opening five million pieces of mail per week, and they've got 11 million on backorder, basically. So. they've gotta take probably three weeks to get through all the mail that they've got and catch up. That's just opening it, right? Who [00:22:00] knows how long it'll take them to process it. Now, the IRS employees may be going back to the office, but tax court is not. They are going to be operating remotely, indefinitely. Now, they also still have a paperwork backlog in terms of their mail room, as well, but they are somehow gonna catch up on that by July 10. [00:22:22] Some more IRS news: the IRS is being urged by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to pursue preparers with overdue returns, debts, and penalties. Apparently, there are tens of thousands of preparers who are noncompliant with their own taxes. There are 10,000, over 10,000 preparers who prepared more than two million tax returns for clients in 2016, but who didn't file their own personal tax returns to report the income they received. David Leary: [00:22:55] Is it just like you're just too busy? You're constantly doing somebody else's, and you never get around to doing yours, or is it on purpose? [00:23:00] Is there some part of the tax code that preparers know about that the rest of us don't? Blake Oliver: [00:23:04] Well, they must be really aware that you can get away with doing this for a long time, right? Because the IRS isn't coming after them. It's just kind of crazy to me. The Treasury Inspector General estimates that the IRS could collect $45.6 million in potential taxes, if they just simply worked on 6,900 of the preparer non-filer cases. You just wonder, why isn't the IRS going after these guys? David Leary: [00:23:31] It just sounds... It reads really poor, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:23:36] Yeah, we now that there's a lot of-  David Leary: [00:23:38] There's no excuse not to file. Just do it. You know how to do it. Blake Oliver: [00:23:41] Yeah, exactly. You know how to ... You would think that the IRS would be enforcing the rules on the people who are preparing taxes for other people to be held to a very high standard, but that obviously isn't happening. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Bill.com. Through these uncertain times, one thing has become clear. Accounting firms are in a unique and trusted position to help their clients adapt. For your firm, that means leaning into the services your clients have always depended on and more. For your clients, it means helping them move quickly to a remote model and bringing key financial processes, like accounts payable, online smoothly.   Using Bill.com, the Intelligent Business Payments Platform, accounting firms can take a client's time-consuming manual AP process and transform it completely with automation, tracking, mobility, and transparency, easing your client's shift to working remotely and setting the stage for strategic conversations about how your firm can help them navigate the new normal. To learn more about how Bill.com can help your firm automate AP and offer client advisory services, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash B-I-L-L. Bill.com, the Intelligent Business Payments platform. ____________________ David Leary: [00:25:07] So, remember last week, we talked about the AICPA of Canada- I forgot, the Canadian charter professionals ... I don't know the exact name, right now, sorry. I do not have the name. The identities of accounting firms and accountants were stolen. Blake Oliver: [00:25:22] They got hacked. David Leary: [00:25:23] Yeah, they got hacked. It didn't take very long ... I'm not saying these two attacks are related, but a Toronto chartered-accounting firm is trying to recover from a ransomware attack. Some of the things that were stolen: the bank login credentials, including answers to security questions- Blake Oliver: [00:25:36] For their clients.  David Leary: [00:25:37] -for their clients; then, screenshots of hundreds of folders from companies' computers. So, people are selling this data; they have access to all of this data. The interesting thing is IT World Canada, who this article is from, they are not naming the firm because they haven't confirmed whether or not for sure it was a breach of the security controls at the firm. How [00:26:00] do you get ransomwared, if a security control did not get breached? Some of these machines, somewhere in the system, got compromised, which would be a security breach.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:08] Well, the lesson here, for me, is don't store your clients' logins, and security questions in an unencrypted format, you know? If it's encrypted, at least if you get hacked, they can't get into that database. People should be using password managers. 1Password, LastPass ... You can get an enterprise account for LastPass, and you can securely store all that stuff, and delegate access just to the people who need it. So many firms are still storing all this stuff in Excel files on their network drive. It's just nuts. They're probably calling it "Passwords." David Leary: [00:26:44] Yeah, or "Client Passwords" [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:26:45] Yeah, exactly. How else will your employees find the document?  David Leary: [00:26:50] I saw another article about - only one-third of small businesses inform their employees about their personal-device security requirements. So, more and more people now are bringing their own devices to work; their phone, their [00:27:00] tablet, bringing their own computer. Now, with people working at home, it's even more extreme, right? One-third of all small businesses do not even tell their employees- give zero guidance about it. Blake Oliver: [00:27:11] Let's talk about the big frauds - Wirecard, Luckin Coffee. I don't know if we talked about this on the show, but there was a story. I don't remember where it was. It was a really great opinion piece. It was either in the Wall Street Journal, or in one of these accounting publications, talking about how we should all be looking out for the next big frauds that are going to be coming to light as a result of the recession. Because every time you enter a recession, all sorts of malfeasance comes to light because it's no longer possible to hide it. That is exactly what has happened with these two really big companies. David Leary: [00:27:49] You brought this up, not so much related to the recession, more in general, the tricks people were paying with their numbers. Blake Oliver: [00:27:56] Right. David Leary: [00:27:56] It was adding up quarter, after quarter, after quarter, after quarter, after quarter. I think this [00:28:00] even caught up to- what's the athletic clothing? Under Armour.  Blake Oliver: [00:28:03] Yes.  David Leary: [00:28:03] Almost a year ago, this caught up to them. I remember, you were talking about this. There are so many tricks people can play with the numbers now that ... Are everybody's numbers just fake? Now, we're seeing, yes, apparently, this is true. Blake Oliver: [00:28:17] Well, yeah, some, right? I've got two great stories for you. I'll let you choose. Do you wanna start in Asia, or in Europe? David Leary: [00:28:25] Do the Luckin Coffee ... Is it LOO-kin or LUCK-EEN? LUCK-in?  Blake Oliver: [00:28:29] I just say LUCK-in because I don't ... Luckin ... Lucky? I don't know. David Leary: [00:28:33] I think that's correct, actually. I think it's tied to the word "lucky."  Blake Oliver: [00:28:37] Luckin Coffee. Amazing story. They are just three years old, and they are a startup that is beating Starbucks in China. At least they were, until this all came to light. They opened 4,500- more than 4,500 stores across China, which made it bigger, by location, than Starbucks, in China. They became a unicorn, meaning [00:29:00] they were valued at over $1 billion, after barely one year. They went public in less than two years, in May of 2019, and raised $645 million in their IPO. Their valuation in January was $12 billion. They had doubled that. They went from $6 to $12 billion just eight months after going public, and recently raised another $865 million selling convertible bonds and additional stock. They are listed in the United States on the Nasdaq exchange.  [00:29:33] So, amazing success story. One of the things that's really interesting about Luckin that made it a darling of the tech world is that they had a mobile app. If you're a Chinese consumer who is developing a taste for coffee, which Luckin was really working to grow in China ... People traditionally drink tea, not a lot of coffee. Coffee is really expensive. Starbucks, in China, costs almost the same as it does in the United [00:30:00] States, making it really expensive, so only wealthy people could afford it. [00:30:05] Luckin had a mobile app where, if you downloaded that, you would get push notifications of discounts, and the discounts would be 30 to 70 percent. You could either go pick up your coffee, or you could have it delivered; super-convenient; super-high-tech, like a lot of these Chinese companies that are way ahead of U.S. companies when it comes to ease of use on mobile, and delivery, and all that. They're this tech company- actually, it kind of reminds me of WeWork, where it's actually a really traditional company disguised as a tech company, because they're a coffee chain. They sell coffee. [00:30:40] Just three years, and they are worth $12 billion. Well, on April 2, here comes the fall. It came to light that many of their sales had been faked. Apparently, from the second quarter to the fourth quarter of 2019, [00:31:00] which was during and after the IPO, they fabricated ... The COO - the chief operating officer - and some other highly placed executives fabricated transactions amounting to $310 million. The way they did it is interesting, but also not super-sophisticated. They were selling vouchers to companies with ties to Luckin's chairman and controlling shareholder, Charles Lu. [00:31:30] This is a real program they had, where you could buy vouchers of Luckin Coffee, and give them to your customers as a third party. Let's say I'm a car rental company in China. While people are waiting for their car to become available, I might offer them a Luckin Coffee voucher. I don't have coffee at my rental shop, but I say, "Hey, here's a free voucher. Order your Luckin Coffee, and they'll deliver it while you're waiting for your car to be ready," something like that. Companies buy [00:32:00] these vouchers at a discount and give them to their customers. [00:32:04] Well, the COO and these executives were selling vouchers to companies, and they weren't actually being used. They sold tens of- hundreds of millions of dollars of these vouchers. Now, that would be suspicious because you've got to have costs associated with delivering this coffee, making it. If you don't cost of goods sold, that's gonna be a big red flag. So, they also created a fictitious procurement employee who had a name, Lynn Liang. [00:32:37] This is where the auditors got suspicious. This one employee processed more than 140 million payments for raw materials, delivery, and HR services related to the fictitious vouchers. So, $310 million of fake revenue, $140 million of fake cost of goods sold. When all this came to light, because the auditors uncovered it - I think was Ernst & Young - the [00:33:00] stock plunged 75 percent overnight. David Leary: [00:33:03] I've been watching that story. I just haven't brought it to the show. You're right, I think it fits in well because there's another major fraud that went down. Do you wanna ump into Wirecard? Blake Oliver: [00:33:11] Yeah. So, Wirecard ... Let's jump across oceans, or across a continent, to Europe. Wirecard, now, I'd never heard of them either. David Leary: [00:33:21] Which is interesting because they're apparently a 20-year-old company.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:24] They're a payment processor, right?  David Leary: [00:33:26] That's correct, they're a payment processor. They kind of play middleman ... It's funny because I have them also in app news. An expense-type product in France. Something like an Expensify is partnering with them to create a debit card. That was announced this week, that they were partnering with another company. So, it's kind of the space they're in [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:33:47] They're competing with Square. They're a modern payment-processing company. David Leary: [00:33:51] Exactly.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:51] They have been growing like crazy. There's a chart of their growth from 2012 to 2019, where it's just an exponential curve. They [00:34:00] had revenue of €2.8 billion in 2019. Just massive.  David Leary: [00:34:06] Yeah. Their CEO stepped down this week because of the accounting scandal. It comes basically one day after Wirecard admitted to auditors that EY could not find €1.9 Billion of cash that was on its balance sheet. Blake Oliver: [00:34:21] Yes, this is amazing. David Leary: [00:34:24] They had to postpone their 2019 annual report; for the fourth time, they've had to postpone that. The interesting thing is the news follows an extensive investigation by Financial Times into the Munich-based payments processor's accounting practices. Among the newspaper's allegations are that Wirecard's Singapore office used forged and backdated contracts to inflate revenue and that staff appeared to conspire to fraudulently inflate the sales and profits at its Dubai, and Dublin subsidiaries, potentially misleading EY? Why I'm confused by this is because my understanding is EY- they've been with EY for a decade ... I [00:35:00] don't know the audit process. I do not, but how does that happen? How does somebody in the books for a decade get deceived?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:16] I don't know the answer to that, but you are asking the right question because it is amazing that it took cash confirmations to discover this fraud. That's the last point at which you can catch something is when they have created fake revenue and ... Eventually, revenue has to become cash in the bank. Otherwise, somebody will figure out it's not real. They created fake bank accounts in the Philippines on their books, and the way it got caught is the auditors were sending confirmation letters. They were doing cash confirmations.  [00:35:58] This is one of the first things that you do as an auditor [00:36:00] is you look at the trial balance of a business, and you go through all the bank accounts, and you send letters to the banks, saying, "Do you actually have an account for this company that we're auditing? Please tell us the amount." Then, you compare that to their books, and you make sure the cash is real, that it's not fake. When they did that, apparently, Wirecard was saying that they had €2 billion in the Philippines. They actually produced fraudulent confirmation letters. [00:36:32] So, they actually tried to fake that to trick their auditors, and then the auditors got suspicious, I guess, about the letters. They didn't seem right, so then they actually called up the banks, and the banks said, "No, we don't actually even have accounts for Wirecard." That's how all this came out. It's crazy that it got to this point; €2 billion-  David Leary: [00:36:51] There's a quote here from the fund manager at Decca Investments, a top-10 shareholder at the firm. This is a significant position they have in this company. [00:37:00] He said they are stunned. It makes me wonder, these investment companies, when they invest in these other companies, what due diligence do they do? Blake Oliver: [00:37:09] Probably not all that much. That's what the auditors are there for, right? David Leary: [00:37:13] So, who do the auditors work for - the company, or the investors, or the public?  Blake Oliver: [00:37:17] Another really good question. Yeah-  David Leary: [00:37:19] I know we've talked about this before. Blake Oliver: [00:37:20] Well, they are hired and paid by Wirecard, but the work they do is supposedly for the investors. That's the conflict of interest inherent in auditing. Let's quantify this again. Luckin was valued at $12 billion, and that was mostly erased. Very similar situation for Wirecard, where they lost ... I'm not sure exactly where it stands right now, but it was €2 billion in market value erased immediately, and then another €9 billion, so, €11 billion of market value just destroyed. Shares are down 75 percent over two days. David Leary: [00:37:56] Well, they say they might not even make it out. Wirecard could completely [00:38:00] go under. Blake Oliver: [00:38:00] Yeah, well, because- here's the reason is that they have all of these credit lines. You mentioned that they had to delay their issuance of their financial results, their 2019 financials. They have all these credit lines worth €2.2 billion that could be canceled because of this delay. If I'm a bank, do I really want to extend credit to a company that has fabricated €2 billion of cash? I don't think so. Who knows? And, actually, side note here, the chief executive and chief technology officer of Wirecard is Markus Braun, who The Wall Street Journal notes, is known for his tall ... He's tall and known for his intense manner of speaking and adopted the sartorial style of the tech world wearing black turtlenecks similar to Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs, and that-  David Leary: [00:38:50] Oh, and the blood girl ...   Blake Oliver: [00:38:53] Yeah, you remember- Theranos ...   David Leary: [00:38:53] Theranos, yeah. Elizabeth Holmes. Blake Oliver: [00:38:56] Yes. She also did the same thing. Two frauds perpetrated [00:39:00] by Steve Jobs copycats. Braun's in trouble because he controlled seven percent of Wirecard's shares.  David Leary: [00:39:09] He was at the helm for a good 17 years or something, I think he's been-  Blake Oliver: [00:39:13] A long time, right? T=Yeah. I don't know if he's the founder or what, but, yeah, might as well have been, right? Worth €1 billion before this, and that's now down to a few hundred million. Eventually, they'll trace this back to somebody, right? David Leary: [00:39:30] Or a team of people. There has to be a lot of groupthink when these things go on. It's very rarely one person. Blake Oliver: [00:39:38] This is just the beginning, probably. These are some big ones, but we can expect some more frauds to come to light because, now, people are starting to look critically at businesses, given the recession. David Leary: [00:39:51] People have more time now, right? People have more time. They have less money.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:53] Exactly.  David Leary: [00:39:53] Due diligence is gonna go up, absolutely. You wanna get into some app news?  Blake Oliver: [00:39:59] Let's do it. So, Receipt [00:40:00] Bank, right?  David Leary: [00:40:04] Yeah, we can talk about Receipt Bank made an acquisition. Receipt Bank acquired- they call it a data-quality specialist called Xavier. Xavier, I think, maybe here in the states, may not have heard a lot about Xavier yet. They won Xero's National Emerging App Partner of the Year award.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:23] Yeah, they're new to me. I never heard of them before. David Leary: [00:40:25] Yeah. They've came across my radar. I've seen them. I've seen apps like them in the past. What they do is they ... It's a tool kit that ... This is gonna be the wrong word to use, but I always think- you know how you can get an antivirus product for your computer, and it's always scanning on your computer, looking for viruses on your computer. Imagine if you had something looking at your data of your accounting system for problems. [00:40:50] It's connecting your accounting data, looking for duplicates, miscoded things. You can actually use it to do some reporting and things [00:41:00] like that; dates, like, "These things were changed after X date." It looks at patterns with your suppliers. It's really elevating visibility into potential problems in the data file of the accounting system. I've seen products like this come and go over time. One of early ones in the QuickBooks world was something called Audit My Books. Xavier's in that space. They're providing that service. Blake Oliver: [00:41:25] I could've really used this when I was in practice, because I supervised lots and lots of bookkeepers, and without digging into every file, it was really hard to know if they were doing a good job. David Leary: [00:41:37] This move is gonna consolidate, they're calling it, the two highest-rated services in the Xero ecosystem. It kinda makes sense if Receipt Bank is pulling data ... You're taking data that's in paper form. Receipt Bank's taking that data, cleaning it up; that's one level; then shoving it in the accounting system. It kind of makes sense to have that other piece of this to [00:42:00] also ... Like, "We're shoving data in," but data is also getting into your accounting system from other places. Blake Oliver: [00:42:07] Well, yeah, and if they're shoving data in, I wanna make sure that the data looks right. David Leary: [00:42:11] And that it's clean going in.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:13] Yeah. David Leary: [00:42:13] It's interesting because I think, in a way, here's another example of an app that you could argue should be a feature of Xero and QuickBooks. Then I start thinking, okay, maybe Xero should've bought them, or QuickBooks should've bought them. So, then, it's like, why did Receipt Bank buy them? I know we've talked about this before, Receipt Bank ... There's tens of them starting a bank and Receipt Bank [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:42:36] It's in the name.  David Leary: [00:42:36] -Receipt Bank has a self-employed tool in the UK. Is Receipt Bank going to be a full-blown cloud accounting package here, soon? Blake Oliver: [00:42:46] It makes sense. If everybody else is consolidating features ... GLs are becoming banks. Banks are becoming GLs. A solution like Receipt Bank could easily become a GL. If you're pushing data, why [00:43:00] not push it into your own general ledger? David Leary: [00:43:03] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:03] So, that's Receipt Bank. There was one other piece of app news that I was following. I saw that Rewind now has a client data transfer tool for QuickBooks Online, which is a way to completely clone a QuickBooks Online company. You can make a copy of one, which is pretty neat; like the way that you could make a copy of a desktop file. David Leary: [00:43:25] Yeah. You could almost have a template file. You could backup the template file and then restore that in a new QuickBooks Online file. Blake Oliver: [00:43:33] So, they haven't been doing this before? This is like a new thing? David Leary: [00:43:36] I think you could've done it before through hacking, a little bit. Now, they've actually built a product to properly address this use case. I think there were some creative ways people could figure out how to do it, but I think they ... Then, that other company that Intuit bought, ChronoBooks, I think actually did this, but ... If you take on a franchisee, and they have 20 locations, and you [00:44:00] want to get every single chart of accounts the same, and all the items on the items list the same, and the vendors list the same, this is a good method to do that. Blake Oliver: [00:44:07] That's really cool. Also testing, right? If you wanna test an integration with an inventory solution, but you don't wanna mess up a QuickBooks file, or you don't wanna risk it, you could create a copy, and then connect the app, and see what happens. David Leary: [00:44:20] That's where this gets interesting. That's why I was reading that. You basically clone the data, connect the other app. Now you can actually test two apps in parallel and keep them separated. Blake Oliver: [00:44:32] Or, if you just need a demo file that you use to demonstrate something to a client or a potential client, this is a great way to create that demo account and then copy it when you need to use it, so you don't muck up your demo data. David Leary: [00:44:48] I also don't know the depth of this yet, and I can tell you there's not ... You can't get payroll APIs. There's gonna be some level of data that the best they're gonna be able to do is to kind of pull out [00:45:00] the balances and create a journal entry. There's just some data not available through an API. So, it's not truly, like you said about a QuickBooks Desktop backup. That is a perfect backup, bit for bit, ones, and zeros of the data. It's reading the data from an API, storing it, and then putting it back. A better way to think about it, it's recreating the data, ultimately, once it pulls down. Did you see Botkeeper had a $25 million raise? Blake Oliver: [00:45:26] Oh, yeah, that's a lot. Big one. Series B, right? David Leary: [00:45:29] Yep. Series B. I think the thing I noticed in this article ... We've had, obviously, history with Botkeeper, and like, they weren't disclosing there's humans involved. It was very, very clear in this article about for tasks that can't be automated, like tax filing, wealth-management-type tasks, Botkeeper connects clients with accounting firms and recruits its in-house team of CPAs and accountants to revamp the books and bring them up to date. That was something I noticed in the article. The tone of- the tune that's [00:46:00] being sung is that humans are involved in these processes. I think, in the past, we just had questions on that. Blake Oliver: [00:46:07] Well, that makes me happy. It's all about transparency. Bringing it full circle, we started with PPP transparency, and now we're talking about transparency when it comes to humans and bots, so that's good. David Leary: [00:46:18] This article also talked a little bit about Receipt Bank. It's talking about Botkeeper, but it says, "Despite pandemic-related headwinds and competition from the likes of Receipt Bank, among others, the company says it expects a 3X year-over-year run rate in 2020, and plans to add a dozen employees to its workforce of over 100. Because one of the things that Botkeeper's playing up in this is that they basically have their scanbot feature for scanning, and uploading receipts, expenses, sales contracts, I can see where this author of this article compared them to Receipt Bank. Blake Oliver: [00:46:51] Yeah, it's all about getting data into the system and processing it so that you can generate those reports. There's a lot to be said for a [00:47:00] human-computer-hybrid approach, as opposed to a Receipt Bank, where I have to still manage it. I still have to do something. I have to verify the data. That's why Receipt Bank bought this company that's gonna validate the data. They're going at it from different sides. Botkeeper started with mostly people doing the processing, calling them bots, and they are gradually building the tech; whereas Receipt Bank started as a pure tech approach - no people - and they are adding in more data-verification stuff so that you, yourself, don't have to do the processing, or validate the processing. Both different approaches, and it's great that we've got both of those competing-  David Leary: [00:47:43] That's all I got for this week, for me. Blake Oliver: [00:47:45] That is all I have, as well. David, if people wanna reach you online, where's the best place for them to do that? David Leary: [00:47:52] I'm on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. I'm @DavidLeary. If you-  Blake Oliver: [00:47:57] On TikTok, too?  David Leary: [00:47:57] I'm supposedly on TikTok ... I'm not on TikTok- [00:48:00] Blake Oliver: [00:47:57] I joined!  David Leary: [00:48:01] You did? Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:48:01] I joined specifically so I could follow Planet Money. David Leary: [00:48:06] Oh, those commercials worked [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:48:06] Yeah, well, I listen to Planet Money all the time, and they said they have a TikTok. It's actually quite good. It's funny. I guess that's what they had the interns do over the summer, set up a TikTok. I am @BlakeTOliver on Twitter. That's where I like to hang out. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. If you do, please say you are a listener, when you send me a connection request.  David Leary: [00:48:28] You can also leave us a voicemail. Blake Oliver: [00:48:31] Yes, we have a voicemail number. You can call (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. Leave us a voicemail. Tell us what you think. You can give us a review. We listen to those, and if we deem it high-quality, we will play it on the air. David Leary: [00:48:53] Perfect. I think that's a wrap. Blake Oliver: [00:48:55] That's it. Thanks, David. Stay safe. I'll see you next week.  David Leary: [00:48:58] Bye. ____________________ ClassifiedsDid you know that, in response to the COVID-19 situation, that you can now take your Microsoft Excel certification from home? Want to learn how? You can by joining Steve Chase's Excel Bootcamp. His summer classes run Monday through Fridays from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central Time. Register online at sequentiasolutions.com/bootcamp for only $150. If you mention The Cloud Accounting Podcast referred you, you'll receive an extra $30 off. High school students are highly encouraged to sign up, and you can find the link in the show notes     ____________________ Still sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? 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Sponsors Accountant Connect: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/adp Melio Payments: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/melio PayPie: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/paypie Show Notes 05:06 – Wave expands into banking with new small business account and debit card -    BetaKit  Wave Money is a new no fee bookkeeping solution aimed at small business users - TechRadar  07:39 – QuickBooks Online new features and improvements - March 2020 - Firm of the Future  09:05 – Banking App Lili Raises $10M In Seed Funding - PYMNTS.com  09:29 – Challenger bank Varo, soon to become a real bank, raises $241M Series D – TechCrunch 09:36 – Wise locks down $5.7 million to scale its challenger bank designed for small businesses – TechCrunch  11:43 – Square: Why Its Stock Is Soaring And How It’s Threatening Banks - Forbes  12:50 – Hit by Coronavirus—and a 30% Holdback by the Payment Processor – Wall Street Journal 17:23 – Alibaba.com moves into SMB financing – Bank Innovation   20:23 – QuickBooks Online new features and improvements - March 2020 - Firm of the Future QuickBooks boosts reports for accountants, upgrades Enterprise edition – Accounting Today  22:28 – QuickBooks Connect 2020 was cancelled, but continue to watch this space because something new and exciting is coming – Intuit QuickBooks.  25:13 – FreshBooks launches Accounting Professionals Program – Accounting Today  30:22 – Tax1099 Builds Integration with BQE Core to Streamline 1099 eFilings – Yahoo! Finance 32:39 –  CalCPA CEO pledges change in wake of George Floyd killing - Accounting Today 42:21 – SBA and Treasury Announce New and Revised Guidance Regarding the Paycheck Protection Program - PR Newswire 44:40 – Rubio vowed to make PPP loans public. Now he asks if they are trade secrets – The Sun Sentinel  46:17 – Mnuchin secrecy on bailout sparks rift with Congress – POLITICO 50:22 – Harris, Porter Blast Trump Administration for Hiding Data on Small Business Grants - KAMALA D. HARRIS U.S. Senator for California 50:57 – Senate Democrats press for simplified Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness application - Washington Post 51:39 – The Paycheck Protection Program is a success, except for one big issue – The Washington Times 53:00 – Paycheck Protection Program – Developments You Should Know – The National Law Review 54:50 – Fed expands Main Street program to allow for both smaller and bigger loans - CNBC  55:44 – Federal Help Could Be Coming For Looted Stores - PYMNTS.com Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds AccountingTax.com: http://accountingtax.com/cloud Steve Chase’s Excel Bootcamp: https://www.sequentiasolutions.com/bootcamp/ ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptADP has your back with Accountant Connect. Their award-winning multi-client payroll-management and analytics platform is a remarkably effective tool for adding value to every client engagement. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, ADP Accountant Connect, later in the episode. David Leary: [00:00:20] So, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer - this is on Friday - he said, "Given the many problems of the PPP program, it is imperative that American taxpayers payers know if the money is going where Congress intended, to the truly small and unbanked small businesses. Where did that ...? Where did this come from?  Blake Oliver: [00:00:38] Yeah, that was- David Leary: [00:00:38] That was never in any ... That was never, ever mentioned, that it's for the unbanked small businesses?!____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Melio Payments. Do you have clients that are logging into their bank website to manually pay their bills or, even worse, clients that are still handwriting paper checks because the alternatives are either too complicated, or too expensive? You need to introduce them to Melio Payments. Melio Payments is easy-to-use B2B payments and receivables. Think Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle but for small businesses. Melio is an app that all small businesses are capable of using, regardless of size, shape, or budget. By using Melio, your clients can pay their bills easier than using their bank website, and you get the process and controls you need, like support for multiple users, approvals, and two-way syncing with QuickBooks Online. Melio can also help your clients improve their cashflow by allowing them to pay their bills using their business credit cards to take advantage of up to a 45-day float until their next credit card billing cycle. Now, paying the rent can lead to earning those credit card points your clients love. To learn more about Melio Payments, and to get your very own Melio.me link that you can use to receive payments from your business clients, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/melio. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash M-E-L-I-O. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by PayPie. The line between a successful small- to medium-sized business and a bankrupt one is often how much cash they have in the bank, how well they adapt to market changes, and how long they are able to remain cashflow positive during challenging times. PayPie integrates with QuickBooks Online, and Xero to help put an end to cashflow problems. By using daily, weekly, and monthly forecasts, cashflow calendars, and powerful, customized 'what-if' scenarios, you can visualize your clients' finances in clear, and intuitive ways, so you can take action and reshape their cashflow. PayPie identifies when extra cash is needed and can match your clients with the right financing options via screened lenders, and you can choose the best offer suited for your clients' needs. Just for listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast, PayPie is offering its fully functional unlimited-companies license for free until August 31, 2020. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/paypie. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash P-A-Y-P-I-E. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:03:01] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver.  David Leary: [00:03:04] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:03:06] Once again, David, we are fortunate that we have moved our recording day. It's Monday, right now, because we needed the whole weekend to digest everything that's been going on, and also, PPP guidance came out again on Friday. David Leary: [00:03:20] After business hours, though, of course.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:21] Always after business hours. Also, Larry Kudlow, the president's senior economic adviser, was on the Sunday shows talking about PPP, so I've got some good stuff on that. David Leary: [00:03:35] This is the same Larry Kudlow that- he was talking about how easy it was for his wife to go into their local bank and just get approved for a PPP loan, like on day one of PPP. Remember that? Blake Oliver: [00:03:45] Yeah, exactly, because that's the typical experience of most small business owners is that they have a private bank ... I've got some stuff here about coronavirus and payment processors; privacy, PPP privacy, as it relates to what Kudlow said on CNN. Then, also, Mnuchin was at a hearing and there was- it was basically a big uproar about whether or not these names are gonna get released if people who got the loans. David Leary: [00:04:13] Oh, yeah. I still have some of that stuff, too; the PPP stuff, as well. There's also a newer program that's now coming on the table that's gonna be ... I don't know if we talked about that. They're calling it, I think, Payroll- Paycheck Protection Program Advanced, or something? Blake Oliver: [00:04:29] Oh! This is new to me [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:04:30] Yes, there's another that's being proposed on the table. I wanna talk about neobanks, because Wave launched a bank; Wave accounting software. Then, I have stuff about Square. There's lots of neobank stuff. Accounting apps are becoming banks; banks are becoming accounting apps. Tons of articles related to all that mess. Blake Oliver: [00:04:52] So, I would love to start with that because I think that is big news. You've been predicting this for months, if not years now. What is going on with Wave? David Leary: [00:05:06] All right, so, Wave Accounting, which we've talked about before, they got purchased by H&R Block; last year, sometime, they got acquired.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:13] They're an accounting application, like general ledger, right?  David Leary: [00:05:15] That's correct. Blake Oliver: [00:05:17] Historically free. You could start using it for free. David Leary: [00:05:21] They had Google Ads on the side. In the accounting software package, it was free with a Google AdWords kind of running on the side in the margin. Then, they have a payroll product. It's a full built-out bookkeeping product. There are some people that use it. Then, H&R Block purchased them. Then, talking about that whole QuickBooks Live type model of you get your tax and your bookkeeping all under one roof for one price type model, they've been heading down that way. Just like we've been talking, Xero, Intuit, QuickBooks, they gotta become banks because the banks are heading towards the accounting package, as well. [00:05:57] Wave had a big announcement this week. It was up on Twitter. They said, "We're shaking up the banking industry by introducing Wave Money, a first of its kind business bank account." Basically, it's a business bank account with a debit card. No account minimums, no monthly fees, free instant payouts, built-in bookkeeping, mobile check deposit. I was surprised to see them be the first ones to do this. One of the things that they released in their press release, which I thought was interesting, just two pieces. One, it's limited release, supposedly. It's only on iOS. So, if you happen to have Android, you cannot you take advantage of the Wave Money app at this time. [00:06:33] They released a figure, which is really interesting, because obviously they're coming out as being fee-free. They said, based on the data Wave has for their U.S. and Canada customers, the average Wave business owner pays more than $425 a year in annual bank fees. If you think about this, whatever you're paying for ... Let's say Wave charged, or Xero charges, or QuickBooks charges, if you can just use a bank provided by your accounting software and not pay bank fees, it offsets the cost your subscription for your software practically. Blake Oliver: [00:07:05] Right. David Leary: [00:07:06] Then, they're gonna have automatic expense categorization. It's what you would expect because it's an accounting software package. It's just gonna be the built-in bank account. So, long story short, I put that out, and Xero actually kind of gave me a little reply, kind of like not a hint that they're doing something, but kind of ... They put a reply in. I was contacted by Intuit. Apparently, Intuit - believe this or not, Blake - this is ... We have failed our listeners. Blake Oliver: [00:07:35] Uh-oh! What did we miss?  David Leary: [00:07:39] In March ... In March, Intuit put out a little blog post about the new features in QuickBooks Online in March. In March, Intuit has quite ... There's a little sentence, a little sentence. It says, "QuickBooks Debit Card, a physical and digital card for accessing funds stored in a QuickBooks cash account. So, you and I missed it! Intuit launched a debit card- a bank! We missed it! Blake Oliver: [00:08:02] But to be fair, it was a blog post. There was no big announcement on social media, right? It's a soft launch. David Leary: [00:08:10] It's a sentence in a bigger blog post about a bunch of other features. Blake Oliver: [00:08:13] So, they're rolling this out slowly, obviously. I think they've started doing this a lot of features now because they don't wanna get it ... They don't wanna overwhelm the system. Imagine if- they've got millions of QuickBooks Online users. If all of them tried to sign up at once, it would be a problem, right?  David Leary: [00:08:28] Well, especially going by what Wave just said. If the average business owner that uses any of these products- QuickBooks has $400 in banking fees, and QuickBooks says, "Hey, here's a free bank account with no fees ..."  Blake Oliver: [00:08:38] Yeah, right.  David Leary: [00:08:38] Everybody's gonna switch. It's very attractive of an idea. Essentially, what this is gonna do ... They're tying this back into their new cashflow tool that they're releasing. Right now, the tool doesn't seem like it does much, but essentially, you're gonna be able to- you'll track your cashflow. You'll have this in an account. If you pay me through Intuit Merchant Services, that goes into this account, but then I could pay bills with this credit card. The money never leaves the QuickBooks ecosystem. Blake Oliver: [00:09:05] I got it.  David Leary: [00:09:05] It stays inside, which is very similar to what we've seen with Square and some other ones. Then, because of that, everybody and their brother started jumping on this tweet. I think we've loosely talked about there's a freelancer banking app called Lili. They raised $10 million in seed money. It's online banking services just for freelancers. There's challenger bank, Varo. Now, Varo is not really going to small business as much, yet, but they just raised $241 million. They're another challenger bank jumping into this thing. There's an accounting app, Wise. So, Wise is another challenger bank that's only designed for small businesses. They raised $5.7 million. [00:09:45] Then, the interesting one is there's an article about Square that I found; why its stock is soaring and how it's threatening banks. Couple of interesting points in this article. One thing is the banks, themselves, have not been focused on Square's, and the accounting platforms, per se. The banks have been watching ... "Oh, my gosh. Google and Amazon are wanna-be banks, and Apple ..." The banks have been focused on the wrong people is one argument in this. [00:10:12] Then it goes on to talk about how Square has been building out their Cash App. This Cash App sounds a lot like the QuickBooks card, right? The Cash App's revenue was $528 million for Q1 of 2020 and almost triple of what it was in 2019. Yes, the Cash App can be used for some investing in some Bitcoin-type plays, but even if you take out that, it's still double, year over year, the revenue that was created by this Cash App. Square customers have $1.3 billion stored in this Cash App, now, as of the end of April-  Blake Oliver: [00:10:46] I wanna make sure I heard that right. $1.3 billion in deposits in the Cash App? David Leary: [00:10:50] Yes, that are stored in there, right now.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:51] Wow.  David Leary: [00:10:51] Cash App is getting all this new adoption. People have used it to- their cash refunds, their stimulus. Now, people are taking their paychecks and directly depositing that into their Cash App account. Then, that Cash App account can be ... It's a debit card. It could be used other places. They also have a little bit of a play similar to these Robinhood, where you can invest from this account directly; buy Bitcoin and do other recurring purchases. [00:11:17] Square Capital, they facilitated another 75,000 loans for the first quarter, totaling another $548 million, an eight-percent growth. Square has distributed $520 million in the Paycheck Protection Program. More and more, they're consolidating in this industry. The interesting, interesting point in this article that I think people should take note of ... I'll just read this verbatim from the article here. This article was in Forbes. "With the consolidation happening in the payment space- however, banks should be concerned about who might acquire Square. An Intuit acquisition of Square would be complementary to the firm's small business capabilities, as well as the newly acquired Credit Karma unit." Blake Oliver: [00:12:00] Yeah, I think it would.  David Leary: [00:12:00] This could be a way for Intuit to ... If Intuit were to acquire Square, they're now a serious, serious bank, even more than what Intuit could be on their own. Not to mention the competitive side; all the other stuff they get with the swipe in the retail terminals. It's very ... Now, what would you ...? There's no numbers on this. I'm just speculating. How big an acquisition do you think that would be? Blake Oliver: [00:12:22] I don't know. Square is enormous, right? David Leary: [00:12:24] $20 billion?  Blake Oliver: [00:12:24] Square market cap ... Square's market cap as of June 12, 2020, is $38 billion dollars. So, I don't know ... Can Intuit swallow $38 billion company? Intuit's market cap is $73 billion. David Leary: [00:12:41] Wow. Blake Oliver: [00:12:42] Yeah. So, Square's big.  David Leary: [00:12:43] Yeah, monstrous. Monstrous. A Blake Oliver: [00:12:45] I've got a story about Square, though, that is not quite so flattering. David Leary: [00:12:49] Oh, really? Blake Oliver: [00:12:50] Yes. This was in The Wall Street Journal. The headline is, "Hit by Coronavirus and a 30-percent Holdback by the Payment Processor." Apparently, processors like PayPal, Stripe, Square, and WorldPay are making some businesses wait additional days or weeks to access funds deposited to their accounts, citing the need to protect themselves against possible losses when people who have bought airline tickets, vacation packages, and some other goods and services seek refunds. [00:13:19] An example of this is Bluebonnet Photography. They're a portrait studio in Tacoma. On May 6, Square emailed the owner saying that it would start holding 30 percent of each of Bluebonnet's transactions for 120 days to, "Protect you and Square from unexpected loss events." Basically, Square, and PayPal, and Stripe, and WorldPay are increasing their loss reserves to cover chargebacks, which apparently have jumped dramatically during the pandemic. People are backing out of stuff that they bought in advance, like travel purchases. If they can't cancel, they're charging back. People are also doing chargebacks just because they can't pay, and they don't wanna pay for something. That's happening in some cases. David Leary: [00:14:07] Especially if you're not getting a good or service delivered because of COVID.  Blake Oliver: [00:14:10] Right. Right, but also, just people are like, "I gotta get my credit card balance down. Maybe I'll just do some chargebacks." Chargebacks are normally 0.05 percent of credit card transactions. Before the pandemic, 0.05 percent, this is just like a leaky pipe. Nobody really cares that much because it's not a big deal in the big scheme of things. So, Square, and PayPal, they can absorb those losses if they don't pass them on to the merchants. Normally they do, but sometimes they can't collect because the merchant then goes out of business. They're out. They have to cover that. So, that's why they have these amounts set aside to cover their losses. David Leary: [00:14:44] Historically, it's been, I think you just said, a half a percent, historically?  Blake Oliver: [00:14:48] It's 0.05 percent of credit card transactions. David Leary: [00:14:52] And that was historically. You said this has increased now.  Blake Oliver: [00:14:55] In certain categories, like travel, chargebacks are as high as 40 percent right now. David Leary: [00:15:00] I understand that.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:01] Yeah, just massive jump, right? This is rolling downhill to some businesses that are in certain types of industries, like photography, right? Well, what do a lot of photographers do? Weddings. Weddings are getting canceled or changed, and maybe somebody doesn't want a photographer for a virtual wedding. So, that company, even if they're not doing a lot of weddings, got hit with this new policy by Square because it's very impersonal. It's just based on your industry. [00:15:27] The owner was really upset because their company, this Bluebonnet company, never had a disputed transaction in three years with Square. So, Square ... Here's the big picture effect. That's the small impact on the business owner. Holding onto your money for 120 days, that's- it's crazy. [00:15:44] This is one of the things that PayPal has done for a long time that really, really pisses off business owners. I had a client when I was in practice who got hit with a policy like this with PayPal and was processing all of his business's online transactions through PayPal. Just totally screwed up his cashflow, and there was nothing he could do about it. So, eventually, he got away from them, but it took him like half a year because they were holding on to his money for that long, and they're allowed to do that. [00:16:09] So, here's the big picture impact. Square reported a $106 million loss for the first quarter because it had to triple the amount it set aside to cover potential losses on transactions and loans. There's a chart here in The Wall Street Journal showing how much Square has set aside. They've more than tripled it. Now, they're setting aside $109 million dollars to cover future losses. PayPal, which is much larger, has increased from a little below $400 million to a little below $600 million in loss reserves. David Leary: [00:16:40] It'll be interesting to see if they use this as a stick to push people into their Square card- their Square cash ... What's it called? We just said the name of it ...  Blake Oliver: [00:16:51] Well, yeah, there's Square Cash- Cash App [crosstalk] Then, PayPal ... Obviously, PayPal's the original one, where you can have a PayPal balance.  David Leary: [00:17:03] If you use Square Cash instead of moving the money out to your bank, you only have to have a two-day reserve or something. I don't know, but that 120 days is pretty aggressive. Blake Oliver: [00:17:11] So, Square said to this reporter that less than one percent of customers were impacted by this- by this increase in reserve accounts, but that's a lot of businesses. So, watch out for that. David Leary: [00:17:23] Just two other tech becoming banks ... Alibaba is like the Amazon of China, but they also can shop on ... They have Alibaba.com, which is American small businesses can sell things on that. They, and Amazon have both now launched financing.  Blake Oliver: [00:17:39] Yes, I heard about this. David Leary: [00:17:41] You can get loans and use that, if you're an e-commerce seller, to pay your invoices. A lot of times, it's like that, right? You have to buy inventory to sell inventory, and you need that elbow room.  Blake Oliver: [00:17:50] Specifically, it's for businesses that sell on these platforms. David Leary: [00:17:54] That's correct.  Blake Oliver: [00:17:54] So, they're financing their sellers.  David Leary: [00:17:57] They're financing their sellers. Amazon actually took it a step further. Initially, Amazon wanted to create a marketplace where all the online lenders could come in and make loans to the Amazon sellers. Now, Amazon just did an exclusive deal with Goldman Sachs. They can only give an option for a loan now through the Goldman Sachs-Amazon combined product. Blake Oliver: [00:18:20] These aren't small credit lines. These are credit lines of up to $1 million. The interest rate is not that great, though. Fixed annual interest rates of 6.99 percent to 20.99 percent and can be drawn and repaid just like a regular credit card. So, I guess that's better than what some of these lenders are charging. David Leary: [00:18:42] The interesting thing about this is Amazon is very about owning their customers. "We own the experience; they're our customers; we're Amazon." This is the first time Amazon's gonna let a third-party financial institution make decisions about their sellers. So, Goldman's making the underwriting decisions on their own, not Amazon. Almost in a weird way, they're kind of getting out of the banking game and just- Blake Oliver: [00:19:04] Well, I think it makes sense for Amazon because Amazon is so capital-intensive. They have to open these warehouses and buy all these automation robots and machines. That's where they need to invest their capital, not in loaning out money to small businesses. So, this is a smart move, in that respect, because then, Amazon can take its profits, plow that into more warehouses everywhere, so they can do the one-day delivery everywhere in the country, which is what they're aiming to move to, is to be able to get every product to everyone in a day, or even same day. That's a completely different experience buying online than having to wait ... First, it was a week; then they brought it down to two days. If they can get it to one day/same day, I don't think traditional retail has a shot. David Leary: [00:19:49] You're right. It does feel strange when you do order something, and it has to take five days. You almost feel like there's something broken. Like, what do you mean it has to take five days? This doesn't make sense. Blake Oliver: [00:20:00] Well, that's been the weirdest thing about the pandemic, for me, when it comes to Amazon. At the beginning of it, everything was delayed, and it was like going back to that normal three-, to five-day period to wait for something, or even longer. It's just funny. It's funny how quickly we get used to having everything ASAP. That hasn't been around for very long. It's only been a few years. David Leary: [00:20:22] We get comfortable with it, for sure. Blake Oliver: [00:20:23] Yeah. Some more app news. Well, we're talking about QuickBooks, so we should mention that QuickBooks Online has some updates. They have done a lot of improvements to their reporting in QuickBooks Online, recently. They've been optimizing the platform to support large reports with two-times enhanced data limits and search function, smoother scrolling, and enhanced navigation to help drill down into report details. You now get smart page breaks and repeat page headers. So, if you're printing those reports to PDF, you get the formatting that you want. You can actually repeat the headers on each report page, which is important, in case those pages get mixed up.  [00:21:00] You can reorder your comparison columns, create multiple comparisons, such as period, year to date, previous period, previous year, and previous year to date in a single report. You can reorder those columns as preferred. You can save, collapse, and expand to sections. That's a big one. It's just so annoying when you save a report, and you collapse certain sections in QuickBooks- it used to not save that. So, you'd have to then, every time you'd generate the report, collapse the sections, and open the sections that you wanted to show. Now, that'll save on your customer reports. [00:21:33] You can also edit section titles. You can change titles, section titles, and reports to align with your company terminologies. You can change that on the profit and loss, and balance sheet reports. I don't know, for instance, if you wanted to display net income, and something else for a not for profit, then you could [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:21:53] These are big wins for accountants and bookkeepers because usually you're running these reports over, and over, and over again for clients. So, any time settings stick - the page break settings stick - you're not having to adjust and play games over, and over, and over again. So, these are huge, huge feature wins for-  Blake Oliver: [00:22:08] Yeah, it definitely makes a lot better. It's funny, I was in Xero this weekend doing some work, and I noticed also their reporting has gotten a lot better in terms of just being able to quickly change columns, and do prior period comparisons, and stuff. So, I think everybody is upgrading that aspect. David Leary: [00:22:28] Got it. Staying on the QuickBooks for a moment, did you know that they canceled QuickBooks Connect in San Jose?  Blake Oliver: [00:22:33] Yes.  David Leary: [00:22:33] That got canceled. I think we didn't talk about it last week when it happened. As of now- Blake Oliver: [00:22:39] I'm just running with the assumption that everything is canceled until the end of the year. David Leary: [00:22:44] As of right now, the only in-person conference that I think is still on the table is Joe Woodard's Scaling New Heights. It got moved from St. Louis to Orlando, and it's gonna take place, I think, at the Marriott. There's actually a webinar this week with him talking about an update on the status of that conference in Florida. I guess it all depends on how COVID goes, whether or not this happens, but that's the last in-person conference. I'm hoping it happens. I want to go and see people. I wanna give hugs to all our accountant friends-  Blake Oliver: [00:23:13] No ... No hugs, David. No hugs! No HUGS! I know it sucks, but I just don't think this is wise. The value derived does not overcome the risk, in my opinion. It's just not worth it because it's not necessary. I'm a big- you and I talk about this off line. I'm a big proponent of opening up. Part of the reason I moved to Arizona from California is because I was sick of not being able to do stuff in California. But I think it's when it when it's necessary. It may not even matter because I don't know how many people are gonna go. That's the big question, right? Same thing as when the schools open in the fall. How many people are actually gonna put their kids in school? I think it's gonna be half. I wouldn't be surprised if attendance at Scaling New Heights is half. Can the show even work with half the attendance? Does it even make sense economically? David Leary: [00:24:05] Yeah. I don't know those questions. I just ... The whole social-distancing thing is also weird, because if you're at a conference and everybody has to stay six feet apart [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:24:13] What's the point of that, right?  David Leary: [00:24:15] The point the conference is that close interactions with people, and it's not a Zoom meeting. If you're six feet apart, and you're wearing a mask, we might as well be in a Zoom at this point, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:24:24] Yeah, the mask is ... At least, on a Zoom, I don't have to wear a mask, right? David Leary: [00:24:28] Yeah, I could see people's faces. I'm really hoping we are over some level of this COVID thing; that there's a cure; whatever you wanna call it; an antibody, et cetera; vaccine ... I just want- the need for it is so important right now. It would be amazing to be able to go- it'd be amazing to see you, Blake; give you a hug! It would be amazing. Blake Oliver: [00:24:50] It would be great, yeah.  David Leary: [00:24:51] I wish we could- hopefully, we'll be able to get there because it's sad that every single event in our industry has been canceled; every single one of them.  Blake Oliver: [00:24:58] No, I agree with you. It sucks. Yeah. I'm just not that optimistic. Maybe they'll bundle the vaccine with ... You show up in Orlando, and you get a vaccine [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:25:10] -some more app news. Did you hear about FreshBooks? Blake Oliver: [00:25:13] Yeah. So, Twyla Verhelst is launching the Accounting Professionals Program at FreshBooks. She's a CPA who joined FreshBooks, which is based in Toronto, about two months ago. I got to know Twyla because she co-founded- is it Helm?  David Leary: [00:25:36] Helm. That's correct. Blake Oliver: [00:25:37] A cashflow application in 2018. Really interesting to see FreshBooks finally launching an accountants program. Although, I think maybe they had one a long time ago, but it didn't get a bunch of ...  David Leary: [00:25:54] I feel like they dabbled in this about five or six years. It was back when Doug Sleeter had- when it was still SleeterCon, I think FreshBooks showed up. Blake Oliver: [00:26:02] Yeah, because I remember getting a ... I signed up for their accountants program back in the day, and I got a really nice care package,  with a personalized letter saying, "Thanks, Blake. Welcome to the program." By the way, I go way back with FreshBooks. When I started my bookkeeping business, and I was just a freelancer in 2009, I was billing by the hour, doing QuickBooks ProAdvisor work and bookkeeping, and I used FreshBooks' mobile app, when it was one of the only mobile apps, to track my time when I was driving around doing all that stuff. Then, I would invoice my clients. I found it to be the easiest way to do that.  David Leary: [00:26:40] One thing I thought was interesting in these press releases about this is this kind of loose words ... They're inspired by a collaborative accounting approach in which accounting professionals and their small business clients work together as a team sharing bookkeeping tasks. I kind of read this, and I almost start to feel like it ... Because FreshBooks, they're focusing on bringing together modern accounting firms with small businesses. Is this heading towards another QuickBooks Live model?  Blake Oliver: [00:27:09] Oh, I hope not. We don't need-  David Leary: [00:27:09] There's not a lot of details past that, but ... Is it another similar model where it's gonna be this gray area between accountants and the small business owners? Blake Oliver: [00:27:19] I hope not, because I think we've got enough of that now. I mean, look, you mentioned it with the Wave Cash announcement. One of the things that Wave offers when you sign up is the bookkeeping software is free, but then they'll try to sell you stuff, like payment processing, and bookkeeping. You can buy bookkeeping through Wave. If you're gonna create an accountants program, it's probably better not to compete directly with the accountants in your partner program. So, I don't think they will do that. I think it's great. If I were an accountant, if I were ... Well, I am, but if I were in practice, if I had my practice, I would sign up for this ASAP because FreshBooks has millions, and millions, and millions of customers. They are the dominant GL, actually, in North America. I think they have more users, by user count, than QuickBooks. Now, granted, that's because they count it differently. It's not [inaudible] because it's users.  David Leary: [00:28:10] If QuickBooks counted it that way, QuickBooks would have 80 million. Just because you send somebody an invoice, and they click pay, that doesn't make them a user, right? It's the way they count ... Another thing is they flat out say in here, "The program will connect its members with FreshBooks customers seeking analytics, reporting, and business strategy coaching from accounting professional." It's very clear they're gonna play middleman.  Blake Oliver: [00:28:31] Well, connecting is different than processing payments, and managing a billing relationship. So, we'll see exactly what is meant by that. Hopefully, if it's a traditional program, it's like they have a directory; you can look up a FreshBooks professional who will then work with you on that platform. David Leary: [00:28:49] Yeah, and they did talk about that there. They said it'll give you an access to a collaborative community, innovative tools, and technology, personalized training, and education, and dedicated support for the accountants and bookkeepers. So, yeah, some part of this does feel like a typical accountants program you've seen with other ... Some of it is a little surprising, like why it took a decade, really, for FreshBooks to finally jump into this [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:29:12] Because they had a really successful direct model. They were able to go directly to small businesses, professionals, freelancers, and find them online. Maybe they've saturated that. Now, they're looking to expand further. Also, when they started, it wasn't- it was single-entry accounting, so most accountants were not interested in using that. They would take their clients and switch them on to QuickBooks immediately so that they could actually do double-entry accounting. FreshBooks- I haven't used the product since they announced it, so I'm not totally sure if it's full double entry, but they added that capability. So, now, it's like a competitor potentially to Xero, to QuickBooks, so that's [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:29:55] Yeah, you don't have to pull your clients off of it, or use it, and then have them sync, right? That was always a strategy people could use with FreshBooks; like, okay, fine, stay in FreshBooks; do your invoicing in FreshBooks, and then sync that data over to QuickBooks somehow, and then, I can do the bookkeeping- Blake Oliver: [00:30:09] That's actually exactly- that's exactly what I did with one of my largest clients. I had them doing all their invoicing in FreshBooks, and I would sync the data into Xero, with various levels of success. David Leary: [00:30:22] BQE Core had an announcement. They are going to now integrate with Tax1099. So, essentially, you can now- if you're using BQE Core to manage all your vendor relationships, you can actually onboard to Tax1099 automatically, so you can file your 1099 forms, et cetera. So. it's very similar to the way Tax1099's integrated with other apps. It's just now a niche app. BQE Core is really gonna start doing that. ____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ADP Accountant Connect. How can you stay on top of your game and still have time to think more strategically, or how do you keep up with all the COVID-19-related stimuli programs to make sure your clients have the documentation to get their piece of the pie? By using ADP's award-winning multi-client payroll-management and analytics platform called Accountants Connect. Be your clients' go-to guru by leveraging Accountant Connect's tools and resources to strengthen your strategic advisory role while boosting the efficiency of your traditional tax and accounting services. With ADP Accountant Connect, you can process payroll and easily integrate payroll data to the popular accounting systems, like QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage, and handle their clients' needs anywhere, anytime. Because ADP Accountant Connect was designed by accountants for accountants, it includes so much more. You can take a CPE course on trending topics, provide your clients with benchmarking data, access the tax-resource library, calculators, e-books, even template letters for communicating with your clients, and it's free. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/ADP. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-D-P. ADP has your back with Accountant Connect.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:32:05] So, I don't know about you, but I've been getting email, after email, after email from companies with their Black Lives Matter message. At first, it was really cool, but then it started to get repetitive, like the same way as soon as COVID-19 hit, some companies jumped on it and sent out the really on-point messaging, saying, "We're here to support you. We're doing everything we can ..." The messages of encouragement, which at first are great; but then, they start to get repetitive, and you can see these companies just putting out messages- they're just doing what everyone else did. Does that make sense? [00:32:39] So, last week, I got an email from CalCPA with the CEO's statement about diversity. Anthony Pugliese outlined his 90-day plan to enact programs and actions aimed at building a more diverse and inclusive environment for CalCPA members. So, here's what they're doing. They're signing a pledge to publicly affirm CalCPA's commitment to equity and inclusion. They're forming a member-led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee to lead efforts in creating meaningful programs, resources, and outcomes for CalCPA members. So, Diversity Committee, they are going to, via this committee, address specific goals, standards, and practices designed to identify and address racial inequities and establish specific metrics to measure progress on said goals, and they're going to join the state CPA societies across the nation, sharing best practices for achieving a more just and equitable professional association. [00:33:30] This reminds me of all the stuff I've seen from some of the CPA firms that are out there that are making statements saying, "We're signing a pledge. We are creating a committee. We're gonna come up with a plan." I don't mean to call out CalCPA, it's just this is the email I got that I noticed that stuck out to me. Seems like all of these plans and stuff, they always result in a committee being formed, a plan being- a statement that, "We're gonna make a plan," and then, nothing really ever happens. I remember all of this with women in accounting recently. Has the number of female partners really increased all that much in large firms? No, I think we're still under 20 percent. [00:34:09] We've been talking about diversity in accounting for 50 years and nothing has really changed. As we discussed on one of the last episodes, the percentage of African-American CPAs is one percent in CPA firms. I found out that partners, it's 0.3 percent, and the population is 13-, to 15-percent Black. So, we are not making much progress. It's about the same as it's been. It's frustrating. It's annoying to get these messages where you know there's- it doesn't feel like action is actually happening. That it's just words being said. David Leary: [00:34:47] It's just the, "I guess we gotta put out our statement, too ..." It's the checklist; like, "Yep, all the other state societies did it; we need to do it, too," but nobody's actually truly implementing a plan. There's a meeting, they create the email, and then you kind of feel like nothing ever really happens after that. Blake Oliver: [00:35:06] Yeah. I've been thinking about this over the last few weeks ... The protests are happening. Black Lives Matter is the top news story every single day for over two weeks. It's just sticking in my head. I think to myself, we know exactly how to solve this problem as accountants. We know exactly what we should do, and we just aren't willing to do it. Do you know what that is?  David Leary: [00:35:30] What is this, Blake?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:30] There's some hope in this CalCPA message because he calls out addressing specific goals, standards, and practices designed to identify and address racial inequities. Accountants are about quantifying. We are about setting goals, and metrics, and measuring progress to those goals, and metrics. So, if we want to make our firms more diverse, how do we do it? Create a KPI for diversity in your firm and stick that on the dashboard that all the partners, or at least the managing partner is looking at every week, because firms are really, really good at measuring stuff, like utilization, realization, billable hours. All the best firms are obsessed with looking at that data very frequently- David Leary: [00:36:18] Then tie bonuses and partner payouts to this KPI. Blake Oliver: [00:36:21] Exactly, and put that at the top. Start measuring what percentage of your staff at every single level in the firm is diverse. It could be as simple as, "Here's the percentage of White males, and then, here's everybody else." You could also break it down by gender, too. I think that would be helpful. So, you have two; you have gender diversity, and racial diversity, and that's a number. It's a percentage for every role in the firm, every level of promotion, all the way up to partner, and you display that publicly. Then, you say, "Here's what we aim for it to be." You set a goal, and then, you make it happen. If you don't do that, it's not gonna happen. We know that, as accountants. If you don't set a goal, if you don't set a budget, basically, then it won't happen. That's what needs to happen. We need to set a budget for diversity and then, figure out how to make it happen. It seems kind of obvious to me, actually. So, yeah, a diversity KPI; put that on your firm dashboard. David Leary: [00:37:20] Even at the state society level, they should be tracking it and reporting on that every quarter, what the numbers are. Blake Oliver: [00:37:26] Ask every firm to report diversity and then, give awards to firms that increase diversity, that improve that. It's just abysmal. What was really weird, I think, for me, working in a big firm, was seeing how many of the staff are diverse. So many women, it's like 50 percent or more women in accounting at the staff level ... In my classes, it was 60 percent or more. A lot of diversity ... In Southern California, tons of Asian folks are getting into accounting. That is no surprise to anyone who worked in accounting in California. Yet, they represent  hardly any of the partners. No Black people in the partnerships. It's all white men as partners. [00:38:10] That actually worked out really well for me, as a white guy. All the partners ... It's completely obvious that the way that you get promoted in an accounting firm is when people like you. People who are in positions of power, who are partners, are more likely to like you and give you work, if you look like them; if you look like their kids. It's just- it's obvious. That's the sort of unintentional, not-direct form of racism. But it is. It is a form of racism. This is the other thing about accounting that I have noticed. We like to think that we are objective and that promotions are based on who has the most realization, utilization, billable hours [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:38:53] Billable hours. The most billable hours. Blake Oliver: [00:38:55] But how do you get billable hours? People have to give you work. How do you get work from people? Well, first, you gotta be good at the job, but more importantly, they've gotta like you. So, if partners like you, if they identify with you, then they're gonna give you good work. Good assignments are what get you the billable hours that you need to hit your goals. Partnerships are clubs, right? It's just the same problem where you have a club that's a bunch of white men. They're gonna recruit people - subconsciously or consciously - that are like them because that's how people are. We like people who look like us. [00:39:32] Unless you do something, consciously, to counteract that, that's gonna perpetuate itself. That is exactly the situation that we have been in, in accounting, for years and years. You have to actively push diversity in your firm, or it will, by the nature of the way partnerships work, it will perpetuate a lack of diversity. Does that mean that you set a target for recruitment, and you specifically say, "We are going to hire X percent diverse people, and we are gonna promote X percent diverse into our partner ranks?" If you wanna make it happen, then that's the best way to do it. Actually set a target and say, "We must, in our next partner class, have X percent diversity." David Leary: [00:40:15] It may have to be a longer timeline because, fundamentally ... We've talked about these numbers before, the number of minorities that are graduating with accounting degrees. Then, as they move up the ladder ... You're probably not gonna make somebody who just got outta college-  Blake Oliver: [00:40:30] No, it takes time.  David Leary: [00:40:30] It takes time. But what's happening is, even if an accounting firm mentally says, "Okay, we're gonna promote somebody that's diverse," they might actually have not have anybody on their staff yet that's up to that level to become a partner. So, it could be very hard to see progress in quarter over quarter, but over three, four years, there should be less excuses for it not happening. Blake Oliver: [00:40:51] You've got to do it at all stages of the funnel because a lot of the problem is, especially with women, we don't have a problem recruiting women into accounting firms. That's not a problem. There's plenty of women entering accounting, but they leave somewhere between manager and partner. Why? There's lots of answers as to why. If you really wanna make women stay, then you need to, at that point, say, "We are gonna make sure that we have 50 percent women going from manager to senior manager and then, 50 percent from senior manager to partner. We're gonna change how the firm operates to make that happen." [00:41:24] If women are leaving because of a specific reason, we need to fix that. Same thing with other diversity targets. You can't just say, "Oh, we have a system that is ..." A colorblind system can still be racist. That's one of the things that I've learned over the last few weeks, because, if it perpetuates the situation, then it's systematically racist. So, anyway, that's me ... I'll step down off of my soapbox here on that. David Leary: [00:41:50] To summarize, the premise is you've got to start tracking it. If we don't start tracking it- Blake Oliver: [00:41:55] Track it!  David Leary: [00:41:55] -at the state societies, et cetera, firms aren't gonna track it, themselves, if they don't ... Reward the behaviors along the way.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:02] Go out and recruit on campus at places that are historically Black, or more diverse. You actually gotta go do it, too. But that alone is not enough. So, PPP? David Leary: [00:42:14] Yeah, let's jump in. Blake Oliver: [00:42:15] Okay!  David Leary: [00:42:15] You wanna talk about Mnuchin? Do you wanna talk about Rubio? What do you wanna ...?  Blake Oliver: [00:42:21] Well, let's just talk about the new guidance that came out on Friday. So, effective January 12, the SBA and Treasury announced some new and revised guidance regarding the Paycheck Protection Program. I think we're on the 14th interim final rule. Rather than releasing another interim final rule, they revised the first one. So, this was a revision to the first interim final rule.  [00:42:46] The eligibility threshold for those with felony criminal histories has been changed. The lookback period has been reduced from five years to one year to determine eligibility for applicants or owners of applicants who, for non-financial felonies, have been convicted, pleaded guilty, pleaded no contest, or been placed on any form of parole or probation. It's still five years for felonies involving fraud, bribery, embezzlement, or false statement on a loan application; but for non-financial crimes, it's only a year. That was the only change that I spotted on Friday with PPP and actually the way that it operates. [00:43:21] The thing that really stuck in my head was, over the weekend, Larry Kudlow, as I mentioned at the beginning of the program, was on CNN, on Jake Tapper's State of the Union program on Sunday and said some things that have created a bit of controversy. He said that the Trump administration never promised to release the names of businesses that received PPP loans as part of the CARES Act. [00:43:46] This was in response to questioning about Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday, who said that he told Congress that the SBA is not going to release the names of the businesses that received PPP loans. Now, there's people in Congress who are upset about this because transparency- the administration promised transparency. I'm not sure exactly what the administration promised. I do recall them promising transparency in the program because it's $600 billion dollars, and you need some transparency to make sure that people who ought to have got the money got the money, right? David Leary: [00:44:20] Well, some of it is to Marco Rubio, right? Blake Oliver: [00:44:23] Yeah. Marco Rubio. Yeah, he was saying that [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:44:24] -on April 29, he insisted we are going to know, one way or another, who got this money. He was all about releasing this. We will make them do it. He was all about releasing this. Now, since Mnuchin went on and had his testimony-  Blake Oliver: [00:44:40] They walked it back.  David Leary: [00:44:40] -and walked it back ... Now, he's saying- he's changed his course. Maybe it is proprietary information. So, Rubio's completely flip-flopped on this point of view. But then, if you really-  Blake Oliver: [00:44:51] Oh, just to add to that, David, the SBA also previously had said that the names would be released. On the application, it says that you agree that your name and address may be released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. This was planned.  David Leary: [00:45:10] Because, historically, all SBA loans, that information's released, historically speaking. Blake Oliver: [00:45:15] Yeah, you can go find that out. Yeah, it's taxpayer money, right? David Leary: [00:45:19] Yeah. There's the argument whether they should or shouldn't. I argue that- I come from the point of view that we should because, really, the key is just to get insight of who got sweetheart deals and if they're connected to people in politics. We need to see that; it needs to be disclosed. They think it's gonna be, "Well, if we know that this company got this much of a loan, that means their payroll was this much," and it's gonna be a competitive advantage for their competitors and all. If everybody's is out there, it's not competitive for anybody. Blake Oliver: [00:45:46] That's the main argument is that because the loan is calculated based on payroll amounts, knowing the amount that somebody got for their loan, you could figure out what their annual payroll is, and that that is proprietary information and should not be released. I guess ... I guess that could be competitive intelligence, but given that these companies agreed that this information could become public ...  David Leary: [00:46:17] The other problem I have with this is just ... There's an article [inaudible] article from Politico. Basically, Mnuchin's been testifying to Congress and talking about oversight of this. There's this revisionist history happening on what the purpose of the Paycheck Protection Program was. So, Blake, what was the purpose of the Paycheck Protection Program? Blake Oliver: [00:46:37] Well, I'm still not clear on that. It was either- depending on who was talking, it was either small business stimulus, or it was to protect- keep people off unemployment.  David Leary: [00:46:51] According to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer - this is on Friday - he said, "Given the many problems of the PPP program, it is imperative that American taxpayers payers know if the money is going where Congress intended, to the truly small and unbanked small businesses." Where did that ...?! Where did this come from? Blake Oliver: [00:47:09] Yeah, that was- David Leary: [00:47:09] That was never in any ... That was never, ever mentioned, that it's for the unbanked small businesses? Blake Oliver: [00:47:16] Yeah, and the way the program was designed, it was specifically for businesses that already had banking relationships because they went through the banks, Anyone with a brain could have seen that was what was gonna happen. I think that if they release the names and information about these loans, that that's what we'll find is that it's the well-connected small businesses, the large or small businesses that have accountants and lawyers, who can help them get these loans, that got the money. David Leary: [00:47:46] That was very obvious in round one, that first $350 million. It was very obvious who got stacked up, who got prioritized, and they got a sweetheart deal, when it was supposed to open everybody on day one. That's what they're afraid is gonna be exposed is that people stacked  these things arguably illegally. Blake Oliver: [00:48:04] I was talking with my dad about this, and he had a good point, which is that he doesn't think the names will become public because there may be a lot of the wealthy Republicans and Republican-owned businesses, where they got these loans, and they wouldn't want their names to become public. But you could say the same on the Democratic side. David Leary: [00:48:26] Oh, it's- all politicians are connected. Yeah, this is not a Republican and Democrat thing.  Blake Oliver: [00:48:31] Yeah. The leadership in Congress probably would- on both sides, probably would not be too sad if these names never came out because it would just create a hassle for them on all fronts. David Leary: [00:48:44] Oh, I'm sure this is posturing. Right. This is political posturing on all fronts. But not only that, it's not just ... The SBA, they're withholding information from the Government Accountability Office. So, not even just information about who requested the loans, but they don't even know ... They can't get data from the SBA separating out the loans and separate Economic Disaster Injury Loan program. The GOA confirmed on Friday that it has received no information about ... Not even information of when the SBA will provide the data. They can't get a response from the SBA. Blake Oliver: [00:49:18] Now, I wonder how much of that is malicious and how much is just they're overwhelmed, and they don't have the capability of getting them that information quickly enough. I think a lot of this is posturing, right? It's a negotiating position. The position the administration is taking right now is maximum privacy and that they're gonna end up compromising, so the Democrats in Congress will look like they forced the administration to release information. In the end, it will only be information on loans over a lot of money; over a few million dollars is gonna get released. [00:49:53] Then, the press will have fun going through and picking out businesses, who ... Should they have got the money? Should they not? Look at this mom-and-pop that went under, but this big meatpacking plant was able to keep going, even though they're making tons of money. That sorta thing. That's where they'll end up. Nobody in Congress wants all the names to get out there, because I can guarantee you that so many of those names are gonna be donors; people who don't want the names to get out there, who have influence. David Leary: [00:50:22] There is a letter that Senator Kamala Harris, Democratic Senator from California, and Representative Katie Porter, Democrat, California, they wrote an open letter on Friday. One of the sentences in it really makes a lot of sense and I think kind of can summarize this. "It is impossible to know to the extent of the PPP problems or its successes without access to the data." We even had somebody write a review that you and I wrote too harsh about the success of PPP. Without the data, none of us can celebrate this, or criticize its problems. The data's not available to us, to both sides. It's just not available. Blake Oliver: [00:50:57] Maybe the administration is also stalling, hoping that the economy improves over the next few months and then, nobody cares anymore. The PPP will get credit for a lot of that success, which happened with the May unemployment numbers. PPP- in every article I read about the unemployment numbers, the Paycheck Protection Program got credit for at least some of that $2.5 million dollars- 2.5 million jobs that was saved. That's the controversy about the privacy. We'll see what happens with that. In terms of the actual forgiveness, there are still calls in Congress to make the forgiveness application simpler because it's 11 pages right now, and it's pretty complicated.  David Leary: [00:51:39] Gene Marks wrote up another opinion piece for The Washington Times about, "The Paycheck Protection Program's a success, except for one big issue." You can skip the whole article and skip all the way down to the part where it's the forgiveness application. It's just impossible. Again, his argument is just call this what it is - it's a grant - and move on. Let small businesses move on [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:51:59] Again, I would set a threshold. So, loans under a certain amount just automatically forgive them. Just do it. If they did that, that would encourage the businesses who haven't yet applied to apply and get the rest of the hundred billion or more that is still in the pot available to be taken. The second round has not been used up. [00:52:20] I think the big reason is that most businesses, the small ones without the accountants and the lawyers, are too scared to take the money because they don't know how to do these forms. These forms are challenging for accountants. You think your typical small business owner is gonna be able to do them or want to do them? No. Then they worry about just getting saddled with additional debt if it doesn't turn out to be a grant. The uncertainty is the problem. David Leary: [00:52:45] Do you want to chat a little bit about these new funding programs that we're gonna be talking about for the next eight to 12 weeks that are coming onto the radar? Blake Oliver: [00:52:55] Yeah, I've been so focused on PPP that I haven't really been paying attention to much else [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:53:00] -are you ready? So, a group of Democratic senators have introduced a new Paycheck Protection Program only for small businesses with 100 or fewer employees, including sole proprietorships and self-employed. Are you ready for the name of this? [crosstalk] To be eligible for the Prioritized Paycheck Protection Program ... So, it's now four Ps.  Blake Oliver: [00:53:22] The Four P Program.  David Leary: [00:53:22] To be eligible- Blake Oliver: [00:53:22] PPPP- David Leary: [00:53:22] You must have already spent a PPP loan. So, you got your loan, you used it all up- Blake Oliver: [00:53:33] Okay, well, that's where they're screwing up in the first place because- David Leary: [00:53:35] -and prove that you had a revenue loss of 50 percent or more due to the pandemic. Blake Oliver: [00:53:40] Oh, God. So, see, they're already screwing up because if they want smaller businesses to get the money, then those businesses didn't get PPP loans already. Then, you're making them prove a revenue loss with more paperwork. What is it about simplifying the stuff that Congress just doesn't get? That's a stupid question, given that they've written the tax code, so ...  David Leary: [00:54:04] So, that's coming down the pipe. There's not a lot more on that just yet, just the Four P, or P4 is coming. Blake Oliver: [00:54:13] So, that's a proposal in Congress. But we don't even know if that's gonna go anywhere because the administration is not ... They are not making encouraging sounds about more stimulus. David Leary: [00:54:24] But, you know who's involved in this proposal is Ben Cardin, who is- he's the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business. This may come off as, "Oh, it's just an idea. Who's introducing it?" But if you look at who's introducing it is the person who has a lot of influence over the SBA, et cetera.  David Leary: [00:54:40] Then, we've talked about the mainstream loan program before [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:54:43] Main Street lending program.  David Leary: [00:54:43] -which is not for Main Street businesses; it's for huge businesses. Blake Oliver: [00:54:50] Right.  David Leary: [00:54:50] They've changed the guidelines for that already. Hasn't even started, and they've changed the guidelines. Now, the minimum loan amount will be $250,000; before, it was $500,000. The maximum, now, could be up to $300 million from the previous $200 million. So, they're already changing this, and this loan program was really ramping up to start next week. It's days away from making its first loan, it says in the article.  [00:55:19] This is a whole other set of money that's going out that's gonna have to be tracked; gonna have to be reported on. This is different because this is loans directly from the Fed. This is- just how the Fed gives banks loans, they're gonna give loans to businesses, large businesses. So, this is a whole 'nother thing we're gonna see. They're going to provide $75 billion in equity that can be used for up to $600 billion in lending. Blake Oliver: [00:55:44] Right. David Leary: [00:55:44] This program's about to roll out and it's already getting changed. I hinted at this a couple weeks ago. I was like, we'll probably ... When we were talking about why there should be forgiveness; just get this off of people's plates, because there's new things to worry about. U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said the administration is considering reimbursing businesses whose store fronts were damaged in the recent rioting. So, there's gonna be a whole new set of programs that are gonna be out there for small businesses that were damaged because of the rioting. Blake Oliver: [00:56:15] Well, hopefully- David Leary: [00:56:16] Just more programs to track; more programs to report on ...  Blake Oliver: [00:56:19] Hopefully, that paperwork will be a lot easier. David Leary: [00:56:22] Well, the good news for accountants and bookkeepers - there's gonna be plenty of work for you. There's plenty of work for you regarding this stuff. Blake Oliver: [00:56:28] It's true. It's a stressful time for the community. You can just see that in Twitter, but it's also an opportunity. There's so much work to be had, if you're willing to jump on these programs, and figure out how they work, and help your clients get funding. Well, that's all the time we've got. David Leary: [00:56:45] Yeah. I'd love for people to give us a call. Car voicemail and let us know what you're doing, possibly, for diversity, in your own firm; if you have any ideas, or whatever you're doing to address diversity in your own firm, we'd love to hear their ideas on a way to do that.  Blake Oliver: [00:56:58] Yeah, that'd be great.  David Leary: [00:56:58] Ways to measure it. Blake Oliver: [00:57:00] That number is (202) 695-1040 ... (202) 695-1040. It's a Google Voice number. It'll go straight to voicemail. Leave us a message, we'll take a listen, and we maybe will play it on the air. If you wanna reach me online, I'm @BlakeTOliver on Twitter. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:57:19] I'm on Twitter and, actually, all the socials - I'm @DavidLeary. Blake Oliver: [00:57:24] So reach out. Let us know you think. Give us a follow. Thanks for listening. We'll see you here next week. David Leary: [00:57:29] Next week.____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? Automate this process and get client answers instantly with ClientHub's QuickBooks Online integration. This feature was described as one that only an accountant would have come up with as it solves a real big pain point. ClientHub is a modern client portal designed for cloud accounting firms. Get started today with a free trial at clienthub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months.____________________ Did you know that, in response to the COVID-19 situation, that you can now take your Microsoft Excel certification from home? Want to learn how? You can by joining Steve Chase's Excel Bootcamp. His summer classes run Monday through Fridays from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central Time. 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Sponsors Liscio: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscio OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay PayPie: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/paypie Show Notes 06:15 -  What Impact Did the TCJA Have on Homeowners? - AccountingWEB   06:57 -  Racial Disparities and the Income Tax System – Tax Policy Center  09:07 -  [OC] People Killed by Police Forces (Annual rate per 10 million people) - Reddit 11:28 -  Police Unions And Civilian Deaths - NPR 12:41 -  The Illusion of Race-Neutral Tax Policy - ITEP  13:41 -  Executive at top U.S. accounting firm details plan to combat racism, says workers 'want action' - CNBC 15:38 -  Fifty Years, Little Progress for Black Accountants – Bloomberg Tax 16:49 -  Accounting profession responds to George Floyd killing and anti-racism protests – Accounting Today  19:21 -  Economic Reports and Issues – NAACP   21:20 -  PPP forgiveness changes coming as Senate passes House bill – Journal of Accountancy 26:48 -  Banking Groups Call For PPP Loan Forgiveness - PYMNTS.com  28:21 -  Is It Easier to Ask for Forgiveness Than Permission? Not for PPP Loans Under $150K AQN Strategies  29:06 -  Dear Senate: Just forgive the Paycheck Protection Program loans – The Hill  29:38 -  What to Make of the Rebound in the U.S. Jobs Report - NYTimes 32:10 -  Accountants see pandemic over by year's end; recovery will take longer – Accounting Today  33:31 - How SMB Accounting and Finance Teams are Responding to COVID-19 – Intuitive Accountant  35:26 -  Accounting group CPA victimized by cyberattack, some data on 329,000 people stolen - CBC News  37:06 -  Exclusive: U.S. small business program handed out virus aid to many borrowers twice - Reuters 39:31 -  Zoom Crushes Estimates With ‘Incredible’ Quarter – CFO.com 40:19 - Microsoft Just Dealt A Striking New Blow To Zoom With This Crucial Feature – Forbes 43:30 -  Lenovo Chromebook Duet (10.1") 2 in 1 - Lenovo 45:52 -  Top three ways to get the most out of Microsoft Teams for your small business – OnMSFT.com 47:21 -  Latest product news: May 2020 - Xero 51:16 -  Xero Financial Web 52:01 -  Xero delays price hike indefinitely amid COVID-19 fallout for SME customers - SmartCompany   53:09 -  Intuit QuickBooks expands Australian offering – Accountants Daily    Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! 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You've probably tried separate apps for texting, email, client portal, e-signatures, and file storage and realized that it just leads to chaos. Wouldn't an all-in-one client experience platform be a better option? Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Liscio, later in the episode.  Blake Oliver: [00:00:28] Back in 2017, not that long ago, the AICPA did a demographic trends report, finding that nine percent of students enrolling into accounting bachelor's programs are Black. That's less than the population, which is 13 percent. So, we're already low there. But then, as they move through the funnel, you go from nine percent of students in accounting bachelor programs are Black, only four percent of new hires by firms, by CPA firms, are Black. Then, of CPAs in accounting firms, only one percent are Black. So, I don't have details about PwC, but I'm thinking, how many partners at PwC are Black, do you think ...?____________________ This of episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by OnPay. Paycheck Protection Program, CARES Act, unemployment insurance, furloughs, layoffs, cash flow, CDC guidance, employee safety, paid leave, tax credits - tracking all of the constantly changing COVID-19-related information for your clients is getting overwhelming. With OnPay's COVID-19 Resource Center, you'll have a one-stop shop for your up-to-date HR, and tax information.OnPay is an easy-to-use full-service payroll, and HR software that is the right fit for all your clients, whether they have just one or 500 employees, to stay organized, save time, and get compliant. OnPay include, deep integrations to benefit providers, workers' comp plans, QuickBooks, and Xero. Right now, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get three free months of OnPay payroll service. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash O-N-P-A-Y.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by PayPie. The line between a successful small- to medium-sized business and a bankrupt one is often how much cash they have in the bank, how well they adapt to market changes, and how long they are able to remain cashflow positive during challenging times. PayPie integrates with QuickBooks Online, and Xero to help put an end to cashflow problems. By using daily, weekly, and monthly forecasts, cashflow calendars, and powerful, customized 'what-if' scenarios, you can visualize your clients' finances in clear, and intuitive ways, so you can take action and reshape their cashflow. PayPie identifies when extra cash is needed and can match your clients with the right financing options via screened lenders, and you can choose the best offer suited for your clients' needs. Just for listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast, PayPie is offering its fully functional unlimited-companies license for free until August 31, 2020. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/paypie. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash P-A-Y-P-I-E. ____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:03:10] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:03:13] And I'm David Leary. Blake, another week ...  Blake Oliver: [00:03:15] Here we are, and you're back in your closet. David Leary: [00:03:19] I went back to the closet. The kids are officially on summer vacation. They don't even have fake school at this point. I might not come out of the closet for eight weeks, until school starts. In Arizona, particularly, it's tough. Obviously, there's the curfew going on. Blake Oliver: [00:03:33] Yeah, we've been in a week-long statewide curfew for one week.  David Leary: [00:03:37] Which is tricky in the state of Arizona because it's so hot during the summer that you really can't do anything until 7:00 p.m. at night- Blake Oliver: [00:03:44] At the earliest ... At the earliest. David Leary: [00:03:45] Then everything's closed, so it's just been ... Everybody's going a little extra stir crazy. We're pushing on what? Day 120 of COVID? Blake Oliver: [00:03:52] Yep.  David Leary: [00:03:52] Staying at home ... It's just, with three teenagers, they're just starting to go crazy, and I'm starting to go crazy, so ...  Blake Oliver: [00:03:59] Yeah, and as you mentioned last week, it's challenging to do this show when so much the country seems focused on all of these racial issues - Black Lives Matter, the protests that are happening a few blocks away, downtown in Phoenix. I'm just north of downtown. I can hear the helicopters, and the flash bangs. The mall I went to in the morning got looted that night ... It's hard to want to just do a show about accounting and technology, when you feel like this is not relevant. But I have some data that I wanted to share and some stories, actually, that relate to racial diversity in the accounting profession. So, I think it's worth starting the show talking a little bit about that and then jumping into our regular material. David Leary: [00:04:47] Yeah, absolutely. Because last week, I made a comment about how tax policy dictates social policy. Blake Oliver: [00:04:52] Yes.  David Leary: [00:04:52] I've tweeted about that because I think, ultimately, us - as a profession - that's an impact we could have. Yes, we can have an impact on who we hire, and promote, and who becomes partners at big firms, et cetera, but, ultimately, if we see tax policy that's not equitable, socially speaking-  Blake Oliver: [00:05:08] Right.  David Leary: [00:05:08] -we should probably ... We have the skills, and the systems in place, in theory, to fight against that, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:05:16] We're the profession that actually understands the tax code and how it changes behavior, so we can influence politicians. The AICPA, for instance, has been very strong in lobbying about PPP, and that is a program that has massive social implications.  David Leary: [00:05:35] Yeah. I tweeted out a couple of things, but I did get some listener feedback. Somebody did send me a direct message on Twitter. He said, "Would love to hear your thoughts on why the tax system is racist on the next podcast. I saw the tweets. I'm curious to hear from that point of view. Never thought of the tax system that way. Great podcast." So, I think that's where you and I can jump in on this a little bit. I'm far from an expert on ... I'm not an expert on racism. I'm not an expert on tax code, either, but I am intelligent, and I can definitely see how A connects to B, and we can talk about some of those things. Blake Oliver: [00:06:11] Well, I have one example that I'm aware of. David Leary: [00:06:15] Yeah?  Blake Oliver: [00:06:15] The mortgage interest deduction ... It basically lowers the taxes of folks who own homes. I'm buying a home. I'm in escrow, right now, and I'm looking forward to having that deduction again. If you're a renter, you may pay the same amount for your housing, but you don't get a deduction, so you end up paying more in taxes. That's just one example. The way it impacts race is that - from a race standpoint - if one group of people is more likely to own homes and the other is not, then that has social implications there. It allows one group to build wealth and the other can't, as easily. So, there's one example, and I'm sure there's lots and lots of those. David Leary: [00:06:57] Somebody broke down the racial disparities of just the 1040. It came out January 30. Essentially what they did is they took the Form 1040, Blake, and they went line by line, and broke it down, and explained how that line- what the racial disparities are in that line of the tax form; then the next line of the tax form, and the next line of tax form. [00:07:16] For example, there's the American Opportunity Tax Credit. That's that lifetime learning credit you can apply to college. Middle- to upper-class families are likely to benefit from this, but a lot of middle- to upper-class families are less likely to be people of color. Then, students of color are more likely to receive other grants. The average person of color or a minority is not receiving this tax credit. [00:07:39] Then, overall, over time, there's no proof that these tax credits actually have shown, or these subsidies have shown any increase in people of minorities getting college degrees. They're not helping. Essentially, it's a tax credit that exists, but minorities don't get really any benefit from this tax credit. Over, and over again, there's lots of examples of that. There's another article I saw, where the amount of deduction you can take for a disaster is capped at 10 percent of your income. If you think about the-  Blake Oliver: [00:08:12] Oh, yeah, that makes sense. If you have more income, you can take more of a deduction for the disaster. David Leary: [00:08:19] But the impact of the disaster- if you're struggling to make $30,000 a year, and a tree falls on your car, and breaks the roof of your house, or whatever it is, the impact of that might be half of your income to get things back on track, but you only get to claim 10 percent. So, there's just illustration after illustration after illustration of this that exists in the tax code. If you just step back and look at it that way, you can really see it. Blake Oliver: [00:08:44] I think it's important to say that this is not intentional, most of the time; it's systemic. But we need to recognize it and maybe do something about it. I have some stats about police brutality. Now, I know that's not the tax code; that's not accounting. But we are accountants, and we like to quantify things. This really helped me get my mind around the situation. [00:09:07] This was something that my father, who is in his early 70s, shared with me from Reddit. It's a subreddit called Data is Beautiful (r/dataisbeautiful). The users on this subreddit submit original graphs and charts using real data. Then people upvote them or downvote them in. This one rose to the top. It's called, "People Killed by Police Forces - Annual Rate per 10 Million People."  [00:09:30] The author of this chart looked at a police shooting database from 2019, compared it to U.S. Census Bureau data on demographics, and then, also, killings by law enforcement officers by country and put that all together, and found that the rate, the annual rate per 10 million people in the United States for police killings is 28. So, 28 people are killed by the police for every 10 million people living in this country, which, if you extrapolate to the total population, comes out to around a thousand people a year. [00:10:07] Now, where do we stand against the rest of the world? Well, we come in between Bangladesh, and Mexico, 28, and 30, respectively. You have to go way, way up the chart to find countries that we might think of as sort of similar - the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia. The United Kingdom, where police are not armed, most of the time, has a rate of 0.5 versus 28.  [00:10:37] Now, what if you are Black? Because that rate for the USA is overall, right? If you are Black, it is 57; so we're talking double. If you are White, it is 19. So, we have an average of 28 - for White Americans, it's 19, and for Black Americans, it's 57. If you look at other charts that show the discrepancy in terms of if you're White, or if you're Black, and you're unarmed, and you're shot by the police, it's just dramatically greater. [00:11:05] So, I think people should just take that data for what it is. If you're Black in the United States, you have a similar chance of being killed by the police as the population in Burundi; in Burkina Faso; in Congo. It's worse than if you are an Iraqi, in Iraq, or in Nigeria, or Kenya. That is what it is, right?  [00:11:28] If you're a Democrat, you might not like something I heard on NPR about this, when it comes to police unions and civilian deaths. So I was listening to Planet Money, that podcast that you and I both love. I don't know if you saw this episode, or heard this episode- it's called, "Police Unions and Civilian Deaths."  [00:11:43] They interview an economist, Rob Gillezeau. He studies the history of police killings and protests. He's got a paper that is coming out all about how do police unions and unionization of police departments affect the killing of minority groups? His study finds - it's based on data from 1950 to 1980, when a lot of this unionization occurred - that after police officers gained access to collective bargaining rights, there was a substantial increase in the killings of civilians - and overwhelmingly, non-White civilians. [00:12:16] This is not necessarily an issue that is one side or the other - Democrat or Republican - because Democratic politicians overwhelmingly support unions, but unions could, in this case, be part of the problem because they protect police officers from having to take responsibility when they do kill people. I find that fascinating. David Leary: [00:12:41] You actually brought up a fact, like is any of this purposeful, these tax policies? I found an article that goes into the history of some of these tax policies and, arguably, yes, it's purposeful. There used to be ... A lot of the states had a slave tax; you'd pay taxes on the number of slaves you owned and because of that, you would pay much lower property taxes. In the state of Alabama, this basically meant White landowners paid no property taxes- Blake Oliver: [00:13:06] For their land because they paid it on people.  David Leary: [00:13:07] On people. That just allowed them to continue to accrue and transfer wealth from generation to generation. Then, after emancipation efforts, they really tried to increase property taxes because they obviously were losing revenue because there were no longer taxes on slaves, right? But, they ultimately- the Alabama lawmakers ultimately chose to just 'caps in' on the property tax ... That still stands to this day. Instead, just do sales and excise taxes. This stuff was done very purposely, historically. Blake Oliver: [00:13:41] Right, and sales taxes are highly aggressive. So, there is a tie-in to all of this, to the accounting profession, and the Big Four, because Tim Ryan, the chair of PwC in the United States, went on CNBC and detailed his firm's plans to combat racism. He said that, "Employees are angry. They're upset, they're exhausted, and they want action. They want a heck of a lot more than just saying, "We condemn the killing of George Floyd or many others," he added. So, do you wanna hear what PwC is gonna do?  David Leary: [00:14:12] Yeah, what's their plan? Blake Oliver: [00:14:14] Their plan includes one week of paid time for its 55,000 employees, each year, to volunteer at nonprofits; a two-year fellowship program for some employees to work on policy issues that combat racial injustice and discrimination; and donations to four social justice organizations. The company will also match employee contributions up to $1,000. They're also creating a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee consisting of employees across all levels of the company that will help build out its larger plan to address racial inequality. So, what do you think about that, David? David Leary: [00:14:50] So, is this just talk, or is this a real plan? Blake Oliver: [00:14:54] Exactly. Exactly, right? I'm reading this, and I'm thinking to myself, wait a minute ... This is what the accounting profession has been doing when it comes to diversity for 50 years. They're really good at talking about it, especially the Big Four, by the way. They're really good at talking about how they are so diverse and everything. But then, you look at the actual numbers and diversity is terrible at accounting firms, but especially at the large accounting firms. We're still having conversations in accounting about how do we get more women partners? The percentage of women who are partners at the Big Four? It's less than 20 percent. Do you wanna know what the percentage of Black people in these accounting firms is? David Leary: [00:15:35]  think we've talked about this before. It's completely non- Blake Oliver: [00:15:38] Back in 2017, not that long ago, the AICPA did a demographic trends report finding that nine percent of students enrolling into accounting bachelor's programs are Black. That's less than the population, which is 13 percent. So, we're already low there. But then, as they move through the funnel, you go from nine percent of students in accounting bachelor programs are Black. Only four percent of new hires by firms, by CPA firms are Black. Then, of CPAs in accounting firms, only one percent are Black. [00:16:10] So, I don't have details about PwC, but I'm thinking how many partners at PwC are Black do you think? What percentage? If one percent of CPAs in all CPA firms are Black, it can't be more than that at PwC in the partnerships, if they can't even get to 50-percent women, and that hasn't budged in years and years. So, here we have Tim Ryan talking about all this stuff, and creating a committee, and all that, but it doesn't actually ever change anything. They've had these committees forever, right? Something else has to change to create more diversity. It's like, we're really good at talking about it; we're not really good at actually doing anything about it. David Leary: [00:16:49] There's an article in Accounting Today about how the accounting profession is responding to the George Floyd killing and anti-racism protests. Basically, the big firms, and the state CPA societies are all releasing statements, but all statements kind of ... Did you read the article? They all kind of sound the same. It's that same tone - "We're deeply affected ... Our membership represents X number of members, and they come from many races, cultures, creeds, and ethnicities. We denounce all forms of racism ..." It all feels very stamped. Blake Oliver: [00:17:26] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:17:26] It's like, "What's the perfect statement we can release right now in regards to this?" Blake Oliver: [00:17:32] Yeah, it's just talk, right? Of the 650,000 CPAs in the U.S., an estimated 5,000 are Black, according to the National Association of Black Accountants. David Leary: [00:17:42] I'd much rather see a commitment to we are going to lobby against racist tax policies. Blake Oliver: [00:17:49] Well, you know, here's a good one. I saw this on Tim Ryan's post. He originally put all this stuff up on LinkedIn as a post. You go through the comments and, of course, it's like a zillion PwC employees sucking up to him. But there was one person in there who said, "You know what? This is great. Mr. Ryan ..." I'm paraphrasing. "I am curious to know what percentage of your executive committee is diverse, nonwhite males? Perhaps you should fix the breakdown of diversity on your executive committee and make that more diverse, first, and then it will trickle down; because what you see at the top of the organization is what you get in the middle and at the bottom of the organization." I think that would be a great place to start.  David Leary: [00:18:34] Yeah, because managers are just gonna mimic and promote whatever they have to do to get themselves promoted to the spot they wanna be in.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:41] Exactly. They mirror what you do, not what you say, right? I just think it's just so wrong, actually, that he went on TV and did this without actually having a real plan to address it. I don't know how many emails you've gotten recently, David, from companies saying, "We support Black Lives Matter. We stand with them," and all this stuff. But you wonder, okay, is this just talk, or are they actually doing anything about it? You found a great article about how you actually look at the SEC filings of a lot of public companies, and they're donating money to politicians who voted against the NAACP, like 90 percent of the time. David Leary: [00:19:21] Yeah. The NAACP does a grading of politicians, like an A through an F grading. Blake Oliver: [00:19:27] Yeah. David Leary: [00:19:28] A lot of these companies that are putting a post out there, that's great - they've done their obligatory Black Lives Matter tweet, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:19:36] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:19:37] Basically, they went and compared this to their grade by the NAACP, and basically, these senators that they're donating money to are getting Fs. So, it's like, great, you have the lip service on this side, on the social media side, but on the other side, you're not really putting your money- or your actions are not matching what your forward-facing persona is. Blake Oliver: [00:19:59] To me, the thing that's most upsetting about this is the hypocrisy, not necessarily any specific policy recommendation or change. It's like the fact that people are just talking about this and then not really doing anything about it. If you're not gonna do anything about it, don't talk about it. Then, if you are gonna talk about it, don't do something else behind the scenes that is totally contradictory to what you're saying. David Leary: [00:20:23] Yeah. Some of the ones that were specific about this ... Citi. Huge, right? Citigroup- Blake Oliver: [00:20:29] Yep, the bank; the big bank.  David Leary: [00:20:29] The bank. Their CFO tweeted out about how much they cherish diversity, et cetera. But then, if you look into it, they donate to a bunch of senators and political people that have Fs, when it comes to their scores for diversity and supporting diversity, in the tune of $180,000 they've donated. Then, some of the others ... They called out Google; they called out Amazon. You just can't say you wanna do things better. You have to really work hard to change the system. Blake Oliver: [00:20:59] So, should we talk about the economy now? David Leary: [00:21:02] Yeah, the only thing I was gonna- that ties in between these two ... Actually, this is a transition story. Blake Oliver: [00:21:07] Okay.  David Leary: [00:21:07] Have you heard about the payroll tax holiday bubbling up more now? Blake Oliver: [00:21:11] Yeah. Well, this was something that President Trump floated at the very beginning of this crisis was give everyone a break from payroll taxes until the end of the year. David Leary: [00:21:20] Yeah, and now it feels like it's not just payroll taxes. It's like all small businesses might not have taxes. It's very gray of what this is, but I do feel like it's a transition from this tax policy and diversity thing to the economy, so this'd be a good transition story. Blake Oliver: [00:21:36] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:21:36] Ultimately, I think there's two points of view here. I think there's one point of view of keep giving people money, even if they're staying at home. So, extend out that $600-a-month unemployment. Then, there's a set of people that are like, "Oh, no, give them a bonus if they go back to work." In my opinion, that bonus for going back to work is totally one of these social racist policies, because most people right now that are unemployed that don't have an option to go get a job and go back to work are people of minorities? Blake Oliver: [00:22:06] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:22:06] They would not get that extra money. It's not like they're choosing not to go back to work. It's just this transitions right into the stimulation of the economy, right? How do we do that and not keep doing these policies that impact us socially?____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Liscio. Liscio is an all-in-one digital front-office platform delivering the world's best online client experience. Liscio enables every client to easily communicate remotely with your team by turning everyone's smartphone into a secure remote workspace. The Liscio app allows you and your clients to communicate via built-in real-time messaging, share files, collect e-signatures on documents, digitally capture images, and track any tasks that your team or the client needs to complete so nothing ever gets lost in the shuffle. Liscio is more secure than using email, costs less than five or six separate apps, and gives you a private distraction-free online space to work with clients. With integrations to Microsoft, and Google for one-click sign up, and Zoom to instantly create meetings, your client will be onboarded in no time. When you're ready to get your clients and team out of their email inbox and off of multiple separate apps and into a modern, secure way of collaborating, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liscio. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash L-I-S-C-I-O. Liscio - everything you need in one place.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:23:39] Let's talk about the jobs report and the PPP, because you and I have been really down on the Paycheck Protection Program; I think, legitimately criticizing the program.  David Leary: [00:23:50] Well, it didn't get better until we started criticizing it. Let's just be very clear-  Blake Oliver: [00:23:54] Yeah, there we go.  David Leary: [00:23:54] Until the criticism came, it did not get better. Blake Oliver: [00:23:59] So, Congress, on Wednesday - the Senate - passed the House's bill, changing the PPP forgiveness rules in a very, very positive way. President Trump signed it on Friday. Here are the changes. Current PPP borrowers can now extend their forgiveness period from eight weeks to 24 weeks. That's a big change that will help a lot of people qualify for forgiveness. Covered period can't extend beyond the end of this year, and now, the payroll-expenditure requirement drops from 75 percent to 60 percent. [00:24:33] But here's the ... They didn't get this quite right. Here's the problem. In the bill, the way it's written, the 60 percent is now a cliff. So, if you don't spend 60 percent of the money on payroll, you don't get any forgiveness, which they didn't intend to do. Representative Chip Roy of Texas, who co-sponsored the bill in the House, said in a House speech that the bill intended the sliding scale to remain in effect at 60 percent. Senators Marco Rubio and Susan Collins indicated that technical tweaks could be made to the bill to restore the sliding scale. David Leary: [00:25:04] So, it was like a typo; like somebody just messed up. Blake Oliver: [00:25:06] Yeah, they just ... It's complicated. This is the problem with this whole thing - it's just way too complicated. A lot of folks are out there saying, "Guys, just get rid of it entirely. Don't just even ... Don't make it easier." David Leary: [00:25:18] Well, yeah. We'll jump into that, the just get rid of it, the [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:25:22] All these requirements, yeah.  David Leary: [00:25:22] Let's talk more about the stats of this.  Blake Oliver: [00:25:22] Well, yeah, here's the rest of it. Now, you can take 24 weeks instead of eight to restore your workforce levels and wages to the pre-pandemic levels required for full forgiveness. This has to be done by December 31, instead of June 30. There are now exceptions for borrowers to achieve full forgiveness, even if they don't fully restore their workforce. So, if you can prove that you tried to get your employees come back to work and they didn't want to, then you don't have to count them in your FTE calculations. Then, new borrowers get five years to repay the loan, instead of two. If you already have a loan, though, it's not automatically extended to five years. You have to renegotiate with the bank, which is kind of annoying for folks who went out- David Leary: [00:26:08] Essentially, it's signing a new loan. Blake Oliver: [00:26:10] Yeah, it's just ... The interest rate is still one percent. Then, businesses that took the PPP loans can also delay payment of their payroll taxes, which was previously prohibited under the CARES Act; you had to choose one or the other. Now, you can do both. That's all the changes. But again, a lot of people are saying, and I think you, and I kind of agree on this, that it would be better for the economy, and it would incentivize more people to take advantage of the money that is still left over, which is like, $100 billion in the program that hasn't been taken, if they just got rid of these requirements, and let it be a grant, and don't even make it loans.  David Leary: [00:26:48] It's just it's wasting everybody's time, this dance. The Consumer Bankers Association, and the Bank Policy Institute, they've actually created a cosigned letter calling on Congress to just automatically forgive all Paycheck Protection Program loans under $150,000.  Blake Oliver: [00:27:04] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:27:04] The stats on this were pretty interesting in the way they had this logic ... Obviously, they're solving for the banks' interest, but the banks don't want anything to do with this. They do not wanna be futzing with all these teeny little loans, and tracking them, and filling out paperwork. Blake Oliver: [00:27:18] Yeah, yeah.  David Leary: [00:27:18] So, they're solving for their own interest, but they did provide a study that was pretty interesting. Overall, in summary, they basically- that $150,000 mark would cover 85 percent of the loans, but only 26 percent of the loan dollars. Blake Oliver: [00:27:32] Right.  David Leary: [00:27:32] So, it feels like a risk/reward. It makes sense. Just cancel the whole thing, right? You'd still have to verify that it was used for payroll at some level, but-  Blake Oliver: [00:27:42] That's easier to do than to have to do all these complex calculations. David Leary: [00:27:45] The loan forgiveness application, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:27:47] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:27:47] They basically think that ... If they get rid of this, it's gonna save small business owners almost $7 billion, and it's just paperwork-  Blake Oliver: [00:27:53] Right. It's money they would have to pay to accountants, like me, to do this for them because most small business owners can't do this. This is a hard application. I've looked at it, and I'm so glad that I don't have to do this because I use a payroll service that has been doing a great job with their forgiveness calculations reports that you can just generate automatically if you are running payroll on their system. I just press a button, and it generates the report for me. Think about all the small business owners that aren't using something like that. David Leary: [00:28:21] I did some similar with OnPay. A research firm, AQN Strategies, found that combined - the resources you need to apply for the loan and then apply for loan forgiveness - the amount of resources you, as a business owner, are putting into this is between $2,000 to $4,000 per small business, by the time you pay the third-party costs, and other costs.  [00:28:40] Not only that, you might be spending 20 to 100 hours of your time to get this done, so it really, really adds up. It's an interesting take because they presented an argument that's not just about what's gonna impact the banks, but really, the impact of this on small businesses. Then, even Gene Marks, did you see he jumped on the bandwagon and wrote an op-ed for The Hill?  Blake Oliver: [00:29:03] Yeah, yeah. He wants forgive it all.  David Leary: [00:29:06] Yeah, and his argument is kind of like, essentially, at this point, if it's five years at one percent, it's a grant program. Just call it that. Forgive the debt and just move on, like we were saying last week about this a little bit. I think that you just said Rubio ,and I forgot the other senator you said- Blake Oliver: [00:29:24] Collins. David Leary: [00:29:25] Are they gonna propose new changes again? Blake Oliver: [00:29:28] Yeah. They wanna tweak it a little more-  David Leary: [00:29:30] And extend the confusion. It's just like wash your hands of it, at this point, and be done with it. I actually think it's gonna happen. Blake Oliver: [00:29:38] Well, for all the confusion, there has been a lot of good from the PPP program because we got our jobs report out for May. Amazingly - nobody predicted this - we had job growth in May. 2.5 million jobs were created. I don't know why I need to say this because I think everyone who pays any attention to business news has heard this by now. So, apologies, listeners, if this is redundant. We had 1.4 million jobs lost in March; 21 million jobs lost in April; then, we actually had job growth in May. So, we've stopped the bleeding, and I think the PPP owes some credit for that. [00:30:22] There was a great story in The New York Times called, "What to Make of the Rebound in the U.S. Jobs Report?" Business owner, Chris Elliott, the chief executive of Beef O'Brady's, a Florida-based chain of more than 150 sports bars, talked about how his business was down 62 percent in April, when its dining rooms were closed nationwide, and it's only business came from takeout, but only a handful of the chain's restaurants have closed permanently, in part because nearly all of its franchisees received Paycheck Protection Program loans. "The damage would have been much greater without PPP, I can tell you that," says Chris Elliott. So, half of the jobs gains in May - 1.4 million - were in restaurants and bars, many which received assistance under the PPP. So, that's a success. [00:31:08] People are questioning, where's all the business bankruptcies? You're right, something kept a lot of small business restaurants from going under. It could be these PPP funds [inaudible] just to keep the door open. A lot of them pivoted to delivery type services. Now that states are starting to open up, if the restaurants are gonna open back up, they're gonna have to bring back one or two employees. So, it explains kind of the growth and how this is tied together. Far from perfect, but ...  Blake Oliver: [00:31:33] A lot of the bankruptcies were anticipated to happen because businesses wouldn't be able to pay their rent, but a lot of businesses have successfully worked with their landlords to reduce or delay rent. The landlords have been able to work with the banks to reduce or delay their mortgage payments, or refinance, or add the payments on to the end of the term. That's because the banks are getting, essentially, financing from the federal government, because Chairman Powell of the Fed worked very, very quickly to get massive amounts of money out to create liquidity into our banking system. [00:32:10] That has worked really well, and like you said, there haven't been a lot of bankruptcies. We will see what happens, though, long term, because as we've talked about, coronavirus is not gonna be a short-term economic hit. It's gonna be a long-term hit. Accounting Today had a survey from the AICPA of almost 1,200 CEOs, CFOs, controllers, and other CPAs across U.S. companies. Only 20 percent of the respondents are optimistic about the U.S. economy's overall outlook over the next 12 months. [00:32:39] That's down from 61 percent in the first quarter, when we didn't have any concerns really about COVID-19. So, it's gonna take a while to get back to normal. The question's gonna be: how long will this stimulus last? Because PPP, even though it's extended now, a lot of people have been using the money over the last two months as if it wasn't. So, that money is gonna start running out this month, and are they gonna lay people off?  David Leary: [00:33:02] Yeah, all those people who got that first wave, the PPP v.1 ... It's been eight weeks. Blake Oliver: [00:33:09] If there's not more stimulus - which the Republicans in the Senate- Mitch McConnell has not expressed a lot of enthusiasm about doing more stimulus - will we see job losses? Will we see business closures, and bankruptcies? It's just a question as to how quickly can the actual economy recover without stimulus? Nobody really knows the answer to that. David Leary: [00:33:31] There's an article in Insightful Accountant about how small business accounting and finance teams are responding to COVID. The real big takeaway here is ... This was a survey done by Sage Intacct. They just surveyed nearly 400 finance and accounting professionals. So, you're looking at, this is gonna be large-, or mid-sized businesses. Basically, really just their accounting teams are being asked by their boards to really dig into the deep part of the books to cut costs. [00:33:56] What can be cut? 75 percent of that is their work- what they need to cut - and then, revise the revenue projections, and then, focus on budget planning for the future. I think this is something that you could take down to your smaller clients. Those are probably the things you need to be working on with your smaller clients, right now - reducing costs, figuring out the revenue projections, and that cash flow, and then, focus on planning for the future.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:16] Even just creating a budget. A lot of businesses in economic prosperity don't even budget because they don't need to because their business models are working, but now is the time to do it, and create those cash flow projections, and offer the services in a productized way; actually create a deliverable, like, "We are gonna give you a short-term cash flow forecast every week and a long-term business forecast- 12-month forecast that we update every month," and make that part of your CFO package. Businesses will pay for that to have the certainty and know that somebody is looking out. David Leary: [00:34:55] I still think you can value price this.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:56] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:34:56] Like, "Hey, 18 months from now, if you're doing better, now, you can pay me, at that point, and you're gonna pay me nicely," if you've helped them get through these waters ... Assuming they don't get hacked. Wanna go into security news?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:11] Yeah, let's talk about that. Then, I've got something about stimulus payments. It's not a security problem, but it's like internal controls, let's say.  David Leary: [00:35:20] Okay. Well, this actually could very well lead into internal controls. Blake Oliver: [00:35:26] Okay.  David Leary: [00:35:26] So, I saw this headline go by, but I didn't catch it. It said, "Accounting group CPA victimized by cyberattack, some data on 329,000 people stolen." So, this is the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada group. This would be like the AICPA. Blake Oliver: [00:35:43] Mm-hmm. David Leary: [00:35:44] There was a cyberattack on its website, and the personal information for more than 300,000 members was stolen. Blake Oliver: [00:35:50] Wow! 329,000? David Leary: [00:35:50] Yes- Blake Oliver: [00:35:50] What kind of information was-  David Leary: [00:35:56] This is going to be ... Think about this: this is the email addresses, the names, your physical addresses, your employer names - but not your passwords, or credit card numbers because, apparently, those were encrypted - was all stolen. Now, these are accountants and bookkeepers. Why would you want a list of accountants' and bookkeepers' email addresses? Blake Oliver: [00:36:15] I'm gonna go and do phishing attacks. That's what I'm gonna do if I'm a hacker.  David Leary: [00:36:19] You cross that against those other hacks where email addresses and passwords have been leaked. I'm sure, of that 300,000, there's plenty of you accountants and bookkeepers out there that are using the same password you used to play that Zynga game, Words with Friends, that you used on your clients' files, and you probably used on this. Blake Oliver: [00:36:38] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:36:38] So, they are going to be coming.  Blake Oliver: [00:36:41] Wow.  David Leary: [00:36:41] Basically, if you're a CPA, you're gonna have to put in rules and diligence for your whole entire staff about them opening any emails, external emails, because the attacks are gonna come now. If you thought they were under attacks before ... Now, they're gonna be very focused because they know you're an accountant. Before, they just had random email addresses, but these are very, very specific. I could imagine, on the black market, this list probably is worth some extra money. Blake Oliver: [00:37:06] So, going back to the PPP, when it comes to problems with configuring systems - like you said, protecting money data - the SBA did not have the best systems in place for processing these loans and probably still doesn't. We got a number from Reuters that kind of exposes just how bad this was, or the impact. At least 1,020 duplicate deposits were issued for PPP. So, people got PPP loans twice, or three times and could roughly result in $116 million dollars of overpaid PPP money. David Leary: [00:37:45] Well, good thing ... Now that you have those extra weeks to use it, it works out. You have three times as long to use it now.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:51] So, the problem was- what happened was people were applying for PPP through their bank, like Bank of America, and then not hearing anything back and getting frustrated and then going and applying through some alternate lender, like Kabbage or BlueVine, or Square. I guess these banks, then, and fintech were ... They didn't know that people had done it twice, so they were then reserving the loans, and somehow, the SBA gave out- approved more than one loan per borrower. I think it's because they weren't linking the loans to EIN numbers, at the beginning, anyway. It's a small amount in the big scheme of things, but in terms of percentage of the whole program, $160 million dollars is a lot. You wonder if they're ever gonna get that back, in a lot of cases.  David Leary: [00:38:36] Bank A has no idea that you got money deposited in your bank account from Bank B. Blake Oliver: [00:38:42] Right.  David Leary: [00:38:44] They'd only really figure it out if the same bank deposited the money three times and set up three separate loans for you. Outside of that, you're right, how is this gonna reconcile up? Is it ever gonna- will anybody even detect it, or figure that out? Blake Oliver: [00:38:57] Well, the banks might be on the hook for it because the SBA is only going to forgive one loan. So, it's up to the bank then to recover that money that they gave out. David Leary: [00:39:07] But then, you just fill out the forgiveness paper for that loan with that bank, and just- now you have a five-year loan for one percent. Blake Oliver: [00:39:13] Yeah, but I mean a lot of these businesses may not survive long enough to pay back the money. That's the thing. You can't go after the individual because the loans are not secured by a personal guarantee. So, it's a risk for the banks. David Leary: [00:39:29] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:29] You wanna get into app news?  David Leary: [00:39:30] Yeah. Why not? Let's jump in. Blake Oliver: [00:39:31] Okay. Let's talk about Zoom. So, Zoom released its quarterly results and just crushed its earnings estimates. They doubled its revenue guidance. Their sales soared 169 percent to $328 million, amid the work-from-home, and study-from-home booms resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is according to CFO.com. Adjusted net income rose $58.3 million, or 20 cents a share, from $8.9 million, or three cents a share in the year-ago period. Amazing. Of course, their stock has just soared. Meantime, Microsoft, now, of course, has woken up to this whole video-conferencing thing, which is so funny to me because Skype has been around for so long and has sucked for so long, right?  David Leary: [00:40:19] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:19] Microsoft has finally been scared by Zoom - just the same way they were scared by Slack - and they have upgraded their video-conferencing features in Microsoft teams. Now, you can see a gallery view in Microsoft Teams, where you can see up to 49 participants in a call at the same time, just like in Zoom. I got to use this for the first time. I was on a call with Sage. I downloaded the team's app for Mac, which I'd never used before, and I jumped on, and it was great. Really good experience. Similar to Zoom. So, there you go. David Leary: [00:40:54] Yeah, Zoom ... The explosion of Zoom has threatened so many people. Facebook had to respond to it by improving their video chat because essentially Zoom became a social network, which threatened Facebook. Obviously, Google ... Everybody would be in Google. They would not use the Google video chat. They would schedule your meeting and use a Zoom instead-  Blake Oliver: [00:41:12] Yep.  David Leary: [00:41:12] -if you're using Google Calendar. Obviously, Microsoft ... It's amazing the ripple effect that Zoom has had on all these other companies that have had to chase now. They obviously could catch up. This could slow things down for Zoom. I'm actually possibly ... I'm not gonna say I'm in the market to look for something else, but Zoom had those security issues before. So, Zoom, they've been addressing those, and they keep adding things to Zoom, but I also feel like Zoom, twice a week, I open it, and features are moved, or they're different, or there's more secure- Now, it's starting to be ... Honest, I'm making WebEx jokes. Remember how in WebEx, the old Cisco WebEx, you'd have to give somebody the ball so they could present? Blake Oliver: [00:41:52] Oh, yeah, yeah.  David Leary: [00:41:52] I feel like this dance now exists in Zoom. You gotta make somebody else a host so they can present ... Is Zoom gonna be inconvenient? The bigger problem I've always felt, with Zoom, is great product ... Their menu, and preferences, and pricing structure is a nightmare. Like, I have one meeting, I don't have to keep handing people the ball. I go to another meeting, I gotta figure out how to make them a Zoom host. I don't even know what setting is what on each meeting; why one works one way and one's the other. [00:42:21] So, Zoom's kinda- they're gonna have to streamline. Now that they have competition, they're gonna have to clean up some of their rapid mistakes, if you wanna call them that - the way they've been implementing things. So, it's funny that you brought up Microsoft because I actually have an article about Teams, as well, we can jump in, too. Blake Oliver: [00:42:35] Yeah. Before we do that, I wanna just add to your point about Google. My company is on Google Apps, and we don't use Google Hangouts. One of the things I've always been frustrated with about Google Hangouts and their whole video conferencing is that it's super-resource intensive.  I run a Hangout and my computer is sweating when I'm on that Zoom ... I use the word 'Zoom' because that, to me, is synonymous with video conferencing now, right? I use their video chat, and it just doesn't work. [00:43:01] Well, I don't know what they're doing about the resource usage and making it better in that regard, but they did make Google Meet free for all Google users on the free Gmail platform. So, now, if you have a Gmail account, you can just launch a Google Meet video meeting, which I think is based on the Hangouts technology and just do that for free because everybody's scared of Zoom's free plan. You can have a meeting up to, what, 30-45 minutes for free. David Leary: [00:43:30] You're right about these video-conferencing apps just bringing your computers to their knees. I'm actually eyeballing a new device, and I could put this in the link. Lenovo released a Chromebook, but it's really a tablet with a detachable keyboard. So, it's similar- almost looks and tastes kind of like a Microsoft Surface, a little bit, but it's a Chromebook, so it's running Google's Chrome OS. They call it the Duet because you can also install Android apps. Blake Oliver: [00:43:57] Hmm.  David Leary: [00:43:57] You're not stuck with just [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:43:59] The desktop- David Leary: [00:44:00] -it's wide open. So, I've been eyeballing that a little bit myself. I can't buy it anywhere, but it's coming in at a price point of $300.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:10] That's great because then you could just use that for the video conferencing- David Leary: [00:44:13] Video conferencing, exactly.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:13] -and not load up your computer. David Leary: [00:44:16] But if I have the desktop-share a browser, I could still do that; just enough. Blake Oliver: [00:44:21] I'm considering doing something similar when I move into my new home office. I'm going to set up a Zoom Room in my office just for myself so that I can go and sit on the couch and have a meeting without having to sit in front of my computer all day long. That way, also, it's not gonna bog down my computer. It'll be more like having people in the room kind of situation [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:44:42] -up on the wall type of a situation? Blake Oliver: [00:44:45] Yeah. It's gonna be a TV with a nice webcam. They have all these kits you can do, and they go from cheap to really thousands of dollars. I'm not gonna go crazy, but it's gonna be separate from my computer so that when I have a meeting, I can actually walk over and sit down at a conference-room type table, or on a couch, or something and have a meeting with somebody like I used to in the office. I think it'll be a worthwhile investment. I'll let you know how it goes. David Leary: [00:45:11] No, definitely because I want to build an office at my house now because I cannot stand in closets anymore. I do have plans to build a little recording studio, which would be perfect for the show. Blake Oliver: [00:45:23] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:45:23] Obviously, you're still in Zooms; you're still doing these things, so I'll be excited to ... I'm sure our listeners, as well ... What is the ultimate home office? That's gonna be the new man cave, now, right? Everybody's gonna one-up each other's home offices. Blake Oliver: [00:45:36] We'll have to do a comparison. Once you have yours built, and I have mine, we can do a walk-through and people can vote.  David Leary: [00:45:42] Yeah, whose is the best?  Blake Oliver: [00:45:42] On app news, I do wanna talk about an actual accounting app because-  David Leary: [00:45:48] Before you jump in, I have Microsoft Teams news. Blake Oliver: [00:45:51] Oh, tell me Microsoft Teams. David Leary: [00:45:52] It was an article just titled, "Top three ways to get the most out of Microsoft Teams for your small business." Usually, to be honest, I would not click and read these articles, but I just know a vast majority of accountants and accounting firms are already using Microsoft Office 365, which is actually called something new now. I think it's just called Microsoft ... They dropped the word 'Office,' I think, apparently [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:46:16] Okay. It's because we're not in the office anymore, right?  David Leary: [00:46:17] Possibly. I think, because of that, people would get things like Teams for free and other things ... Part of this article, it goes into, "Hey, you should use Teams to share files." Like, duh ... "You should use the planner to manage workflows and keep track of to-dos." Did you know that Teams has a feature called Shifts? Blake Oliver: [00:46:40] What is this? David Leary: [00:46:42] To manage your payroll, time off, working hours, your employee schedules, and more.  Blake Oliver: [00:46:45] I had no idea. David Leary: [00:46:48] Me, neither. It's something like, if you have a client that they need to do time tracking, they need to- they have their employees remote, and they're on Microsoft Teams, this could be a possible solution. Blake Oliver: [00:46:59] Huh ... Good. David Leary: [00:47:01] Versus buying a big old integrated package. If you already paying for Teams, you just get this for free. Now, I don't know who it integrates with; if it integrates with their payroll providers, or if this data's just like, boom, it's an Excel file now, and now, what do you do with it? But it is available. It's out there. You have built-in time tracking in your Teams product if you're using Teams.  Blake Oliver: [00:47:21] Well, that's great. All right, so my last app news story is Xero and their latest updates. Xero has been kind of quiet with updates for the U.S. for a while, but there's some really neat stuff coming out. I don't know if you've seen the new Business Performance Snapshot. Actually, it's just called Business Snapshot now. It's in pilot - I guess that's what they call beta - and has been rolled out to all Xero Business customers. You can now access that in the Reporting module. [00:47:49] It's a really simple way for business owners to get an idea of their key metrics. So, profitability; their profit and loss versus this fiscal year, last year; their income with charts showing over time and compared to the previous year; expenses; gross profit margin; their balance sheet; financial position ... Really basic KPIs.  David Leary: [00:48:15] Did they build this on their own or did they partner with a third-party app, and they're actually just kind of embedding the third-party app in? Blake Oliver: [00:48:21] No, this looks to be built by Xero in Xero. It's got that Xero feel. It's very clean, lots of white space. It's very basic information, but  really good information to present. I think it's gonna be more helpful for the end users than the accountants because it's super-basic information that we can read off of the financial statements. For people who aren't familiar with reading financial statements, this is a great way for them to get a picture of what's going on and could be useful because you can print it to PDF, and share it with your clients, and all that stuff.  David Leary: [00:48:53] At QuickBooks Connect, Intuit was kind of showing some of this for accountants. It's like a dashboard, and then you could enable some widgets for your clients. How much of an impact do you think this is gonna have on the third-party ...? There is a lot of dashboard/widget-y reporting tools that add onto QuickBooks, and Xero. What do you think the impact is, if these tools are just good enough for most businesses? Blake Oliver: [00:49:14] Exactly. David Leary: [00:49:14] Is it gonna be a taste where, "This is great. I love it. I want more!"- is it gonna be that, or is it just gonna be like, "I'll never use a third-party app because this is good enough ..."?  Blake Oliver: [00:49:24] This is like a lot of features that QuickBooks, and Xero have been building into the app, where previously, only third-party solutions have done it. I'm paying a lot of attention to this because at Jirav, we do dashboarding. That's one of the features we offer, but that is not the main value proposition. I think that if you are an app that does dashboarding, that should not be your main value proposition because that is something that these accounting systems are gonna do. You need to do way more than that- than just visualize data. [00:49:55] For instance, we pull in operational data so you can do KPIs that relate operational and financial data. I don't think QuickBooks, and Xero are gonna have statistical accounts, the way Sage Intacct does, for a very long time, where you can pull in non-financial information, as well. That's a big thing for them to do. The key is, just the same way with time sheets, right? Now you can track your time in Xero Projects. You can track time in QuickBooks. Well, does that mean you don't need a separate time-tracking solution? You might if you need more advanced functionality. David Leary: [00:50:28] Yeah, it depends on where you're at, and life cycle of your business, and size, et cetera [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:50:31] Yeah, you need a mobile app to be able to track time. Do you need it to do it automatically? Do you need it to automatically import your payroll? All that stuff ... The other thing along these lines that Xero has released is super-exciting. It's a short-term cash flow projection. Again, this might scare some of the apps that do this. [00:50:49] It's a very basic short term cash flow projection, though. Basically what it does, it takes your bank balances- you can choose operating accounts. It sums up the balance in your operating accounts and then projects cash flow over time based on the bills and invoices that you have entered in the system and the projected payment and collection states that you have entered. It allows you to then very easily modify those dates to see what will happen to your cash flow and if you're gonna stay positive or go negative. David Leary: [00:51:16] I imagine that ties into ... Xero announced they're getting into that finance and loan game, as well, so I imagine that cash flow ties into them pushing people ... "Oh, your cash flow is low. You should probably get a loan." You know?  Blake Oliver: [00:51:29] Yeah. Maybe they're using this technology to actually project cash flow for businesses so they can offer them the loans, too, right? They need to calculate this information themselves. So, I think it's pretty neat. It shows you how the cloud accounting GLs are developing features that the desktop solutions never had. It's no longer about adding functionality that desktop has. It's about adding functionality it never had, ever-  David Leary: [00:51:53] That nobody's ever had; yeah, never existed. Blake Oliver: [00:51:57] Right.  David Leary: [00:51:57] I saw that Xero delayed their price hike indefinitely. Blake Oliver: [00:52:00] Oh, yeah. David Leary: [00:52:01] They planned on raising prices, especially in the Australian marketplace. If you're number one, you raise prices. Intuit's been doing that with QuickBooks here in the States. Because of the COVID-19 fallout, they just are capping that and riding out their current price structure. Which, am I understanding, Xero, if you're in the AU, and New Zealand markets, is definitely more expensive than it is in the U.S. market? Is this from a ...?  Blake Oliver: [00:52:25] Yeah ... It makes sense because it's a real practice management solution in those markets, where you have integrated accounting and tax, which is something that we've never had here, end to end. So, there's a lot more value for accounting firms. They can- I bet if you added up what accounting firms spend on tax software, and accounting software, it would come out to be similar. So, that's why it's twice as expensive in Australia, and New Zealand. I don't know what it is exactly, but it's a lot more. David Leary: [00:52:57] Yeah, that's my understanding, as well. Speaking of Australia, QuickBooks is ... You know QuickBooks has the receipt capture- receipt, and bill capturing?  Blake Oliver: [00:53:03] Yeah, that's a relatively new thing, right?  David Leary: [00:53:09] They rolled it out to the U.S.; they rolled it out to Canada; now, it's being rolled out to Australia, as well. Intuit probably really needed it in Australia first, because, essentially, Xero has that with the Hubdoc acquisition - [inaudible] receipt and bill capturing.  Blake Oliver: [00:53:25] I've always got more that I could talk about. I feel like you and I could talk for hours, but we try to keep it under an hour, which is probably more than most our listeners can handle. So, thank you folks who are still listening. We appreciate it - going to the end with us. David Leary: [00:53:38] We slipped a little bit this time. Blake Oliver: [00:53:40] If people want to reach you online, David, and give you a piece of their mind, what's the best place for them to do that? David Leary: [00:53:47] Twitter is by far the best place, but you can also use LinkedIn. I'm @DavidLeary at either one of those services. Blake Oliver: [00:53:54] I'm @BlakeTOliver. You can connect with me on LinkedIn. I request - please tell me that you are a listener. Say you listen to the show so that I can accept your connection, and I know you're not a bot. If you wanna leave us a voice message, you could do that, too. We've got a Google Voice number set up. It's (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. You can give us a call. Tell us what you think, and we'll take a listen; we might even play it on the air. David Leary: [00:54:21] I think that's a wrap. I have no more articles. Blake Oliver: [00:54:23] Stay safe. Stay sane. I'll see you here next week. David Leary: [00:54:26] Next week. ____________________ ClassifiedsAccountingTax.com has helped more than 8,900 tax, accounting, and wealth management firms map out a client experience, through client acquisition, conversion, onboarding, retention, and expansion, with the goal of getting clients to pay more, year over year. 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Sponsors Bill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Jirav: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/jirav Justworks: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/justworks LinksCOVID Recovery TrackerCOUNTY-BY-COUNTY TRACKER FOR DAY-BY-DAY TRACKINGhttps://learn.armaninollp.com/covid-recovery-tracker/Show Notes 07:56 – House Passes PPP Loan Forgiveness Bill, Treasury Issues Harsh Forgiveness Regulations—What You Need To Know – Forbes  10:52 – Relief Aid Stalls With Small Businesses Returning Loans Unused – Bloomberg Tax   11:35 – Overwhelming majority of publicly traded firms have not returned small business loans: review – The Hill  12:21 – SEC Is Scrutinizing Public Companies Granted Virus Relief Funds - Bloomberg 14:03 – Devos sued over seizure of student tax refunds amid pandemic – Accounting Today  15:27 – COVID Recovery Tracker - COUNTY-BY-COUNTY TRACKER FOR DAY-BY-DAY TRACKING - Armanino 17:42 – WA Man Charged With Seeking Fraudulent PPP Loans - PYMNTS.com  18:51 – BoA Experiences Potential Data Breach With PPP - PYMNTS.com  20:37 – Virus Accounting Maneuvers Criticized by European Authorities – Bloomberg Tax 21:36 – CFO Signals™: Q2 2020 Reopening for Business, but Near-Normal Operating Levels Not Expected Until Next Year - Deloitte 23:01 – How companies are becoming creative with accounting during the COVID-19 pandemic – MarketWatch 24:51 – Pathways to Growth: Press ‘Shift’ and prepare to pivot – Accounting Today  28:23 – How we Pre-Billed 100% of our PPP Work and Still Sleep at Night - Medium  30:08 – Layoff Watch ’20: Deloitte Has Begun Performance-Related Separations – Going Concern 32:36 – Despite Working More Hours, Professionals Say They Hope WFH Stays Post-Coronavirus– Going Concern 34:10 – For Many, Remote Work Is Becoming Permanent in Wake of Coronavirus – WSJ 36:49 – Remote Work Could Spark Housing Boom in Suburbs, Smaller Cities - WSJ 38:31 – Planet Money : Small America Vs. Big Internet on Apple Podcasts – Planet Money 39:41 – The state tax nexus implications of working from home – Accounting Today 41:25 – A Surprising Number of Professionals Are Going Pantsless on Video Conference Calls - Going Concern 42:51 – Coronavirus Survey Results: 42% of Employees Drinking While Working from Home - Fishbowl 44:02 – Apple adds Quicken and QuickBooks format options to export Apple Card data - Appleosophy  45:10 – Set up and Manage Time Off in TSheets – Intuit QuickBooks 46:47 – Stackin’ raises $12.6M Series B to help millennials navigate the crowded fintech space - TechCrunch 50:18 – AICPA Offers Free Online Accounting Learning Tools for High School Students – CPA Practice Advisor  53:58 – Don’t toss that junk mail in the recycling bin just yet — it might contain your stimulus check in the form of a prepaid debit card - MarketWatch  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. 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DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds ClientHub: https://clienthub.app JetPack Workflow: http://jetpackworkflow.com/freetemplates AccountingTax.com: http://accountingtax.com/cloud Steve Chase’s Excel Bootcamp: https://www.sequentiasolutions.com/bootcamp/ Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptClients are looking for trusted advice and a sense of stability as they navigate the new normal. By using Bill.com, accounting firms can free up more time for valuable strategic advisory services by helping clients shift their accounts payable process online. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Bill.com, later in the episode.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Justworks. Justworks is a combination of simple software and expert support. With Justworks, your clients get automated payroll, access to affordable benefits, HR tools, and employee-regulation compliance all in one place. Should you, your clients, or their employees ever have any questions about benefits or payroll, you can just call Justworks. Their around-the-clock support team is standing by with dedicated support just for accountants. Justworks is simple and fast. It has an easy-to-use dashboard, integrations with QuickBooks and Xero, and additional automated tools to serve the modern workforce. Ready to give Justworks a try? For a limited time, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get two free months of Justworks service. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/justworks. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash J-U-S-T-W-O-R-K-S. ____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Jirav. Jirav sounds a lot like giraffe, and that's no accident. Giraffes are the tallest animal in the world. That gives them a great view. Our goal at Jirav is to give you a similarly great view of what's going on with your business. We do that by helping you understand where your business has been and, most importantly, predict where it's going.  Jirav connects your cloud-based accounting, payroll, CRM, and billing data together to automatically update shareable online dashboards, monthly reporting packages, and sophisticated financial plans, and budgets in real time. Learn how accounting firms are using Jirav to deliver connected insight, strategize growth, and help their clients make more profitable decisions. Visit Jirav.com, and start your 30-day free trial. That's J-I-R-A-V dot com. See farther with Jirav. __________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:11] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:14] I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:15] So, how are things in Tucson, David? Is it calm? Crazy?  David Leary: [00:02:19] It's relatively calm. I'm not close to downtown. I know that there were some protests last night. I know you're staying with your parents at Phoenix, a little closer to downtown Phoenix. Blake Oliver: [00:02:29] Yeah. David Leary: [00:02:29] Which I saw there was ... I mean, are you hearing things? Are you seeing things?  Blake Oliver: [00:02:34] I didn't even know anything was happening in Phoenix until I turned on YouTube. My parents are cord cutters, which is kind of amazing considering they're in their late 60s and 70s. They ditched cable, so I don't get the local news unless I'm on YouTube. So, I saw, oh, there's protests downtown near the police headquarters. That was, I guess, last night, or the night before last. Then, yesterday, I went to the mall, which is open here in Scottsdale. I was getting a Play-Doh set for my son, and I was kind of surprised at how many people were not even trying to social distance. There was a giant line of people waiting to get into the Louis Vuitton store. I'm just thinking to myself, wow, this is really unnecessary. You're not even really going out anyway; do you really need more Louis Vuitton stuff? I don't think I'll be going back there. Then, last night, I was watching the news, and that mall was getting looted. They had looted the Apple Store; they'd looted Urban Outfitters. I don't know who these looters were, but-  David Leary: [00:03:38] You know who it is? It's that jackass from YouTube, that Logan Paul guy ... That guy is trying to videotape and pump up his YouTube channel, so he just shows up. He's worth like $17 million dollars. He's a white guy from Scottsdale; went, and looted the mall, and documented it.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:56] So, that's the guy they were talking about on Twitter. Wow. David Leary: [00:03:59] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:59] Obviously, there's a ton of racial issues here that are really important that need to be addressed, and that is legitimate - police brutality, all this stuff. But then, I feel like there is an element of this, where it's just people that wanna go out and loot. Because there was a protest at downtown in Phoenix, which, I think that was the legit protest. Then, there were just these people looting the mall in Scottsdale [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:04:24] Yeah, I think that's a good example of that, because the march to go from downtown Phoenix to that mall in Scottsdale in 100-degree heat at 10:00 p.m. at night, probably it's not the protest marching to the mall [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:04:36] No, it wasn't protesters. I think it was people taking advantage of the situation. I mean, I don't know. I wasn't there, but that's what it feels like. Why would you be looting Urban Outfitters if you're trying to protest?  David Leary: [00:04:48] Yeah. Things are messy. The country is in pain. I actually was walking the dog this morning, and I was like, how do we even do a show today, right? I was just thinking, at some level, it's important when we do a show, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:05:00] Right.  David Leary: [00:05:00] When the country's in chaos, we need to be watching ... I saw something on Twitter, just like COVID vanished; PPP has vanished ... When the country's in chaos, this is when the IRS, the SBA, government passes laws, and they pass bills, and they do things that nobody notices. At some other level, I step back and think about tax policy in this country dictates social policy. Accountants and bookkeepers, what's happening right now, we have says in; we influence; we're going to feel the effects of this, even at the level ... There'll probably be some bill in that's a protest/riot-damage bill, or something in small businesses, which'll have tax implications. This is going to affect all of us, and to not do the show doesn't make a lot of sense.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:46] Well, and I think that the media is portraying this as about one thing, which is police brutality, and the specific instance with Floyd. I wonder how much of the protests, and the anger is not just that, but also the whole situation right now - being in lockdown for months; the economic impact of losing your job, which has overwhelmingly hit minority communities, and disadvantaged communities. That all ties together. It's not just one thing. It's this whole situation that's been brewing for months and months and years.  David Leary: [00:06:27] Yeah, it's a tinderbox that's gone off ... I mean, maybe that isn't the best word, but it's just this pressure's been there. Then, on top of that, you lop in the fact that the pandemic, and COVID is affecting minorities more-  Blake Oliver: [00:06:39] Yeah, right.  David Leary: [00:06:39] It's just the perfect storm to where something was probably gonna happen anyways. You could just- you could start feeling it in the air, right? I don't know. It's [crosstalk] to digest. I've seen, even on some of the Facebook groups, even accountants are being a little snotty to each other. People are trying to have discussions about this, and people are definitely forging their lines in the sand of what side of this they fall on. Blake Oliver: [00:07:06] Yeah, well, to me, the crazy thing was, since we're in the cloud, here, Twitter putting warnings on Trump's tweets and then, flat-out blocking one from view - you had to click through to see it - for glorifying violence. That is amazing that that happened. People have been criticizing the social media companies for years for not doing this. Now, Twitter does it. They take a stand. They do it. Then, Mark Zuckerberg says, "No, Facebook is not going to do that." It's like this showdown now with Trump, and the executive order. It's not actually going to do anything because he doesn't have the power to do it, but ... It's nuts, right now. Somebody was comparing this to the summer of 1968, or something [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:07:51] Yeah, the election year, leading up to the conventions.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:56] Well, anyway, there was some good news related to COVID-19, the pandemic, in terms of the government response, which is that the House passed a bill to address some of the issues with the Paycheck Protection Program. This was as reported in The Wall Street Journal. It's a bipartisan bill that passed 417-to-1 on Thursday. The bill, which still has to get passed by the Senate, and signed by the President, would reduce the level of the funds that have to be used on payroll from 75 percent to 60 percent and would also give borrowers up to 24 weeks to use the funds up from the eight set in the initial bill passed in March and extends the deadline to rehire workers to December 31.  David Leary: [00:08:44] I'm starting to firmly believe that the march towards just rubber stamping all PPP forgiveness is gonna happen. It'll be this bill, this week, and we'll probably see another bill, two weeks from now. It's the only thing that makes sense, right? What they're doing is they're wasting small businesses time, every time they change this. They're wasting accountants', and bookkeepers' time. Now, there's a whole different crisis on the table, where, are they gonna really pay any attention to PPP now? They're gonna have to just get this off their plate. The only way to do that is just, if you're under $2 million, we assume that the banks vetted you out; they're gonna rubber stamp it. I truly believe that's gonna happen. I don't have any proof, I just- I think it's just a march. We're just marching towards it, towards it, towards it.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:26] Yeah. I think that's going to happen simply because of the lack of resources to process approval applications. There's just no way that the SBA is gonna do this, and they're not really requiring the banks to do it. They just don't have the manpower to audit even a tiny fraction. So, maybe that's all they'll do is do a tiny fraction, and the rest will just get automatically approved, or they'll approve them conditionally, and then reserve the right to go back and audit years later. Maybe they'll do it then because you're supposed to save the paperwork for six years. They could theoretically come back and disallow it, after the fact. I don't know. [00:09:58] It's a good thing. I think they should go farther, though. You said this at the very beginning of all the stimulus. You brought up this idea by economists that the best thing to do is just to give people money and attach very few strings to it. I think that was one of the lessons that we learned last time, in the Great Recession. Even reducing the payroll requirement from 75 percent to 60 percent is not enough. It should just- there should be no payroll requirement. [00:10:20] This should just be money to small businesses. It should be small business stimulus. Don't attach these requirements to it, and the small businesses will figure out how to spend it. Yeah, some of them might not spend it the best way, but the whole point is to get money out into the economy. If you attach strings to it, it's gonna cause problems, just like this. That's the reason why there's still something like $100 billion dollars of PPP money there that people aren't even taking advantage of because, obviously, it's too difficult to use it. David Leary: [00:10:52] Well, it's not just that. There's an article in Bloomberg about businesses are returning the money. Blake Oliver: [00:10:58] Yeah. David Leary: [00:10:58] Right? Blake Oliver: [00:10:59] Because they can't spend it, so they're not gonna get forgiveness for it, so they don't want the loan. David Leary: [00:11:03] $20 billion and PPP loans have been canceled. Some of it could be people applied twice with two different channels, so they canceled the application. Some of it's that, but ultimately, a lot of it is just because people are getting the money, and they either can't spend it; they don't know if they're gonna be audited. They don't know if they're gonna have ... They're already in debt. They struggled to get through April because of the economy, and now, they're struggling to reopen. They're not in a great situation to reopen, and then, the stress of this loan, so they're like, "What's in my control? Well, I don't have to take this loan," and they're just being done with it. Blake Oliver: [00:11:35] Arguably, we don't know this for sure, but I'm gonna bet that almost all of that money, that $20 billion you said, is small businesses, private companies that really should be allowed to hold onto the money that need the money but are returning it because they can't meet these strings that are attached to it. Of the public companies that received PPP loans, 80 percent of them are holding onto the money. They're gonna keep it. That's according to an analysis by market research firm, FactSquared. Only 68 public companies have returned their PPP loans for a total of $435 million dollars. So, the public companies are able to take advantage of it because they can figure out how to jump through the hoops. David Leary: [00:12:16] Except for now, the SEC is going to start investigating. Did you see this? Blake Oliver: [00:12:19] No, I did not see that. David Leary: [00:12:21] They are gonna start investigating public companies that got the funds. They've already started to send out some letters about this. Really, if you read the article, the whole premise is ... Well, actually, one part of the article, they do talk about the Co-Director of Enforcement at- Blake Oliver: [00:12:36] Where was this?  David Leary: [00:12:36] Bloomberg. This was in Bloomberg, this week. The Co-Director of Enforcement, at some group meeting earlier this month, he said- Steven Peikin ... Steven Peikin said that his division's already begun to focus time and resources on coronavirus-related misconduct. Blake Oliver: [00:12:56] Ooh, wonderful! David Leary: [00:12:56] The premise is that companies, if they took out this loan- because you're taking out the loan, because why, Blake? You have an economic ...? Blake Oliver: [00:13:06] Need.  David Leary: [00:13:06] Need, right? So, if they applied for this loan, and got a loan, but did not disclose in the previous quarters any going concerns, they may have defrauded investors, et cetera.  Blake Oliver: [00:13:19] That doesn't make sense. That doesn't make sense, because to be a going concern, there has to be a question as to whether or not you'll be able to survive for the next 12 months, but the certification requirement in the PPP is way vaguer than that. David Leary: [00:13:34] Yeah. Then, on top of that, I mean, how could you have disclosed in a previous quarter not knowing this pandemic was coming either? Blake Oliver: [00:13:41] Yeah, exactly. That's ridiculous. What a waste- what a waste of resources. Oh, you wanna know another government screw-up in regard to this whole stimulus PPP thing? It's one of your favorite people, David, Betsy DeVos. David Leary: [00:13:54] This is the education-  Blake Oliver: [00:13:54] The education secretary, who is very controversial [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:13:58] - so you're gonna tie the PPP loan and government all the way back to the education secretary? Blake Oliver: [00:14:03] Well, so part of the CARES Act law, I think this was in the CARES Act; might have been in the one before it ... The legislation suspended wage garnishments, and other involuntary collections on federal student loans until September 30, but the Education Department, or Department of Education has been garnishing people's stimulus payments to pay their federal student loans, despite that. Now, there's a class action lawsuit against Betsy DeVos for illegally seizing millions of dollars in tax refunds. [00:14:36] One of the plaintiffs, Kori Cole, a graduate of Heritage College in Lakeside, Colorado, said she received a Treasury notice in April, saying her and her husband's entire $7,000 federal tax refund was seized. Oh, so this was not the stimulus payments, this is tax refunds, but the legislation related to those stimulus payments also suspended wage garnishments, and other involuntary collections on federal student loans. David Leary: [00:15:00] They've been having problems with the federal student loans, and the Education Department. They had breaks for teachers put in that-  Blake Oliver: [00:15:06] Oh, yeah.  David Leary: [00:15:06] -and I think this goes back to '08-'09; breaks for teachers ... Then, they basically pulled back on it and just said, "Sorry, you gotta pay your loans now," even though these people went and got a degree to become a teacher. They've had messes, and it's been going on for a while with that. It's ... I don't know. What else? There's a-  Blake Oliver: [00:15:27] I wanted to point people to a really great resource that I've been using over the last few weeks. My old firm, Armanino, they do a ton of business intelligence. They have a whole consulting arm around business intelligence and setting up people on Power BI and all that stuff. One of the cool marketing/helpful things that they have done is create a COVID Recovery Tracker. You can access this- the link will be in the show notes. [00:15:57] It is this really cool dashboard where you can see, state by state, the three-day moving average, seven-day moving average, and 14-day moving average of cases in each state. You can drill down to the county level, which is really hard- it's hard to find data that's consolidated at a county level. If I, for instance, can go to Arizona, and then I can view counties, and I can click specifically down into Maricopa County, where I am right now, I can see that the seven-day versus 14-day moving average is up 1.4 percent as of today-  David Leary: [00:16:31] This is for, actually, COVID cases [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:16:31] COVID cases confirmed cases. Yeah. Of course, cases are not necessarily the perfect measure of what's going on because cases might go up because they're just testing more. It's hard to know. That's at least the argument of Maricopa County, right now. It would be great if they also had hospitalizations, but just even this - at a county level - is really interesting to see. David Leary: [00:16:53] I don't wanna turn this to talking about COVID, the way it's spread, et cetera, but I think data, and as you drill down to those county levels, I heard a stat this week about how, in the Midwest, if a county has a meat-packing facility, their numbers are 5X higher than a county that doesn't.  Blake Oliver: [00:17:10] Because people are crammed together in a production line. David Leary: [00:17:12] It's cold, dry air; close together; and it's repeated ... But the thing interesting is now, we're seeing deeper data per county, and deeper data per, like, oh, all the people that were on this city bus, the people that sat by windows that were open, they didn't get it. So, data is really coming out very accurate about COVID, now, which means we're getting understandings, right? Who knows what it's gonna change and move forward, but we're getting much better data and much better understanding of it going forward. Blake Oliver: [00:17:41] You were gonna talk about some PPP fraud? David Leary: [00:17:42] Yeah, so there's more PPP insanity. There's fraud. Last week, we talked about the guy who set up some fake businesses. So, now, we have a Washington man. He he's a 35 year old Washington-state resident, Baoke Zhang; he's a software engineer. He tried to do this crime multiple times, so, obviously, he got caught. One of those instances, he asked for a sum of $1.5 million for a PPP loan. He created a fictitious technology company and fictitious employees. Here's the genius part or not-genius part - he applied, and got a real EIN number, a week before, then used that- he attempted to use that EIN number to get the loan. Blake Oliver: [00:18:24] That's kind of a giveaway there. David Leary: [00:18:27] That tells me you probably didn't have any employees prior to getting this ... They're catching the people that are really doing blatant frauds. Blake Oliver: [00:18:35] Right. David Leary: [00:18:35] There's always going to be some they won't catch, but it feels like the frauds are getting caught. But there's also just brain farts going on. Did you see Bank of America notified their customers of a potential data breach because of PPP applications? Blake Oliver: [00:18:48] I saw something about that. Yeah, what happened there?  David Leary: [00:18:51] Essentially, Bank of America and some other lenders - it doesn't say who they were - they had access to ... This is in quotes, "Limited-access controlled Small Business Administration test application platform." So, there's some platform they were testing, and you could upload some applications to. Apparently, they were uploading real applications to this, even though it was a test platform, and other lenders, for limited amount of time - other lenders that were in this test program - could see the applications that were being submitted by the other lenders. The fact that they weren't just making up fake loans to test this test environment is bizarro to me. Blake Oliver: [00:19:30] That's just lazy. David Leary: [00:19:32] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:19:32] At least it was only other lenders who could see this, right? David Leary: [00:19:34] Yes. At least they say that. They're insisting that. Blake Oliver: [00:19:39] So, my story isn't about fraud, but it's about creative accounting in public companies related to COVID-19. There's a new non-GAAP metric that is gaining popularity. David, are you familiar with the term "EBITDA?" David Leary: [00:19:53] Please redefine for me.  Blake Oliver: [00:19:55] Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:20:00] This is what WeWork added like three extra letters to that, right? They created their own version of this?  Blake Oliver: [00:20:05] EBITDA is classic non-GAAP measure because it shows- it backs out the interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization from your bottom line. Investors wanna see, operationally, are you making money or not? It's kind of the well-accepted non-GAAP measure. Well, like you said, other companies, like WeWork, have adjusted EBITDA and have pulled out things like their marketing expenditures and stuff like that, which is just ... Most people would say that's not appropriate. [00:20:37] Well, there's a new term. We're calling it EBITDAC. It's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and coronavirus. I heard rumors about this starting to happen in Europe a couple of weeks ago, and now it has hit ... Reports of public companies in the United States, specifically Uber. Uber is now reporting a non-GAAP metric. They report adjusted EBITDA. In March, Uber made further adjustments to both of their adjusted EBITDA metrics to pull out $19 million, or add back $19 million of "payments for financial assistance to drivers personally impacted by COVID-19. So, it increased adjusted EBITDA by $24 million to remove those relief payments to drivers, along with the costs of personal protective equipment given to drivers. So, EBITDAC is a real thing. David Leary: [00:21:32] You're gonna see more of this, because you said you saw this coming out of Europe. Blake Oliver: [00:21:36] I guess it may be appropriate if coronavirus is a short-term thing that's only gonna last one quarter, but we all know that ... I think most of us realize that it's gonna take longer than that now, right? A survey of CFO was done by Deloitte called CFO Signals - this is an ongoing survey that they do - finds that CFOs don't expect that near-normal operating levels will resume until next year. Specifically- I can't even see. I gotta enlarge this. I can't see it. [00:22:07] Yeah, so back in April, many more CFOs were expecting that near-normal operations would resume in 2020. Now, only six percent of CFOs think that normal operations will resume in Q3; 16 percent think that it will resume in Q4; 21 percent think that normal operations will resume in Q1 of 2021; and a full 39 percent feel that normal operations will not resume until the second quarter of 2021 or later. So, majority of CFOs think it'll be either Q1, or Q2, or even later than that. David Leary: [00:22:46] So, your point of view on this then is they ... Because this is really just gonna be ongoing, it doesn't make sense to call it out separately anymore. It's just something that every single person is basically- every businesses affected by this [crosstalk] It's not special to an individual business. Blake Oliver: [00:23:01] Yeah, so it's misleading to try and pull that out because they're probably gonna be spending that money for at least a year. So, anyway, one of the regulators in Europe was warning companies about using this metric. I think we'll see probably some of that happening here in the United States. Sandy Peters is the head of the CFA Institute in New York. And she said, "People will get creative telling their story, and our message is to be cautious of the creativity."____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Bill.com. Through these uncertain times, one thing has become clear. Accounting firms are in a unique and trusted position to help their clients adapt. For your firm, that means leaning into the services your clients have always depended on and more. For your clients, it means helping them move quickly to a remote model and bringing key financial processes, like accounts payable, online smoothly.   Using Bill.com, the Intelligent Business Payments Platform, accounting firms can take a client's time-consuming manual AP process and transform it completely with automation, tracking, mobility, and transparency, easing your client's shift to working remotely and setting the stage for strategic conversations about how your firm can help them navigate the new normal. To learn more about how Bill.com can help your firm automate AP and offer client advisory services, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash B-I-L-L. Bill.com, the Intelligent Business Payments platform. ____________________David Leary: [00:24:44] What do you wanna talk about next? I have one small piece of app news that you'd be very excited about if you wanna jump over there. Blake Oliver: [00:24:51] Well, I do have- I've got one more coronavirus story, and this is a positive story. It's a great case study, and maybe we'll offer our listeners some ideas for how to succeed. This is a story that appeared in Accounting Today. It's an op-ed by Gale Crosley, who is one of the Accounting Top 100 People and runs a firm, Crosley, and Company. The article is called, "Pathways to Growth: Press ‘Shift’ and prepare to pivot."  [00:25:19] It's basically a case study of this firm, Grassi & Co, led by Lou Grassi, which opened in Long Island in the 1980s; started with just one person and is now a Top 70 firm. They experienced tremendous growth during the Great Recession. Gale details exactly what Lou Grassi did to grow his practice with an offensive strategy during the Great Recession. [00:25:46] What he did was aggressively move to help clients with cash flow, accounts receivable, and figure out how to bring in bankers to get them involved in client turnarounds and then, convinced the bankers to stop worrying about audited financials for his clients, and focus on projections. The firm got really deep into providing clients with detailed financial forecasting, which then they would also get the bankers involved in. That helped the bankers get comfortable with providing financing. Clients got financing; were able to survive. They offered deferred payment to clients. We talked about this idea of deferred payment rather than doing the work for free, right? David Leary: [00:26:26] Yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:27] Because a third of firms are giving away coronavirus work for free right now, which I think is nuts. So, this is brilliant. The Grassi firm offered deferred payment to clients, but on one condition - they had to agree to contacting one or more friends, or associates and letting them know how Grassi was meeting their needs. This was a giant lead-generation funnel. They're getting their existing clients to bring in more clients in exchange for deferred payment. The firm grew 15 percent from 2008 to 2009, and that has been the normal amount of growth ever since. David Leary: [00:27:02] That way, the work you're giving away for free is now genuinely a marketing expense because you're- in order to give that work away for free, you're basically doing a barter and saying, "Hey, you need to refer me one client." Blake Oliver: [00:27:13] Yes, and they weren't even giving it away for free. They're just deferring payment until the economy improves, which could be a while, granted ... That was a huge marketing tool for them. I really liked the bit about financial forecasting. One other thing they did was they used these forecasts to internally rank risk for clients. So, they had a way to see all their clients and figure out which ones were in the most trouble and then triage those needing the most assistance. [00:27:40] This is a great quote from the story. "Lou recalls talking with one distraught business owner who was not a Grassi client, but who was concerned about his company's future in 2008. When Lou asked what his current firm advised, the owner responded, 'I don't know. I haven't heard from them.' That told Lou everything he needed to know about the need to be present and solution-driven. The business switched to Grassi and remains a loyal client." [00:28:03] That makes me think of that other stat that we talked about in a previous episode about how many firms have not even reached out to their clients to talk about COVID-19, or talk about the coronavirus situation. So, huge opportunity to talk to all these folks who are not getting helped and then convert them into your clients. David Leary: [00:28:23] So, these examples are techniques this firm used during the 2008 crisis. I have an article from Jason Staats. It's Staats with two A's. He's @JStaatsCPA on Twitter. He caught my eye about two weeks ago because he was automatically creating a PPP forgiveness report by using Airtable. He automated some data, and movement. He caught my eye on Twitter; he was just talking about it. Anyways, he wound up writing a blog post called, "How we Pre-Billed 100% of our PPP Work and Still Sleep at Night." [00:28:54] He really gives an outline, and a template on a way for firms to handle this billing for PPP - because we talked about it last week. You're not getting the agency fee. What do you do? - and really breaks it down into three things. You need to create a product. You have to take your service and make it become a product, a sales channel, and you need a way to drive clients to the sales channel. He has this nice little outline of like, you have to create a calculator, or this report could be the delivery. It could be a delivery phone call. You just have to take your service and turn it into a product. [00:29:24] Then, he talks about a sales channel. Is it a sign-up link on your website? A single-page landing page? He gets into specifics of some tools he's used to build this out. Then, he even gets into very advanced tactics, with using Practice Ignition; combining it with Zapier, and some templates; doing mass emails. Then, drive them to your sales channel; do a webinar, a mass email. [00:29:43] The nice thing is he gets into a little bit about the fears and answers questions - I feel bad for billing for anything; I'm afraid I'll overcommit myself; I don't have confidence in my technical skills to do a webinar; what will I do if they extend the PPP? What about agent fees? He really gives a little bit of a template on how to handle this and then, really, how to overcome those fears. That'll be in the show notes. It's worth checking out. It's a good article. Blake Oliver: [00:30:08] Well, we talk about layoffs. One of the Big Four is now formally doing mass layoffs. Deloitte has announced that they are going to layoff five percent of their staff, firm-wide, and 1.5 of the workforce is either going to get furloughed, or have their work hours reduced with reduced pay. So, 6.5-percent layoffs plus furloughs. That's about 5,000 people at Deloitte that are going to lose their jobs, or have their hours cut back. [00:30:38] That fits with the layoffs that I've seen, percentage-wise, in surveys of the profession. So, we're not hurting as much as some places where, what, national unemployment is - last time I checked - 15 percent. In California, it's like 25 percent. So, accounting is doing much better than everywhere else, but I would expect ... During the Great Recession, unemployment in accounting was- I think 10 percent of people lost their jobs, so I would not be surprised if we lost 10 percent of jobs, in the end, during this crisis. David Leary: [00:31:12] I've talked to some firms that are from that firm size - 50 to 200 - and then, even smaller firms. I have not gotten any vibe that they've laid off anybody. It's really just the big gigantic firms. You said they laid off five percent of their staff, right? Deloitte just announced-  Blake Oliver: [00:31:27] Right.  David Leary: [00:31:30] I'm guessing they probably have 20 percent of bloat at Deloitte, so they probably can still get the same amount of work done with 95 percent of the staff they had before. But I'm not seeing a lot of smaller firms ... Actually, I'm seeing the opposite. I'm seeing that the smaller the firm is, I'm seeing people hire. I'm seeing accounting and bookkeeping firms post ads and hire during this time. Blake Oliver: [00:31:50] Well, you know why? Because you're talking to cloud firms that are well-positioned to grow during the crisis. David Leary: [00:31:57] Ohhhh ... Good point. Blake Oliver: [00:31:57] Why? Because they have already figured out remote work. Here's something interesting that may actually relate to that Deloitte layoffs figure. You said that Deloitte can lay off people because they'll just make their current people work harder. Well, they may not even have to make them work harder because, apparently, people who work from home, professionals who have started working from home that used to work in the office, are working more hours. 54 percent of people at accounting firms say that they are working more hours since quarantine started. It's because they're working at home, and there's no division between being at the office and being at home now. [00:32:36] This is a survey from Fishbowl that was reported in Going Concern. They surveyed 16,000 professionals across a variety of industries. I'm just talking about the accounting data. Over half, 54 percent, are working more hours since quarantine started because they're working at home. You wonder, though, are people okay with that? Would they prefer to go back to the office, or would they like to stay at home? Do you have a guess on this, David? David Leary: [00:33:00] Is it divided between people who have kids at home versus people that don't have kids at home? Blake Oliver: [00:33:05] It doesn't divide that way, but 59 percent said, yes, they would work from home permanently, if their firm allowed it. So, even though people are- half of people are working more hours, almost 60 percent would continue to work from home permanently, if their firm allowed it. The amount they're working extra is something like one to 10 hours per week extra, which makes actually a lot of sense because that's kind of the amount of time a lot of people are commuting every day. Instead of commuting, you're just logging on and starting work right way. So, it proves that whole idea, that remote work is more productive. David Leary: [00:33:38] I think we're gonna see a noticeable difference in people in these surveys, come fall, when schools reopen and kids go back to school because you're gonna be working from home; you're already a little bit more productive than you were, working at the office. By the time fall gets here, you're gonna be a lot better at working from home. Now, you take out this ... I'm not gonna use ... It is a weight, right? You're having your kids at home, and you're trying to work at home is a weight.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:01] Oh, it's so hard.  David Leary: [00:34:01] Now, you take all these people working at home, and you just cut that weight. How productive are people gonna be? Blake Oliver: [00:34:10] Tech is leading the way. Twitter told employees back in May that they could work from home permanently. Facebook has announced that they're going to shift things so that over the next decade, half of its 45,000 employees will be able to work from home all the time. Shopify is going to let most employees work remotely in the future. LinkedIn, in the past month, has seen a 28-percent increase in remote job postings, and a 42-percent increase in searches for remote or work from home. That's according to the Wall Street Journal - an article called: "For Many, Remote Work is Becoming Permanent in Wake of Coronavirus." David Leary: [00:34:47] I could see this. I mean, even let's take something very inside baseball here, right? I'm here in Tucson, Arizona. Intuit has their big, huge call center here. They do all the accountant support. It's closed. Essentially, this call center's closed, and everybody's working from home. I haven't heard any ... Intuit just keeps chugging along. I haven't heard any rumors or rumblings of, oh, people can't get the support they want. I've not heard accountants complaining - support has dropped, or the level of support I get; any complaints against Intuit about this. So, you're right, people are gonna question - do you need a building? Do you need desks? Can you have people work at home? It's pretty clear that it hasn't impacted things drastically, as much as people maybe thought in the last decade, fighting the idea of working from home. Blake Oliver: [00:35:31] There's a big question, too, as to what this means for big cities. Are people going to flee the big cities? We don't really have a lot of data showing that people are moving yet, but that could be because a lot of people aren't selling their homes. There has been just a real shrinkage in the inventory on the market in homes, because, think about it, you're selling a home. You don't necessarily want a bunch of people with COVID-19 walking through your house doing open houses. You may be uncertain about your own job situation. So maybe better not to mix things up. [00:36:03] So, there's very low inventory, but there's also a ton of demand. People wanna get out of their apartments. They wanna buy houses. If you can work from home, maybe you want a home office. That's exactly the situation that I'm in right now, with my wife, because we're buying a home here in Scottsdale. We decided that we would each get our own office, and we can afford to do it, moving from L.A. ... For the price of a three-bedroom apartment- actually, less than our monthly payment on a three-bedroom apartment in L.A., we can get a five-bedroom home in Arizona. So, I think a lot of people are gonna do this, and it's gonna be interesting ... What's gonna happen to those cities? The prices aren't dropping. Home prices are not dropping, which is unusual in a recession- David Leary: [00:36:47] Well, if you combine- Blake Oliver: [00:36:47] - and that might continue. David Leary: [00:36:49] If you combine that trend - the work-at-home trend - with the ... When the Trump tax cuts originally - what was that? Three years ago? - came out, one of the major things with the tax cuts were the home-interest deductions. Basically, that was punishing people on the coast that had homes that were a million dollars because you were limited on how much you could claim, and they lowered that down. But if you moved to another part of the country, or you moved out to the suburbs, where homes were a little bit cheaper, you got to take advantage- you could still take advantage of that tax credit. [00:37:20] So, you combine tax policy, which is affecting social policy of where people live; combine it with the work-from-home, absolutely, there's probably gonna be a rush to the suburbs. Not to mention, I think, just during lockdown, I know people in New York ... There's just not a lot places you can go. If you have your-  Blake Oliver: [00:37:35] Nope. It's not very fun. David Leary: [00:37:36] If you're in the suburbs, you can at least go out to your patio. You can go outside, and nobody's around you. You can still socially distance, but have some elbow room. So, I could see ... I think you're right on that and where that heads.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:49] Now, there are two issues with leaving the city. One is internet access. We have really terrible broadband-internet access in rural America. By global standards, it's actually pretty darned bad. A lot of times, it's because we have one provider that has a monopoly over the area, like Comcast, or whatever. There's virtually no incentive for them to upgrade to fiber optic in a city of 50,000 people because they've already got the market, and the people are paying for it. So, why would I, as a cable company, invest to improve service when I'm not gonna be able to charge that much more? David Leary: [00:38:27] Because you would get a tax break? Tax policy could affect that ... Blake Oliver: [00:38:31] Maybe. Well, but they've been pursuing the opposite strategy. I just listened to a Planet Money episode called, "Small America versus Big Internet," on-  David Leary: [00:38:41] Oh, that's a good. I listened to that. It was a good one. Blake Oliver: [00:38:43] Yeah. It's about a town - I forget the name of the town - in North Carolina, I believe; about 50,000 people that decided to build its own fiber-optic internet because they couldn't convince the cable company to do it. Then, the way that the cable companies responded was to lobby the state legislature to pass a law to prevent local governments from building their own fiber-optic networks and creating a utility, essentially, out of internet access. So, that's gonna be a big challenge.  [00:39:10] This one city was able to get an exemption, so they still have and operate their own gigabit-ethernet service, which is very successful and has actually made the city kind of an oasis - a place you can move and live in a small town ... Well, it's a small city - 50,000 people - and still have the ability to get high-speed internet. But, yeah, that's preventing a lot of the movement out, I think, and we have to figure out how to overcome that. David Leary: [00:39:35] If people move to work remote, that's gonna create additional demand, which maybe- Blake Oliver: [00:39:38] Right. David Leary: [00:39:39] -companies will invest in the infrastructure, once the demand's there.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:41] There's something like two dozen, maybe 20 states, that have passed these laws. So, maybe that will get undone as a result of that - the pressure. The other problem with people working from home, which is happening right now, especially in places where people live in one state and work in another one, like in the New York area, is the state tax nexus problem of people working from home. All these states on the East Coast, like New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, have reciprocal arrangements, or they've worked out deals where people only have to pay taxes in one state. If you live in New Jersey, but you work in New York, you pay your taxes in New York, or you pay it where you live. I don't know how exactly it works, but that way you don't have to file two state tax returns. [00:40:27] The problem right now is you've got people who normally work in New York who now are working in New Jersey at their house, or in Connecticut at their house, but the company has an office in New York, and that's where it's headquartered. Or my situation, right? My company is headquartered in California. I was living there, but now I'm in Arizona, so we had to change my tax residency. I don't know what that's gonna do for the company. So, it's creating lots of issues for both companies and potentially employees. David Leary: [00:40:56] Well, I can tell you, right now, because my wife has a rental house in California, and just because of that, we have to file a California return every single year. California wants to know how many days we visited the state of California, and they adjust it off of that. So, you're gonna have fun when you do your taxes in the state of California in this because, you're right, states don't have any type of agreements. So, it's a land-grab of getting every dollar and squeezing you for every minute you spent in that state. You're gonna have fun doing your taxes in California this year.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:25] Well, that's a pain - the state tax nexus, the internet access. But you know what is really nice, David, is the ability to not wear pants while you're working. We actually have data on this; thank you to Going Concern for reporting another Fishbowl survey. Apparently, one in 10 professionals are video-conferencing in their underwear. Have you ever done this? Have you ever been guilty of it? David Leary: [00:41:50] No, I just ... Whatever I'm wearing ... I don't even care. Just show up. No brushing teeth; no combing the hair; I just get on the call. Blake Oliver: [00:41:58] So, apparently, men are three times more likely than women to report going pants-less on Zoom, with men coming in at 14 percent versus five percent for women. Three percent, though, are still putting on a suit to video chat. That is kind of crazy. 75 percent of respondents are putting on some kind of pants, even if those are PJs. Half of women responded that they have stopped wearing makeup completely; where, on the men's side, about 30 percent have given up shaving.  David Leary: [00:42:25] So, just so I'm hearing these numbers correctly, I'm on a Zoom call, and there's seven men in this one Zoom call. One of those seven will not be wearing pants? Is this the stat?  Blake Oliver: [00:42:34] On average, yes. On, average ...  David Leary: [00:42:39] Wow! So, every Zoom call you're in, somebody is not wearing pants, basically, if it's a group chat, or group call. Blake Oliver: [00:42:43] Potentially, yeah. David Leary: [00:42:45] Amazing! Blake Oliver: [00:42:45] I know.  David Leary: [00:42:46] Well, and then, since that's the average, that means, sometimes, you're in a meeting, and xix of the seven may not be wearing pants!  Blake Oliver: [00:42:51] Actually, you know what's more likely is that at least, if you're on a call with 10 people, about four of them have started drinking already because 42 percent of employees say they drink while working from home, according to another Fishbowl survey as reported in Going Concern. David Leary: [00:43:07] Well, if you use a Zoom background, and you keep the drink further enough back, it goes behind the virtual background, and nobody can see your drink.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:11] Right. Nobody can see your drink. So, uh ... David Leary: [00:43:15] I have some exciting app news for you, Blake. Super-exciting app news- Blake Oliver: [00:43:18] All right. David Leary: [00:43:19] -and it's just for you, ultimately. Blake Oliver: [00:43:22] Let's do it. David Leary: [00:43:28] So, remember, I don't know, like two years ago, you got your little Apple credit card. Do you remember that?  Blake Oliver: [00:43:36] Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, that was actually- that was actually just last year. David Leary: [00:43:39] Okay. You were so excited about your Apple credit card, and how slick it is, and it works with your phone, and all this stuff. Then, you were like-  Blake Oliver: [00:43:45] No, no, I wasn't excited about it. I just liked the discount. The three-percent off on the Apple credit, yeah.  David Leary: [00:43:50] Then, you started to get in there, and you were disappointed because it didn't connect to Mint, or Quicken, or QuickBooks. You were disappointed that the data was just locked up in the app. Blake Oliver: [00:44:00] Yes, that is just ridiculous. There's no statements.  David Leary: [00:44:02] Apple quietly ... This was on a website Appleosophy. Think like philosophy, but put the word "Apple" in the middle of the word. So, this article came out: the new IOS 13.5, they snuck in a little feature. If you have the Apple credit card, it now can export to Quicken Financial Exchange, the QFX file, and the QuickBooks QBO file. There's no bank-feed integrations yet ...  Blake Oliver: [00:44:29] Eh!  David Leary: [00:44:29] But you can manually download the two file types. The best part of this article is the artwork that this person went and selected. It's essentially the Quicken logo, which Intuit doesn't even own anymore, right? The Quicken logo from 12 years ago, and the QuickBooks logo from 12 years ago. Blake Oliver: [00:44:46] Oh, no ...  David Leary: [00:44:46] So, congratulations, Apple. In 2020, halfway through 2020, you basically now support the file formats of QuickBooks, and Quicken from a decade-plus ago. We're in the world of bank feeds, and they're just now adding this to their credit card feed. Blake Oliver: [00:45:02] That's great. David Leary: [00:45:02] I thought that was interesting. I have to do one other thing about the AICPA, if you wanna jump to that, but ...  Blake Oliver: [00:45:07] I have some app news.  David Leary: [00:45:09] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:45:10] So, now, you can set up and manage time off in TSheets. I guess they did not have this feature before. Let me dig into the article and see how this works. David Leary: [00:45:19] Really? Blake Oliver: [00:45:21] Yes. So, now, account administrators can set up time-off codes and accruals; admins and managers can enter time off in bulk; admins and managers can approve or deny team members' time-off requests; and depending on the account settings, team members can enter time off, or they can request time off. In both options, team members will see the number of hours they are predicted to have, on the date, for the time off. That's actually a really neat feature that you don't see in every single time-tracking app, or time-sheets app is the ability to predict time off in the future because, a lot of times, you have to schedule this stuff months out. David Leary: [00:45:57] Yeah, and I'm still surprised - as you think about Intuit's Payroll products, and they're now offering the ability to get health insurance through that, and they do offer a little bit of worker's comp situation through there - that TSheets just isn't rolled in as part of that, as a big ... What do you call those? A big employer benefits- Blake Oliver: [00:46:15] PEOs or something? David Leary: [00:46:15] PEOs, right. Yeah, where basically it's payroll and everything else you need for your employee relationship, because Intuit kind of has it in a bunch of pieces, but you have to subscribe to everything separately. It's very disjointed. I'm surprised they haven't pulled this together into one package where you get all this functionality, like time-off requests, and holidays, and insurance, and all the benefits stuff all rolled together into one complete package. Because I think they even work with Guideline 401(k); you can get 401(k) now, through it. So, yeah, it's very disjointed, though. I'm surprised it's not all rolled together. Blake Oliver: [00:46:47] Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually come up with a per-employee, all-inclusive type deal. That seems like it would be appealing. I got one other app update for you. This is a fundraising round from something I've never heard about. It's an app called Stackin'. S-T-A-C-K-I-N-'; Stackin', like you're "stackin'" bills? They have raised $12.6 million in a Series-B to help millennials navigate the crowded fintech space. [00:47:12] So, this app, apparently it helps you, via text message, learn how to handle your money by helping you figure out what apps to use. Should you use Robinhood, Stash, Public, Acorns, or Truebill? How do you save money? How much should you save? What kind of 401(k) should you set up? They do this all via text messaging, and they find people; they find customers, advertising on platforms, like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. This TechCrunch article that I'm reading says to think of Stackin' as a more friendly and less nerdy robo-advisor that sends you advice on how to save and, from time to time, recommends an app that you might enjoy in the fintech space.  David Leary: [00:47:53] So, basically, it's like NerdWallet, but via text messages.  Blake Oliver: [00:47:58] NerdWallet for millennials and Gen Zers, yeah.  David Leary: [00:48:00] Hmm. All right, that'll be an interesting one to watch. Blake Oliver: [00:48:04] It's kind of amazing to me that they're basically just a text-messaging advisor that refers you to other apps; has raised $12.6 million in a Series-B to basically just do that. They don't have their own investment platform or anything, and they don't even have their own [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:48:21] It's an advertising model; It's an advertising model. Blake Oliver: [00:48:23] Right.  David Leary: [00:48:23] They're just providing a service for these fintech companies that are now taking gigantic rounds. They need to spend that money on advertising, so they're gonna get their piece of that. The startup cycle just [crosstalk] keeps going-  Blake Oliver: [00:48:32] They pay Stackin'?  David Leary: [00:48:32] Yeah. They pay Stackin', and Stackin''s paying Facebook, and TikTok, and all the other platforms that advertise ... It's just- it's that startup cycle. This money, it's kinda ... [crosstalk]   Blake Oliver: [00:48:48] So, Stackin', to give you some numbers, put some numbers on this, Stackin' added one million active users in a little over a year, and it has sent more than 100 million text messages to date, and they don't even have their own text-messaging platform. They're built on top of Twilio. So, they actually spend most of their money paying Twilio, and they're not yet profitable. So, you've got the flow of money is Robinhood wants to get users, so they pay Stackin' to advertise to Stackin''s eyeballs, and then Stackin' pays Twilio to send all those 100 million text messages. David Leary: [00:49:24] It's bizarre-o, the way some of this stuff [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:49:27] But I'm amazed that ... Yeah, I'm amazed that TikTok is a way to acquire customers for your fintech. That's pretty cool. I'm still not on a TikTok, and I feel like I'm getting old. I'm falling behind. I gotta figure this out. David Leary: [00:49:42] I created an account. I have not put any videos on. I've watched- I'm starting to get it a little bit, but ... I was thinking we could do something kind of interesting. We could record a clip of the show, and put it on there, and then people could remix and do crazy things with our voice. I don't know-  Blake Oliver: [00:49:56] Yes! The show should be on TikTok.  David Leary: [00:49:57] I'm still trying to take it in, what it is. I'm just trying to relate to my kids here. I have to relate to my kids because what I'm gonna make them do this summer is gonna make them hate me. Blake Oliver: [00:50:10] What's that? What are you gonna make them do? David Leary: [00:50:12] So, the AICPA offers free online accounting learning tools for high school students. Blake Oliver: [00:50:17] Oh ... All right. David Leary: [00:50:18] The AICPA has released several free online educational resources for teachers, parents, and others to use to educate students about accounting and personal finance basics. One of the games, Blake- this sounds like fun. I mean, I cannot wait to tell my kids about this. It's called Bank On It. It challenges- Blake Oliver: [00:50:36] Bank what?  David Leary: [00:50:36] Bank On It. Bank On It.  Blake Oliver: [00:50:36] Bank On It.  David Leary: [00:50:36] It challenges students' knowledge of accounting principles and personal finance planning with real working-world scenarios. So, Blake, if, you know, you're my kid ... I'm like, "Hey, Blake, why don't you go on and do this online quiz? It's a challenge. I challenge you to take some time away from Fortnite and do this, Blake." What is the acceptable amount of questions you would accept in this quiz? Blake Oliver: [00:51:04] Uh, like 10. David Leary: [00:51:06] Okay ... When you got your CPA, and you took all the CPA exams, how many questions were on those quizzes? Blake Oliver: [00:51:13] Oh, I've erased that from my memory. I have- David Leary: [00:51:16] C'mon ...  Blake Oliver: [00:51:16] Hundreds!  David Leary: [00:51:16] Hundreds, okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:18] Yeah. David Leary: [00:51:19] This game features more than 2,200 questions! Blake Oliver: [00:51:23] Oh, boy. Your kids are gonna love you, David. David Leary: [00:51:26] 2,200 in a quiz geared towards high school kids. Blake Oliver: [00:51:32] So, hey, everybody listening, in about a month when we record, four or five episodes from now, I fully expect David's children to have run away from home. So, if you know where they are, let us know. He apologizes for making them take this AICPA course- David Leary: [00:51:47] But they don't have to run away from home, Blake, because they can take in AICPA virtual field trip with tours, with 14 CPAs across different industries to explore the rules- Blake Oliver: [00:51:58] Wait ... Where do you go on your virtual field trip?  David Leary: [00:52:01] You go to, apparently, a CPA office, and you explore their role to give you an inside scoop on what it's like to be an accountant. Blake Oliver: [00:52:10] This is a course that you can take on the AICPA site? David Leary: [00:52:13] It's a virtual field trip. It's actually called Virtual Field Trips.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:17] Wow. David Leary: [00:52:18] So, yeah, we'll see how this goes. I'm gonna have my kids do this. Blake Oliver: [00:52:23] A field trip to an accounting firm is pretty great, but when you make it virtual, I would ... Your kids must be so excited. Have you broken the news to them yet? David Leary: [00:52:31] No, I have not. I have not told them about this yet. Blake Oliver: [00:52:34] Oh, okay. You should record that for TikTok. That'd be good - the reaction. David Leary: [00:52:38] Hey, kids, guess what you're doing all summer?  Blake Oliver: [00:52:39] Here's what you're doing for summer school. David Leary: [00:52:41] It's a tour every week; you get to go on a tour with another accountant. Blake Oliver: [00:52:46] Do your kids ...?  I have a question because my son's five, and he doesn't really understand what I do. He knows that I do a podcast. He has to go in his room and be quiet, and he's really good about that. What do your kids think about what you do for a living? David Leary: [00:53:02] At some level, it's not conceptual, because it's all on the computer, right? So, they're very much, "You just sit on your computer all day, Dad!" Which justifies them sitting on an Xbox, right?  David Leary: [00:53:12] Right, right. David Leary: [00:53:13] They don't equate it to, as a business. I have made them do some work, when they've been out of school, I've made them update some records in Salesforce, which is just drudgery. I've had my daughter do that. I introduced them to Excel, and Google Sheets, and they made a formula, and data just updated - blew their minds. So, they're tiptoeing in the waters. Now, my daughter's actually starting to understand the concept of what QuickBooks is for. Before, they didn't really get it, but they're starting to ... Yeah, they're starting to tiptoe in the waters here. I have to be careful. I don't wanna turn them off to the industry. Blake Oliver: [00:53:48] Right, right, right.  David Leary: [00:53:48] But they're starting to tiptoe in the waters here with this stuff. Blake Oliver: [00:53:50] All right. Well, that's good. I think the spreadsheet skills is awesome. Really important for anyone. I think that's about it. Right, David? David Leary: [00:53:58] I don't think I have anything else, other than make sure- tell your clients, if they can't find their check, it might come as a debit card, but it's not a fake debit card. You know, you get that junk mail that has the fake-looking credit cards? Apparently, the stimulus checks look like a fake-looking credit card, and people are throwing them away. Be careful. Blake Oliver: [00:54:17] Don't throw away your stimulus money. If you wanna give us a call and let us know what you think about anything we've talked about on the show, call us at (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. It's a Google Voice mailbox; goes straight to voicemail. You can leave a message. We'll take a listen and maybe we'll even play it on the air. You're also welcome to get in touch with me on Twitter. I'm @BlakeTOliver. And how about you, David? David Leary: [00:54:44] I'm @DavidLeary on Twitter, and @DavidLeary on LinkedIn. I don't know what- I'm something- "The David Leary," I think, on TikTok.  Blake Oliver: [00:54:53] All right. Well, now I'm gonna have to set up an account so that we can figure out how to do this, because if we can get Lorilyn Wilson to-   we need somebody to do that Donald Trump thing, where the comedians lip sync to us [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:55:09] That's exactly it, right? People could- we could put up a recording of the podcast, a snippet, and then people can pretend they're us. I don't know. It's gonna be bad ... There's nothing good that can come out of this ...  Blake Oliver: [00:55:20] Oh ... Well, David, until next week, have a great rest of your Sunday. Let's hope that the country doesn't burn down between now and the next time we record. Hopefully, in the end, things change for the better. David Leary: [00:55:37] Yeah. Hugs and be safe, everybody. It'll be interesting - yeah, you're right- to see where we are seven days from now.Blake Oliver: [00:55:44] Talk to you later. ____________________ClassifiedsDid you know that, in response to the COVID-19 situation, you can now take your Microsoft Excel certification from home? Want to learn how? You can by joining Steve Chase's Excel Bootcamp. His summer classes run Monday through Fridays from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central Time. Register online at sequentiasolutions.com/bootcamp for only $150. If you mention The Cloud Accounting Podcast referred you, you'll receive an extra $30 off. High school students are highly encouraged to sign up, and you can find the link in the show notes ____________________AccountingTax.com has helped more than 8,900 tax, accounting, and wealth management firms map out a client experience, through client acquisition, conversion, onboarding, retention, and expansion, with the goal of getting clients to pay more, year over year. If you're looking to develop your practice and take it to the next level with advisory services, go to accountingtax.com/cloud to learn more. ____________________Still sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? Automate this process and get client answers instantly with ClientHub's QuickBooks Online integration. This feature was described as one that only an accountant would have come up with as it solves a real big pain point. ClientHub is a modern client portal designed for cloud accounting firms. Get started today with a free trial at clienthub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months.____________________Stop spending endless hours creating and building workflow and process templates for your firm. Jetpack Workflow has 32 accounting workflow templates you can download for free. These popular accounting templates include Monthly Bookkeeping, Weekly Accounting Analysis, and 990, 1120, 1041, 1040 Tax Returns. Download yours free today at jetpackworkflow.com/freetemplates. That's jetpackworkflow.com/freetemplates.____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. 

Sponsors Bill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 03:07 -- Questions Persist After Release of New Small-Business Loan Rules - WSJ 04:39 – Our first less-than-five-star review? Thanks for the feedback!  08:30 – Paychex Snapshot: Small Businesses Are Cautiously Optimistic About Recovery – InsightfulAccountant 14:45: Xero Warns of Coronavirus Impact Despite Swing to Fiscal Year Profit — Update -  Morningstar  14:48 – Intuit sees slide in revenues in Q3 - Enterprise Times 15:54 – Sage : Half Year 2020 Results press release - MarketScreener  17:54 – Xero’s new integration with Relay enables flexible and intuitive banking for U.S. small businesses and their advisors - Xero  19:48 – What's new in QuickBooks Online – May 2020 - Intuit QuickBooks 24:13 – Revolut Integrates With Clear Books Software | PYMNTS 25:17 – Shopify Announces Major Product Launches and Updates at Virtual Event Reunite, Including Shopify Balance and Shop Pay Installments – Financial Post 26:22 – Square's Results Spotlight SMBs' Resilience | PYMNTS 27:11 – Stripe raises $600M at $36B valuation in Series G extension, says it has $2B on its balance sheet - TechCrunch 28:05 – Kabbage Is Revived By Processing PPP Loans | PYMNTS 30:03 – Deel Raises $14M For Remote Worker Payroll | PYMNTS  31:23 – Zenefits sees a shrinking company with no new job openings | Thinknum Media  32:12 – Grant Thornton introduces blockchain platform for managing intercompany transactions – Accounting Today 34:17 – As clients struggle, Mazars creates PPP Analysis Tool – Accounting Today   34:29 – Crowe creates PPP loan forgiveness management solution for lenders – Accounting Today  36:33 – 'Useless' Deloitte accused of PPE failings amid COVID-19 deal secrecy– openDemocracy 37:42 – Please Don't Call Deloitte If Your House Is On Fire– Going Concern 40:24 – SBA Under Spotlight as Frustrations With Small-Business Aid Programs Grow - WSJ 42:04 – Senate Adjourns Without Approving Deal to Extend PPP Spending Window - WSJ  44:45 – Mark Cuban: ‘It's time to face the fact that PPP didn't work’ – Fox News  45:16 – DOJ: Texas Man Claimed Employees For PPP Funds - PYMNTS 47:06 – Accounting errors led to $60 billion overvaluation of JobKeeper– Business News Australia 48:24 – With Move to Remote Voting, House Alters What It Means for Congress to Meet - NYT 51:16 – Man sentenced to death in Singapore on Zoom call- Reuters 51:58 – Mass Firing on Zoom Is Latest Sign of Weight Watchers Unrest - NYT  52:53 – Accountants Scrap With Banks For Billions In Paycheck Protection Fees - Forbes Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds ClientHub: https://clienthub.app JetPack Workflow: http://jetpackworkflow.com/freetemplates AccountingTax.com: http://accountingtax.com/cloud Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptClients are looking for trusted advice and a sense of stability as they navigate the new normal. By using Bill.com, accounting firms can free up more time for valuable strategic advisory services by helping clients shift their accounts payable process online. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Bill.com, later in the episode. David Leary: [00:00:24] That's the problem I had was the touting of this being the greatest thing since Tom Brady was born. It's completely ridiculous. That's where I have a problem with it. It's the pre-celebration of something that was arguably still not a success ... ____________________This of episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by OnPay. Paycheck Protection Program, CARES Act, unemployment insurance, furloughs, layoffs, cash flow, CDC guidance, employee safety, paid leave, tax credits - tracking all of the constantly changing COVID-19-related information for your clients is getting overwhelming. With OnPay's COVID-19 Resource Center, you'll have a one-stop shop for your up-to-date HR, and tax information.OnPay is an easy-to-use full-service payroll, and HR software that is the right fit for all your clients, whether they have just one or 500 employees. Stay organized, save time, and get compliant. OnPay includes deep integrations to benefit providers, workers' comp plans, QuickBooks, and Xero. Right now, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get three free months of OnPay payroll service. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash O-N-P-A-Y.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before May 31, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:28] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:32] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:33] What day is it? What month is it? David Leary: [00:02:36] It is the middle of the holiday weekend here. We're recording on Sunday, which is probably good because there's constantly new information that gets released on Friday nights, lately, by the Treasury, or the IRS-  Blake Oliver: [00:02:47] By the SBA. Yeah, we may just need to permanently switch to recording on Sundays, so that we can have time to digest all of this guidance or lack thereof. David Leary: [00:02:56] Think we could put a request in? Maybe the AICPA can- since they're in talks with them, can be like, "Hey, by the way, you're kinda messing up David and Blake's recording schedule. Can you do all your releases on Wednesday?" Blake Oliver: [00:03:07] Well, nobody can get the SBA to talk to them. There was an article in The Wall Street Journal this week about how, on both sides of the aisle, senators are complaining that Jovita Carranza and the SBA leadership are not being responsive to their requests for information. So, unfortunately, we're not ... I doubt we will have any more success than Marco Rubio in this. David Leary: [00:03:31] Obviously, there's PPP news, right? Blake Oliver: [00:03:33] Yes.  David Leary: [00:03:33] I have the earning season - Xero, Sage, and Intuit have all released earnings. That's gonna be exciting to talk about. Blake Oliver: [00:03:38] That is. David Leary: [00:03:39] I have lots of interesting app news. Maybe the summary is apps are banks ... It's very interesting, and soon to be GLs.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:50] Yes, they are. They are broadening into the whole fintech world. I think that we should definitely talk about that. Probably hit on that first, since we haven't done it in a while, and we'll hold off on the PPP and stimulus stuff. I also have remote work that I wanna talk about, which I teased at the end of the last episode. Before we do all of that, we have a review. David Leary: [00:04:13] I see that it is our worst review we've had.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:14] Worst review ever, but it is ... I would like to say it's not a bad review because it's a critical review, and I actually like getting critical feedback. I mean, I love the five-star positive reviews. Those are great and everything. Thank you, everybody who has left a glowing review. But take a listen to this review, and let us know what you think. David Leary: [00:04:39] This was on Apple Podcasts. Go ahead. I'll let you read it.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:48] So, this is Jay; Jay says, "I enjoy listening on my morning runs, but you guys are getting over-the-top, doomsday depressing. There are ways to track the PPP funds. Google the QBO solution. Your underlying anti-Trump tone forbids you to see the good going on with all the government funding. Any other president, and you might be less whiny about the efforts to help businesses, small and large. I know a lot of businesses that have received the funding, but you say it's not getting to businesses; perhaps because those businesses don't keep their books, so they are scrambling to apply? Why should a bank or my government give money to businesses who can't even show a 2018 return? How about being more helpful to those of us trying to build businesses and less dreadful about everything else? Jay." That was in specific regards to Episode 174, which I believe was our May 18 episode. David Leary: [00:05:42] Yeah. It'd be two episodes ago. Blake Oliver: [00:05:43] The last- yeah.  David Leary: [00:05:44] But at that time, that would have been the fourth or fifth straight episode on PPP. So, feedback taken, for sure. We've been talking a lot about PPP, but, to some extent, there hasn't been any other news. Now, today, there's other news, finally.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:55] Yes.  David Leary: [00:05:55] I'm actually excited that we're getting back to the normal news cycle. Blake Oliver: [00:05:59] I just wanna address the Trump thing because that is always the elephant in the room whenever politics is brought up. Everyone is ... It's like you hate him, or you love him. I would like to say, just for the record, I am a Republican. I dislike Joe Biden. I dislike Donald Trump. I don't like either of them, okay? That's just the way it is. So, I apologize if you really, really love Donald Trump. I'm just not a fan. I don't know, David, if you are willing to reveal your political persuasions or not or if that is too much. but I just wanna [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:06:32] -so, if we're gonna disclose here, I'm currently, right now, registered as a Democrat because, in the state of Arizona, if you register as an Independent, you don't get to vote in a primary. So, I temporarily changed my registration to Democrat, so I could vote against Joe Biden. So, that's where I ... That's kind of where I was on this stance. So, I have to switch it back, and I have to go through- jump through the hoops and switch it back to Independent, because that's the biggest party in Arizona. Now that you're here, you should think about joining the Independent party. Blake Oliver: [00:07:01] Now that I'm no longer living in California, my vote matters, especially as a Republican. It's so exciting. Honestly, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but here's where I am critical. I'm critical of ineffective government response to a pandemic, and it's just been a disaster. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is; especially this whole stimulus thing, the PPP thing. We'll talk about it later. I have my opinions. I do not apologize for them. I will justify them. If I'm wrong, tell me why. If you have feedback for us, go ahead, put it in a review. We will read it on the air. If you have a specific issue, the best way to let us know and to make sure that we see it is to put that in a review. Please do.  David Leary: [00:07:40] That's true. Put it in a review. My beef wasn't so- it's not so much ... Obviously, this got rolled out not perfectly. We can talk about that forever. The big problem I had is, on day one, within an hour and a half of this launching, the GOP, the Trumpers, the SBA, and the Treasury had an orchestrated campaign of tweets and social media go out touting how much of a success the PPP program was; how successful it was, when if you were talking to any accountants for two or three days before and that morning, you knew it was absolutely not a success. Blake Oliver: [00:08:16] Right.  David Leary: [00:08:16] That's the problem I had was the touting of this being the greatest thing since Tom Brady was born. It's completely ridiculous, and that's where I have a problem with it. It's the pre-celebration of something that was arguably still not a success. Paychex had a survey; they surveyed 300 business owners. They've been doing it every week. Only 29 percent have received their loan payment yet. Blake Oliver: [00:08:40] Wow.  David Leary: [00:08:40] We're still at basically a third have not gotten their cash. It's crazy. So- Blake Oliver: [00:08:46] It is. So, Jay, thank you very much for the feedback. We really appreciate it. We hope you keep listening. Please continue to let us know your thoughts on ... Twitter is great, actually. I'm @BlakeTOliver, and David is at @DavidLeary. David Leary: [00:09:01] We should get Jay a special shirt because Jay is ... Yeah [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:09:06] Yeah, no, they- while you run, actually ...  David Leary: [00:09:06] They blemished our perfect five-star record, and they should get a special trophy for that, for calling us out.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:14] No, if the algorithms are working- if the algorithms are working properly, if you only get five stars, then it'll- it's not as good as if you get a mix of reviews. Okay, so, David, I think we should kick off with app news. What do you think? David Leary: [00:09:27] Yeah, let's jump in. Blake Oliver: [00:09:32] Xero released their earnings first, so maybe we should hit Xero, quickly? David Leary: [00:09:36] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:09:36] So, they had a fiscal year ending March 31, so a lot of this is not gonna be impacted by COVID yet. They reported 30-percent growth in operating revenue. They're up to $718 million, globally. They've had 26-percent growth in total subscribers; 2.285 million subscribers. Tons of growth in global, which means outside of Australia, New Zealand, North America; actually, quite a lot of growth there. Their North America subscribers grew by 24 percent, so they've got 241,000, now; although that still pales in comparison to the QBO subscribers in North America, as David will tell us ... Or not, right? Because I think Intuit stopped releasing subscriber numbers for QuickBooks? David Leary: [00:10:23] Yes. Intuit stopped releasing subscriber numbers, but you can kind of step back and look at Xero's. I mean, they grew their subscribers over the year by 26 percent; The previous two or three years, I feel like QuickBooks, and Xero have both been growing subscriber base by almost 40 percent- Blake Oliver: [00:10:37] 30, or 40, yeah.  David Leary: [00:10:38] Yeah, so some things have slowed down, and it's not so much they slowed down because things are bad. They slowed down because it's just you can't maintain that pace. If you project this out, I mean, Xero's now at what? 2.2 million. Intuit probably grew it 20 percent, which means they added another million, which means QuickBooks Online is probably close to 5 million now, if not breaking 5 million. The numbers are still amazingly great. That's putting seven-eight million people on cloud accounting; that's still huge numbers. We can jump into ... You wanna jump straight into Intuit and [crosstalk] jump over to Sage, because Sage had interesting numbers, too. Blake Oliver: [00:11:10] Yeah. Give me those numbers. David Leary: [00:11:12] All right, let's take a look at Intuit. So, Intuit obviously saw a slide in revenue. Everybody's gonna see that for the last quarter. Then, then just for the listeners to be aware, Xero only releases numbers every six months. They're not on a quarterly basis. In the U.S., we're on quarterly basis, so it's very hard to get these things aligned. Then, on top of that, it's worse because Intuit's fiscal year, and Xero's fiscal years don't line up, either, so it's always been a bit of a game to compare apples to apples on these. [00:11:39] Probably the main thing is the decline for Intuit was really due to the tax deadline getting extended. If you remember, the past couple years, Intuit keeps reporting ... Some of it's just because TurboTax is easier and easier and easier. People just wait til the last day to file. They just wait longer and longer and longer in the tax season. Blake Oliver: [00:12:00] Yeah, that's me. David Leary: [00:12:01] Right. So, now, since the tax season just got delayed four more months, all that revenue Intuit usually would have gotten by mid-April has now been pushed out to the future. So, it's a short-term hit they're taking on their consumer group, but it should pick up. When they get out to their end of next quarter, it should just recoup. Blake Oliver: [00:12:18] Well, because, right now, the tax deadline is still July 15. David Leary: [00:12:22] July 15, right now. If it got pushed out more, that would be a mess. Blake Oliver: [00:12:26] Yeah, let's hope not.  David Leary: [00:12:28] The Small Business Group, this is Small Business and Self Employed Group, the revenue's up 11 percent to $1 billion. The QuickBooks Small Business Online ecosystem, that grew 28 percent. I think the way they count the ecosystem revenue, it's all the add-ons to QuickBooks, but not Payroll, because I think they always report Payroll separately. Then, again, the Consumer Group revenue declined 15 percent. Usually, this is the quarter the Consumer Group revenue always grows. TurboTax just grows from the previous quarter year, and the previous year.  Blake Oliver: [00:12:59] Right, right.  David Leary: [00:12:59] So, that's been a little bit of a struggle for them. One interesting stat is they released the numbers about Online Payroll. So, Online Payroll increased 20 percent, year over year, until about mid-March. But since mid-March, it's seen 10 percent of workers drop out of their Payroll system, which I thought was a very encouraging number. If you think about QuickBooks Payroll, they have a million Payroll subscribers; average amount of employees is about 12. That's a lot of small businesses that use Intuit Online Payroll, and only 10-percent reduction in people getting paid by that system seems encouraging, versus 40 percent. Because, I mean, unemployment's now gonna be pushing 35-40 percent, so it seems-  Blake Oliver: [00:13:38] Well, I wouldn't say it would go that high, but definitely 20-25 percent is possible. David Leary: [00:13:45] So, that's probably encouraging for Intuit that they have a much lower number of people dropping out of their Payroll system. Blake Oliver: [00:13:49] The question is when did that report ... What's the end date on that? Is that March 31? David Leary: [00:13:54] Yeah, and this could be a temporary. Eight weeks from now will be the true test of the number, when PPP funds run out, and now you don't have any cash possibly to pay your employees, and now they're out of the payroll system. So, that's an interesting number to watch. The other one, they have a lot of loans receivables. They now have $89 million in loans receivable on the books. So, Intuit's cash and cash equivalents are now at $3.37 billion compared to January 31 of $1.64 billion. Blake Oliver: [00:14:22] Yeah, so they're well-prepared to weather the storm. David Leary: [00:14:26] Well, not just weather the storm, but ... We'll see this when we talk about apps. Xero and Intuit are gonna have to be banks [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:14:32] Lend out money. David Leary: [00:14:33] They're gonna have to keep lending money and become more of a bank. Like I said, we'll get into that. A couple other interesting things that'll carry us over to the Sage earnings ... Before we do that, I wanna tie Intuit's earnings back over to Xero. So, Xero's concerned about COVID's impact. Intuit, obviously, has those concerns, too, but Intuit has this historical perspective. What happens is when QuickBooks services the small business market, some firms are likely to fail, but what happens is you get all these new businesses taking their place because if you cannot get a job, you start a new business. This could actually bode well for QuickBooks, and Xero. I saw this, historically, the previous- the Dot-Com 1.0 bust, the 2008 crisis. Intuit, it really doesn't affect them. For every business that goes under, somebody new starts a business. It's just kind of they're recession-proof. I don't wanna knock on wood, or anything, or jinx anything, but ... That could actually be encouraging for Xero, as well. Then, the other piece from Intuit was some Desktop News. So Desktop ecosystem revenues were down six percent, year over year. Blake Oliver: [00:15:33] No surprise. David Leary: [00:15:34] One interesting other number that something was down is their tax-generated revenues by the ProTax group are down 18 percent. Now, I don't know if that's due to filing because I'm not totally- I don't totally understand that business model; if you're a ProSeries user, do you pay per return you file? Because everybody's [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:15:49] Yes. Some of that work that way. You pay per return. David Leary: [00:15:54] They touted about how to TurboTax Live, and QuickBooks Live are gonna keep helping them get new customers. Highest customer satisfaction scores ever for TurboTax Live. So, that's that. Then, let's tie this all the way back to Sage's earnings. So, Sage had their results come out last week. Sage, and Xero were last week, and Intuit was this week. So, pretty close timing. Really, the big thing, I think, from Sage's numbers is management's primary focus now is to migrate Desktop customers and attract new customers to Sage's Business Cloud. Blake Oliver: [00:16:28] Yeah, well, should ... Hopefully.  David Leary: [00:16:30] Sage finally is turning a corner. Their cloud solutions have delivered recurring revenue growth of 31 percent, and Sage Intacct delivering recurring revenue growth of 31 percent. So, it looks like the other Sage cloud products are kind of getting in line with the rest of the industry, as far as growth is concerned. Blake Oliver: [00:16:50] Their revenue, overall, is up about two percent, so they're managing to convert these Desktop folks to Cloud and not lose money. David Leary: [00:16:59] On their side, their Desktop revenue is down, as well. There's been a decline- now, they're okay with it because they expected this to happen because of their business strategy. I'm wondering if we're now finally, finally in the year where desktop starts to really die. Is this finally the year? I know we've been thinking, oh, it's gonna be 2016, 2017 ...  Blake Oliver: [00:17:20] Yeah. If COVID is accelerating remote work, then it's gonna accelerate cloud adoption. You said it ... Did you not say this on the last episode, something about how the economy is being- the stock market is being held up by these cloud technology companies? That is what's supporting our entire stock market, right now, is belief that these companies are gonna keep growing. David Leary: [00:17:44] Yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:17:44] So, this is good. This is good for cloud. It's terrible for everything else, but it's great for cloud. So, that's it for earnings, right? David Leary: [00:17:53] That's it. Blake Oliver: [00:17:54] All right. Let's talk about features. What is new in the world of cloud accounting features? Because that, ultimately, is what is gonna drive the growth - that we make these apps better and better. Xero, released a new integration with Relay Bank. You've used Relay, right, David?  David Leary: [00:18:11] Yes. Well, we use Relay for the podcast. They were a sponsor ... But, I use Relay, yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:15] I've logged in like twice, and it worked great. You sent me an invite, and I was able to log into a view where ... Because you own the bank account, under your entity, and you were able to invite me to view just that one bank account, so I can have full visibility. David Leary: [00:18:31] Yeah, it's kinda cool. I have three bank accounts, all at Relay Bank, but I wanted to have you to have visibility, so I spun up a new bank account and invited you as somebody who has View Only access, and you can get in there, and see it. It's almost like an accountant's use case. Blake Oliver: [00:18:44] It's so cool. Relay, for those who aren't familiar, is a virtual bank. You can sign up for an account online through their app, on their website. They now have a deeper integration with Xero. So, what does that mean? It means you get a bank feed via API, not screen scraping. So, it's a native bank feed. It is updated every three hours and supports enriched transaction data in Relay that is piped into Xero. The really cool thing is that Relay will import unpaid bills from Xero into Relay for payment in Relay, and it does that every few hours. [00:19:19] So, you could have a workflow, where you enter your bills into Xero through- either manually, or through some sort of document processing solution, like a Hubdoc, for instance. Then, it automatically pulls those bills into Relay so you can pay them. That's pretty neat. I mean, that, to me, is the future of banking - the way it should work with accounting software; rather than having to rekey stuff or rather than having the document go into the bill-pay solution and then, sync into the accounting system. That's just backwards. David Leary: [00:19:48] Yeah. I mean, anything you can do to avoid gonna the bank website is huge, right? Did you see QuickBooks finally released their QBO bank statement fetching? Blake Oliver: [00:19:56] Yes! People were really pleasantly surprised. I think we've been waiting like two years since this was announced at QuickBooks Connect. David Leary: [00:20:03] I think people have been waiting even longer than that. I mean, it seems like such the obvious feature. You do a reconciliation, and you've gotta pause; go out to a bank website; download your PDF of your statement; bring it back ... Just the amount of clicking is crazy. So, now, when you go to the reconciliation screen, it just has your bank statements right there. They're just ready to go. Blake Oliver: [00:20:20] That's really cool. David Leary: [00:20:21] You can open them up ... Then, if you don't have the bank statement ... It's like a two-part feature. Let's say they can't fetch your bank statement; your bank's not supported. For example, Relay, you can't download the bank statement yet. But you can go, and you can attach a bank statement. When you're done with the reconciliation, you can- the PDF you took the time to download that you don't know what to do with, you can actually just attach it, so now it's the record ... The reconciliation and the bank statement are constantly tied together in QuickBooks. It's such an obvious feature. It's amazing that it's finally at market here. Blake Oliver: [00:20:53] So, some other new features that came out in May, QuickBooks Online Advanced now supports 48 custom fields, up from 36, giving you up to 12 fields each for customers, vendors, sales forms, and purchase orders, and other expenses. David Leary: [00:21:12] That's gonna be important because I think a lot- there's a lot of developers that have built very deep custom integrations to QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, and a lot of that, they can't go to QuickBooks Online because of custom fields ... A lot higher ability to create custom fields in QuickBooks Enterprise and access that through the old QuickBooks Desktop STK. So, if you built an app, and you have a bunch of custom fields, you can't really go to QuickBooks Online. The app developers are gonna love this. I think Enterprise is, especially now, like you said, in the COVID era, are going to- they're gonna be able to move to QuickBooks Online when maybe they previously couldn't.  Blake Oliver: [00:21:49] There have also been some updates to the Business Performance dashboard, which is an area in QuickBooks Online, where you can visualize your data. Now, you can compare periods when creating a custom chart. So, you can say, "Let me look at April 2020 versus April 2019." You can also import sales receipts in batch transactions in QuickBooks Online Advanced. Oh, and I should say that that Business Performance dashboard is also an Advanced-only feature. [00:22:21] There is Workforce Bulk Invite in QuickBooks Online Payroll, so if you need to invite all the employees to go view their W-2s online, you can now do it all at once. Just put in their names, and email addresses, and send them an invite to do that rather than one at a time. In the Online Payroll, you can also have default hours now for employees. You can set default hours, and days, and that'll just flow through onto Payroll, every time you're in Payroll, rather than you having to remember to put in that information. That's it for QuickBooks. ____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Bill.com. Through these uncertain times, one thing has become clear. Accounting firms are in a unique and trusted position to help their clients adapt. For your firm, that means leaning into the services your clients have always depended on and more. For your clients, it means helping them move quickly to a remote model and bringing key financial processes, like accounts payable, online smoothly.   Using Bill.com, the Intelligent Business Payments Platform, accounting firms can take a client's time-consuming manual AP process and transform it completely with automation, tracking, mobility, and transparency, easing your client's shift to working remotely and setting the stage for strategic conversations about how your firm can help them navigate the new normal. To learn more about how Bill.com can help your firm automate AP and offer client advisory services, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash B-I-L-L. Bill.com, the Intelligent Business Payments platform. ____________________David Leary: [00:24:10] Do you remember when we talked about Revolut?  Blake Oliver: [00:24:11] Yes. David Leary: [00:24:13] They are the fintech new bank out of Europe that people just love and now they're starting to come to the States. They had a lot of news come out this week. They're now partnering with Clear Books, which is an accounting software package in Europe. They're going in deeper with that. It sounds like kind of a little bit of a bank feed, but they're gonna tie it back to whether or not invoices are paid or outstanding. So, it feels like it's gonna be like a souped-up bank feed of some type. If you invoice out of Clear Books, and then you get paid through Revolut, it's going to tie that back together. The more impressive parts is Revolut's numbers. They already have 4,000 business accounts- Blake Oliver: [00:24:49] Here in the U.S..  David Leary: [00:24:49] Not in the U.S., just overall. I think they still are just slowly trickling out. Not only that, they have their own Revolut Business  Connect ecosystem. So, they have an app store, and they're allowing their business accounts to more easily track expenses and match bills to invoices, which is kind of heading towards GL territory, right? Blake Oliver: [00:25:08] Yeah. David Leary: [00:25:08] They're kind of expanding down into that. It's amazing how fast - they only started in 2015 - like how fast they've came up to market. Blake Oliver: [00:25:15] Yeah, that is amazing. David Leary: [00:25:17] Then, you can set up rules, and smart rules, and matching in just one click. So, essentially, they are- they're going deep with an accounting system. But they also- apparently, they do integrate with Xero, and Slack, and Freeagent. So, they are integrating with other products, but no ... I don't feel like anybody's ever talked about the Xero one, or I just have not seen that one as of yet. So, obviously, Revolut, bank, small business, heading towards GL ... You know Shopify, right? We talked about Shopify two, three weeks ago. They're now Canada's biggest market cap company; the biggest company in Canada. Blake Oliver: [00:25:49] I just bought something on Shopify. David Leary: [00:25:50] Got it. So, Shopify has now- they're launching- they just announced they're gonna launch a product called Shopify Balance, which is a business account built for independent businesses and entrepreneurs. Blake Oliver: [00:26:00] They're becoming a bank.  David Leary: [00:26:02] They're becoming a bank, and they wanna help merchants manage their stores' money. Essentially, instead of you getting paid and then moving that money to your bank account, you're gonna keep it inside Shopify's world- Blake Oliver: [00:26:12] You sign up ... Where you sign up for your online e-commerce store, and you get your bank account when you sign up, and it just stays in there.  David Leary: [00:26:22] It just stays in there. Now, let's go to Square's recent news. Square released their earnings, and this is more indicative. Blake Oliver: [00:26:30] Yes. David Leary: [00:26:31] We'll just jump right to their cash app program. They have that cash app program. We talked about that before. Blake Oliver: [00:26:36] Yes. This is the direct peer-to-peer payments app. David Leary: [00:26:39] That's correct. Small businesses have it, but then consumers can get it, as well. Direct deposit volumes are surging three times, up to 14 million customers. So, people are connecting their traditional bank account to put money into their cash app bank account. Blake Oliver: [00:26:54] Yep.  David Leary: [00:26:54] Follow along on that ... Right now, customers have stored more than $1.3 billion in their cash balances in April.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:59] $1.3 billion. David Leary: [00:27:02] That's double the tally at the end of the year. They didn't break this down, of that $1.3 billion, how much of this is just small businesses just keeping the money in there instead of moving it back to their traditional bank [inaudible].  Blake Oliver: [00:27:11] Hey, so speaking of Square, their big competitor, Stripe, just raised a bunch of money. They raised $600 million at a $36 billion dollar valuation in a Series G extension. Stripe now says it has $2 billion on its balance sheet. Series G, I didn't even know the alphabet for startups went that far. That's amazing, right?  [00:27:35] Why are they raising all this money? They don't need it to fund operations, most certainly, considering how much cash they generate, right now. It's gotta be for lending, because Stripe, just like Square, is doing a bunch of lending to its customers, where you can essentially factor invoices. They have all this data on you because they can see into your bank account and then, they can just withdraw the payments automatically, which reduces so much risk. David Leary: [00:28:05] Then, Kabbage was in the news a little bit. Kabbage, I think in March, we talked about how Kabbage- they furloughed lots of employees.  Blake Oliver: [00:28:14] Yeah. Kabbage, again, for those who aren't familiar, a fintech lender for small business, so small loans.  David Leary: [00:28:22] They're small loans, but they're also pretty much focused on inventory gaps. Maybe you had a seasonal business; they could help you stabilize that cash flow. It's like a line of credit. You can get some loan; pay it down. They started to get a little bit more traditional loans, but, to some extent, when everything went crazy here, they were ... They had increasing debt on their balance sheet.  Blake Oliver: [00:28:43] They reminded me of payday loans for businesses, essentially- David Leary: [00:28:45] You could say it that way, yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:28:47] That's what it was ... It was high interest rates, short-term, low-dollar-value loans that were automated through a QuickBooks connection, or a Xero connection. They weren't really meant for more than a month or two, right?  David Leary: [00:29:03] Yeah, and I know we talked about, last week, there was some Twitter chatter about them doing PPP loans. There are some numbers that have came out. They've issued 110,000 Paycheck Protection Program loans for more than $3.5 billion. It's  interesting, they've received $175 million in fees. So, really, they found a new revenue place because they didn't get into the PPP loan- they're not giving out normal loans ... Who's gonna take a 30-percent loan out right now, or 29-percent- very high-rate loan? They really kind of not saved themselves, but kind of survived, themselves, because of the PPP. Blake Oliver: [00:29:40] Did they say the average amount of those loans? I mean, we can figure it out from the numbers. What was it, $3-point-something billion? David Leary: [00:29:47] Yeah, the average loan amount was $31,000, with a median of $14,000, which I think we talked about QuickBooks two weeks ago. They said theirs was $7,200 or something.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:57] There's was even smaller, yeah.  David Leary: [00:29:59] So, Kabbage did loans that were a little bit bigger. We can talk about- there's a payroll company that's coming on the market called Deel, D-E-E-L. They raised $14 million just to do remote-worker payroll services. I don't know enough about what they're doing, but it sounds like this is more of a global payroll product because they say that it uses just one single software for this purpose as opposed to a multitude, like many others have used in the past. So, if you have just U.S. employees, maybe this doesn't make sense, but if you have employees in a foreign- other countries, think about outsourced labor, that's what I think they're solving for. Now, with everybody going remote, maybe they have a bigger opportunity here. So, things are good for Deel. Then, Zenefits ... Remember good ol' Zenefits? Blake Oliver: [00:30:47] Yeah, well, driving around Phoenix, I see the Zenefits sign on the building over near ASU. David Leary: [00:30:56] Okay, so it's still around, still around ... They went from the fastest growing SaaS startup behind Salesforce. Salesforce was always the fastest; then Zenefits was the fastest; then everything went bad. Bad news for Zenefits, right? They were found out- people were cheating on the insurance exams to get certified. They had employees doing inappropriate things in that building you drive by in Phoenix. There's not a lot of ...  David Leary: [00:31:23] There's an article about their headcount. Over the last four years, their headcount's been slashed by 52 percent and now, they're noticing- somebody's noticing that their openings on LinkedIn, their job openings, there were like- it was about 28 positions were open at the start of the year; then it dropped to nothing; then it went back up again, in March, and now it's completely gone. They've always had ebbs and flows, but this year it's really been erratic. They said the only thing up for Zenefits is their Twitter account.  Blake Oliver: [00:31:49] Why is that?  David Leary: [00:31:51] I have no idea [crosstalk] They've gained more Twitter followers, but, in general, things are not going well for Zenefits, considering Gusto, OnPay, Rippling, who actually is the former founder of Zenefits ... All these payroll companies seem to be doing well and growing to some extent, and Zenefits continues to struggle. Blake Oliver: [00:32:12] Well, I have one last piece of app news, which is blockchain-related. So, ding, ding, ding, you get to fill that out on your Bingo card today. Grant Thornton has released inter.x, a blockchain platform for managing intercompany transactions. The firm has implemented the new platform in-house, but it is also available to clients to manage dealings between financial entities of a business, which account for 30 to 40 percent of the global economy. [00:32:42] Now, normally, David, as you know, I am a blockchain skeptic. I find most of the blockchain stuff out there to be completely ridiculous. Thankfully, during coronavirus, all of that thought leadership about how blockchain is going to eliminate the audit profession has disappeared. Blockchain is no longer going to destroy accounting and all that. But I think this is a really cool application of blockchain and, potentially, an incredibly useful one.  [00:33:08] Intercompany transactions being all the things that happen between businesses that have common ownership. According to generally accepted accounting principles, you have to eliminate those transactions when you present your financial statements. Pulling that all apart after the fact is really difficult, but blockchain could potentially automate that in the same way that bank feeds automated bank reconciliations, to a large extent. David Leary: [00:33:34] I think we talked about app before that does that, called Modern Treasury. I think there's a SaaS startup that's kind of in that same space now. Blake Oliver: [00:33:42] It's really cool. Of course, the devil is in the details. You've got to figure out how to get this blockchain app to integrate with all the ERP systems for all of the entities and configure it properly in order for this to work. So, there's gonna be plenty of work for accountants keeping this whole engine running as opposed to doing the eliminations manually. Pretty cool. Go check it out. Link is in the show notes to the article in Accounting Today. Shout out to Accounting Today for covering that. David Leary: [00:34:13] There's two articles in Accounting Today that- I don't know if we wanna go deep on these, but Mazars creates another PPP analyst tool. That was a press release in Accounting Today [crosstalk] -I think they were charging like two grand for a spreadsheet template before. Then, Crowe has created a PPP loan forgiveness management solution, but for lenders. They've created a set of tools ...Because the lenders probably ultimately don't wanna deal with any of this. They probably even have requests for work out there with the big firms. Blake Oliver: [00:34:46] This is the whole thing about PPP that is the big unknown and just seems insurmountable in many ways, to me. How are the banks and the SBA gonna process all these loan forgiveness applications? It was hard enough for them to process essentially a one-page application with one number on it. Imagine this really extensive loan forgiveness application, which requires you to do calculations for every single employee. Who's gonna validate this stuff. I think it's just gonna end up getting shoved through and approved. David Leary: [00:35:16] They're either gonna- it's either gonna be outsourced to all the big firms, and they're gonna create little factories, and do all this. They're the ones that are gonna make a bunch of money, or it's all gonna get rubber-stamped. It's one or the other that's probably gonna happen.  Blake Oliver: [00:35:28] If they outsource, David, then hopefully, they won't follow the trend of what's happened in the UK, which is- David Leary: [00:35:35] What happened there?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:36] The UK government has outsourced some aspects of their coronavirus response to Deloitte, and apparently, Deloitte hasn't done the best job, according to small businesses, when it comes to sourcing PPE; not property, plant, and equipment. We're talking about personal protective equipment. The UK government- the Prime Minister's office put Deloitte, in the UK, in charge of presiding over a system for providing PPE to the National Health Service staff. They set up an email address where all the small businesses that produce PPE in the UK could send offers-  David Leary: [00:36:15] It's like the PPE eBay. Blake Oliver: [00:36:17] Yeah, it's [crosstalk] government needs PPE. Here's a place where small businesses who produce it can go send their quotes. Apparently, it's been a disaster because the business owners haven't been getting responses. Deloitte has not figured out how to staff this thing, and it's  completely useless. [00:36:33] There are some really great quotes. "Hiring Deloitte to manage PPE procurement was a funny thing to do. If there's a fire, you don't call the auditor, you call the fire service." That's a clothing manufacturer based in northern England, as told to openDemocracy. "The firm has been offering to make medical gowns since mid-March and has not yet been able to contact anyone." [00:36:54] "Deloitte has been useless!" says Kate Hills, the founder of Make It British, which promotes brands that manufacture in the UK. "They have been an unnecessary step in the process; another middlemen only focused on price."  [00:37:04] "This is yet another story of a government project being handed over to an outsourcing company, like Deloitte, which has failed to deliver, and which lacks any transparency," said Labour's Reeves, echoing calls from the campaigners who say the government's COVID-19 deals must come under more scrutiny." Now, granted, that's a Labor Party person opposing the current government, but ...  David Leary: [00:37:22] So, what you're suggesting - if Big Four gets involved in processing these PPP forgiveness applications, it's only gonna get worse. Blake Oliver: [00:37:30] It's just gonna get worse.  David Leary: [00:37:30] It's not gonna help the banks [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:37:32] Well, think about it, because the way they're gonna charge the government is by the hour. so they've got no incentive to ...  David Leary: [00:37:37] Oh, that's right [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:37:37] Yeah, so that's the problem [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:37:41] Billable hour. Blake Oliver: [00:37:42] So, anyway, don't hire Deloitte to do this. Yeah. There's a great article in Going Concern about the same thing. Pretty funny quotes. It's just apparently the manufacturers have had better luck just contracting directly with different NHS offices. David Leary: [00:37:56] So, last week I talked about how the AICPA- I couldn't find the link to their forgiveness spreadsheet. They created an Excel file. So, it turns out- Blake Oliver: [00:38:04] They put out a press release, but there was no link to the actual file-  David Leary: [00:38:08] No link to that. Since then, I've seen dozens and dozens of accounting firms- everybody and their brother is building either an Excel template, or a Google sheet for forgiveness templates. We just wanna put out a warning that everybody has to be very, very careful. So, Microsoft just alerted everybody - Microsoft Security Intelligence - that they're tracking a massive campaign that delivers a legitimate remote-access tool ... Basically, your whole system's compromised, via an Excel macro. They have about 100 different versions of this Excel spreadsheet, basically called COVID-19 Data. Blake Oliver: [00:38:42] Oh, no ...  David Leary: [00:38:42] It's being sent out as an attachments. People are like, "Hey, check out this. It's the Arizona COVID deaths ..." and you forward it on to somebody.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:52] They open it. David Leary: [00:38:53] Now you're infected. So, I'm not saying that this is happening, but if I was gonna be a hacker, I probably would create a loan forgiveness spreadsheet next time, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:39:01] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:39:01] It makes a lot of sense. Not only that, I would be able to compromise better computers because it would be business computers instead of personal computers, probably. So, just be really aware ... It might be even proactive just to remind your clients: "Don't click on forgiveness spreadsheets unless you ask me first."  Blake Oliver: [00:39:20] Well, this is one of the reasons why I prefer Google Sheets to Excel. I know it's heresy to say that for a lot of people, but Google Sheets works in your web browser. It doesn't have access to your local system, and it's in a sandbox in Chrome. As far as I know, it's impossible for a macro in Google sheets to infect your computer. So, that's the solution to this. The calculations are not that complicated. Google Sheets can handle it. David Leary: [00:39:45] Yeah, the danger in the Google sheets problem is the plugins for Google Chrome. That's the danger in that. Somebody's like, "Hey, here's a forgiveness plugin," and you install that to your Google Sheet, and now you're in trouble. Just really warn your clients, right now, because they're everywhere. Everybody and their brother is releasing a PPP Forgiveness Excel file. Blake Oliver: [00:40:07] Yep. David Leary: [00:40:08] I'm sure, three weeks from now, there'll probably some ... One of these spreadsheets are gonna be infecting people. It's just only bound to happen. If it happens, it wasn't me! It wasn't me, folks! Blake Oliver: [00:40:19] So, you brought us into PPP, so shall we talk about the latest guidance? I have digested it. David Leary: [00:40:24] Oh, good, good. Go for it.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:24] On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reports that SBA released their 14th interim final rule. So, who knows how many interim final rules we will have to have before we get to the final rule? These are not the final rules, but we have a little more clarification; unfortunately, on the really important stuff, we don't have guidance. [00:40:46] We don't have guidance that clarifies who is eligible for the program beyond what we have already talked about. All that stuff about necessity, certifying the need, whether you have access to outside capital ... None of that is really clarified any further in this. It doesn't change the 75-percent payroll requirement, which, by the way, was never mandated by Congress. SBA could change that, if they wanted to, because they made up that rule, and they didn't take it out. [00:41:15] Here's what we do know. The SBA is saying that they may review PPP loans, "of any size, at any time, in SBA's discretion," which conflicts with what I have heard in the news about how they're not gonna audit people under $2 million. That's what Mnuchin was saying lately. So, I don't know what's up with that?  [00:41:33] They're saying that you have to retain documentation for six years after the loan is forgiven or paid in full, which suggests that they could come back and audit you six years down the road. Companies seeking loan forgiveness have to alert state unemployment offices if workers refused requests to return to work. That is gonna be awkward. Businesses won't be subject to reduction in loan forgiveness if employees refused to come back to work. That's pretty much it. It just formalizes a lot of the info that was provided with the forgiveness application that came out last week. [00:42:04] By the way, that forgiveness application is ridiculous. Accountants have a hard time figuring out the loan forgiveness application. What are the chances that your regular business owner, who doesn't have access to accountants ... What are they gonna do? It's just- it's way too complicated, and they have to do something to fix this. Congress, the Senate adjourned over the Memorial Day weekend until next month. Well, actually, I don't know when they come back, but they adjourned for Memorial Day weekend without doing any of the stuff they were talking about, without extending the PPP window, which is what Marco Rubio was trying to get. He wanted to extend it from eight weeks to 16 weeks. David Leary: [00:42:46] Yeah, he wanted legislation passed to make PPP forgiveness easier.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:52] Yeah. I like to make fun of Marco Rubio a little bit, but he's doing good work here. This needs to happen. The problem is that, under the current rule, the earliest recipients of the PPP funds, the people who got it right away, have to finish using those funds by May 29, which is ... We're recording on Sunday, May 24; so five days from now. What are the odds that the Senate is gonna come back on ...? Do they come back Tuesday? I'm not sure. What are the odds they're gonna come back next week, pass a law, get the House to pass it, get the President to sign it? David Leary: [00:43:25] This Rubio bill, is this is this separate from the $3 trillion stimulus package that Pelosi, and the Democrats pushed through the House, and they're waiting on the Senate now? Blake Oliver: [00:43:36] Yes.  David Leary: [00:43:36] So, it's different. It's not wrapped up in that; this is a standalone thing-  Blake Oliver: [00:43:40] The problem is that the Democrats in the House have put some new stuff for PPP in that $3 trillion bill, but that bill, as we discussed last episode, is dead on arrival. Senate's not gonna consider it. The House wants to actually remove the requirement that 75 percent of the money be used on payroll. That was in the House bill, I believe. That's not gonna pass. The House bill also would give people 24 weeks to spend loan funds. [00:44:10] I think there's a big question, or just this bill doesn't know what it wants to be- or this program doesn't know what it wants to be. Is the Paycheck Protection Program for employees, or is it for small businesses? Because if it's for small businesses, then all these restrictions, and all these complications are really bad and don't fit the intent. If it is, in fact, for employees, then, yeah, that's why you put in these restrictions. But it would have been better just to put more money into unemployment or just more money into stimulus payments, rather than trying to funnel money to employees through this convoluted process. That's just my opinion. David Leary: [00:44:45] Other people's, as well. I think I saw Mark Cuban ... Basically, he's putting a fork in it. He's just like, "The PPP program is a complete failure. Let's move on. Let's just send every single person $1,000 every week. That'll help increase spending on the bottom side of this." So, yeah, I think, to be honest, Cuban's making a play at running one day for politics [crosstalk] not this year, but he's making a play. Did you see the Texas man who was- he's the latest PPP fraud?  Blake Oliver: [00:45:15] No. What happened to him? David Leary: [00:45:16] He tried to get over $5 million in forgivable loans. Basically, he sought millions from two different banks by claiming he had more than 400 employees, when he actually had zero employees. He used a name generator to create a bunch of fake employees, and he created fake reports, and he applied for the loans. They're getting him on wire fraud, bank fraud, loan fraud, false statements to the SBA lenders, et cetera ... It's pretty gutsy. I mean, that's a huge claim- Blake Oliver: [00:45:50] Did they say how they caught him? Because I'm wondering if ... Maybe he used a name generator that was for fantasy board games, or something, and everyone sounds like they're from Lord of the Rings ...  David Leary: [00:46:05] So, in his first application, he claimed he had 400 employees and an average monthly payroll of $2 million  and obviously, he didn't [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:46:13] That's ridiculous because it's way more than ... Yeah, he should have just done a much smaller amount, and would have probably gotten it through, right?  David Leary: [00:46:20] Then, in the second application, Yates said here he employed 100 individuals and obtained a $500,000 loan. So, he actually got the other- the second loan. He obtained- Yates submitted a list of faux employees he obtained from an online name generator-  Blake Oliver: [00:46:35] That's amazing.  David Leary: [00:46:35] -and submitted forged tax documents for each application ... You're right. If he would've kept it under $2 million, he probably- nobody would've noticed [crosstalk] just make sure the math is a little insane. Blake Oliver: [00:46:45] He went too big. He got greedy.  David Leary: [00:46:45] Yeah, he shouldn't have done that. Here's the good news. For those of you that think, hey, we're hammering on the U.S. too much about the failure of the PPP. I know you touched on, and I've seen this with our UK accountant friends ... There they have- they call it a scheme. That's the official name of this. Blake Oliver: [00:47:03] I think it's so funny. Scheme is not a negative thing in the UK.  David Leary: [00:47:06] They call it a scheme. But then, also, we have our Australian counterparts, and I've been watching the JobKeeper program in Australia from the side. Their program was misstated from 6.5 million workers and had to be revised down to 3.5 million workers. Blake Oliver: [00:47:24] People receiving benefits or what? David Leary: [00:47:27] Because the reported figure ... When you're a small business owner, and you're filling out the form, apparently the form allows ... The way this works - I don't know all the exact math - you get $1,500 per employee. What's happening, a bunch of employers that had one employee were check-marking the box that they had 1,500 employees. The form, itself, was confusing.  Blake Oliver: [00:47:49] Oh, got it.  David Leary: [00:47:49] So, 500 businesses claimed they had 1,500 employees. Blake Oliver: [00:47:55] Just because the form was confusing. David Leary: [00:47:57] So, the original estimates the Treasury was putting out in Australia was ... They were talking about they were gonna have to subsidize wages for 6.5 million workers. Blake Oliver: [00:48:05] Oh, that's great. David Leary: [00:48:06] Now, it's really only 3.5. This is not ... All the governments suck at this. There's nobody doing this the right way, and the best way. They're all taking different approaches, and nobody's doing it right. So, just rest assured, this is not us going after the U.S. government thing. They all suck at it. Blake Oliver: [00:48:24] Well, big news in remote work, if you don't mind flipping over to that topic for- to [crosstalk] things out. I didn't get to mention this last time; it's so fascinating, actually. Maybe a lot of people didn't notice, but the House of Representatives recently acted to change their rules to allow remote voting, and virtual hearings. This is the first time in American history - in the history of the United States - that the House of Representatives has allowed remote voting. [00:48:55] Now, they're saying it's gonna be a temporary thing, but I imagine they'll keep this in their back pocket in case there's another need for it. You could make the argument that, yes, national security demands that they be able to operate remotely. Just to put this in perspective, the Philadelphia yellow fever outbreak of 1793 didn't do this. The Spanish influenza of 1918 didn't do this. Not even the September 11, 2001 attacks did this. So, you wanna talk about an era of remote work? When the U.S. Congress adopts remote work - at least half of it; Senate still hasn't done that, but the House did it - that's a big deal. That's a moment! I think this will be in the history books. David Leary: [00:49:39] This is kind of scary because they already don't go into work enough, arguably, right? Now, tons of people are gonna be no shows on these votes. Blake Oliver: [00:49:48] I think this is a great thing because it means that representatives will get to spend more time with their constituents rather than going back and forth. I think one of the- David Leary: [00:50:00] You mean their donors? Their donors are their constituents. Blake Oliver: [00:50:02] Hopefully, they'll add their constituents along with the donors. Right now, the problem is they're traveling back and forth so much. It's a tough job to be in Congress. They work a lot. They have to have two different homes. So, I think maybe this will open up the job and make it more attractive to people who otherwise wouldn't do it. That's good because you want better people in Congress, right? It's like any job - when you make the job easier to do, and more open, and accessible, then you get more candidates. So, to me, this is a great thing. [00:50:35] Part of the argument against having remote Congress is the same arguments you hear from accounting firms saying that we can't work remotely. "Oh, we have to have that in-person collaboration. You need to be able to slap somebody on the back, and look somebody in the eye ..." Really? We can't figure out other ways to do this. They can't at least operate remotely some of the year? I mean, there's a lot of state legislatures that don't even come into session more than two times a year, anyway, so this could just allow them to sort of meet in the middle, do something ... At least be able to do work while not having to be in Washington. David Leary: [00:51:14] I can only imagine these Zoom calls. Blake Oliver: [00:51:16] Sometimes, I'm very negative about our government, but I think this is a great thing. This is a good thing, and the Senate should do it, too. It's important. One other funny story about remote work, David. There is one country in the world that is taking remote work more seriously than any other country, and that is - no surprise - Singapore, which tends to do everything very seriously, it seems, at least as an outsider. [00:51:42] A judge in Singapore has sentenced a man to death via a Zoom video call for his role in a drug deal. One of just two known cases where a capital punishment verdict has been delivered remotely. So, if you thought it was bad that companies are firing people via Zoom, at least they're not executing people via Zoom.  David Leary: [00:51:58] I saw that Weight Watchers this week let go of everybody via Zoom.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:03] They did. They did a bunch of terminations, yeah [crosstalk] What else are you gonna do? Call people into an office, give them coronavirus, and then send them on their way? David Leary: [00:52:10] Well, I think the problem- the beef people are having is they're not one on one. You're not getting a one-on-one heads up. You're just getting into a Zoom call that you wouldn't- you really don't know what's going on. Because I'm sure the hallway chatter is slower now. Blake Oliver: [00:52:25] Right.  David Leary: [00:52:25] Like, "Hey, I heard layoffs are coming ..." I think some of the hallway chatter may be a lot slower. That, I don't know, actually, because I'm not ... It's gotta be slower because I'm not I'm not getting any rumor-y hallway talk, right now, from anybody, so it's gotta be slower. So, that's something to keep an eye on with remote work. There's a story we ought to at least just keep our eye on. Did you see that there's a class action suit representing the accountants against the banks? Blake Oliver: [00:52:51] No! Tell me about this! David Leary: [00:52:53] The agent fees ... So, this is an opinion piece that was written. It's arguably not an opinion piece, but it's an independent contributor on Forbes. There is a law group. It's Michael Adler of GrayLaw Group, Inc. has started the ball rolling on a class action lawsuit. Basically, 19 lawyers are involved to represent the accountants for ... Traditionally, with loans at the banks, you get that agent fee, right? Blake Oliver: [00:53:21] Yeah. David Leary: [00:53:21] With PPP, you could not get it [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:53:23] -about this, six weeks ago, when the program started. David Leary: [00:53:27] Loosely, we've done the math before. The banks stand to make, what, $25 million, if not $30 million- I'm sorry, $25 billion, if not $30 billion? Blake Oliver: [00:53:36] Yeah. It's between one and five percent of all of the money for the whole program, which is up to $600 to $700 billion. So, yeah, it's a lot of money. David Leary: [00:53:49] Yeah, so there's a lot at stake here. Then, accountants really couldn't charge for doing the application. They weren't getting a fee back. Now, I actually believe there's ... If this gets rubber-stamped, everything's gonna get forgiven. I truly, deeply down, believe that. Which now means all the work accountants or bookkeepers could do to charge to fill out that forgiveness paperwork isn't gonna be necessary. So, accountants are really left holding an empty bag. [00:54:14] This is gonna be something to watch - this a class action suit. Now, what this will mean is every accountant, or bookkeeper will get a check for a dollar, when it's all said and done because the lawyers are gonna take the rest of it. The interesting thing from this article, a sentence I liked, was, #TaxTwitter transformed itself into almost all Paycheck Protection, all the time." That's really true, so it's not just us who were just Payroll Protection Program for the last six to eight weeks. All of Twitter was. Blake Oliver: [00:54:41] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:54:41] That's all anybody's talked about. It's a little bit- it's been crazy. Unfortunately, there's still no end in sight. There's no resolution on this. Blake Oliver: [00:54:49] Well, hopefully, Congress will come back, and do something sensible, and make this simpler, this week. It needs to happen ASAP because, like we said, a bunch of businesses are gonna- they're gonna hit the end of that eight-week period this month. David Leary: [00:55:05] I got my loan five weeks in, and I've had it now for three weeks. So, yeah, we're in week eight, and nine, right now. Blake Oliver: [00:55:12] They've gotta act soon. So, hopefully those senators will have a nice Memorial Day weekend, relax a little bit, and come back refreshed so they can fix this. David Leary: [00:55:23] Maybe they'll listen to the podcast a little bit. Blake Oliver: [00:55:25] Maybe they will. That's all I got, David, for this week. Plenty more for next week, I'm sure. If people wanna reach you in between episodes, let you know what they think, where should they go? David Leary: [00:55:37] Couple of options. You can get ahold of me on Twitter, or LinkedIn. I'm @DavidLeary; very easy to find. You can also give us a phone call. Blake Oliver: [00:55:45] Yes! (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. Give us a call. Leave us a message on our Google Voice. We'll take a listen, and we might even play the audio on the air. As I mentioned at the beginning, if you wanna let us know what you think - positive, negative, either way - please write us a review. I really appreciate these reviews. I had the feeling we were getting a little crazy on the PPP and maybe a little bit over the top on the politics. It's good to hear that from people. We wanna cover what you wanna hear. So, if you liked the focus on the app news that we did more, if you prefer the PPP, or you've got other thoughts, write a review; let us know. You can reach me on Twitter. I'm @BlakeTOliver. David Leary: [00:56:30] That's a wrap. Blake Oliver: [00:56:31] Have a great Memorial Day weekend, David, and I'll see you here next week.____________________ ClassifiedsAccountingTax.com has helped more than 8,900 tax, accounting, and wealth management firms map out a client experience, through client acquisition, conversion, onboarding, retention, and expansion, with the goal of getting clients to pay more, year over year. If you're looking to develop your practice and take it to the next level with advisory services, go to accountingtax.com/cloud to learn more. ____________________ Still sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? Automate this process and get client answers instantly with ClientHub's QuickBooks Online integration. This feature was described as one that only an accountant would have come up with as it solves a real big pain point. ClientHub is a modern client portal designed for cloud accounting firms. 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Sponsors LivePlan: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 06:50 - Pioneer discloses new details of MyPayrollHR owner's alleged fraud – Albany Business Review 08:26 - Richard Burr Steps Back From Senate Panel as Phone Is Seized in Stock Sales Inquiry – New York Times 12:08 - Reality star charged with spending funds from federal small business program on jewelry, Rolls-Royce – Washington Post 17:26 - Marco Rubio discusses making changes to the PPP rules - Twitter 19:20 - SBA Releases Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness Application: A Deep Dive - Forbes 21:30 - SBA.gov now providing daily updates, according to Sec. Mnuchin - Twitter  22:34 - A #PPP Horror Story brought to you by Kabbage - Twitter 24:05 - More PPP loans seem to be coming through for anxious business owners 28:26 - SBA provides safe harbor for PPP loans under $2 million – Journal of Accountancy 29:25 - PPP Changes Trip Up Small Businesses – The Wall Street Journal 31:28 - More discussion on the SBA Inspector General's report from Episode 174 33:18 - Lawsuit seeks data on PPP small business loans as large companies face deadline to return funds – ABC News 36:36 - AICPA Offers Loan Forgiveness Calculator for Paycheck Protection Program - AICPA *CAP Listener, Melissa Wasgatt provided us with a link to the Forgiveness Calculator – Thanks, Melissa! 38:37 - House Democrats unveil new $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill – CNBC  41:35 - Goldman: US Unemployment Rate Could Hit 25 Pct - PYMNTS.com 42:08 - Covid Kills 67,600 Jobs in Tax and Accounting – CPA Trendlines 43:26 - April Retail Rent Collection Drops to 58%: Datex Survey – The Real Deal 44:08 - 'Going Concern' Warnings Are a Growing Concern – Yahoo! Finance 46:34 - Why Are the Public Markets Strong When Unemployment is Terrible? Answer: The Cloud | SaaStr   48:09 - Digital adoption through COVID-19 and beyond - McKinsey Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds ClientHub: https://clienthub.app JetPack Workflow: http://jetpackworkflow.com/freetemplates Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptAccording  to the 2019 LivePlan small business survey: 71 percent of small business owners want forecasting and cash planning services; 61 percent want business planning, strategy, and monthly management reporting; 70 percent prefer virtual advisory services. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, LivePlan, later in the episode. Blake Oliver: [00:00:23] The best part about this, David, is what he spent the money on. Apparently, he spent $1.5 million on a Rolex Presidential watch, a diamond bracelet, a 5.73-carat diamond ring for himself, a 2019 Rolls-Royce Wraith, $40,000 in child support. Then, agents, when they stormed his property to execute a search warrant, they found $80,000 in cash, including $9,400 that Fayne had in his pockets ... ____________________This of episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by OnPay. Paycheck Protection Program, CARES Act, unemployment insurance, furloughs, layoffs, cash flow, CDC guidance, employee safety, paid leave, tax credits - tracking all of the constantly changing COVID-19-related information for your clients is getting overwhelming. With OnPay's COVID-19 Resource Center, you'll have a one-stop shop for your up-to-date HR, and tax information.OnPay is an easy-to-use full-service payroll, and HR software that is the right fit for all your clients, whether they have just one or 500 employees. Stay organized, save time, and get compliant. OnPay includes deep integrations to benefit providers, workers' comp plans, QuickBooks, and Xero. Right now, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get three free months of OnPay payroll service. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash O-N-P-A-Y. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before May 31, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:43] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:46] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:48] David, did I hear you correctly that you went to a wedding this weekend? Why aren't you social distancing? David Leary: [00:02:54] I could not actually go to the wedding, so we had to do it via Zoom.  Blake Oliver: [00:02:57] A Zoom wedding.  David Leary: [00:02:59] Friday night, or Saturday ... Friday evening. We did the cutting of the cake, so they sent cupcakes to everybody, and we popped champagne and did a Zoom cutting of the cake together. Blake Oliver: [00:03:11] How many people were on this wedding Zoom? David Leary: [00:03:14] I think it was about 80. Blake Oliver: [00:03:16] Wow.  David Leary: [00:03:17] Then, it was a lot of couples, so it's probably double that, right? There's families, et cetera. They got married earlier that day in the beach, in San Francisco. So, they did do a proper social-distance wedding. They had about six-seven people there, and they were all spaced out on their own little blanket, and they did a wedding. Blake Oliver: [00:03:36] Aww, that's great. Did they have any Zoom issues, like people not muting themselves? I mean, 80 people is a lot. David Leary: [00:03:43] Yes. She's a CEO, and I think he runs a sales team, so they're very good at managing; making people ... You raise your hand. You have to use all the Zoom features to manage that. Blake Oliver: [00:03:53] Well, that's fun. I don't think I'm gonna be attending any quarantine weddings, but I do have some news, myself, which is it looks my family is gonna be relocating permanently to Arizona. David Leary: [00:04:07] Congratulations!  Blake Oliver: [00:04:07] Thank you!  David Leary: [00:04:07] We're gonna be neighbors. Blake Oliver: [00:04:09] We're gonna- practically neighbors, right? How far is Tucson from Phoenix? David Leary: [00:04:13] Depends where you go in Phoenix. Anywhere from two hours to two and-a-half hours; depends on where you're at. Blake Oliver: [00:04:17] My parents live in Phoenix, and we'd always toyed around with the idea of moving here, but my wife's company doesn't have an office in Phoenix. They have a policy where, if there's an office in the Metro, you can move there, but you can't if they don't. Well, now, with all this remote-work stuff going on, her team's gonna be remote potentially forever because they always had the ability to work from home. So, she's not encountering any resistance to us moving. The cost of living, man ... Oh, my God! Coming from L.A.? Even Scottsdale, which is a ritzy part of Phoenix, is half the price. It's just amazing. I'm in heaven! David Leary: [00:04:53] It's spreadsheet appropriate. Blake Oliver: [00:04:55] It's incred- it's great.  David Leary: [00:04:57] I was in Phoenix yesterday, and you would never guess there was a pandemic, or a COVID thing. It was like regular old Phoenix. I could not believe ... I think the restaurants and stuff just opened the day before, but I was really shocked at how- other than Costco ... I had some gas to fill up before I left. Other than Costco, which has a policy to make people wear masks, you would never know anything was happening in Phoenix. Blake Oliver: [00:05:18] It's so spread out that one thing that I'm really happy about moving here is, even as Arizona reopens, which it's doing, I don't think there's going to be this giant surge in infections here, if it's done smart, because it's so spread out. Even in offices. It's not like you're crammed together like you are in L.A., or San Francisco, or New York. There's a lot more space; a lot more overhead room; ventilation; all that stuff. David Leary: [00:05:43] A lot more separate buildings, too. There's not just a small amount of office spaces that are just built up, like skyscrapers [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:05:48] Exactly. David Leary: [00:05:49] Everybody has their own building and their own piece of land. Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:05:52] Yeah, so I'm hopeful. These are silver linings for me.  David Leary: [00:05:55] We'll check back in with you, in mid-August, and see how this move's going in Phoenix, when it's 117.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:03] Yeah, yeah, I might be regretting it then. Let's talk about what's going on with everything. Again - PPP/coronavirus/stimulus ... David Leary: [00:06:16] The gods worked with us because there was somebody drilling, so we couldn't record on Friday. It's good that we didn't because we canceled it. Instead, we're recording on Sunday, but Friday night, again, new guidance around PPP drops. Blake Oliver: [00:06:30] Yep, new guidance around PPP, late on Friday. So, there's that. Follow-up about some of the stories. Richard Burr is in the news, and we talked about him, so I've got that, and then ... Where do we begin? David Leary: [00:06:46] I have a MyPayrollHR update. Blake Oliver: [00:06:48] Ooh, let's do follow-up. Let's talk about that.  David Leary: [00:06:50] The fraud, it was ... Just to recap quickly, Michael Mann had a couple payroll companies. One of them was MyPayrollHR. He was using all these payroll companies along with his- I think he had about 18 other entities. He was kiting checks between a bank account he had at Pioneer Bank and bank accounts he had at Bank of America- Blake Oliver: [00:07:11] This all seems so long ago now.  David Leary: [00:07:14] It does seem long ago. What he did, is he- somewhere along the line, he crossed the line, and he rerouted payroll direct deposit money that was supposed to go into employees' bank accounts, and the money to pay taxes. He rerouted that into his own accounts. It was a domino effect from there. So, that's kind of the quick recap of MyPayrollHR.  [00:07:33] Well, now, Pioneer Bank is countersuing him. They're kind of just saying that he defrauded them entirely, the whole time, repeatedly, for a long time. Except for, I think you, and I, before, we were looking at this, and we suspected that - how did Pioneer Bank let this happen, unless he had somebody inside the bank working with him? Blake Oliver: [00:07:54] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:07:54] So, it still doesn't make total sense. They've counterclaimed, now, for $46 million. I don't totally understand why they call it a counterclaim because it's filed as a response to the U.S. District Court in New York against Pioneer Bank. There's been lawsuits against the bank. People are suing the bank because they've been holding the tax money. I wouldn't say it's a counter. It's almost like a push the boulder thing. "Don't sue us! We gotta sue this guy first, so that you can sue us." It's interesting because it sounds like this money's still just tied up. Blake Oliver: [00:08:26] Well, I've got some follow-up on Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina. Listeners may recall that he was accused of insider trading, I believe, back in March. He had to disclose in filings that he sold stock worth between $600 and $1.7 million. He sold 33 stock holdings on February 12, and he was receiving classified briefings from CIA officials, and top government health officials in the Senate at that time. He actually got a briefing the day before. David Leary: [00:09:05] He's the one that ... There were a couple people that got caught for this before, but he's the one that said, "I just was watching business news, cable TV, and I just made smart decisions the next morning and sold everything." Blake Oliver: [00:09:17] Yeah, "It had nothing to do with the classified intel I was receiving as the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee." It's not just him, by the way, I should say. Senators James Inhofe - I hope that's how you say it - Republican of Oklahoma; Kelly Loeffler, Republican of Georgia, and Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, have all been accused of insider trading and have said that they did nothing wrong. But Richard Burr is the one who's taken the most heat for this because he sold a lot of his holdings. I guess that's like most of his holdings. He didn't have- he's not a rich senator. David Leary: [00:09:51] Well, plus, the other reason he took heat is because back when he did this before, he actually was one of the only few senators that opposed the bill- Blake Oliver: [00:10:01] Oh, the bill that would ban senators from insider trading. David Leary: [00:10:05] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:10:07] Yeah, because there is a law that says you can't use classified information - information you receive as a senator - to trade on stock ... That's recent. It used to be just anybody could do it. It was not a crime. It was unethical, but it wasn't a crime. So, it is a crime. The big news is, as reported in The New York Times, that the FBI is investigating him, which is a big deal for the FBI to investigate a senator. They seized his cell phone as part of an investigation. They went to his house and took his cell phone from him. They're investigating whether or not he was trading on nonpublic information about the coronavirus. [00:10:49] There's a question as to whether or not this investigation is somewhat politically motivated, given that he's a Republican. You would think that, perhaps, the administration would not be all that interested in investigating him. That was my initial thinking. Well, it turns out that Burr has been the face and driving force behind the bipartisan Russia interference investigation. So, is this retribution, potentially, for having let that happen- for making that happen? He's not on good terms with the White House. There's no evidence to suggest that, but it seems possible to me.  David Leary: [00:11:29] I don't know. I was really mad when that all went down because it was just unbelievable, the nerve. I think I saw, too, though, he had his phone because he communicated with other people, as far as giving them a heads up, too [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:11:43] Yeah, some other people benefited, right?  David Leary: [00:11:44] They're probably gonna find something. It's just not cool, and he's gonna lose his seat. If he doesn't lose his seat because of a criminal investigation, he's gonna lose his seat- they're gonna vote him out. Nobody's gonna stand for this. This is ...  Blake Oliver: [00:11:58] That's the follow-up I've got. Shall we turn to PPP? David Leary: [00:12:05] I think so. That's the next big chunk, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:12:08] My lead story for the PPP ... It's come to reality TV, David. Reality TV is crossing over with the Paycheck Protection Program. The Washington Post reported that Maurice "Mo" Fayne, a trucking company owner who appears regularly on the reality show Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, has been charged with using more than $1.5 million in Small Business Administration stimulus funds to enrich himself rather than for paying workers and small business expenses, as the program requires.  [00:12:37] The best part about this, David, is what he spent the money on. Apparently, he spent $1.5 million on a Rolex Presidential watch, a diamond bracelet, a 5.73-carat diamond ring for himself, a 2019 Rolls-Royce Wraith, $40,000 in child support. Then, agents, when they stormed his property to execute a search warrant, they found $80,000 in cash, including $9,400 that Fayne had in his pockets. David Leary: [00:13:11] Something doesn't add up right about this story, though. Blake Oliver: [00:13:14] What is that? Yeah, tell me.  David Leary: [00:13:15] What is the crime? The only thing they really have proof of is he spent a bunch of money. Until he files his forgiveness paperwork, how ...? Unless these are coming out of the business account; like, he got a loan. It was deposited in the business checking account; then, he used the business checking account to make these purchases, I don't know where the fraud is, other than he just buys a bunch of stupid shit. That's what I'm not following. What did he actually do that was fraudulent? Blake Oliver: [00:13:44] Well, so, what I think happened is that he had the money deposited into his bank accounts, his business bank accounts, and then he withdrew that money and spent it on these things. As part of getting the loan, you have to certify that the loan proceeds will be used to, "retain workers and maintain payroll or make mortgage interest payments, lease payments, and utility payments as specified under the Paycheck Protection Program rule."  David Leary: [00:14:12] How many Paycheck Protection loans have there been now? They're pushing 4 million?  Blake Oliver: [00:14:15] 4 million, yeah.  David Leary: [00:14:16] 4 million. So, just somebody just happened to be watching his account and said, "Hey, these aren't paychecks leaving this account." Blake Oliver: [00:14:24] Well, so, he got a- David Leary: [00:14:25] None of it adds up. Blake Oliver: [00:14:26] He got a $2 million loan, which is on that threshold of what they are targeting now.  David Leary: [00:14:32] That puts you on the radar, yep. Blake Oliver: [00:14:34] It puts you on the radar. So, they're probably looking for this kind of stuff to shut it down as quickly as possible because it would be really bad PR if this happened a lot. So, it was probably super-obvious. It doesn't say this in the articles that I read, but I imagine the way they caught him is probably how they catch a lot of this stuff, which is he was posting on Instagram, or something. I'm sure if we went and dug into it, we would find out that he was bragging about spending all this money, right? So, then, somebody-  David Leary: [00:15:03] I think he got a new license plate that said "Go PPP ..." [crosstalk] his car, and it gave it away [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:15:08] Yeah, the Rolls-Royce Wraith, right? Yeah, it just ... I'm sure this is happening more than we know, but this was just an obvious case. So, I just ... $9,400 in his pockets. Almost $10,000 just in his pockets when they raided his house.  David Leary: [00:15:24] Which is more than a lot of people's PPP loan. Blake Oliver: [00:15:28] Yeah, right.  David Leary: [00:15:28] He just had it in his pocket.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:28] Yeah. He supposedly has 100 employees. I don't know if that's even true, but he said on his loan application that he had 107 employees. David Leary: [00:15:40] That's what's the confusing part about this. There's not a case being made of like, oh, he lied on the application. He did not ...  They're just saying he didn't spend it on the correct things, which is interesting because shouldn't you be allowed to submit your forgiveness paperwork at the end and show what you're spending it on/not spending it on? I mean- Blake Oliver: [00:15:59] Well, if he'd had- David Leary: [00:15:59] I don't know. I think it's a jump, here [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:16:02] Yeah. Well, here's the funny part. So, his lawyer said that, "There has been considerable confusion among small business owners about PPP guidelines, particularly around the question of whether and how business owners are permitted to pay themselves a salary or owners draw. This ambiguity and confusion for business owners needs to be addressed immediately as the PPP program is still in its infancy." Which makes me think that they're going to try and argue that he gave the money to himself as payroll and, therefore, was not misusing the funds according to the certification. He paid himself the money, which other PPP recipients have done. They've issued bonuses to their executives after receiving the PPP money, right? David Leary: [00:16:49] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:16:50] So, I wonder if this will actually stick or if the ambiguity around the rules is gonna allow him to get out of it? I mean, either way [crosstalk] He won't get it forgiven, that's for sure, but is it actually a crime? Hard to say, right?  David Leary: [00:17:04] That's the article- that's the part I did not get. This got a lot of show; it was on Twitter. It gets a lot of flash, but I'm not sure there's a crime yet. Nobody made a clear case that he committed a crime or a fraud. He just spent the money on really stupid things. Blake Oliver: [00:17:19] Well, so- David Leary: [00:17:20] Which should be a crime, maybe [crosstalk]   Blake Oliver: [00:17:21] Let's talk about this ambiguity and the new guidance that came out on Friday. David Leary: [00:17:26] Well, even before you jump into the new guidance that came in Friday. I mean, Marco Rubio had a video this week, and he talked about how he met with Steven Mnuchin about how they need to have more flexibility and it needs to be easier with the forgiveness. Some of the reasons were, a lot of it, the argument of just the timeline. It's almost impossible for every single person to have that perfect eight weeks [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:17:45] Yeah, the guidance just came out, so a lot of companies are more than four weeks into their forgiveness period. David Leary: [00:17:52] Yeah, but a lot of companies aren't even open yet. They haven't even spent any [crosstalk] They really have been- they hinted at new forgiveness, and now, they've introduced a bill. They wanna introduce a bill that ... Because when this all started, Marco Rubio's argument is we just didn't know enough, when we introduced the first CARES Act, so they wanna introduce this special bill about the forgiveness and about the taxability, because that was the big news drop last week, the end of the month, was, hey, it's all gonna be taxable. So, they wanna release a bill that addresses these two things. I'll let you continue on with what happened Friday night [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:18:32] Did they say any specifics, though, about what they wanna do to make this easier? Moving the eight-week period was one of those things; letting businesses decide when that starts? David Leary: [00:18:41] No, but he said - in his tweet - "Expect some more flexibility and loan-forgiveness guidelines. We will begin to work on a bipartisan bill providing even more flexibility." Blake Oliver: [00:18:52] Great. David Leary: [00:18:52] So, you can buy a Rolls Royce.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:53] That was Rubio, right?  David Leary: [00:18:54] That was Rubio. Blake Oliver: [00:18:55] So, get ready for the new bill to pass, like the day before the loan period expires or something. So, let's talk about what happened on Friday. The SBA released more information, more guidance, and the application itself - the actual loan forgiveness application. So, now we can actually put the numbers in and see what our clients or our businesses are going to get forgiven. Tony Nitti - and I've never said his last name out loud, so I apologize if that's completely wrong - he wrote this amazing walkthrough of the application, line by line, how you do it, with a case study example. [00:19:35] It is long. I tried to follow along this morning. I was reading it at breakfast, and my eyes just start glazing over. I started thinking to myself, oh, my God, this loan forgiveness application is so insanely complicated, even accountants are gonna have trouble filling this thing out. That's why we need an expert like Tony to tell us how it works. Think about just your typical small business that doesn't have an accountant guiding them through this. Most don't.  David Leary: [00:20:00] It's an 11-page PDF to account for one box that was on the original application form, which is the wages box.  Blake Oliver: [00:20:05] Yes. It's nuts. It's absolutely nuts. So, I mean, this- unless they simplify this, it's gonna be an absolute disaster. It's gonna discourage businesses from applying, which we've talked about. We talked about that last week. It still is a problem because there's PPP money that is still out there. People have realized it's so difficult; this loan forgiveness thing is so uncertain, so complicated, the businesses have just stopped taking the money. Before we get into that, though, I wanna read a section from the article, which is great. [00:20:36] So, Tony writes, "While the application included instruction, the SBA failed to provide two additional items that would have greatly benefit of borrowers. 1. narrative-based guidance similar to previously issued interim final rules, which ideally would clear up much of the confusion surrounding critical definitions from what items are included in payroll costs to the treatment of guaranteed payments, or self-rental payments. 2. Detailed blueprints for constructing a fully functioning time machine, so nearly 2 million small business owners could magically transport back to a time when this forgiveness guidance would actually be useful." I just enjoyed that snarky remark because the SBA deserves it, at this point, and anything that you can do to make this stuff more interesting is fun. I loved reading that.  David Leary: [00:21:25] One thing, though, we can rest ... We've impacted something, Blake. Blake Oliver: [00:21:30] Yeah?  David Leary: [00:21:30] Nobody was releasing numbers, and we were some of the first people to really start hammering on that, and [crosstalk] spun up a website to track it. So, Steven Mnuchin - and we missed this last week - but on May 6, he announced that SBA.gov is finally providing daily end-of-day updates on PPP loans. So, now, you can go in and see ... They even updated it, believe or not, Saturday night; so as of last night, They're truly, truly giving the numbers out on a regular basis now. Blake Oliver: [00:21:59] Where are we at with the amount that has been accessed, distributed, received? David Leary: [00:22:05] This is the round-two data, which doesn't help because it's just the round-two data. You have to go find the old data and add it back in. The round-two data - they're at 2.7 million loans for $195 billion. That is looking at, still, 5,400 participating lenders. The average loan size of this round is $70,000.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:27] Got it. Way lower than the previous tranche of loans, which was closer to what ... Over $100,000 [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:22:34] I bet it's pushing 180- yeah [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:22:34] -closer to $200,000, right? So, that's good, but a good chunk of the second piece of PPP is still unclaimed. It's not ... People aren't applying for it. Of the first tranche, do we still know ...? Do we know how much has actually been disbursed at this point? It was supposed to all be disbursed within 10 days, but I think that is not necessarily happening. I saw a whole mess on Twitter about one lender in particular, Kabbage. Were you following this, David? David Leary: [00:23:06] I was trying to. There was more and more about Kabbage popping up. People were applying through Kabbage. I think the bad part is they were getting messages, and email that says, "Hey, your loans are ready to be approved," or, "You need to sign something;" then you log into the site and then, either the thing you want is not available ... The worst part is people weren't getting responses back. It was almost like  Kabbage was radio silent for a bit. Blake Oliver: [00:23:28] They were approving loans. Then people were getting frustrated with Kabbage because they couldn't get any word on it, and they were going and trying to apply through other lenders. The lenders would come back and say, "No, you've already been approved." So, it's like Kabbage had locked up their EIN with a loan application that they weren't getting funded. [00:23:46] I wonder how many business owners are in that situation, where they have applied; they're locked in with a lender, but they're not getting the money yet. Something that makes me think this is true was a survey of small business owners asking them, "How many of you have actually gotten funding yet?" This was on Accounting Today on May 14. This week, 39 percent of applicants are still waiting for approval, down from 59 percent just two weeks ago, and 45 percent last week. [00:24:15] So, I'm having trouble squaring this. 39 percent of applicants are still waiting for approval. That is from Paychex. Paychex polled 300 randomly selected U.S. business owners with two to 500 employees. So, we've got a second round of PPP money, a good chunk of which is still available and unclaimed; people are not applying. But of that first round, people are still waiting to get their money. David Leary: [00:24:41] So, basically $500 billion has been approved, and a lot of people still have yet to get it. Blake Oliver: [00:24:47] So, the bottleneck is- it's gotta be the banks. That's where the problem is because it's been approved by the SBA. They're reporting they've approved it. People still don't have the money. That's all [crosstalk] We don't know that for sure, but what else could it be? David Leary: [00:25:01] I mean, the trouble here is you have to have the cash to deposit in people's accounts. It's not like you get the application; you send it to the SBA; the SBA puts money in your account, so then, you can loan it out to the small business owner, if you're the bank or the lender-  Blake Oliver: [00:25:15] Right. You have to have capital-  David Leary: [00:25:15] I know that my lender that I applied with, they were like, "Oh, we have to source some more money. We don't have any more money to give out." It wasn't even an application thing; it was they ran out of money. What I find interesting with the tech thing - Kabbage, and then, Divvy had some problems - is that all these companies are- they have a partner bank. Ultimately, I think a lot of the tech companies that are in this game have ... They're not actually supplying the money. They're just basically middleman to a partner bank who's supplying the money. Blake Oliver: [00:25:44] Right.  David Leary: [00:25:44] Is it the partner bank that's ... Where's the downfall here? I don't know where this process is breaking, but it makes me wonder ... Some of the big, big companies - the Intuits, or the PayPals - are they funding these loans themselves to speed that process [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:26:04] Yeah, we don't know.____________________This episode of the Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by LivePlan. Especially in these times, small business owners need cash forecasting that helps their business both survive and thrive, and they need information presented in ways that they can understand.  Because LivePlan was built for small business owners to understand, it is the perfect platform for you to offer a wide range of strategic advisory services. LivePlan offers a complete advisory program you can consume online, with over 20 resources from advisory business processes, to meeting agendas, and scripts, to marketing emails, and even guidance on packaging, and pricing of your advisory services.LivePlan is the least-expensive business-planning or forecasting app available, yet it comes with the most tools and resources. The LivePlan Strategic Advisors Program includes onboarding, annual CPE, unlimited users, co-branding, and an accountant's hotline phone number for customer support. Until JUNE 30, LivePlan is offering 50 percent off their online training program. To take advantage of this amazing 50-percent-off offer, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash L-I-V-E-P-L-A-N. LivePlan - your scalable, and affordable advisory platform____________________Blake Oliver: [00:27:27] So, one more thing that happened last week, a big change that happened is ... Well, do you remember how Mnuchin was threatening to audit every business that got a PPP loan? David Leary: [00:27:38] Yes, because that's when everything- the pendulum really swung to "We're gonna go after everybody." Now, it's starting to swing the other way, where, "Spend it on what you want," right?  Blake Oliver: [00:27:46] There was all that bad PR about public companies getting the money. Hedge funds may be getting the money. Nonprofits with large endowments getting the money. Then, Mnuchin started saying, "We're gonna audit people over 2 million; businesses over $2 million in PPP money are definitely gonna get audited." Then, they started saying that everybody's gonna get audited potentially. David Leary: [00:28:08] They created this safe harbor [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:28:09] They created the safe harbor.  David Leary: [00:28:09] It was the 15th. Now it's tomorrow. Blake Oliver: [00:28:13] If you don't wanna get criminal charges for this certification that you made that was improper, then return the money. Originally, it was May 7, was it? David Leary: [00:28:23] May 15 [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:28:24] Then they kept pushing it, right? David Leary: [00:28:26] Yep. Blake Oliver: [00:28:26] So, now, I guess because of all the lack of interest - they scared away everybody from this program or a good chunk of people - they have changed their tune once again. Now, the SBA is saying that businesses who received less than $2 million in PPP money will be assumed to have performed the required certification concerning the necessity of their loan requests in good faith. So, you're not gonna get audited. They're just gonna assume that you certified properly, after all of this ...  [00:28:57] Accounting firms- I can't tell you how many emails I got from accounting firms advising their clients about this whole certification fiasco, and consider whether or not you need the money. I'm wondering how many of these businesses that got loans under $2 million returned the money because of that, and they're now like, "I've returned the money, but they weren't gonna audit me!"  David Leary: [00:29:17] I imagine it's not a huge amount, though, because even the public companies that have gotten the bad press about this, only a third of them have returned the money. Blake Oliver: [00:29:25] Right, but it's really frustrating. The Wall Street Journal had a great quote from a business owner, Richard Forrestel Jr.; he's the treasurer of Cold Spring Construction in Akron, New York. He plans to return - at least as of the publication of this article - plans to return the $2.2 million PPP loan his 110-person family-owned construction company received in late April. Cold Spring, which specializes in road and bridge work, hasn't lost any business because of the pandemic, but Mr. Forrestel fears that New York could cut back on construction to balance a budget ravaged by the pandemic. [00:30:01] "This is a classic bait and switch," Mr. Forrestel said of the PPP changes. The company's expenses have increased because of new safety precautions, he said. But they're still gonna give the money back because it's over $2 million. They can't risk the penalties, potentially. They could use the money, though. I mean, if you ask me, that sounds like need. It's just so ambiguous, though, they're not willing to take that risk.  David Leary: [00:30:25] Have real penalties been announced, or is it just you're going to have to pay the- it just turns into a loan? That's always been the confusing part of this whole thing is it was always like, if you don't spend it, it's just a loan. Blake Oliver: [00:30:37] Yeah, what are the penalties? What are the civil penalties? What are the criminal penalties? We don't know. David Leary: [00:30:44] At this point, the reason they were saying only a third of public companies have returned it is it's just bad press is the penalty. So, if you have a non-consumer-facing product, or company, you just don't care. Why would you return it? Blake Oliver: [00:30:59] Yeah. One of the really confusing things about this whole process- this whole forgiveness application, is this idea that you have to spend 75 percent on payroll costs. If you spend less than that, then it gets reduced, the forgiveness amount. That is one of the biggest problems with this whole program ,in the eyes of many business owners, who can't bring their employees back, whose employees are on unemployment, and the employees don't wanna come back because of that. It makes it really complicated. [00:31:28] Well, apparently that 75-percent requirement is not even in the legislation. It's a rule that SBA made up. It's not in the law. In the SBA's Inspector General report on May 8 that we talked about last week says that the rule was never mandated by the legislation. Is this even going to stand up in court? Is it gonna be enforceable? Yet, both Mnuchin, and Marco Rubio said that it would require legislative action to change the 75-percent rule that doesn't exist, apparently, in the law. David Leary: [00:32:01] Yeah, and that's what Rubio was saying. They're gonna have to pass a special law just about the forgiveness, the timeline [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:32:09] Why do they have to pass a law for something that wasn't in the legislation in the first place that was a rule that the SBA created? That's what I don't understand. Maybe I've got it wrong, but ... David Leary: [00:32:18] Well, I think that's the problem. They created a law that had too many holes in it. So, then the IRS, and the SBA are just making it up as they go, and they keep conflicting with each other. I think they're gonna have to ... Now that they understand all the nuances, now, they can actually make decisions and give guidance. I think that's the bigger problem. I don't think the SBA and IRS had proper guidance to begin with. They had too many holes in the original law. Blake Oliver: [00:32:42] I guess so. David Leary: [00:32:43] It's turning into a political battle. Even on Rubio's website, now, he has a ... Because it's election year, he has a propaganda video about how successful the PPP program is. That's why I truly believe, eight weeks from now, if you're not on the list of fraud, it's just gonna get forgiven. I honestly, truly believe that- 100-percent forgiven because it's an election year, Nobody is gonna be the one that is like, "I ruined small businesses." Unless they know you're fraudulent - which, in theory, because everything went through the banks, those probably have gotten flagged already - everybody's gonna get forgiven. Blake Oliver: [00:33:18] They have one last thing to consider in all of this, which is that the list of loan recipients is likely going to become public under the Freedom of Information Act requests. The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, ProPublica have filed a joint lawsuit in federal court in Washington asking the SBA to disclose who is receiving the funds and in what amounts. [00:33:41] President Trump, in a press conference, he said, in response to a question about whether or not he'd support releasing the full list of businesses who have received PPP loans, he said, "I wouldn't mind doing that. I don't know what the legal status of something like that is. I would like to do that, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not involved in the process, but I would certainly like to have it listed. I would have to find out if there is a legal problem, but if there isn't, I would do it gladly." So, that list is probably gonna get out there. David Leary: [00:34:10] I think it probably should because we might find out how many Trump companies have gotten it, right? It'd be good that we see this list, I think, in general. Blake Oliver: [00:34:18] I have a personal connection to this now because, after the guidance came out on Friday night saying that loans under $2 million are not going to get audited, or they're just gonna assume the certification is correct. I said, well, I'm a sole proprietor. Sole proprietors can apply. Let's see if I can go apply. How easy is it? I'm gonna try this myself. I had applied for a client of mine, but not for myself, and there's money available, and apparently it's not gonna get used, so why not? [00:34:48] I went on the Cross River Bank website; I filled out the application using my net self-employment income for the last 12 months; put those numbers in; uploaded my documents. I got approved the next day. So, apparently I'm getting a loan. According to what the SBA has said, they're just gonna take my word that it's necessary. This is the crazy thing about sole proprietors, too. David Leary: [00:35:14] It's easier, right, for you to [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:35:16] It's easier because the net- it's based on net self-employment income, and it's just assumed that the entire amount is for payroll. So, I don't have to run payroll or anything. It's assumed that I'm spending 100 percent on payroll for myself. So, I wonder how many people like me there are just are getting free money like this. I talked about it with my wife, and we're thinking, well, we feel kind of bad. It's thousands of dollars. Maybe just donate it to charity, or go spend it on a small business that needs the money, or something because it's ridiculous. I'm getting more money from the PPP than people who are getting stimulus checks, and I don't even qualify for a stimulus check. David Leary: [00:35:58] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:35:59] I feel like when that kind of gets out there, when there's a list of relatively high net worth individuals who got all this money ... Because there's gonna be a lot of sole proprietors that make a lot of money, or S-Corp people, like one-employee S-Corps that get the money, and the list gets out there-  David Leary: [00:36:14] Yeah, they're structured that way for tax advantages, and now they'll also take care of this. Yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:36:18] Yeah, so it's basically like a stimulus payment to an individual, essentially. It could be a lot of money depending on how much you make. That's gonna be very interesting. I don't mind my name being on the list because if somebody calls and asks me about it, I'm gonna complain about how crappy this program is. David Leary: [00:36:34] They can contact you about it. Blake Oliver: [00:36:36] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:36:36] Obviously, the forgiveness calculator came out that the SBA provided. Blake Oliver: [00:36:41] Yeah. David Leary: [00:36:41] The AICPA had a press release on May 14 that they offer a loan forgiveness calculator ... It's a press release, and it links to all these documents that- they talk about how they had an AICPA town hall, and all of this stuff, but there's no link to the calculator. I gave up. I could not find the calculator. The AICPA loan forgiveness calculator is divided into three subcategories: non-payroll-expense tracking; full-time employee equivalent reduction over and eight-week period; a payroll accumulator.  [00:37:17] I can't find the link. There is no link to this forgiveness calculator. It's just a complete fail. It's a great- it's a headline. I clicked on it, but where's the calculator? How simple is this? If you create a press release, put the link in it, AICPA. I gave up. I stopped looking because the other three links in here just take you to some oddball PDFs. You think, if you have a press release, it says ... If you're so proud of this calculator you've created, where's the link?  Blake Oliver: [00:37:48] Where's the link? Well, now the calculator is probably at a date because they made that thing before the actual real calculator came out. So, now they gotta redo it. David Leary: [00:37:55] I think this is probably a recommended calculator, yes [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:37:58] There's a major change, which is we all assumed that SBA would use 30 hours per week for full time, but they're actually using 40 hours per week for full-time equivalent, so that changes a lot of calculations. Anyway, I got some more numbers for you on COVID in the accounting profession before we move on. We'll broaden this away from Paycheck Protection Program-  David Leary: [00:38:18] Before we do that, should we even mention that there is a new $3 trillion package?  Blake Oliver: [00:38:23] I didn't even look at what's in this $3 trillion because I heard this is dead on arrival. The House passed it, but the Senate is not even considering any more stimulus money, right now, right?  David Leary: [00:38:32] Yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:32] Is there anything noteworthy in here? David Leary: [00:38:37] They want to help with payroll again, and they wanna do $10 billion in emergency disaster grants and strengthen the employee-retention tax credit. So, it's not really clear what that is. Is this funding the EIDL that did not get funded, or is this something new again? They want to extend out the federal unemployment-  Blake Oliver: [00:38:59] Oh, no.  David Leary: [00:38:59] -so, instead of it being through July; all the way through January, so the rest of ... Going into 2021.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:06] Oh, yeah, this is dead on arrival. That's insane. What is wrong with these Democrats? One of the big problems with PPP is that business owners can't bring back employees because the employees often make more money on federal unemployment than they do working. So, how are these businesses gonna reopen if they can't bring people back to work because those people are sitting at home collecting fat checks? It doesn't work. [00:39:33] Here's how Trump will win in the fall. If the Democratic Party becomes the party of shutdown, Trump will win. I don't care what the polls say, right now, about how many people support lockdowns versus opening up again. That's gonna shift real fast as the economy plummets. I think it's a terrible strategy. This will not work. David Leary: [00:39:57] Yeah. I think there's $175 billion in rent. There's another second round of direct payments the IRS ... Which, so many people haven't even received their first round yet. Yeah, it's just- it's another bill. They're gonna argue it out. So, it's now into the Senate. We'll see if it goes anywhere. Like you said, it is an election year, so I could see all this money being thrown out there again. Blake Oliver: [00:40:20] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:40:20] It's more complications. How do you track people that they got their rent subsidy or whatever ... However they're gonna do this ... Is that gonna go to people and expect them to pay their rent, or is it just gonna go straight up to pay people's mortgages. It's just a lot of more grayness, versus it's probably the best ... Instead of taking that and divvying it up in all these buckets, just do the direct deposits. Just send people checks.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:48] Just give some people checks, yeah; which there is also in that bill, right? Another round of stimulus? David Leary: [00:40:53] Yes, there's another round of that, yeah. In a way, that's kind of the smallest part, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:40:56] Right. So weird. David Leary: [00:40:58] It's $1,200 per person. Blake Oliver: [00:41:00] What they should be doing is just giving people the stimulus and then not increasing the unemployment because then people would go back to work to put that on top of their stimulus. We don't wanna disincentive people from working.  David Leary: [00:41:13] Yeah, because that's ... The stimulus is a one-time check for 1,200 bucks. Unemployment is $600 per week extra from the federal unemployment. Blake Oliver: [00:41:21] But you're not allowed to work while you're collecting it, so people don't wanna go back to work, meaning that businesses that are in areas that are reopening can't start up again because they don't have employees. David Leary: [00:41:35] Yeah, and at this point, Goldman Sachs had an article that they're projecting unemployment's gonna hit 25 percent. So, why even filter it through unemployment; just give everybody the money. Blake Oliver: [00:41:45] Just give them the money. People who wanna go back to work can go back to work. People who are at risk, they have the money, then, where they don't have to. That would be a much better compromise. I get there's people who don't wanna do any of that - unemployment and stuff. I'm not that extreme. I think there is a middle road here. I hope that the Democrats and Republicans can figure this out. [00:42:08] While we're talking about unemployment, accounting is not immune from this. We're a recession-proof profession, but that doesn't mean that we don't have layoffs. I spotted some data from CPA Trendlines, their research division. Thus far, 67,600 jobs have been lost in tax and accounting. So, basically, four years of accounting job growth has been wiped out in one month. We're back to where we were in April of 2016. [00:42:41] Shutting down is affecting a lot of businesses, even people who can work from home. It's not just the retail workers, the restaurant workers. This is getting serious. I was one of the people very early on saying we need to do something about COVID, and testing back in- the very beginning of March is when I first started becoming aware of this just because of what was going on in the news. I was saying, "We need to act now. We need to act now!"  [00:43:02] Well, here I am, now, on the other side, saying the economic disaster is coming. We need to act now. We need to act now! I feel like every time, the government is just moving way too slow. I mean, this is why I'm glad I've moved to Arizona now; L.A. County is gonna stay locked down until June or July, probably. So, restarting that economy is gonna be really hard. It's just gonna be a disaster, I feel like.  David Leary: [00:43:26] Now, it's hitting ... We talked about everybody working from home affecting commercial real estate, like office space. Now, I saw there's an article ... It's The Real Deal; it's New York Real Estate News. "Retail rent collection plunges to 58 percent in April." Blake Oliver: [00:43:43] Wow. David Leary: [00:43:43] More than one in five large national chains are not paying the rent. So, this is not like, oh, Julie's Hair Salon that's a struggling small business, and she didn't get her PPP loan, and she's not paying her rent because she's not open. This is Foot Lockers, H&M, General Nutrition Centers. I saw that Starbucks is negotiating with all their landlords. Blake Oliver: [00:44:03] Yeah. David Leary: [00:44:04] You have major, major companies that aren't paying rent.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:08] Going concern warnings are on the rise. For our listeners who may be students, or non-accountants, a going concern warning is when the accountants doing the financials fear that a company could default on its debt in the next 12 months. If there's a risk of that- substantial risk, then you have to report in your financial statements that there are doubts that you will be able to continue as a going concern. So, that's called a going concern warning.  [00:44:37] Some recent ones include Chesapeake Energy, which is a fracking company. Hertz car-rental company. Dave and Busters, the restaurant chain. Norwegian Cruise Line, El Al, or is that LL, the airline? It's a big problem. It can't be an either/or. It can't be shut down or open. Those extremes don't make sense because they both have very, very bad consequences, where a full shutdown can cost a trillion dollars a month. Not to mention, then, the resulting economic damage after that. That's just during it. Fully opening up, now we're talking about this giant surge of infections coming in the fall or winter, which is totally realistic.  David Leary: [00:45:19] I think it's gonna be a supply and demand type of a curve, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:45:20] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:45:20] It's gonna swing a little too hard this way. Then we'll dial it back, and we're gonna find this happy medium here. But we're just not there yet. You're right, it can't be one or the other. It can all be locked down. It can't be the other direction.  Blake Oliver: [00:45:34] It's not all doom and gloom. David Leary: [00:45:35] No. Blake Oliver: [00:45:36] According to that CPA Trendlines report, with the job loss, as I mentioned, there's also some good news. About 42 percent of firms are planning for a drop in net profit, but 45 percent still think this year will bring in more revenue than last year. So, about half of firms are projecting they're gonna lose business, but half of firms are saying, "We're gonna grow during this whole thing." So, that's good. David Leary: [00:46:00] I mean, well, the forgiveness loan paperwork will be going on for months and months and months, and you can charge for filling out that form, right? Blake Oliver: [00:46:08] You absolutely can. You couldn't charge for the application form, but you can charge for the forgiveness form, I think? I hope so.  David Leary: [00:46:14] People may be willing to pay a premium for the forgiveness-form help because the loan, it was just different. Now, people are scared. So, now, you could probably, as an accounting firm, charge a premium to help people fill out that form. Blake Oliver: [00:46:26] Well, and the application was relatively easy. The forgiveness application ... The loan application was easy. The forgiveness application is insane. David Leary: [00:46:34] So, I don't wanna talk about unemployment, and more terrible news, but there was an article on SaaStr. The reason I'm hitting this is because of our podcast. There's a big question - why are investors doing so well even though unemployment's so bad? There's a disconnect of the stock market versus what it feels like out there in the real world. Do you have any guess why?  Blake Oliver: [00:46:55] There's a disconnect between the stock market and the real world- David Leary: [00:47:01] It has to do with our podcast. So, just think about what our podcast is called. Blake Oliver: [00:47:08] Well, cloud. David Leary: [00:47:09] That's exactly it. It's the cloud. All the companies- Blake Oliver: [00:47:11] People being able to work remotely-  David Leary: [00:47:13] Well, it's not people working remotely. It's Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook - all the companies that are bullying up the stock market right now are all cloud. It's all the cloud [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:47:26] Because they can continue to operate. They can continue to sell their products, and they dominate the stock market. David Leary: [00:47:33] Yeah, and then that's what's driving the stock market up. That's why there's a disconnect between what's happening out there. I thought that was kind of an interesting stat. Blake Oliver: [00:47:44] Yeah, it's fascinating. There's actually ... Half of firms are growing. Half of firms are gonna shrink. It's gonna be that way in the economy, overall, where the cloud-based businesses that can operate remotely, that sell stuff we need ... I haven't looked at Zoom stock in a while, but I know that's way up, right? All these things are necessary. We knew they were gonna grow anyway, this has just accelerated it. [00:48:09] I have some crazy stats about remote work; the growth of that. We don't have time to talk about it today because I just realized we're almost out of time. It's crazy. But I do wanna hit it next week, so I wanna tease you with one stat, which is the percentage of professionals who are now working remote. Before, do you know what it was before, the percentage of professionals?  David Leary: [00:48:32] Maybe a top best would have been three percent and maybe only full time was less than one percent. I think, we've talked about this, historically speaking. Blake Oliver: [00:48:40] Yeah, so it was three percent of the U.S. population worked 100-percent remotely before COVID; three percent, and that's all professions. Of professionals and business services - people who are able to more easily work remotely because we're just sitting in front of a computer - the number was five percent, according to McKinsey. David Leary: [00:49:00] At best. At best. Blake Oliver: [00:49:01] At best. That number- and that was full time remote. That number has jumped 69 percent. So, 74 percent of professionals and business services employees are now working fully remote. That is an incredible jump. For information services, that is up to 84 percent from nine percent before. Crazy. So, three quarters of professionals are working fully remote. When this ends, it's not like it's gonna go back to five percent. David Leary: [00:49:31] No, it's gonna stay [crosstalk] Blake Oliver: [00:49:31] No way. David Leary: [00:49:33] What's insane to me about it, and I just look at own industry, accounting firms for a decade have fought ... It's impossible. Nobody could work from home. Then, overnight now, it's 50 percent. It's amazing how things just accelerated. I think that's one thing I'd look at- this we're in. Retail. Colleges. I feel like everything that's been on a 10-year timeline has just gotten accelerated. Colleges are gonna have to reinvent themselves, and what their offering is and going online. That's happening, and it's happening faster than ever. Retail was already teetering, as it is, and they've had to do that. Restaurants now are reinventing themselves. Everything that was on a 10-year timeline just got accelerated to the last eight weeks. Blake Oliver: [00:50:18] It's all happening- yeah, it's all gonna happen in a year. The businesses that can't adapt will go out of business; some sooner than that.  David Leary: [00:50:26] It sounds cliché because I think Mark Cuban's using it and some other people, this kind of America 2.0, but in a way, yeah, we are gonna ... It's a big- it's not a gradual jump. It's happening very quickly. What we're gonna be 12 months out is completely different, from a work perspective, than we were 12 months ago. Like I said, it probably would've taken 12 to 24 years for this change to happen, and it's happening overnight. We should talk about Xero's numbers- Blake Oliver: [00:50:52] It's amazing.  David Leary: [00:50:53] -before we forget. Blake Oliver: [00:50:54] Can we save- is it all right if we save that? Because I told my son that he had to have quiet time for an hour, and we're now past that. So, I'm gonna be in trouble if I don't wrap this up. David Leary: [00:51:06] All right, yeah. They might not be worth [inaudible] talking about them next week. I guess that's my only reservation. Next week, will Xero's numbers ever make the cut? Blake Oliver: [00:51:18] We'll start with it next week.  David Leary: [00:51:19] All right [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:51:19] Just to get it out of the way, because I've also got app news that we missed; some new features and stuff. I wanna hit on the tech side since we are The Cloud Accounting Podcast and not just talk about PPP compliance and all that. David Leary: [00:51:31] Yeah, there was some last week, but then there was not much this week other than Dropbox's numbers, too, which I'm surprised that they have had usage go up. That's very strange to me, as well. All right, yeah, we will skip on that. There was nothing else important. All right- Blake Oliver: [00:51:42] I have one piece of listener mail that I'd like to hit. [00:51:48] You've Got Mail  Blake Oliver: [00:51:52] This is from Michael Ference. He emailed me and he said, "Hi, Blake. I’m a listener to the Cloud Accounting podcast and I had a question. I’m currently taking over Treasurer duties for a Parent Teacher Organization. All reimbursements are currently paper based. Is there a cloud software you recommend for expense reimbursements  that will link directly to QuickBooks. We probably do 200+ reimbursements a year directly to teachers and staff.   Thanks for your time,  Michael ." David Leary: [00:52:20] Please, please, please let me take this, please. Blake Oliver: [00:52:22] This is- yeah, this is for you. David Leary: [00:52:24] Okay, so Michael, now, because I helped out with the PTA at my kid's school and the same scenario, you have lots of these reimbursements ... There's lots of tech you can do to solve this. You could get Expensify; you could get Receipt Bank; AutoEntry ... The list just goes on and on and on. There's lots of ways to do this.  [00:52:40] The problem is it's not like a business or a staff. In many cases, you have a parent that bought cookies at Costco, and they need to be reimbursed $17, and it's a one-off. Then, somebody else's is a one-off. You just have too many one-offs in a scenario ... As we thought about it, the real work would be trying to roll out this app constantly to a bunch of one-off people that aren't employees. Blake Oliver: [00:53:05] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:53:05] That's the difficulty you run into, where you're just like, "Forget it. Here's the old paper form. Fill it out and we'll cut you a check." So, the technology's there to solve this. It's the logistics of how do you roll this out across a bunch of teachers and oddball parents; not oddball in a bad way, but just odd ... It's hit and miss, right? That parent may never spend money again; you never have to reimburse them again. To onboard them on an app for one reimbursement? That's the difficulty. [00:53:30] Then, on top of that,  even though now a lot of teachers have had to shift to online, and do Zoom, and they're adopting technology, a lot of teachers either don't even have a smartphone they can run this stuff on, but they're just not set up to do this, technology-wise. They're just not ready to do this. Blake Oliver: [00:53:47] David, what's the solution? David Leary: [00:53:49] You just keep rolling the way you've been rolling, unfortunately; you just use the paper. Blake Oliver: [00:53:53] Paper forms? I used to have a client where they had this issue where it would be a lot of one-offs. I just had them email the reimbursement requests. It was a Google- you could do a Google form and then, just process through that like your normal AP process, or something. At least you've got a streamlined form that they fill out.  David Leary: [00:54:13] One process could be is you have it ... You almost have somebody bite the bullet, where you put that one person ... Maybe it's the front desk admin. That person's on the app and then, everybody just gives her the receipt. She doles out, out of petty cash, the cash to reimburse instantly, and then she submits it into the accounting system. That way- Blake Oliver: [00:54:36] Oh, that makes sense, yeah.  David Leary: [00:54:36] -you could have one person be that bottleneck. Basically, about all you're doing is you're kicking the can down the road, and somebody else is gonna do all the work, instead of you, as the treasurer. Blake Oliver: [00:54:43] So, the issue is the training of one-off reimbursements. It's not worth the time to get somebody set up on an app, get them an account, teach them how to use it, if they're just gonna do one. David Leary: [00:54:53] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:54:53] It's better just to have them submit traditionally through a form and then get reimbursed. But you could have ... I like that middle ground, which is you have an app that one person, or maybe a few people are trained to use, and they process the reimbursements. David Leary: [00:55:08] It could be where maybe it's just the teachers. You just get the staff to do it. It's just tricky. We have not solved it either. Maybe that's my answer on this.  Blake Oliver: [00:55:19] Well, that's all the time we've got today. If people wanna reach you online, David, where is the best place for them to track you down? David Leary: [00:55:27] Twitter and LinkedIn. I'm @DavidLeary. If you're on LinkedIn, please just say you're a listener of the show, so I don't converse with more robots. Blake Oliver: [00:55:34] Likewise for me. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. Say that you are a listener of the podcast in your message. You can reach me on Twitter. Follow me at: @BlakeTOliver, or email any of your questions to [email protected]. Just know that if you do, I may read them on the air and answer them, as well, because that was a great insight, David. I would have not thought of that issue. Until next week, have a good rest of your Sunday. David Leary: [00:56:01] You, too. Bye, everybody.____________________ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? 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Sponsors SmartBooks Genie: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/genie OnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 06:03 - White House considers measures to boost economy without Congress - NBC News 06:30 - Intuit Accountants (@IntuitAccts) Survey - Twitter 07:59 - QuickBooks Town Hall with Senators Rubio and Cardin: Full transcript, video - Intuit QuickBooks 08:38 - Demand for Small-Business Loans Cools - Wall Street Journal 09:34 - Footwear Company Allbirds To Return PPP Loan - PYMNTS.com 10:26 - Two Men Charged In First US Case Of PPP Fraud - PYMNTS.com 11:02 - SBA issues PPP guidance on laid-off employees who refuse to be rehired - Journal of Accountancy  11:05 - Accountant BDO looks at virus testing staff every 2 weeks - Financial Times 11:29 - New Guidance: SBA Clarifies That Foreign Employees Must Be Counted for PPP - National Law Review 11:46 - Deadline To Return PPP Loans Is May 14 - PYMNTS.com 11:59 - Last week's discussion about Monty Bennett, the hotelier who checked out some serious PPP cash 12:58 - SBA Inspector General Report - Small Business Administration 14:12 - AICPA Town Hall Update - CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) May 7 - AICPA TV 15:25 - SBA halts nearly all new applications for its disaster loan program and caps loan amounts - The Washington Post 19:42 - Fintechs hope PPP performance will lead to expanded role with SBA - American Banker 24:44 - The accounting profession and the coronavirus: The crisis in numbers - Accounting Today 35:14 - AICPA delays effective dates of ethics rules due to coronavirus - Accounting Today 35:51 - AICPA supports bill that would make PPP-funded expenses deductible - Journal of Accountancy  36:58 - COVID-19 roundup: Shopify becomes Canada’s most valuable public company - The Logic  38:07 - Rootworks Now a Part of Right Networks Due to Purchase - AccountingWEB 40:56 - Sage announces new updates to small business cloud accounting solution - Digi-Key Electronics 41:58 - Transforming Sage Intacct Advantage 2020 - Sage Intacct Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! 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DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds ClientHub: https://clienthub.app JetPack Workflow: http://jetpackworkflow.com/freetemplates Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptAre you struggling to free up time for client advisory work? Is scope creep hurting your fixed-pricing model? Are your quality-control processes lacking? Is your staff stuck in a never-ending monthly close process? Ever wish you had a genie that could help you out? Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, SmartBooks Genie, later in the episode. David Leary: [00:00:21] Let's say the IRS successfully actually got the money out, and they've sent a check, and it came to your house, but it was for your dead mom. You gotta send the check back!  Blake Oliver: [00:00:32] I thought that they said, when the stimulus checks went out, that if they made incorrect payments, they weren't gonna try to do that, but now they're changing their mind on that? I just ... David Leary: [00:00:42] You have to send it back, yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:00:43] Yeah ...  David Leary: [00:00:43] Instead of just letting people just cash a $1,200 check and just keep it, it's probably gonna cost of government five grand to get the money back and account for it, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:00:51] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:00:51] It's rather insane.____________________This of episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by OnPay. Paycheck Protection Program, CARES Act, unemployment insurance, furloughs, layoffs, cash flow, CDC guidance, employee safety, paid leave, tax credits - tracking all of the constantly changing COVID-19-related information for your clients is getting overwhelming. With OnPay's COVID-19 Resource Center, you'll have a one-stop shop for your up-to-date HR, and tax information.OnPay is an easy-to-use full-service payroll, and HR software that is the right fit for all your clients, whether they have just one or 500 employees. Stay organized, save time, and get compliant. OnPay includes deep integrations to benefit providers, workers' comp plans, QuickBooks, and Xero. Right now, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get three free months of OnPay payroll service. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash O-N-P-A-Y. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before May 31, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:43] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:46] And I'm David Leary.  Blake Oliver: [00:02:48] How's your Wi-Fi doing these days, David? David Leary: [00:02:50] Yeah, so it took an extra week, but I now have a Wi-Fi mesh network. Blake Oliver: [00:02:54] Nice. And the mesh network is where you have what appears to be a single network through your whole house, even though you have multiple access points or multiple routers? David Leary: [00:03:03] Exactly. You really notice it when I go to a different room and I can't see the printer. I have to go to the other room with the printers and then reconnect to the network. Now with a mesh network, just everything's on the same network. It all works as one beautiful, cohesive system now. I already had a NETGEAR Nighthawk router that did the tri-band. They actually have an extender that's tri-band, so I bought two extenders, one for both ends of the house, and then linked those up. I didn't go by a specific mesh system, but these work as a mesh system [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:03:34] Oh, good. You didn't have to completely start over? You just expanded your existing system? David Leary: [00:03:40] Exactly, because basically what it does is it's a tri-band, and so it uses the one band to communicate all the router and the extenders on, and that still gives you the 2.5 and the five-gigahertz bands for devices. Blake Oliver: [00:03:52] Nice. Well, I've been having a few Wi-Fi problems. I was on the Accounting Salon session that I did with Will Lopez on Tuesday. I only learned, after the fact, that my audio was apparently cutting out, because for some reason in this complex that I'm in here in Phoenix, it gets really bad around like 2:00 or 3:00 every day. I don't know why. David Leary: [00:04:17] I have a theory that people are cutting out of work at 2:00 and they're just starting to watch Netflix. That's what's happening. Blake Oliver: [00:04:22] That's what Californians tend to do just in general, even when there's not a pandemic. Maybe the whole country has taken that California vibe. Not me, I never do that, but I hear people do that. Anyway ...  David Leary: [00:04:35] I'm glad you mentioned the Accounting Salon. That was the big deal from this week. Blake Oliver: [00:04:39] Yeah. David Leary: [00:04:40] I helped run the Accounting Salon with Amanda Aguillard, and we were basically nine straight hours of a virtual conference. We had nine sessions - back to back to back to back to back. It was pretty exhausting, but we got through it. The praise ... Everybody loved it. Blake Oliver: [00:04:57] That's good.  David Leary: [00:04:57] It turned out to be a great event. I have never done any webinar that huge and that many. Blake Oliver: [00:05:04] Well, it was really big. It was over, what, 1,200 registrants?  David Leary: [00:05:07] Yeah, we had 1,200 registrants, and people ... There were probably a good solid 300-350 people that moved. As soon as we disconnected the one webinar, five minutes later, they had to be on that because it's CPE credit. You have to get your full 50 minutes, so we'd disconnect one; start the new one; people would rejoin. It was exhausting, but people loved it. It turned out really, really good. Blake Oliver: [00:05:28] That's great. Well, I've got a ton of CPE. I made it to seven of those sessions. David Leary: [00:05:32] Wow.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:32] Yeah. David Leary: [00:05:34] Trooper!   Blake Oliver: [00:05:34] I stayed on the whole time. I was eating my lunch, doing a session. It was great. Let's get to the news of the moment, which is, of course, still again, PPP, COVID-19, IRS tax season. I think the big shocker that just came down the wire was this concept that the White House may delay tax season again? David Leary: [00:05:59] Oh, I'm glad you ... I saw that. I didn't even grab that article. I almost forgot about that. Blake Oliver: [00:06:03] NBC News is reporting that the White House is considering pushing the tax deadline now from July 15 to September 15, or as late as December 15, though administration officials are stressing that no decision has yet been made. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a horrible thing, because it will be the tax season that never ends, if this does happen, won't it? David Leary: [00:06:27] PPP is already gonna cause it to never end. Blake Oliver: [00:06:30] Well, and then, the other issue is that if people aren't making their tax payments, if they're just delaying those, too, then they're gonna owe more and more and more and just pushing the can down the- kicking the can down the road, at that point. I saw a survey on Twitter by Intuit Accountants, their Twitter handle (@IntuitAccts) asking: "During these challenging times, what best describes your workload?" You could reply: "I've seen a decrease," "Not much of a change," "A slight increase," or "I'm buried." With 904 votes counted, "I'm buried" won, with 38.5 percent of the vote. David Leary: [00:07:08] That's it? Jeez. I would assume it would be way more. Blake Oliver: [00:07:12] Way more? "A slight increase" was 18.5 percent. 21 percent of folks, one in five, say, "Not much of a change." Then, another 22 percent, one in five, said, "A decrease." Maybe the extension will come as a good thing. I don't know. I don't think so. I have a feeling, no, it won't. We'd rather just get it done with. I've also got some COVID-19 stuff; some more PPP stuff, as we mentioned, but I don't know where you wanna go from here, David. David Leary: [00:07:42] We should set a true budget for PPP. Like, it's eight weeks; we get eight minutes to talk PPP; then we move on to other articles. Blake Oliver: [00:07:49] All right, you wanna just do the PPP right now? David Leary: [00:07:51] I can start. Blake Oliver: [00:07:52] Okay.  David Leary: [00:07:52] Early in the week, I think on- this was Tuesday morning? No, Monday morning? Blake Oliver: [00:07:57] There are no days anymore. It's all the same. David Leary: [00:07:59] One these days this week, I woke up, and I attended a webinar, a town hall that QuickBooks hosted that had Senator Marco Rubio, who I've invited on the show plenty of times via Twitter, and-  Blake Oliver: [00:08:11] Still won't accept our invites [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:08:14] He's a Republican representative- senator from Florida, and then, Ben Cardin, who's a Democrat from Maryland. My big takeaway from it was they were hinting that the forgiveness is going to get easier, which, for me, struck me as the 100-percent opposite of what we're hearing from the SBA, and the Treasury, and Mnuchin.   Blake Oliver: [00:08:37] Right. David Leary: [00:08:38] Right? Blake Oliver: [00:08:38] Yeah. What's up with that? Well, I think I have a clue. It was that ... The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that, of the second tranche of the PPP, the $310 billion that was added on April 27, 40 percent of that is still available. Apparently, the SBA and Treasury were so successful in scaring off people and scaring off bigger businesses - these public companies; the small public companies; these venture-funded companies - they scared them away with all these threats about loan forgiveness, and audits that nobody's applying anymore. Now, we may end up with this weird situation where there's money just available; anyone can come get it, but nobody wants to because they're afraid to do it. David Leary: [00:09:26] They've gotten scared. It's so confusing and so hard to track that it maybe is not a great option now. Blake Oliver: [00:09:34] Yeah. The footwear company, Allbirds, is gonna return their loan. David Leary: [00:09:39] Are they even a U.S. company, or are they based out of Australia? Blake Oliver: [00:09:41] They're out of New Zealand. David Leary: [00:09:42] New Zealand ...  Blake Oliver: [00:09:43] Yeah, but they have like 300-something employees in the U.S. David Leary: [00:09:46] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:09:48] The founder was on Squawk Box on CNBC and said that even though they fit the criteria of a small business, they're gonna return the loan. Perfect example, maybe they didn't need to go after these businesses. I think everybody got scared, or at least Treasury got scared, that the money was gonna run out. Now, they've done this, and now, apparently, it's not gonna run out. I don't know.  David Leary: [00:10:09] You get this big pile of free money, so you get the press, right? The White House, and, arguably, the SBA, and, arguably, the Treasury - those are all Trump people - they're out there praising how great this is, and all this money they're gonna give out. Then they made it so complicated and so intimidating. Now, they're going and arresting people that ... Some people created some fraudulent businesses, and the FBI has arrested them. Now, it's like, "Oh, give the money back by the 14th." There's this new May 14 deadline. Blake Oliver: [00:10:39] Right. Yeah, they extended it. David Leary: [00:10:41] It's a no-brainer, at one level. It's free money, but they've put so many headaches now involved in it that you can't even trust that it's gonna be free- Blake Oliver: [00:10:50] No. I wonder if they're gonna have to now loosen it up and be like, "Actually, we retract that guidance. It's okay if you take the money." That would be so silly, wouldn't it, if that happened? But I could see it happening. David Leary: [00:11:02] They keep changing the guidance. This week, every day ... The laid-off employees who refused to be rehired ... They changed the guidance on that.  Blake Oliver: [00:11:10] Yeah. This is a problem is if somebody refuses to come back to work, and they wanna stay on unemployment, what do you do? So, now they're saying that the loan forgiveness amount will not be reduced based on that employee, if they don't come back- if they don't wanna come back. You mentioned the foreign employees. Foreign employees, now, they do count against the 500 max, apparently. That wasn't clear before. If you're a company that has a foreign parent, and there's foreign employees, or you've got two entities in different countries, you've gotta consider the foreign employees against that max. Safe Harbor has been extended from May 7 to May 14 to return funds without potentially getting charged with a crime for a false certification. Then, corporate groups can no longer receive more than $200 million, together, of PPP loans. I think this is because of that hotel guy we talked about last episode who got just a ridiculous amount of PPP money. David Leary: [00:12:13]  It's close to like $90 million, right? [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:12:15] Yeah. That was just what had been disbursed. It was over $100 million of PPP money in total. Also, now, if you've had a change of ownership after February 15, they made it clear that you can get a loan, because originally it was if it was a new business, you couldn't get a loan if the business wasn't in existence before February 15. So, that could preclude some changes of ownership, because you might start a new entity to take over the business. If you did that, now, you can still get the loan. Yeah, just guidance getting issued late. We're now how long into this program? Five weeks, something like that? David Leary: [00:12:52] When they turned the computers on, that was April 3. Blake Oliver: [00:12:56] Yeah. David Leary: [00:12:56] And it was announced two weeks before that.  Blake Oliver: [00:12:58] It's been awhile. We're not alone in this opinion that maybe the guidance hasn't been clear. The Small Business Administration Inspector General, the auditor of the SBA, did a report that came out today finding that the SBA's interim final rules for implementing the PPP mostly aligned with the CARES Act, but there were some deficiencies where it didn't align with the law. Those areas are prioritizing underserved, and rural markets, loan proceeds eligible for forgiveness, guidance on loan deferments, and registration of loans.  [00:13:35] They are making recommendations. They have some suggestions for how the SBA could improve, which is to issue guidance to lenders requiring them, the banks, to prioritize borrowers in underserved markets, and also update the requirements for loan forgiveness; be more clear on that; then issue guidance to lenders on the deferment process for PPP loans. Then, apparently, one of the suggestions is to register PPP loans by taxpayer identification number, but I thought they were doing that. David Leary: [00:14:03] I don't know if it's registered, but I think I saw something that there there's talk of them releasing it as public information. Blake Oliver: [00:14:10] Yeah, so-  David Leary: [00:14:10] Here's all the loans, and here's all the EINs. Blake Oliver: [00:14:12] Who was it? Somebody was on Twitter, who was on an AICPA webinar and heard this. Andrea Carr, CPA; she was on an AICPA town hall on May 7 and heard on that, from the AICPA, that all the PPP loan applications will become public under the Freedom of Information Act, eventually. Which I could totally see happening. This is a public program. Somebody could file a request.  David Leary: [00:14:41] That was my point of view on day three, or that first day, when they started announcing all the successful numbers. It's like, show me who's getting this money. Maybe they could obfuscate it? I don't know ... Especially when you get down to those independent contractors, who don't have EINs, and they're using their own Socials. Blake Oliver: [00:15:01] Yeah. David Leary: [00:15:03] How do they release this information if it's somebody's Social?  Blake Oliver: [00:15:06] This is why people aren't taking the loans now, because they're afraid they're gonna get called out for taking a loan, for taking the PPP money.  David Leary: [00:15:13] Well, good news for them, or bad news, I guess. Maybe you don't wanna do the PPP, and you still wanna try to get that emergency loan from the disaster relief loan, from the SBA? Blake Oliver: [00:15:23] Oh, yeah, the EIDLs. David Leary: [00:15:25] Yeah. They changed that. It's no longer can you get $2 million; the max is now $150,000. They've pretty much shut the door to any new applications. They're just not taking anymore.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:37] This is a really big program that's normally the main program in a natural disaster like a hurricane, right?  David Leary: [00:15:42] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:15:43] It's been such a disaster that we haven't even been talking about it, because nobody can get any money from it, it seems like. David Leary: [00:15:49] Yeah, the success rate of this is even worse than the PPP program. Blake Oliver: [00:15:56] Yeah, and that's after they got $50 billion in new funding. The last update to the CARES Act that Congress passed gave them $50 billion more. I guess there's still so much demand for these loans that they can't give up to the max, which is $2 million, normally.  David Leary: [00:16:14] It's almost like the same thing with the unemployment. There's just so much demand, they just can't keep up, and it's the same thing. They just can't keep up. Now, you're seeing this swing the other direction. They're shutting off money from small businesses over here, on one hand; but then, there's this big push. ADP is really arguing for this now, because a lot of ADP's customers are the- we talked about it last week, the Main Street Lending Program. Blake Oliver: [00:16:42] Yeah, the larger small businesses. David Leary: [00:16:43] The larger firms with 500 employees. Those firms that have 50 to 499 workers they only lost about 5 million jobs, but larger firms, with over 500 employees, have lost 8.9 million positions. ADP is pushing- that program has to be better taken care of now. You have the emergency loans; you have the PPP; you have this Main Street program; you have the unemployment. Across the board, it's like the stimulus money is just not getting there. Blake Oliver: [00:17:17] Or it's getting there and there's too many restrictions on it, which is the criticism of that PPP money that- "Will I have to use it for these specific purposes - 75 percent on payroll - over the next eight weeks, and that period starts as soon as the money hits my account? How am I supposed to plan, when my business is basically shut down? How do I use this money?" David Leary: [00:17:38] It's more difficult than that because, yes, when it hits your account. Well, I tried to be smarter than the PPP. I was like, "This makes sense. I will put it in its own account. I'll connect my payroll software to that account." Well, every time you do things like this, it takes ... You have to do the ACH; you have to verify that you have the correct account connected. It just starts adding up. Then I was like, "Oh, I'll make the company portion take out of my different bank account, when I run payroll," because you can't have that be part of the PPP, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:18:07] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:18:07] But a lot of the payroll software packages don't support that, or if they do support it, the APIs, when they talk back to QuickBooks, or the accounting software, doesn't support it. I'm trying to track one loan, and I'm just shaking my head with my hands in the air. I don't know how accountants and bookkeepers ... If you have to track this PPP loan for dozens and dozens and dozens of clients. Blake Oliver: [00:18:30] Yeah, well- David Leary: [00:18:30] Unless you have every client on the same accounting software, at the same bank, using the same payroll software, it's gonna be- you're gonna be pulling out a lot of hair to try to and track this properly. Blake Oliver: [00:18:42] That's why they're super-busy [Crosstalk] David Leary: [00:18:44] -they did change one other rule, the IRS. Blake Oliver: [00:18:47] What's that? David Leary: [00:18:47] Let's say the IRS successfully actually got the money out, and they've sent a check, and it came to your house, but it was for your dead mom. You gotta send the check back. Blake Oliver: [00:18:59] I thought that they said, when these stimulus checks went out, that if they made incorrect payments, they weren't gonna try to do that. But now they're changing their mind on that? I just ... David Leary: [00:19:08] You have to send it back. Yeah. Instead of just letting people just cash a $1,200 check and just keep it, it's probably gonna cost the government five grand to get the money back and account for it, really. It's rather insane. At the same time, they managed to send out all these checks to dead people. What about everybody else? Blake Oliver: [00:19:29] Yeah, right.  David Leary: [00:19:29] How did this get in the priority stack? I don't understand. Blake Oliver: [00:19:33] Well, remember how, at the beginning of all this with the PPP, the fintechs were gonna get involved and solve the problem? David Leary: [00:19:41] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:19:42] They did. QuickBooks built their PPP loan application process inside of QuickBooks. As soon as they did that, the first tranche of money ran out. Well, I have some numbers for you on the fintech companies, and how many loans they have funded, and for what amount. David Leary: [00:20:01] This is for all the fintech companies, or just QuickBooks? Blake Oliver: [00:20:04] Just a few, actually. I don't have information on Intuit. David Leary: [00:20:07] I do. I picked that up from the webinar. Blake Oliver: [00:20:10] Okay.  David Leary: [00:20:10] I'll just throw it out there really quick [crosstalk] and then you can go on with the rest. Apparently, QuickBooks' average loan amount is only $7,000. Blake Oliver: [00:20:17] Wow. David Leary: [00:20:17] They're really getting that bottom end of the market and then helping out with truly the smallest of businesses. Blake Oliver: [00:20:22] Yeah, those solopreneurs. That's interesting to hear because I have some numbers from Ready Capital, PayPal, Square, and OnDeck that are a little bit bigger. This was reported in American Banker, and these numbers come directly from those firms. Ready Capital funded $1.2 billion in loans that averaged $73,000; PayPal has $1 billion approved, averaging $35,000 per loan. Square Capital has $520 million approved, averaging $12,000. Then, OnDeck Capital apparently has only been able to file a handful of applications. They never were able to get it working. That's interesting. That's so much lower than what the banks were doing. Makes sense, because the banks prioritized their big customers; they held their hands, and they made all the small ones go through this portal kinda system. Whereas the fintechs only ever had a portal, so everybody kind of was equal in that regard. David Leary: [00:21:22] Can you just show these numbers to make sure I'm hearing them correctly? Blake Oliver: [00:21:25] Yeah. David Leary: [00:21:25] OnDeck was not successful? Blake Oliver: [00:21:28] No, they failed.  David Leary: [00:21:29] Okay, but the other ones that were successful are ...? Blake Oliver: [00:21:32] PayPal, Ready Capital - about a billion each. Then, Square did about half that.  David Leary: [00:21:38] I'm not super familiar with Ready Capital, but I know OnDeck's game is giving out loans at 19 to 29 percent. What is their interest in helping people get one-percent loans? Blake Oliver: [00:21:48] Right. Well, maybe that's how this didn't work. David Leary: [00:21:51] Square, and PayPal, or even Intuit - they have a vested interest in just keeping small businesses open, because they have other products that they sell small businesses, right? Blake Oliver: [00:22:00] Right.  David Leary: [00:22:00] It's just that- what would be OnDeck's motivation? It makes sense these other companies ... I don't know that other capital company, what they do, but I'm not surprised that a company that only has a loan product didn't give out many.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:13] It's disappointing how little the fintechs were able to get funded, because they got into the game so late. That's not their fault. It takes a while to build software, and they did it amazingly fast, all things considered. One silver lining to all of this may be that these fintechs are now hopeful, because they have been working with the SBA, and they now have access to the SBA systems, that they could now become participants in the traditional SBA programs going forward; those 7(a) programs where- those are the traditional SBA loans that you can get. Funding Circle is trying to enter the regular program. Square Capital is open to being included in that. They're considering trying to get involved. That would be good if you could - when you have your Square terminal - apply for an SBA loan right there. How cool would that be? David Leary: [00:23:13] Maybe it would give the SBA - which, in theory, is supposed to be there for all small businesses - a lot better reach and make it more accessible. They might get an extra chance at this, because in that town hall, those senators said PPP V3 funds would be coming. So, Blake, it's being planned as we speak.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by SmartBooks Genie. SmartBooks Genie was born out of the struggles experienced by Calvin Wilder, as he grew his firm, SmartBooks, from zero to 40 people in eight years. Calvin has been using Genie to run SmartBooks for the last 18 months and now, he's making Genie available to all accounting and bookkeeping firms to power their client-accounting services.  SmartBooks Genie layers on top of QuickBooks Online to allow you to centralize your firm's workflows, manage the monthly close, automatically prepare client reports, and complete time-consuming manual processes that you're currently doing in spreadsheets or other isolated systems. By centralizing client management to get core work done accurately and on time, SmartBooks Genie will stay on top of the deadlines and scope of service that you're delivering to clients, so you keep your client engagements profitable.  To learn more about SmartBooks Genie and take advantage of its Early Adopter program offering 50 percent off monthly subscription fees, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/genie. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash G-E-N-I-E. SmartBooks Genie grants your wish for a streamlined practice.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:24:44] That's all the PPP news I have, but I do have more about the overall coronavirus situation. I've got a survey, a really good survey from Accounting Today, about how COVID-19 is infecting ... Infecting ... Affecting accounting firms. I'm happy to share that, if this is a good time? David Leary: [00:25:04] Absolutely. Jump in. Blake Oliver: [00:25:05] This is a survey that was done by Accounting Today in the third week of April, sponsored by ADP, asking specifically how firms have responded, in terms of their staff operations and more, to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the highlights from the survey. Do you expect your firm's revenue to decrease because of the pandemic? 26 percent of firms, a quarter of firms, said no, they do not expect their revenue to decrease. The rest said yes, by varying amounts, between, let's say, one to 25 percent. That is kinda the bulk of the respondents. [00:25:47] That would be like 65 percent are saying between one and 25 percent. More than 25 percent, only 10 percent of firms are saying that. That's actually good news for the accounting profession because up to, I don't know, 20 percent, that is typically a firm's profit margin. A good firm can make 20-percent profit. You could actually survive. You could weather the storm. You're not gonna have any profit, but you could make it through. That's a good sign, in my opinion. David Leary: [00:26:18] What's your gut take on that? Is that a realistic view of the world? Blake Oliver: [00:26:23] I think so. I mean, you look at industries that thrive in a recession, and accounting is one of those. That's because people need numbers, right? When things are not going well, you need to know how your business is doing even more than when things are good. It's easy to just coast when things are good and not seek professional help. David Leary: [00:26:46] Yeah, and things are more complicated than it's ever been, as far as with this PPP loan stuff [crosstalk] It hasn't been this complicated in decades [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:26:53] It's a huge opportunity. David Leary: [00:26:57] I'm trying to reconcile it versus these numbers of ... 70 percent of all small businesses do not have the cash flow to make it another six weeks. If that's the case, who's gonna pay these accounting firms, if all these businesses go under? I guess we'll find out. Blake Oliver: [00:27:13] Well, you have to segment the small business community, because there's just this huge number of small businesses where it's like one person. Those typically are not the customers of an accounting firm. Accounting firms were serving larger small businesses, on the whole. The top 20 percent of businesses, by employee size or revenue, tend to get the business of accounting firms. David Leary: [00:27:36] Got it. Blake Oliver: [00:27:36] A great example of how firms are responding is 73 percent of firms are offering CARES Act consulting services in response to COVID-19, helping their clients do that. I'm kind of shocked, though, that 27 percent, right over a quarter, are not offering any CARES Act consulting for their clients, helping them with PPP and whatnot. David Leary: [00:27:57] Are they just doing it for free, and they're not doing it as a part of their service offering? Blake Oliver: [00:28:01] No, no. Because charging for it is a different question. This is just ... Three-quarters are doing CARES Act work for their clients; the other quarter are not. Those are probably the ones who are just like, I only do tax. I only do your tax return [crosstalk]   David Leary: [00:28:14] Or they're just being really smart [crosstalk] "I don't wanna deal with it." Those are the smart accountants and bookkeepers. Blake Oliver: [00:28:19] Some interesting things, too, in terms of the services. I think this is an opportunity. 36 percent, so just over a third, are offering business continuity consulting. I'm not sure exactly what the definition of that is, but I assume that means helping people ensure that their business survives. David Leary: [00:28:37] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:28:37] That seems kind of low to me, actually. Cash flow forecasting, only 30 percent of firms are offering that. That could be way higher. Cash flow is super-important right now. Why aren't firms doing that? To answer your question about whether firms are charging, this also- amazing, here, a third of firms are not charging for coronavirus-related services at all. They're just doing the work for free. David Leary: [00:29:04] I've seen there's some Facebook chatter about this. People are either doing work for free, offering discounted rates to small businesses. There's some arguments that, "Hey, you're doing more work for them, and they're desperate; you should charge more." People should call and leave us a voicemail, I think, and let us know what their take is on this, because I don't know what the proper thing is. Do you use this as a way to gain new clients, possibly? Not just gain new clients, but just ensure your clients survive, so you still have clients in the future. I don't know what's going through people's mindsets when they decide how to treat one client versus the next client. Blake Oliver: [00:29:36] Yeah, I understand that. You want your clients to survive, and it's also hard to charge them when they're seeing a decline in revenue themselves. But I would say, then, don't not charge for the services; defer the payment, and defer it a long time, if you need to. Say, "You can pay me for this in three months, or six months, or I'll come up with a plan for you." But to not charge? We're in business. We're business people. We have to make a living, too. It's very selfless, and actually, accountants like we often [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:30:05]  Could you value-price this? Blake Oliver: [00:30:07] Yeah, of course. David Leary: [00:30:07] Like, "Hey, if a year from now, we get you through this, and you're still in business, you cut me a check for blaa ..."  Blake Oliver: [00:30:14] Yeah, why not? It could be a big number. "I'm gonna give you free CFO cash flow forecasting for the next year." That would be a lot- a long time. "After that, you've gotta give me this money, if I help you get through it." I don't know, could be doable. Worth considering, right? David Leary: [00:30:33] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:30:33] Some other stats here. How about whether or not firms have closed their offices? You wanna take a guess at how many firms closed their offices? David Leary: [00:30:44] 100-percent closed, or like work from home, office is still open? Blake Oliver: [00:30:48] Yeah, 100-percent closed. David Leary: [00:30:50] I'm gonna guess it's very low. Two percent, three? Blake Oliver: [00:30:54] Actually, it's 13 percent. 13  percent of firms closed their offices completely. 36 percent have not closed their offices at all. Still operating. To me, that means operating as usual. Then, the others are kind of a mix; some staff are remote; some are in the office. But a full third have kept going to the office, which is doable, because in, I think, pretty much every state, accountants are essential workers. [00:31:23]  Have you re-assessed your staffing due to the coronavirus pandemic? Seven percent of firms, or respondents, I should say - not necessarily firms ... Seven percent of respondents say they have laid off full-time employees, and four percent more plan to lay off employees. So, 11 percent total are gonna lay off people. 77 percent say no, they are not gonna change any of that, which I think is good news, because in many other industries, it's way worse. In other industries, everybody is losing their jobs. One last thing here- David Leary: [00:31:56] Before you jump to the other one, people that are keeping their offices open ... BDO is gonna do biweekly. Every two weeks, they're going to test for Corona their 5,500 UK staff. Blake Oliver: [00:32:11] Wow.  David Leary: [00:32:11] So, they can return the offices after they're locked down. It ties right back into the people who haven't closed their office. BDO is going really extreme. They're gonna make sure people can come to the office. Blake Oliver: [00:32:23] Yeah, well, it's great they can get tests. That's amazing.  David Leary: [00:32:25] Yeah, where are they getting these?  Blake Oliver: [00:32:25] Where are they getting these tests? They must have a client [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:32:29] Every two weeks-  Blake Oliver: [00:32:29] Maybe they've a client makes them. That's all I can think. Okay, last stat, here. The question is: have you changed your communication strategy since the start of the pandemic? Only 54 percent, so just over half of respondents, say they have contacted individual clients to specifically discuss COVID-19. I think that's a missed opportunity. Why not call all of them? I guess if you're super-super-busy, and you don't have time, then that's unrealistic. But I think it's a big opportunity to reach out and just say, "Hey, how are you doing? How are things going?"  David Leary: [00:33:04] This is just client-facing communications, not your internal staff-type communications. Blake Oliver: [00:33:09] Correct. I don't know about that. That's not in the survey. David Leary: [00:33:12] Because I guess that would have to be like 100 percent has changed, because you figure there was a decade of people saying we can't work from home, and now every accounting firm has their staff basically working from home, so they've had to change their communications. Blake Oliver: [00:33:26] Yeah, it's amazing, actually. It's so crazy that for years, and years, and years - we're talking decades - firms said, "We can't work remotely." And now, within weeks, they've figured out how to do it. Isn't that funny? David Leary: [00:33:40] Except for those 13 percent of firms that have closed their doors. Blake Oliver: [00:33:43] Yeah, or the third of firms that are still going to the office every day. David Leary: [00:33:48] Before we were at the other end, wasn't it like less than one percent of all businesses could work from home? Now, even the accounting industry has gone past the historical percentage. Blake Oliver: [00:33:59] Yeah, it's crazy. Just a few percent of Americans, like three to five percent, I believe, prior to COVID-19, were working remotely full-time. Now, that number has just skyrocketed. I don't know what it is right now, but if you're a professional, and you don't need to be in the office to work, then you're working at home. We probably multiplied that three or five percent by 10 times is my guess David Leary: [00:34:29] Yeah, people are at least working til noon, and then you start drinking, or something like that. Blake Oliver: [00:34:33] Well, no, you can start drinking White Claw at 10:00 a.m. is what I hear. David Leary: [00:34:37] 10:00 a.m.?  Blake Oliver: [00:34:37] Yeah, as long as it's clear liquid, then it's acceptable. I'm having a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale right now.  David Leary: [00:34:46] I had a webinar with an accountant, a Zoom call, and he made sure he pointed out that he was not drinking a beer, and it was kombucha during the call? Because it was a little bit of the same shade of yellow there. Blake Oliver: [00:34:58] Okay, but kombucha has some alcohol content in it, if it's authentic. David Leary: [00:35:02]  If you buy that kind. Yes, it's true. Blake Oliver: [00:35:03] All right. So, that's it for COVID. That's it for PPP, EIDL, and stimulus. What else is there even? David Leary: [00:35:14] Did you see the thing about the AICPA delaying effective dates for ethic rules? Blake Oliver: [00:35:19] Yes, I did see that [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:35:21] I think this is your beat.  Blake Oliver: [00:35:22] My beat? I don't know if that is the same as the delay that I saw for peer reviews. There's been a six-month delay granted for peer reviews. That's not a really big deal. It kind of makes sense, right? Everybody is super-busy right now. When are they ever gonna do it? So, that's good, I suppose, for CPAs. Oh, here's one more item on PPP. I apologize, but this is important. Apparently, senators have introduced a bill to allow tax deductions for forgiven PPP loans. This is a bipartisan group saying that they are gonna try to get those deductions allowed. Last Thursday, the IRS issued a notice that said small businesses couldn't deduct the expenses related to PPP loan forgiveness [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:36:11] Then Friday, during the show, the AICPA said they were gonna fight it. Blake Oliver: [00:36:16] Right. The AICPA said they were going to support getting those deductions back, and now there's a bill in Congress, so maybe the AICPA had something to do with that. The idea is that the loan will be forgivable. That will not be taxable income. Then, the deductions will also be allowed. Therefore, it will be basically a tax-free benefit. Yeah, so that's it.  David Leary: [00:36:45] It's the least they can do at this point [crosstalk] It's the least they can do.  Blake Oliver: [00:36:50] I think we're ready to move on to our final segment - app news. David Leary: [00:36:58] Shopify is now Canada's most valuable public company. Blake Oliver: [00:37:03] Really? David Leary: [00:37:04] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:37:05] Well, I guess that makes sense with e-commerce, right? David Leary: [00:37:07] Yep. I don't know if you saw, they've started to [inaudible] ... They eased people into it. First, it was an app just to check if your shipment came, and now it's an app to do shopping in. They're kind of directly competing against Amazon now. Everybody's messy; everybody's competing different directions. You can get the Shopify app, and you can access lots of peoples' Shopify stores and products. I think it's really more product-driven, not so much store-driven. You'll see see products that you might wanna buy, and it's just gotten- I saw this, if you think about it like, do you remember when it was BlackBerry? Blake Oliver: [00:37:42] What was BlackBerry? David Leary: [00:37:42] BlackBerry was the big company of Canada at one time. Blake Oliver: [00:37:46] Oh, really? I had forgot they were Canadian. David Leary: [00:37:47] They were Canadian, yeah. Now, they have a very huge, gigantic tech company again. Blake Oliver: [00:37:54] Well, hopefully, Shopify won't go the way of BlackBerry. David Leary: [00:37:57] Hopefully not, but there's always competition because they're competing with Square and PayPal. Blake Oliver: [00:38:05] I've got an app-news story here. I saw that Right Networks has purchased Rootworks, which is a- how would you describe Rootworks? They're described as a firm-improvement organization. David Leary: [00:38:20] It's like a network of ... You have your accounting firm, and you join the Rootworks network to get support, procedures, policies. It's not a franchise model, but in a way, you're getting kind of the things you would get if you bought a franchise from McDonald's; you'd be getting all these standardized procedures. I think that's kind of how Rootworks works. Blake Oliver: [00:38:39] Yeah, it's it's educational in nature. Professional development; very rigorous. So, Rootworks founder, Darren Root, is going to be joining Right Networks as the general manager ... He's gonna stay general manager of Rootworks, and he's going to be the Right Networks VP of market strategy. He says that the move offers his organization, "Enterprise-level support for its modern firm-performance platform, a platform composed of front-office tools, and resources, supported by ongoing guidance, and an established peer community to manage, organize, and execute on all aspects of tech-enabled firm function." When you parse through that press release, David, what does this mean to you? David Leary: [00:39:28] It sounds like it's gonna be one-stop shop. Right now, Right Networks, if I have an accounting firm, I would have to go to Right Networks, so you can get your whole IT department completely outsourced. But then, I would have to go, "Hey, I wanna manage my employees; I wanna develop my employees in my firm; I want policies for my firm." I'd have to go find [Rootworks]. Now, I can just do everything in one spot. What I really find interesting is that Right Networks, of all the hosting companies, they're the only one trying to figure out how to not be a hosting company. Because I think we kinda ... As we talk about cloud, being a hosting company is probably not a good place to be in five years from now. Blake Oliver: [00:40:08] It's a shrinking ice cube. It's eventually going away. David Leary: [00:40:12] Right Networks, if I look at that whole landscape of the hosting companies, they're the only one not buying other hosting companies. They're buying other companies to not be a hosting company eventually. Blake Oliver: [00:40:22] Yeah, the one that really interests me from - I don't know if it was a year or two ago - it was Autofy; when they purchased Autofy to build integrations. I thought that was really cool. David Leary: [00:40:33] Autofy. They also acquired Trans Importer or ...?  Blake Oliver: [00:40:36] Transaction Pro- David Leary: [00:40:39] Transaction Importer Pro, I think is the name of it. Basically, what that is, it just takes data from spreadsheets and moves them into the accounting systems. Yeah, they're just reinventing themselves, one acquisition at a time, and not just an acquisition of the exact same business they're already in. Blake Oliver: [00:40:53] Anything else? David Leary: [00:40:56] Sage announced that they have some new updates to their product. Sage has their Business Cloud Accounting solution, which is kind of their version of QuickBooks Online, or Xero. It looks like they're starting to build it out as ... It's starting to get legs. They're adding some better bank feeds with bank rules, and recurring invoices. They actually added some ... I saw a picture in the UI, and it looks kind of similar to QuickBooks Online, where it's like you can see that [inaudible] invoice. It was created. It was sent. It was viewed. It was paid. You can see that.  [00:41:28] They've deeply integrated AutoEntry into it, so you can scan your documents, and they're right there inside the accounting system ... You don't really use a third-party app because it's just embedded inside. It feels like it's getting rounded out, and then, they're adding some HR tools with [CakeHR]. In a way, I feel like nobody's really ever given Sage Business Cloud the time of day, from a look, but they're starting to- it's starting to get robust. It might be worth checking out one day. Blake Oliver: [00:41:58] In Sage-related news, Sage Intacct, the mid-market ERP company, has canceled their in-person Intacct Advantage Conference, which is not until October. I find that really interesting because a big question in my mind has been are these fall conferences going to happen? I'm skeptical, given the trajectory of COVID-19 and how long this could last. We're talking a year or more, two years. Some people are even saying three years. The fact that they've canceled, and they're moving to a virtual experience, I think, could be significant presage- that was no pun intended. It's presaging what will happen with other conferences potentially. David Leary: [00:42:50] Well, I know, recently, Xerocon canceled their Sydney event, and I can actually see the companies canceling their own conferences because, at some level, for those companies, their own conference is just a big marketing expense. So, QuickBooks ... Maybe with QuickBooks Connect, or Xero canceling Xerocon, or even you just talked about Sage canceling Intacct Advantage. It's a marketing expense. But if you're just ... If your business is conferences - you're a software company, et cetera - you're probably gonna have to still have your conference because that's your revenue stream. You're not doing a conference because it' this fun thing for your end-users, and it's a marketing expense. Those people are in the business of running conferences. I have a feeling those conferences ... Scaling New Heights is an example. Those conferences are still probably gonna try to move forward because that's the business. The conference is the business. Blake Oliver: [00:43:43] Right, and they have to do it to survive. All right, David. That's all the time I've got today. I've gotta go. We did get a voicemail, and I wanna play that for you. Here we go. [00:43:56] You've got mail. Shawnna Weber: [00:43:57] Hi, this is Shawnna Weber with Edgewood Business Solutions over here in California. I just wanted to say thank you so much for this podcast. It's so informative. and I really appreciate it. I have a network that I'm in, and I hear different things that are happening in the industry, but I love that you have a wider network, and you share, so that I feel somewhat normal when it's been a little crazy with PPP. I loved the video from the CPA that you played today - hilarious ... And how we've all been feeling. I just wanted to reach out to say thank you. I appreciate you both, and I hope you have a great week. Take care. Blake Oliver: [00:44:35] Awesome. Thank you, Shawnna. David Leary: [00:44:37] That was very, very nice. Blake Oliver: [00:44:39] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:44:39] It feels connected. I got a little bit of a chills there, to be honest. Blake Oliver: [00:44:42] Thank you so much, Shawnna. That is really great to hear. If you want to leave us a message, call our number. It's (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. It's a Google Voice number. It goes straight to voicemail. Leave us a message. Let us know how you're feeling. Let us know your feedback. Just say, "Hey, what's going on? " We'll take a listen and we maybe will even play it on the air. And David, if people wanna get in touch with you, where's the best place for them to do that? David Leary: [00:45:11] I'm now on TikTok, but I don't know my TikTok name, so don't follow me there. I might be either like The Real David Leary or The David Leary. I'm not really sure. Blake Oliver: [00:45:21]  The real David Leary. That's great.  David Leary: [00:45:22] I signed up to monitor my kids. Blake Oliver: [00:45:23] Oh, Okay.  David Leary: [00:45:23] But I am on Tik-Tok.  Blake Oliver: [00:45:26] Good excuse.  David Leary: [00:45:27] If I get a lot of followers, maybe I'll start making some weird dances, or whatever you do on Tik-Tok. I'm not actually sure. Best way is probably Twitter. I'm @DavidLeary. You can also find me on LinkedIn. But if you're on LinkedIn, please put a message because I just get too many messages of, "Looks like we have a lot of contacts in common ..." and- Blake Oliver: [00:45:46] Well, you know, those are fake immediately.  David Leary: [00:45:48] I know they're robots, and I'm talking to them, and it's not good. So, please identify yourself as a listener- Blake Oliver: [00:45:53] And as a human being. If you wanna reach me online. I'm @BlakeTOliver on Twitter, and you can email me: [email protected]. And until next week, David, stay healthy. Stay safe. Stay sane. David Leary: [00:46:09] Enjoy the hot week up in Phoenix. David Leary: [00:46:11] Thanks. Bye.____________________ ClassifiedsStill sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? Automate this process and get client answers instantly with ClientHub's QuickBooks Online integration. This feature was described as one that only an accountant would have come up with as it solves a real big pain point. ClientHub is a modern client portal designed for cloud accounting firms. Get started today with a free trial at clienthub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months.____________________Stop spending endless hours creating and building workflow and process templates for your firm. Jetpack Workflow has 32 accounting workflow templates you can download for free. These popular accounting templates include Monthly Bookkeeping, Weekly Accounting Analysis, and 990, 1120, 1041, 1040 Tax Returns. 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Sponsors Justworks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/justworks AccountingSuite: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 03:34 - Get Down with PPP - YouTube 06:24 - Bankers Rebuke S.B.A. as Loan System Crashes in Flood of Applications - NYTimes 08:08 - SBA, Treasury ban use of RPA to submit PPP loans - Journal of Accountancy 09:03 - Mnuchin sends top deputy to fix small-business loan mess - Politico 09:46 - Steven Mnuchin goes after private schools with big endowments - Twitter 12:00 - Update: Latest in regulations and government changes prompted by COVID-19 - Armanino 12:40 - Mnuchin: All PPP Loan Recipients Will Face Audits - PYMNTS.com Justice Department investigating possible PPP application fraud - CNBC 13:56 - IRS: Companies who receive PPP loans will not qualify for tax deductions - The Hill 17:32 - Hotelier’s Push for $126 Million in Small-Business Aid Draws Scrutiny - NYTimes 21:47 - Gene Marks says blame banks and big businesses: Shake Shack handed back its $10m loan. But that's no reason to applaud | Gene Marks - The Guardian America's big banks should be ashamed of themselves - The Hill 25:17 - AICPA makes PPP loan forgiveness recommendations - Journal of Accountancy 25:53 - AICPA challenging nondeductibility of PPP-related expenses - Journal of Accountancy 28:05 - SMBSNew Data: Separating The PPP Haves, Have Nots and Don’t Wants - PYMNTS.com 28:40 - More PPP Discussion from Episode 172 29:00 - PPP Is No Panacea, But Is Crucial To SMB Outlook - PYMNTS 31:48 - Fed Turns To Banks For Feedback On Main Street Lending Program - PYMNTS.com 35:00 - BREAKING NEWS: Windows Update Causing QuickBooks to Crash - Insightful Accountant Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? 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DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Hector Garcia - How to Make Video Tutorials: http://www.hectorgarcia.com/tutorial  ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Accounting Salon - SALONv:  https://accountingsalon.com/ Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptWouldn't it be great if your small business clients could offer big company benefits to their employees, plus automated payroll, compliance support and HR tools? By using Justworks, you can offer these four essential services to your clients via one simple platform. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Justworks, later in the episode. [00:01:13] PPP, how can I explain it? I hope you will obtain it. If you listen, I will show you how to claim it. It's a program that they made for a virus called Corona. They give you free money 'cause you gotta stay at homa. The first P's for Paycheck. You may think you know what that is. Boss gives you moolah, shekels, lettuce, scratch, or cabbage. That part is true, but what if you are self-employed? Profit counts as payroll, so your biz don’t get destroyed. The other P’s Protection, as in fiscal preservation. You can’t pay no taxes if you’re in liquidation. They’re thinkin’ two months, so remember 2.5, so when the curve flattens, we’re all gonna thrive.  There’s one more P that we gotta talk about. If you don’t get with the Program, son, you’re gonna be without. All the savvy players have friends at the bank to put them first in line, when the program starts to crank.Grab your accountant and do your calculation to get the figures right for your loan application.   If you use the proceeds for paying your team, your loan will be forgiven, and you’re gonna scream: "Get down with PPP! Get down with PPP. Get down with PPP. Get down with PPP. Get down with PPP ..." David Leary: [00:01:23] It's amazing. Blake Oliver: [00:01:25] Get down with PPP. Yeah, isn't it? [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:01:25] He captured the whole history of everything. The whole month, he just captured in one rap song. Blake Oliver: [00:01:34] I love that so much. That was Steven Zelin. He's a CPA. He uploaded this video to his YouTube channel. That was just a part of it, go watch the whole thing. He's got almost 6,000 views in four days. We're recording on May 1, but we're gonna be talking about the month of PPP. I was looking at our past episodes, and three titles are all PPP, and this one's gonna be it, too, because it just keeps on going. David Leary: [00:02:00] Should we do our introduction? Blake Oliver: [00:02:03] Oh, yeah,  yeah. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by AccountingSuite. AccountingSuite is cloud accounting software that acts like a customizable ERP system. It lets you start out with just the features you need today and, in the future, as your business grows, you can easily add AccountingSuite extensions to give you the features you need. A major strength of AccountingSuite is its robust set of inventory management tools to track inventory levels, orders, sales, and deliveries from anywhere at any time. AccountingSuite has an extension for multi-channel online sales. After connecting your online marketplaces, AccountingSuite will download all your transactions for you to approve prior to entry into the accounting system. It's similar to working with bank feeds. AccountingSuite is offering Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners 50 percent off forever by using the promo code "CAP_50_2020." To take advantage of this exciting offer and to learn more about how AccountingSuite offers an upgradable path for your firm and company's future, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-S-U-I-T-E.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before May 31, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:03:59] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:04:03] And I'm David Leary. Blake, we have something to celebrate before you jump into PPP. Blake Oliver: [00:04:08] Okay, let's do it. David Leary: [00:04:09] We hit 200,000 downloads. Blake Oliver: [00:04:11] Awesome! David Leary: [00:04:13] So, thank you, listeners. Thank all of you for the support the last- we're almost two years, right? Getting very close?  Blake Oliver: [00:04:19] Yeah. Yeah. David Leary: [00:04:22] It's been an amazing run. 200,000 downloads is not anything to a squint about, right [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:04:27] I thought you were gonna say $200,000, and we definitely haven't made that much money. David Leary: [00:04:33] No, no, no, it's not that. It's just downloads. Blake Oliver: [00:04:35] It's just downloads.  David Leary: [00:04:35] In this day and age, you might be able to use those to buy things. I don't know. Blake Oliver: [00:04:39] Yeah. I know we have some reviews that we need to get to because we have ... We had a bug, and we weren't getting the reviews. David Leary: [00:04:45] Yes. So, we've had two reviews. Blake Oliver: [00:04:52] This is from Dwight Dettloff. He says - five stars - "Love this podcast. There's a few that I listen to regularly and this is one of them. As a solo practitioner, it's like having lunch or happy hour with other colleagues." Well, cheers to you, Dwight. David Leary: [00:05:08] This one is also on Podchaser. It's five stars. It's from Lizgolightly. "Love hearing from you guys in Australia.  We have fast changing government deadlines here to and legislation which was introduced so fast, there was no consultation and included some and excluded others.  Thanks for the updates look forward to hearing more. Take care at this difficult time." Blake Oliver: [00:05:28] So, it sounds like government is the same everywhere. David Leary: [00:05:31] Yes, I've been watching on the sideline of what's happening - a little bit in Canada, a little bit in the UK, and Australia. Their programs are causing just as much stress and pain for accountants as the PPP program is, here in The States. It's good to hear we're all in the same boat, worldwide. Blake Oliver: [00:05:49] Well, let's get straight into it, because there was a ton of news, a ton of drama when it comes to the PPP. There's a lot of blame going around now that people are starting to get really, really frustrated. Where do we even start with this? Well, where did we leave off last week? When we were recording, the program was set to open up again on Monday.  David Leary: [00:06:10] At 7:30 Pacific, yeah. So, it was about 10:30 a.m., Eastern. Blake Oliver: [00:06:15] We predicted the crash, which then followed. David Leary: [00:06:18] We predicted the crash, when we recorded on Saturday, and then, Monday, it crashed, I think, within 30 seconds. Blake Oliver: [00:06:24] Yeah, no surprise there. Just too many applications trying to come in all at once, and the SBA's computer systems are terribly antiquated. Some bankers were online, live tweeting, throughout the night, their frustrations with trying to enter a single piece of information and then getting kicked out and having to go back in and information getting lost and having to reenter it. It just went on and on and on. I think it's still a problem, I don't even know if it has been fixed at this point. I think people are just not even really talking about it anymore, but it's just still going on. They had to-  David Leary: [00:06:54] That's because they keep giving us gifts to talk about, but we'll talk about that more ... Apparently, that first day, though, they had 100,000 loans submitted in one day, the very first day. Blake Oliver: [00:07:06] Yeah, but we're talking, there's gonna be another 1 to 2 million loans; actually, way more than that, because it should be smaller dollar numbers. David Leary: [00:07:13] Yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:13] So, 100,000 loans, when you're probably gonna have, what, 3 million of them? It's not that good. It's gonna take a whole month to get through. So, what they tried doing is rate-limiting, so banks could only submit so many loans per hour, or per day, or whatever. That didn't work, and people were really frustrated. Some of the smaller banks were really frustrated that the big banks were allowed to submit loans in batch files. Originally, it was 15,000. So, if you had 15,000 loans to submit, you could just dump them all into an XML file and submit that all at once, and you didn't have to go through this horrific process of entering them one by one. Then, when the banks protested, the Treasury, or SBA lowered that to 5,000. That still made a lot of small banks have to sit there just manually entering loan applications because they're only doing a few hundred.  David Leary: [00:08:03] You have to manually enter. Did you see the article in the Journal of Accountancy from Jeff Drew? Blake Oliver: [00:08:08] No, no. David Leary: [00:08:08] So, they banned the use of RPA programs. If you were smart, and you had a keyboard-automation tool that would fill out the online application for you, which you would do if you were smart, once you typed things in ... They banned the use of those. They basically said you have to manually type the data into the website.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:28] Unless you're a bigger bank, in which case you can just submit XML files. Then, in order to, I guess, address some of that, they temporarily, for a day, stopped the big banks from being able to submit and only the small banks could do it. But then that isn't exactly fair, because a lot of the people who are at big banks, the small businesses who got neglected by the big banks, Chase, and Wells Fargo, and Citi, and Bank of America, they're like, "My loan still hasn't been processed, and you're giving preference now to small banks?" Where that was clearly a success story for the first round. None of it makes any sense.  [00:09:03] I think the signal that maybe Treasury is starting to figure out that this is not going so smoothly is that Treasury Secretary Mnuchin deployed his top deputy to the SBA to fix this thing. I'm sitting here thinking to myself, "This is 27 days after this program started, and anyone who was paying attention could see this was gonna be an issue." He sent Deputy Secretary Justin Muzinich. So, we have Mnuchin sending Muzinich to the SBA to sort this thing out. So, we'll see. Hopefully, he can get things moving. David Leary: [00:09:37] Well, he's also announced, I saw earlier this week, about they're gonna investigate now, or audit anybody that's done $2 million or more. Blake Oliver: [00:09:46] Well, yeah. Now, we're getting into the blame game. Small business owners are really frustrated; accountants are really frustrated, but mostly those small business owners who don't have accountants, who aren't even fortunate to have accountants advocating for them, they're really mad. So, who are they gonna blame? Two weeks ago, we were blaming who? We were blaming the big banks, the big or small businesses who got these loans, like Shake Shack and was it Ruth Chris. [00:10:13] Now, Mnuchin tweeted today, "It has come to our attention that some private schools with significant endowments have taken PPP loans. They should return them." He even went on TV and called for these big businesses, the public companies who have taken PPP loans, to not just return the money, but also apologize for even taking the money in the first place. This comes after the revised guidance. Was that even last week? Did we talk about that last week, the revised guidance-   David Leary: [00:10:41] No. The Revised guidance, as far as ...?  Blake Oliver: [00:10:44] The loans; like what qualifies as needing the loan? David Leary: [00:10:48] Oh, yeah, they revised that. Blake Oliver: [00:10:49] Yeah. David Leary: [00:10:49] We didn't talk about that last week. I think that was new this week. Blake Oliver: [00:10:53] Oh, God, that was this week?  David Leary: [00:10:54] So, this week, we had the revised guidance. Blake Oliver: [00:10:56] Right. So, everybody's getting upset. They're all getting mad because these big businesses, these public companies are getting these loans. So, then, Treasury comes out with the FAQ, and revises the guidance, and says, "Well, even though we excluded the requirement that you don't have access to outside capital, we actually meant that we wanted you to consider that." Because normally, with SBA loans, you can't get them if you have access to other capital; if you have a way to raise money outside of the SBA. But they exempted all the businesses from that, specifically. They did that on purpose in the legislation to speed things up, but now that they're seeing, "Oh, these big businesses, businesses that may not need it, are getting the money. Let's go back and change the rules." David Leary: [00:11:38] Well, that's been a lot of the big problem with this, is the guidance keeps coming out after the fact, after the fact, after the fact. Blake Oliver: [00:11:46] Yes.  David Leary: [00:11:46] But I think he also, yesterday, or maybe it was this morning, he said that they're going to now not just audit and look at loans that are above $2 million, they're gonna start looking at every single loan. You're gonna have to prove that you had some economic need. Blake Oliver: [00:12:00] Yeah. I got an email from my old firm, from Armanino, and they talked about this, and I couldn't believe it. But now that you're confirming that, I guess it must be true. So, basically, the Treasury is saying they're gonna audit ... Well, they said on April 28, they're gonna audit all loans over $2 million to see if the certification was correct; if they actually certified properly to this need or this necessity, I suppose. As we've talked about in the past, the certification is super-super-broad. All you have to say is that current economic uncertainty makes the loan necessary to support ongoing operations. That could be anybody, right?  David Leary: [00:12:40] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:12:40] So, then, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says they're gonna audit all loans greater than $2 million for compliance with the eligibility and calculation rules and the forgiveness and whatnot. Then, the next day - that was April 29 - apparently, there's reports that he has now extended the audit threat to all borrowers, regardless of the loan amount. So, all these accounting firms are now emailing their clients, "Better make sure that you are comfortable with what you did and what we helped you do because they might audit you." To incentivize people to give back the money, the SBA is offering a limited safe harbor window. So, if you return the money by May 17 to the bank, then there will not be any ramifications. What could that be? That could be criminal penalties. I don't know about you, David, but this just seems insane to me. They gave out all this money with hardly any strings attached, and now, after the fact, they're saying, "Give it back or else ..."? David Leary: [00:13:40] This all started, what was it, April 3, right, was the beginning of this-  Blake Oliver: [00:13:43] Yes. Yes.  David Leary: [00:13:44] -when it got flipped on? So, basically, the entire month of April. Then, the cherry on top, though, was late yesterday ... Did you see the guidance announced late yesterday [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:13:54] The IRS guidance?  David Leary: [00:13:56] The IRS guidance [crosstalk] that any money you spend the PPP loan on, you can't expense it for your taxes.  Blake Oliver: [00:14:03] Right, it's not deductible. David Leary: [00:14:04] Not deductible. Blake Oliver: [00:14:06] I actually have never seen our community get so furious. This is the thing that actually set everyone off. David Leary: [00:14:15] The whole month ... It couldn't have got ... This just was the top of the cherry. It's unbelievable how insane this month has been and the ridiculousness. Then they just topped it off with that. Last night, you could see all the Slack channels are in ... People just quit working yesterday. They just shut their laptops, they shut their computers. They just walked away and poured drinks. It was an unbelievable month and for them to top it off with that ruling last night is just amazing. Blake Oliver: [00:14:41] Now, I know I haven't been following all the tax implications of all this stuff, but my understanding is that the loan forgiveness that is going to happen is supposed to be tax-free, and it is going to be tax-free. They're not gonna tax us. Because normally when you get a loan forgiven, it's income; it's taxable, right? So, this income is not going to be taxable, but then the IRS comes out and says, "Oh, but the deductions, or the expenses associated with this income is not deductible," which is basically the same thing. If they had just made the loan forgiveness taxable, and the expenses deductible, it's the same thing. It ends up making the money taxable. David Leary: [00:15:28] Yeah, and when it's all said and done, your loan that you got is probably really- you have to, in your brain, almost think it's really a loan for 75 percent of that, when it's all said and done. So, if you got a $100,000 loan, you really, probably got a $75,000 loan for free, because you're paying taxes on the rest.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:45] Yeah, but you can't use the loan to pay your taxes. David Leary: [00:15:47] No ... From the IRS's standpoint, this stimulus is just ... They really didn't give out a trillion dollars; they only gave out $750 billion. Blake Oliver: [00:15:58] Yeah. It's just- it's a very backhanded way to reduce the amount of ... It's gonna create a lot of horrible conversations that now accountants have to have with their clients because we told them, "Oh, the money is tax-free," and now we have to tell them actually it isn't.  David Leary: [00:16:16] And you have to also tell them it may not get forgiven now, either. Remember, two weeks ago, I said, watch. They keep using this word "potentially forgivable." Now, every week, every day, they chip away at that forgiveness. Two weeks from now, is it gonna be, "Sorry, you can't forgive any of the loan anymore. We changed our mind ..."?  Blake Oliver: [00:16:32] Yeah. David Leary: [00:16:34] Is it starting- it feels like this. It really feels like this.  Blake Oliver: [00:16:36] Just to put things in perspective, I don't think they can do that legally. I don't even think that this guidance that they've issued would stand if this went to court. You can't just go back and change the terms after the fact. So, if a company took the money, and certified, and is willing to stand up to that, there's no case. The Treasury, and the SBA don't have a case. But the problem it does create is the PR problem. Secretary Mnuchin going after individual businesses, that's terrible. That could destroy your business if the public turns against you. Rubio even tweeted about how they're gonna release the full list of PPP recipients. Did you see that? David Leary: [00:17:19] I did not see the tweet, but I think they should release who's been taking these loans. It's public information. It's public money. We should see this. I can agree [crosstalk] I think it's gonna be done; very politically driven, right? I can see- Blake Oliver: [00:17:32] Right. First of all, that would be a terrible idea because it would ... Talk about a witch hunt. Then, it would also create problems for a lot of people who are, I think, supporters of the administration. So, then it provides fuel on both sides of the political debate. There's plenty of folks who donate to the Trump campaign who got this money. We've already seen evidence of that in The New York Times. There was a story here about a conservative Texas hotel owner, who owns a ton of hospitality businesses. He used the loophole in the law - which is that each location just has to have fewer than 500 employees - to get a ton of money. It's crazy. $126 million. [00:18:23] So, this is Monty Bennett. He applied through a network of entities for $126 million in forgivable loans from the Paycheck Protection Program. According to company filings, he's received $70 million of that, as of May 1. For comparison, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, which is the second-largest recipient, got just one-sixth that much and returned the money. Monty Bennett is saying he's not gonna give the money back, and he's saying he's likely not going to use the money in the eight-week period for payroll. He's gonna hold onto it, and keep it as a non-forgivable one-percent working-capital loan, which you and I have talked about as being a strategy that many small business owners will likely take. The money isn't going to go to payroll. It's gonna go to helping them open up again when the economy improves. David Leary: [00:19:14] That's if you do get the money, right? That's your worst-case scenario is you have a loan for one percent, which is pretty good-  Blake Oliver: [00:19:19] Yeah, you can pay it back in two years, and you don't have to pay for six months. So, you could hunker down for six months, and then start up again, and use that money to help you start up again, which makes total sense as a business owner.  David Leary: [00:19:31] Well, maybe there's a hidden gem in this, right? I know we were upset; I was upset ... The fact that these big, huge companies are taking this money because, ultimately, their one loan could help 2,000 small businesses, in a way. Now that this ruling came out with the tax deduction, if it's not deductible, essentially ... You're saying somebody'd have to fight this; fight it, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:19:55] Right. David Leary: [00:19:56] And go to court over this. Well, maybe we need some of these huge companies that have lawyers and have taken massive amounts of money to fight that. Blake Oliver: [00:20:05] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:20:05] The average small business owner's probably not gonna be able to fight this, on the whole. Blake Oliver: [00:20:08] Maybe somebody will, but I don't think they're gonna go after Monty Bennett because he's a big donor. He's a conservative donor and has donated like $150,000 to the Trump campaign. So, I think this puts Mnuchin in kind of an awkward position because here's the number-one example of somebody who benefited from this program who should not have, according to the intent of the rules. Apparently, he was lobbying in Washington for these exemptions. [00:20:36] This makes like total sense. Business owners who are kind of on the big side of small hear about all this money that's gonna come out; these billions and billions of dollars, and they wanna get a piece of it, and they have interests in Washington. So, they're working behind the scenes to change the legislation - this is lobbying, right? This is how it always works - to make sure they qualify. They got this exemption put in place. I'm not saying it was this guy in particular, but it was probably bunch of them all lobbying for exemptions together. While this law is being drafted, they get that put in there so that they can qualify, even though, in aggregate, they have more than 500 employees, they can still get the money. [00:21:11] I think this was a political miscalculation by whoever was drafting the law. They figured, okay, well, some big businesses are gonna get the money, but there's gonna be so much of it, and everybody's gonna get money; nobody'll care. Then, we had the computer problems, and the slow roll-out of the program, and the money not getting out. Then, people are getting really, really mad, and they have to blame somebody. So who do you blame? Treasury is not gonna blame itself. Who do people love to get mad at? They love to get mad at big banks, and they love to get mad at big businesses, so that's who's become the target of all of these attacks. [00:21:47] Honestly, if you're out there attacking them, which, there's a lot of people doing that ... Gene Marks, he's the number one influencer CPA; he's all over the news; probably the most visible CPA in the world. He's writing all these articles. I'll read the headlines for two of them. "Shake Shack handed back its $10m loan. But that's no reason to applaud," going after basically Shake Shack for even taking the money in the first place. Then he wrote another article, "America's big banks should be ashamed of themselves." Just going after the big banks. I know it's fun to do that-  David Leary: [00:22:24] We've taken part in some of this, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:22:25] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:22:27] I get that, but I'm less mad at the people who got money as much is the over-celebration by the Treasury, and the SBA about how great this program is, even though there's just flaws everywhere. Just stop trying to celebrate this as a victory. It's not a victory. It's just not. Blake Oliver: [00:22:45] Yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say is that all of this blame game on the businesses that took the money and the banks, it's all just a distraction. It's a distraction from the real problem with the program, which we have talked about since the very beginning of all of this. It's the way it was structured in the first place, and the way it was rolled out through the SBA and the banks, who just don't have the computer systems in place, the technology, to deal with this kind of volume. Nobody's talking about that. You don't have people like writing articles. That's what I would love to see - a guy like Gene Marks, with his platform, exposed the real problem here.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Justworks. Justworks is a combination of simple software and expert support for payroll, benefits, HR, and compliance, all in one place. This combination makes it easier for accountants, bookkeepers, and outsourced CFOs to help their clients run their businesses more smoothly and access great benefits for their employees. With Justworks, your clients get access to affordable benefits, automated payroll, HR tools, and compliance support for ever-changing employment regulations. Should you, your clients, or their employees ever have any question about benefits or payroll, you can call Justworks anytime. Really, anytime. The round-the-clock support team is standing by with dedicated support just for accountants. Justworks is simple and fast. It has an easy-to-use dashboard, integrations with QuickBooks and Xero, and additional automated tools to serve the modern workforce. Ready to give Justworks a try? For a limited time, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get two free months of Justworks service. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/justworks. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash J-U-S-T-W-O-R-K-S. Justworks - focus on your business; we'll focus on the rest.____________________David Leary: [00:24:46] Speaking of platforms, there's news that just broke after we started recording. So, I'm gonna jump on this article right now, which is really [crosstalk] I'm gonna rewind to news from about two hours ago, first. Obviously, with this program, there's constant confusion. Now, the latest confusion I don't know if you've seen is when do we start counting our eight weeks? Do we start counting it on the day of our next payroll? Do we start counting it when we get the money? Do we start counting when our city or town has lifted the stay-at-home orders? When do we start the eight-week count? [00:25:17] The AICPA came out with their guidance, which they say [inaudible] with the beginning of the pay period, not the date of the loan proceeds are received. They also say it should not even start- it should be flexible to when the business chooses to open again. Finally, because I felt like the AICPA has been a little not swinging their sword; they've been a little soft with a lot of recommendations. Now, they're changing to urging. They're not recommending things anymore. Well, 33 minutes ago, after we pressed the record button, the AICPA has taken a position on the tax deduction. Blake Oliver: [00:25:52] Oh, what are they saying? David Leary: [00:25:53] I'm gonna read the quote here. "The AICPA believes strongly that the IRS's interpretation denying deductions of expenses forgiven under the PPP program is contrary to Congress's intent." This is a Chris Hessey, CPA chair of the AICPA Tax Executive Committee. Blake Oliver: [00:26:09] Yes, good! Take a stand because that is just ... What has happened here is ridiculous.  David Leary: [00:26:15] The AICPA plans to seek legislative clarification. So, cheers to the AICPA, who I really have felt they've been too soft along this whole path on this ... I think last night, it hit- it finally hit the peak for everybody, and even the AICPA, it finally hit. They're like, "This is complete shit. We have to do something now."  Blake Oliver: [00:26:38] When it becomes an actual tax issue, that's when CPAs get really mad, right? Oh, man. David Leary: [00:26:44] With that said, I got approved for my PPP loan.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:48] Hey, congratulations, David. David Leary: [00:26:50] I filled out the website with a small local lender, what, April 4? That was a Saturday. Heard nothing the whole first round. Nothing. Then the day before the second round basically got turned on, I heard back. I filled stuff out. Didn't hear anything. Then, yesterday ... Because they made that window, and they turned it off for all the big banks, I got approved like that. Then, I've talked to some another accountant this morning, and she said, yeah, everybody that she knows, the small ones, it's finally going through. So, things are starting to go through. But it was funny, even last night before I got the email, I was just like ... I kinda just wanna stop even worrying about it now, and then it went through as soon as I was about ready to be done with it. Blake Oliver: [00:27:31] You've been waiting almost a whole month. You applied as soon as it started. David Leary: [00:27:35] Yeah, it was the first- it was one of the few websites I found that was working [crosstalk] that I could apply. Blake Oliver: [00:27:40] Wow. I wonder how much money has actually gotten out to small businesses. We were really all over that, at the beginning, but then, I kind of gave up because SBA doesn't track it, and they aren't releasing information on it. So, we still- we have anecdotal evidence that money is getting out finally, but we still don't know just how much has been approved versus how much has been disbursed. There is no data [crosstalk] on that, a month after the program started.  David Leary: [00:28:05] Payments.com did have a survey of 1,200 small businesses. They're looking at about how many SMB owners have applied for PPP loans and the different stages. 35 percent have been approved but have yet to receive the funds. 'My application's been filed but has not been approved' is 31 percent. 'I've applied, and I received funds' is about 30 percent. Then, 2.5 percent or almost three percent were 'Application was denied.' So about, at best, a third of the money has been put into somebody's bank account. Blake Oliver: [00:28:40] Oh, wow, that's worse than I thought it would be. I was hoping it would be at least half. So, a month later, a third of the money is in the accounts, and we're probably gonna need more. I think you talked about an estimate, on the last episode, that we're gonna need $900 billion to actually fund all these applications. David Leary: [00:28:58] Yeah. Somebody from Bank of America was talking about that.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:00] So, here's the question I have. I've been thinking about this, David, when it comes to the PPP money actually not just getting to businesses, but actually helping people stay on payroll. I want to kind of give you a hypothetical situation. Pretend I'm a business owner and I don't really care. I'm gonna act in my own self-interest, right? Let's take that as an example. So, I get this PPP money. Let's say I get $100,000, and I'm gonna use 75 percent of that on payroll. [00:29:25] Now I have a choice. I was gonna lay off maybe 10-20 percent of my workforce because my revenue's down 10-20 percent. I could keep them, and I could pay them using that money, or I could do what I was gonna do before and lay them off. Let's say I lay them off, even though I got the money. What that means is that ... Now, let's say I lay off 20 percent of my workforce, so $80,000 can get forgiven still, though, because I'm still paying 80 percent of my employees, and 80 percent the payroll. [00:29:55] Then, in that case, the other 20 percent, the $20,000 just turns into a loan at one percent, and I can just pay that money back. So, in that case, did the program actually do anything? There's no disincentive to not lay people off, I guess. You can always just take the money as a small loan. Does this makes sense? David Leary: [00:30:15] Yeah, and I think the same thing- the surveys from PYMNTS addressed some of that, too. Some people were just taking it as a cash cushion, like 25 percent, just in case. Blake Oliver: [00:30:25] Oh, really? David Leary: [00:30:25] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:30:26] I gotta look at this survey. Wow. David Leary: [00:30:28] Generally, 25-30 percent said if they don't get it, they won't survive at all. About half, close to 40 to 50 percent are in that range area, are pushing, like if they don't have it, they wouldn't be able to keep their employees until they're ready to reopen. So, I think it is helping some small businesses keep employees until they're able to reopen for X=eight weeks, but we're already five weeks in, six weeks in. By the time people get this, it's just so late, and it just took so long. Blake Oliver: [00:31:03] Well, and as a reminder, the name of the program is Paycheck Protection Program. That's what it's supposed to be doing. So, is it actually doing that is my question. David Leary: [00:31:13] Some part of this, I've been feeling, is that Congress is out of touch. The fact that they think restaurants have 500 employees; they write these things in. Some part of me questions do they even care about small business? I'm gonna reinforce this. You're aware of the Main Street Lending Program, right? Blake Oliver: [00:31:30] Yes. That's the next one for the larger businesses. David Leary: [00:31:34] Yes, but where do you normally ... When people talk about Main Street USA, what size businesses are you usually talking about on Main Street USA? Blake Oliver: [00:31:41] Well, normally, I'm thinking about like the mom-and-pop retail stores, like the hardware store, or something. David Leary: [00:31:46] Small businesses. Blake Oliver: [00:31:48] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:31:48] So, they create a program for businesses that have up to 10,000 employees. This is the 500 to 10,000 employee bracket of businesses that have revenues up to $2.5 billion in sales, and they call it the Main Street Lending Program. How out of touch are they? This should be called Almost Fortune 500 Lending Program.  Blake Oliver: [00:32:05] It should be called the Big Box Lending Program. Then, they should've called the Paycheck Protection Program the Main Street Lending Program. David Leary: [00:32:14] They're just completely out of touch with what's out there in the world. It's so shocking to me. It's not just Republicans. It's also Democrats.  Blake Oliver: [00:32:24] Oh, yeah. Let's not forget, like, we've gotten some criticism lately for being skewed politically, which I think is funny because I would not consider myself to be a liberal, in the slightest. I just hate waste. I hate inefficiency. I hate programs that don't work. The Democrats bear just as much of the blame for this legislation as the Republicans, given that it passed unanimously. All it would have taken is one person to stand up and say, "Hey, guys, maybe this isn't such a good idea," and nobody did. So, I think there's equal blame to go around. Both the Democrats, and the administration, and the Republicans in Congress and the Senate. Actually, you know who I feel the worst for in all this is the poor people that are working at the SBA. I mean, it must suck to work there right now. Can you imagine? David Leary: [00:33:12] Or even people that are processing bank loans and manually typing these into the SBA website [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:33:16] Oh, my God.  David Leary: [00:33:19] Obviously, we've talked about accountants and bookkeepers that are suffering across the board. Then, the IRS, as well, right? People at the Treasury ... This is definitely being politicized at the highest levels, and it's gonna continue to be. There's no end in sight to this. Blake Oliver: [00:33:37] Yeah, and that's the problem is that ... If we could just avoid politicizing it and just deal with the actual fundamental issue, which is that they wrote the law wrong, then we could get around this better, but the fact that nobody wants to own up to it and just wants to point fingers at other people, that's the big problem here. David Leary: [00:33:55] It just keeps going. One thing that drives me nuts about this is it's bad enough we have this virus that there's no end in sight. Everybody has to just ... They have this unknown in their life. But then, the stimulus package, to some extent, it's created just as much unknown. It's actually worse because it gave everybody a bunch of hope, like, hey, there's gonna be these loans, and they're gonna be tax-free, and you're gonna be able to ... We're gonna get them out within 10 days, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  [00:34:23] Then, even people's stimulus checks ... Last week, we talked about half the people still have not received their stimulus money. So, people just have all these non-predictable things happening in their life. You'd think, if anything, the financial part could be stabilized by just being consistent and being smart in how we do this, but it's not. There's no end in sight to this. We'll have a cure for COVID before this gets figured out. Blake Oliver: [00:34:48] It's possible. It is unlikely, but possible. Oh, man ...  David Leary: [00:34:53] Any other PPP news? Blake Oliver: [00:34:55] No, and honestly, I have no energy to talk about anything else [crosstalk] today.  David Leary: [00:35:00] -Windows update making QuickBooks Desktop crash. Blake Oliver: [00:35:04] Well, why the hell are people still on QuickBooks Desktop? David Leary: [00:35:07] I knew that was gonna be your response, so I didn't really talk about that one.  Blake Oliver: [00:35:09] Just do it. David Leary: [00:35:10] There's an air show in Phoenix, so we've gotta get off because we're not gonna be able to record anymore. Blake Oliver: [00:35:15] There are some jets that are gonna be flying over the city in about 20 minutes. My five-year-old son really is gonna enjoy watching that, so I gotta do that. But also, yeah, it's gonna be incredibly loud.  David Leary: [00:35:27] Are they gonna be throwing out billions of dollars of stimulus money out the window of the jets, so that way ...?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:30] That would be really cool-  David Leary: [00:35:32] The efficient way to distribute it.  Blake Oliver: [00:35:33] No, it's in support of our first responders. They're not gonna be throwing out money. They're gonna be throwing out hope. So, I'm gonna go watch that and have a nice rest of my Friday. I hope you do, too, David. David Leary: [00:35:47] Yeah, so if people want to get a hold of you, what's the best way? Blake Oliver: [00:35:50] I am @BlakeTOliver on Twitter. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:35:54] I'm @DavidLeary. You can also follow The Cloud Accounting Podcast on Twitter. @CloudAcctPod, or just search for Cloud Accounting Podcast. I did create a survey - Was this the worst April in the history of accounting? So, I'd love if you went to that survey and said yes or no. Blake Oliver: [00:36:10] Hey, I realized I forgot to read some listener mail before we stopped recording last week. So, I want to get this on the record. Is that all right?  David Leary: [00:36:17] That's a good way to close this out. Perfect. Blake Oliver: [00:36:19] All right. This is from Greg Bayramian; subject - value pricing. "Hi, Blake. I've been listening to the podcast for approximately six months. You and David are awesome speakers, and I learn so much in every podcast. We applied for the PPP program on April 7 with Chase and never heard anything and just found out the funds are exhausted. Question for you regarding value pricing. I started my practice 26 years ago and was a solo most of the time just doing tax prep, and some tax planning, and consulting in the off season. I am an EA, and specialize in tax only. I learned from my first job at H&R Block to charge by the form. I have done that for 26 years. I am hearing a lot about value pricing, but I don't think it would apply to a tax-only business.  [00:37:01] In our firm, we don't have many high net worth clients and most of our clients only want to see us once a year, or if they have a job change, or increase income and need planning. They just come in for a consult visit, where we charge hourly. We do work year round, and we are trying to grow the tax-resolution side of the business, as I love standing up to the IRS. Just curious about your thoughts with a value-pricing model for a business that only does tax. Thank you and looking forward to the next podcast. Stay safe and be healthy."  [00:37:30] So, if any of you have any advice for Greg, feel free to tweet at us. Here's what I think, Greg. I think that there's an opportunity here to bundle the tax prep with audit support. This is what TurboTax has done forever, right, David? H&R Block, you pay an extra fee and then, they'll defend you. David Leary: [00:37:51] Oh, yeah. At the end, you get to ... It's almost like buying a little insurance policy.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:54] Exactly. Honestly, that's what value pricing is, right, if you listen to Ron Baker, Ed Kless talk about value pricing. It really is, in a way, an insurance policy against future work that you might have to pay for. So, try bundling in all that unpredictable stuff - the tax planning, the audit prep - into the tax prep and then, maybe spread that out over the year. You could charge people in two installments, instead of at the end; or you could charge them quarterly, or even every month, if you wanted. That way, they know, "Hey, if I have a question, I just call. I pay a little extra, but I'm not gonna get hit by an hourly bill."  [00:38:31] You have to model that out and make sure you're not gonna get too overwhelmed with the work that comes in, and you're not billing for it. There's ways to protect yourself with limits. You could set a limit and say this will not exceed so much, or different things, which is ... That's what the software guys do on that audit defense stuff. This is just my take. [00:38:52] Thanks for writing in. Anyone else, if you want to leave us a message, you can email us. I'm [email protected], or what's even better is you could call us because we love to hear our listeners' voices. You can call us at (202) 695-1040. That's (202) 695-1040. It's a Google Voice number that we set up that goes straight to voicemail. Just leave a voicemail, and let us know what you're thinking; let us know your opinion; let us know a question. We will listen to it and maybe we'll play it on the air. David Leary: [00:39:27] Good luck to another four weeks probably of PPP madness.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:32] Talk to you soon, David.  David Leary: [00:39:32] All right, bye.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:32] Bye. ____________________Classifieds If you want to learn how to make video tutorials from an expert, sign up for Hector Garcia's live webinar, How to Make Video Tutorials, so you can learn how to create content to educate your team, your clients, and your prospects. Use coupon code "CAP50" for $50 off your purchase. Head over to www.hectorgarcia.com/tutorial.____________________ Still sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? Automate this process and get client answers instantly with ClientHub's QuickBooks Online integration. This feature was described as one that only an accountant would have come up with as it solves a real big pain point. ClientHub is a modern client portal designed for cloud accounting firms. Get started today with a free trial at clienthub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months.____________________ Are you looking to get some of the best content in the world to improve your team and your firm and some free CPE credits, too? Good news. The Accounting Salon has turned into a virtual event called SALONv, and it's open to the world. You can register for free at accountingsalon.com.____________________  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. 

Purchase Controller's Code: The Secret Formula to a Successful Career in Finance on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0872JRBF4/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_n.pPEbHQAPR1PConnect With … Mike Whitmire on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcwhitmire/FloQast on the web: https://floqast.com/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Reviews4GoodRight now, when you visit us on Podchaser, and interact, Podchaser is donating 25 cents per review - and 25 cents every time we respond to a review - to the Meals on Wheels America COVID-19 Response Fund. Pay us a visit on Podchaser, and do some good at the same time!  EXTENDED to April 30! For more information, go here: https://www.podchaser.com/articles/community/reviews-for-charityNeed Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast TranscriptMike Whitmire: [00:00:02] If I had asked for something already, and I had to go back and ask for it - it was the second or third time - I would generally go the puppy-dog-eyes route and just look worn down and look terrible and just be like, "Hey, I'm really ... I'm exhausted. I was just trying to get the stuff done. Would you mind sending it over so I can go home a little bit earlier tonight?" That pity approach worked every time. It was beautiful. So, if you're an auditor, if someone's not getting you stuff, instead of getting mad about it, and trying to get angry about it, and make them do it, just be pathetic; then they'll help you out. Blake Oliver: [00:00:40] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:00:44] And I'm David Leary. Mike Whitmire: [00:00:45] And I'm Mike Whitmire, co-founder, and CEO of FloQast.  Blake Oliver: [00:00:47] Mike, thanks so much for joining us. Really excited to have you here. David, I don't know, have you ever met Mike at any these conferences we've been at? David Leary: [00:00:55] I don't think so. I think maybe when we went to Sage's Intacct, I think the FloQast team was there, but I don't know if he was there, or maybe he was, and you pointed at him from far away. Mike Whitmire: [00:01:04] Yeah. That conference has gotten wild for FloQast, and for me, as well, so I wouldn't be too shocked if I was just running around. Blake Oliver: [00:01:11] So, David, Mike is the CEO at FloQast, a developer of close-management software, where I had the privilege of working for a couple of years before my current gig. He started his career as an auditor at Ernst & Young, made it to Senior, and then left to join Cornerstone OnDemand, a year before they IPOed. So, went through that whole IPO process as an in-house accountant and then spent, I think it was, three years there, Mike? Then you went off to start FloQast? Is that right?  Mike Whitmire: [00:01:43] Yep. Yeah, just about three years. Blake Oliver: [00:01:46] I wanna learn more about that; talk about that. But first, given everything that's going on, how's it going? How are you doing? Mike Whitmire: [00:01:54] Doing well. For those of you listening in the future, we are currently quarantined as a result of COVID-19. I think we're, what, six weeks into this quarantine now? Time's kind of blurring together. It's getting tough. But, yeah, it's been really nice, obviously, with all the tools we have available to us now, the transition to the company working from home wasn't the craziest thing in the world. [00:02:18] I think the bigger one is, obviously, you look across what's going on in the world, and the economic impact is top of mind for me, running the business. Then, also, the impact this is having on people just emotionally, and mentally, you can tell it's kinda starting to catch up to people. In a lot of the conversations I've been having, that's been a pretty top-of-mind item, right now. [00:02:38] Fortunately, for us, we haven't had to make drastic decisions, like do big layoffs, or anything like that. We were lucky enough to have closed our Series C round of about 40 million bucks just two months before all of this started falling apart, so I feel really fortunate that we're in a position where we don't have to do aggressive layoffs or anything like that, like a lot of other companies are looking at. Blake Oliver: [00:03:01] How is that going, transitioning to remote? Because I recall, when I was working at FloQast, everybody was in the office together in L.A., which was really nice in a lotta ways. Mike Whitmire: [00:03:12] Yeah, the founders, and I, we're big proponents of being in the office. I think, just first and foremost, we just enjoy it. We enjoy being around the people, and we do see the benefits of being near each other. But I think because of the type of company we are - we're a SaaS company - we're very open to technology; we have purchased a ton of software over the years, we were almost ready to go to work from home. So, from a tech perspective, there really was no transition. We just flipped the switch, and everyone was able to still do their job. [00:03:42] I think the bigger one was it was adjusting culturally. It's just very- it's very different. I think the group that I was most concerned about, when we were making the shift, was our sales team. We have a inside sales organization, and that's a tough job. When you're doing it all day, it can become a grind, and you really fuel off of your team to keep that energy up. I was concerned that that would fall apart when people started working from home. [00:04:07] Our VP of sales, Jill Cooper, she has a ton of experience managing remote sales teams, so this is very, very kind of par for the course for her, so she has a bunch of little things she does to keep people energized and engaged, and it's been working out really well, so far. It's actually like the highest activity we've ever had in sales. We're still booking demos, closing business; so, things are going well. Blake Oliver: [00:04:31] I'm curious, you talk to a lot of accounting teams, a lot of controllers, given what FloQast does. How are the accounting teams handling things? Mike Whitmire: [00:04:40] It definitely depends on the type of business and how open your company had been to cloud-based technology before this. As  we signed a lot of high-tech companies, and people who are in the SaaS space, or are in the software space, so they inherently have used a lot of cloud-based applications, so the transition wasn't hard- too hard for them. It's moreso dealing with some of the challenges that I had laid out there, just like the motivation, and the kind of emotional toll that this can take on people. [00:05:12] Then, some of our clients, who are not quite that up to speed, it's tough. All of a sudden, you're at home; you're VPN-ing into your ERP to be able to do some work, and you're fortunate enough to have FloQast to help you at least collaborate and get through the close together. But you do still have that challenge of, like, "Man, I gotta use a VPN to get into my ERP," and it just slows everything down in a big way. Blake Oliver: [00:05:35] Yeah. Then, trying to get the actual reports out of that ERP ... I mean, I've used somewhere- the only way I could figure out how to do it was to literally print to paper, and then scan the paper [crosstalk]  Mike Whitmire: [00:05:45] Yeah-  Blake Oliver: [00:05:45] -it's that old. Mike Whitmire: [00:05:48] Some of those old things, like I remember at Cornerstone, we used cloud; we were on NetSuite, but we still were very security conscious, so we were required to use a VPN. VPNs were so bad, I would rather drive into the office on the weekends and use that than work from my house. I would literally commute in on the weekend, just so I could be that much faster at home- or at the office. Blake Oliver: [00:06:09] It sounds like we need Zoom to solve the VPN problem, right? Like [crosstalk] next mission. Mike Whitmire: [00:06:14] As long as there's really good security behind it, as well; if they get that part sorted out, then- Blake Oliver: [00:06:16] Oh, yeah.  Mike Whitmire: [00:06:16] Then, I'd be on board with it.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:19] So, maybe not; maybe not.  David Leary: [00:06:21] So, Blake worked at FloQast for what? 18 months, two years, or something like that? Blake Oliver: [00:06:26] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:06:26] I talk to Blake every single week, and to be honest, I don't even know if FloQast does, so it'd be nice to start from there because I know we have accountants and bookkeepers that maybe aren't really even familiar with the close process, per se, but then, this thing called FloQast ... In my brain, it's this thing, and it kinda adds on to Excel, and accents Excel? Even the logo, Blake's trying to explain that to me, and I'm like ... Because there's a pound (#) sign, and that's the way you kick off a macro, maybe. I'd love to just get that stepped back, like what the hell is FloQast? Mike Whitmire: [00:06:57] Yeah, no, that's a very fair question. We build what we call close-management software, and it's a relatively new space. It really  developed out of the pain points that I had at Cornerstone OnDemand. Like Blake mentioned, I joined a year before the IPO. I was the fifth person in accounting over there. When you're in about five people in accounting, you're working together, you're closing the books, you kind of all have your own assignments. So, for example, I was the revenue, and deferred revenue guy, so I pretty much focused on that portion of the balance sheet. Then, it was all hands on deck for a lot of other processes, like financial reporting, or FP&A, or audit prep, or what have you. [00:07:35] The challenges we had was, as we scaled, we added more, and more people to the team. By the time I left, we had about 50 people in accounting. One of the challenges of accounting is that you have a team of people who are all working in silos to try to get their part of the process done, but they're all very interdependent upon each other to hit an ultimate deadline.  [00:07:59] A good example is I was the revenue, and deferred revenue guy, but I was very dependent on the billing, and collections team getting their work done, so I could do my work timely, and do it accurately throughout the process. So, collaboration starts to become a really, really big issue because there's just not a solution built to, for example, have a centralized checklist in the cloud, where when my AR team would finish a certain process, they could have signed off on it. I could have gotten an alert that I knew it was my turn to start doing my work. So, there's the collaboration component. [00:08:31] Basically, what ended up happening was we devolved into daily status update meetings just so my controller had an understanding of where we were with the close on any given day, which is not a good use of time. So, there's a ton of inefficiency that comes out of that. Accountants, we love documentation, we love standardizing things, we love checklists. The problem is that's not the best place for Excel to be used, and we oftentimes turn to Excel to do checklists in accounting. FloQast has built a tool that helps you manage your close process. It helps your team collaborate around getting that process done. [00:09:04] I think one of the tasks that occurs at slightly larger companies ... If you're if you're doing bookkeeping, or accounting for SMBs, you're not you're unnecessarily tying out the entire trial balance. You're really focused on cash and making sure cash, and credit cards are gonna be reconciled. But when you move up, and you become a public company, you're now all of a sudden tying out your entire trial balance, every single account. That requires preparing a reconciliation to support each of those balances. Then, what you're doing at the end of the month is you're tying out that reconciliation back to your ERP. [00:09:40] When I was at Cornerstone, we had a trial balance with hundreds of accounts on it, and then, we started opening up more subsidiaries. When you start opening up more subsidiaries, all of a sudden, we were tying out thousands of accounts any given month. One of the problems in accounting is we are all working together, but we're all working together on one single data set, and other people can book adjustments to my account that end up impacting my work. [00:10:09] One of the problems we have is that when you tie something out, it's totally manual. Like I go into my Excel workbook, and I see, okay, my deferred revenue balance is $25 million. I go into NetSuite. I open up NetSuite. Deferred revenues, $25 million; awesome. Now, I've done that work, and I might go home that night and feel good that I've completed my reconciliation. But what if late in the middle of the night, somebody from my billing team realizes that they're not gonna collect cash; they wanna reverse an entry, cancel a contract, book something in my deferred revenue account? I'm not gonna know about that unless I manually go perform that reconciliation again, or the person on my team tells me about that. [00:10:48] What FloQast does to help with that - and this is where that hashtag comes into play - when an accountant goes to perform that tie-out process, they'll go find that number. They'll look for the $25 million in the Excel workbook. Then, to the right of that number, you're gonna type in either TB or GL, for trial balance or for general ledger. That's how you signify that you performed that work of tying it back. [00:11:09] Where the hashtag comes into play is, instead of typing in TB, you type in hashtag #FQ, and then the account number that you wanna tie that out against. Now, because we're integrated with your cloud storage provider, we're able to then dig through that Excel workbook, as well. We start searching through the workbook. We look at every single cell to see if we can find a hashtag. If we do find a hashtag, we grab it out of the workbook, and we display it inside of FloQast. Then, on the other side, we integrate directly with your ERP, so it's tied out within FloQast. [00:11:41] What's beautiful about it is it's tied out in FloQast, but then it's also dynamic. If some change occurs that there's gonna be a refresh, there's gonna be an update, and you're gonna be automatically notified if anything's changed. That's really big for the review process, for audit prep; making sure that what you're handing the CFO is accurate and making sure what you're handing the FP&A team is accurate. It goes a long way and ends up saving a lot of time, and a lot of money, and a lot of headaches. In a nutshell, we help with the broad close process and that goes anywhere from- it's the people; it's your process; then, it's ultimately all concluding with that reconciliation process. David Leary: [00:12:21] Got it. So, in general, like Excel alive, in a way, right? It's always a refreshing; change this field, the rest of the fields ... As soon as you start getting multiple people on multiple spreadsheets, things break everywhere. Basically, FloQast is kind of keeping those all tied together via this hashtag field.  Mike Whitmire: [00:12:35] Yeah, yeah. A simple hashtag literally takes all your reconciliations and makes them dynamic. David Leary: [00:12:42] Got it. Blake Oliver: [00:12:43] Your co-founder, your technical co-founder, Cullin Zandstra, was working at Myspace before FloQast. What the heck does a social media company have to do with close management, and software for accounting teams? Mike Whitmire: [00:12:57] Well, they have absolutely nothing to do with each other, and that's why we ended up working together. One of my favorite things about Cullin is I met him ... I'll give a quick overview of Cullin. I hope he doesn't listen to this. He probably won't. Cullin is a pretty stereotypical engineer. If you watch Silicon Valley, he's very much like the star of the Silicon Valley show, and then has a big personality and has a lot of strong opinions. [00:13:24] While he was at Myspace, he tells some hilarious stories about how he was ... He was there during the demise of Myspace. This is what he says. He remembers, he was there when Facebook came on the scene, and they were all rippin' on Facebook. They didn't think it was a problem at all or anything. Then, they just went from top of the world to this kind of joke of a company in a pretty short period of time. Cullin was there while they were laying people off left and right. He tells stories about being the last engineer left on his floor. He went to his boss. He begged them to lay him off so he could get a severance and go start his own company. [00:13:59] When I met him, I asked him a very similar question, like, "All right, dude, you're coming out of Myspace? Why do you wanna build accounting software? What is that all about?" He's like, "I just wanna build something that people are gonna pay me for. I don't want anything to do with consumer ever again. It can just turn ... It could all blow up overnight. I want something where I build something; people appreciate it; they pay us money for it; and we sign another person; they pay us more money for it." I was like, "Holy crap, that is beautiful. You might be one of the few engineers in L.A. who think that way." Then, we hit it off, and he's brilliant ... Yeah, it's all worked out really well. Blake Oliver: [00:14:31] So, I think we just simplified the FloQast elevator pitch, Mike, which is that FloQast is the opposite of Myspace. Mike Whitmire: [00:14:39] Yeah. We're the ... Yes, I would love to be the opposite of Myspace. Blake Oliver: [00:14:43] So, it's been seven years since FloQast started as the very first vision for it, right?  Mike Whitmire: [00:14:50] Mm-hmm.  Blake Oliver: [00:14:50] Now, seven years later, how many customers does FloQast have? Where are you guys at? I know you mentioned you just raised a Series C round. What's the status? Mike Whitmire: [00:15:02] To go back in time a little bit, we've been around for seven years, but we really didn't start selling until Q1 of 2015. So, just over five years of selling at this point. Yeah, quick company overview - for starters, I guess, headquartered in Los Angeles. We have about 150 full time employees; most are in L.A. We have a couple spread across the country. Today, we have 900 clients on FloQast. We focus on the mid-market. We look to really help companies that have anywhere from five or six accountants, on the low end of the range, up to maybe a few hundred accountants in their department. That's kind of the place- the space that we sell into there. Venture-backed; have raised a lot of money over the years. We now- our Series C was $40 million, which brings our total funding to $93 million, to date, and been a big push to invest in product and customer service with all that money. Blake Oliver: [00:15:56] You have written a book called, "Controllers Code: The Secret Formula to a Successful Career." I was fortunate to get an advanced copy here. I mean, I'm excited because I don't think I've ever seen a book for controllers before. Why a book for controllers? Mike Whitmire: [00:16:13] Well, you're so modest, Blake. If you if you remember, this was your idea upfront. That's it. You came to me, and I think it was on the heels of us trying to provide some career advice for people and really thinking about, well, something that's interesting to accountants is advice on how to move up in their career and really be as impactful as possible. When we were starting to discuss that, it got me super-excited, and I thought that was a great idea. I wanna help people have successful careers, so that was the genesis behind all of it. So, yeah, I have to thank you for the idea and really, really appreciate it. Blake Oliver: [00:16:48] One of the first things in the book is the story you tell about walking into the Lionsgate building for the first time. This is when you were an auditor at Ernst & Young?  Mike Whitmire: [00:16:58] Lionsgate was my first engagement, and I had been warned about how horrible of a client they were, all during the training. The first two weeks you get there, you go through training, and you hear about who all the worst clients are. Lionsgate got brought up repeatedly. Then, of course, I was assigned to it. Yeah, I'll never forget that first day, man. The office is structured very strangely. You get out of the elevator and then there's this door with no windows; you open the door with no windows, and all of a sudden, you're met with these rows and rows of filing cabinets that are just full of documents. [00:17:33] I walked down, it was probably a hundred yards. The hall was very long. It was all file cabinets, and that's exactly how you get to the audit room in the back. You walked by a hundred yards of filing cabinets. Then, I sit down, I start doing my job, and I realize, oh, crap, these file cabinets are full of the stuff I'm auditing. This is nuts. Just every morning, man, I'm walking in, I'm walking through all these documents. I feel like I'm going to war. It was just not a very healthy- not a healthy dynamic. So, yeah, I'll never forget my intro to the audit world. Blake Oliver: [00:18:07] Well, thankfully, now we are getting away from those giant file cabinets; although, I think a surprising number of accounting teams still rely on those giant binders, right? One of the other points that you start with in the book is talking about how first-time controllers really struggle in the job a lot of the time. Why is it so difficult when you take that job on, the first time? It doesn't seem like this is- it's that way in every field. Mike Whitmire: [00:18:39] Yeah, the controller job, if you think about it, it's really hard. I don't know if it's given enough credit for how difficult it is. Put yourself in the controller's shoes. You're expected to be really good at accounting, obviously. First and foremost, you need to know GAAP accounting; you need to know how to book journal entries and do all that good stuff. Then, you also need to know how to review it. Reviewing is very different than doing; reviewing is an art. You need to figure out just the right amount of detail to look into, but not too much, because then you'll get bogged down and end up wasting a ton of your own time. That's where a lot of the trust in your team factor starts to come into play.  [00:19:15] Then you need to know how to manage up. So, you have a CFO that you're reporting to. There's a board presentation you might have to give. So, all of a sudden, managing up and being able to present - those are skills that become all that much more important. Then, beyond that, you're now, all of a sudden, supposed to be a leader, and a manager of your team. Yeah, just when you think about it, all of a sudden, you go from being an accountant, where you can focus on what you're trying to do. You just get your job done. You can go home and deal with review notes. All of a sudden, you have a lot more responsibility that's thrown on your plate. That's why controllers make good money is because you take on a whole lot of responsibility in that position. David Leary: [00:19:52] It sounds like five jobs. Mike Whitmire: [00:19:54] Yeah. No, it's really ... It's amazing. If you go find a job description for a controller, it's a very long job description. Blake Oliver: [00:20:00] It's changed a lot over the last few decades, right? Mike Whitmire: [00:20:03] It's changed a ton. That was one of the interesting things that occurred to me, as I've been speaking with more controllers and more CEOs over the last five years or so is it's almost as if ... The role of the CFO, when I started working in accounting in 2006, it feels like the controller is now the new CFO, and the CFO almost does what I used to view as like COO-, or CEO-level work. CEOs are that much more removed from the day-to-day operations at this point. So, it's almost like everyone's requirements have shifted up a role in the last 15 years, which is challenging but also exciting because that's really engaging work to do if it's something that you enjoy.  Blake Oliver: [00:20:46] In the book, there's a quote from Jerry Raphael. He's the CFO at Stack Overflow. Great guy. He says that the controller is, "Uniquely positioned to influence the drumbeat of the entire organization." What does that mean to you that the controller beats that drum? Mike Whitmire: [00:21:07] When he talks about this stuff, what he really ... I think what he's referring to is accounting sits very much in the middle of the organization. We're one of the few departments that deals with every other department. There's HR. HR deals with every other department, and accounting, and that's sort of the end of the list. With that, you have really interesting insight into what everyone's doing. Then, you're also working with all of them at the end of the month and holding them accountable for getting their job done. Now, Jerry, at Stack, when he was the controller, he was in ... Stack was a lean accounting department, lean finance, and accounting department. [00:21:42] A lot of the finance responsibilities overlapped into accounting. Jerry was not just the controller, but also Director of Finance on top of that. What that means is when you're doing the finance and budgeting process, as well, which a lot of controllers are now involved in that process, that's how you really help drive the drumbeat of the organization. You're holding people accountable for hitting their numbers; you're not spending too much money; you're spending intelligently. If you're doing that on a monthly cadence, that's where that drumbeat comes in. Every month, you're making sure people are staying on track. I don't think that's an impact that a lot of people appreciate. Blake Oliver: [00:22:18] Practically speaking, we're talking about making sure that every department has that budget versus actual report and is being held accountable, like staying on their budget, and hitting their numbers, and all that. Mike Whitmire: [00:22:30] Yeah. It's amazing how much financial ... The financial implications like that drive behavior, obviously, and being the controller who has those financial conversations, you're able to- if you're clever about it, you can ask certain questions or word things a certain way that help drive the right behavior for the organization.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:51] Yeah, it's an interesting challenge because you could be seen as beating the drum, or as a taskmaster, or as ... Holding people to account, but without them hating you is really difficult, right?  Mike Whitmire: [00:23:03] Yeah, that is a really, really difficult fine line that accountants need to play. That all comes down to having very high emotional intelligence. In my experience, when I was an auditor, and when I was an accountant, the best approach I had, whenever I was requesting stuff from people, was just a ton of empathy and really trying to make sure what I was asking of them was reasonable and was helpful. [00:23:25] In fact, one of the funny stories - I don't even know if you and I have chatted about this - but two of our very, very, very early investors at FloQast were- they were executives at Cornerstone, and they were people I worked with closely, but I worked with them in the capacity of just bothering them all the time; asking them every month to give me information, and reminding them of, "Hey, let's button up this process. This would be a lot easier if we did it this way," blah-blah-blah, and I'm just a senior accountant trying to drive this. [00:23:53] When I reached out to him to start the company, I was like, man, there's no way in hell they're gonna give me money because all I did was bother them for three years. But I must have done it in the right way, and I think having that empathy and understanding [inaudible] requesting the right things is the right way to do it, because both of them immediately cut me checks, and that was a big part of getting the company off the ground. [00:24:11] So, yeah, my advice on that is if you're gonna be the drumbeat of the organization, you do need to be reasonable. You need to have high emotional intelligence; come to the table with empathy. Everyone you're meeting with has a full-time job on top of talking to you about this stuff, so you just need to be understanding, and reasonable, and empathetic. Blake Oliver: [00:24:27] Well, that's an interesting insight, because I have always thought that the job of the auditor did not really prepare anyone very well for the job of the controller. But what you said makes me change my mind a little bit because, as an auditor, what are you doing like 90 percent of the time when you interact with clients? It's asking them to do stuff for you; to get you documents; to get you what you need, right? Unless I'm missing something. Mike Whitmire: [00:24:55] No, you're not. It's so important. It's a big part of the job. I think a lot of auditors and a lot of accountants ask the wrong way. They just have- they have incorrect expectations because they think that their requests should be at the top of the list. Reality is these people have full-time jobs. I've always found - just advice for the audience - my ... Kinda don't wanna give it away, but if I had asked for something already, and I had to go back and ask for it - it was the second or third time - I would generally go the puppy-dog-eyes route, and just look worn down, and look terrible, and just be like, "Hey, I'm exhausted. I was just trying to get this stuff done. Would you mind setting it over so I can go home a little bit earlier tonight?" That pity approach worked every time. It was beautiful. So, if you're an auditor, if someone's not getting your stuff, instead of getting mad about it, and trying to get angry about it, and make them do it, just be pathetic, and they'll help you out. Blake Oliver: [00:25:54] I love that. You gotta get rid of the ego- Mike Whitmire: [00:25:56] Oh, yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:25:57] -and just be willing to do what it takes to get the client to empathize with you. Mike Whitmire: [00:26:01] Yeah. Because they've been in your shoes. So, if you're there, and you're being adversarial, then they're gonna get pissed off and be like, "F- you! When I was an auditor, I would never have done this! I would've done it this way." But if you're looking tired, and you're like, "Oh, I was here til 10:00 last night ...," they remember those days, and they're going gonna help you out.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:16] Well, I'm thinking this is great advice not just for auditors, not just for folks in-house, in mid-market companies, but also, if you're an accountant, and you have a small firm, or even if you're just a bookkeeper, you're always bugging clients to get you stuff. That is the thing that happens every single month is, "I need your bank statements; I need you to sign this document; I need you to give me this so I can do your tax return."  [00:26:39] The challenge in the job, or I think where people succeed or fail a lot of the time isn't in filling out the forms because that's a right-or-wrong kinda thing. You either do it correctly or you don't. Where they succeed or fail is in the way that they ask for this information, the way they interact with their clients in getting this information-  David Leary: [00:27:00] Right now, it's an email, right? Many times, or you call them on the phone [crosstalk] send them a text. But now, with Zoom, maybe the accountant has that beat-down look; so, when you have a Zoom with your client, they're like, "Oh, yes, I'll try to get you that stuff right away." Mike Whitmire: [00:27:17] Yeah. That's one of the keys of my little strategy there. It's never over email. I'm at their desk asking for this stuff and just looking pathetic. That's what I'm going for. Blake Oliver: [00:27:28] Interesting strategy. I mean if it works [crosstalk]  Mike Whitmire: [00:27:31] Yeah, the beta male approach is very underrated. David Leary: [00:27:35] You have a story in the book, and you're talking about how, early on, you're starting to get in the close process, but the reality was, you've never done it before. You took a college class, and then, you did one bookkeeping project with 20 transactions, and that the only thing you ever learned about the close process.  Mike Whitmire: [00:27:50] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:27:50] Is that true for everybody, or was that just your situation? How do people get prepared to go down this career path? Mike Whitmire: [00:27:57] I think it's very common. The problem is, when you go to audit, you haven't actually done the job before, yet you're reviewing other people's work. So, it's a really strange dynamic. I would argue we're doing it backwards. I think you should go do accounting, and actually book some journal entries, and reconcile some bank accounts, and review some work papers before you actually head over to the other side and tell people how to do their job. David Leary: [00:28:19] That's a funny observation. I always thought that, when I was at Intuit, with QuickBooks engineers. I was like, it's probably more efficient to go give them $100,000, and tell them to go run a business for a year and then bring them back to be a product manager, or an engineer. Mike Whitmire: [00:28:32] Yeah. No, that is spot on. Go figure it out. If you force people into figuring out accounting, oftentimes, they can get pretty decent at it. But, yeah, not having done the job before makes auditing a really weird dynamic. I certainly don't think I was the anomaly when I moved over and was like, "Oh, crap, this is a lot more complicated than I had given it credit for." I think that's another thing is when you're an auditor ... I'm 22, or 23 years old, and it's like, "I just asked you for this document. Why is it so hard to send me this document? What else are you doing? You have one job." The reality is, when you're on the other side of the table, you're like, "Oh, okay, you're dealing with a lot of stuff. You have a lot of other things going on," and accounting systems, and structures, and processes, and ERPs, and all that stuff are just not quite as fluid as you would like to think at a lot of companies, so there's a lot of manual tedious work that ends up wasting time. Blake Oliver: [00:29:24] So, we talked about this a little bit already that controllers are stepping up to take on more of the CFO role. That's because CFOs are having to step up and take on more of what the CEOs were doing. That is requiring the controller to be more forward-looking, which is traditionally the CFO job, or at least historically. How can controllers be more forward-looking when the close is kind of what they've always been doing, and they ... I know, having done it myself, in a small way for small businesses, it takes the whole first two weeks of my month.  Mike Whitmire: [00:30:04] Yeah, and that's where ... The bottom line is, to be able to do that, you need to be able to create time for yourself. That's a lot of what we're trying to dig out, in the book, is how do you free yourself up to be able to do that kind of stuff? Because that's what the challenge is. All the old expectations are still there. Like, yeah, you gotta close the books; you need to get that stuff done; you need to be audit ready; you need to get financials out. Then, there are these other expectations, as well, but still the same number of hours in the day. So, it's about figuring out what can I do to empower my team to allow them to do more of this work and take it- put it on their plate, so that I have the time to free up and focus on forward-looking things. [00:30:46] Forward-looking things isn't necessarily just numbers. It's picking your head up, and if you have more time to pick your head up and look around your department, or your company, you might identify some weak spots, or some inefficiencies, and maybe be able to help improve with some processes; help get stuff done faster. There are a lot of opportunities that controllers have to help beyond just finance and accounting for some of those reasons we had mentioned when we were talking about Jerry ... Jerry being the drumbeat of Stack Overflow there. You just gotta create the time for yourself and then use some of that time to educate yourself, and pick up a lot of these different skills, and then have that time still to deploy them later. Blake Oliver: [00:31:25] What sort of technology are controllers using to make time? Mike Whitmire: [00:31:30] FloQast. I won't plug it too much, but they're ... It's really a cool time in the accounting technology space because there are just so many options out there for saving you time. A good example is if you can get a Bill.com in place, something like that, or a Tipalti, or some other system that automates paying bills, then all of a sudden you're just spending a lot less time reviewing anything, and you're gonna get to the point where you trust the systems, and you feel confident that everyone's working, and you're ultimately gonna spend no time on that, or you push that work down a layer. That's just one example. As you guys know - you talk about cloud accounting all the time - there are so many options out there. Blake Oliver: [00:32:09] Yeah,  yeah. Do you mind sharing the tech stack that you use that FloQast? Mike Whitmire: [00:32:12] What was that? Blake Oliver: [00:32:12] Do you mind sharing the technology stack in the accounting department that you use at FloQast? Mike Whitmire: [00:32:18] Oh, yeah, internally. NetSuite's our ERP, and we use ... Well, obviously, we use FloQast, and then we use [inaudible] exactly for commissions calculations. Commissions is one of our more tedious processes, so we wanted to get that one automated. So, now, that all flows into NetSuite to prepare things. We use Expensify on the expense-management side. They are having some interesting times right now, as well. Then, trying to think, on the billing side, I think we use Bill.com, but I'm not positive on that front. You know. We're actually right now delving into a prime example of how I'm the CEO, and I'm so disconnected, I'm not sure every system that we're using, but I think that's the gist of it. Those are the key ... Oh, and then, we're actually implementing Adaptive Insights, right now, on the finance side. Blake Oliver: [00:33:03] Got it. There's actually a diagram in the book, and I wish I could find it, that has the whole tech stack. I thought it was really helpful. If I can find it, then I'll fill out that list for you.  [00:33:12] Andreesen Horowitz just put out a really awesome report about software that you should be looking at right now to help become more efficient. It was cool, FloQast made the list, which was awesome. They have this really cool diagram of this wheel of software that would live around your ERP. A ton of things in there; a ton of great information. Blake Oliver: [00:33:31] Oh, yeah, here's the diagram. I found it. FloQast ... It's kind of amazing how many apps FloQast is using now, and I think it was kind of similar when I was there [crosstalk]  Mike Whitmire: [00:33:45] -outside of accounting, we use at least 50 or 60 different types of software. Blake Oliver: [00:33:50] I think there's apps now that just help you keep track of all your apps, if I'm not mistaken. Mike Whitmire: [00:33:55] Yeah, Okta. We're on it. Of course, we own it. Blake Oliver: [00:33:59] So, for people- on the people side, you've got Lever. Is that the one for the options? I forget. Lever [crosstalk]  Mike Whitmire: [00:34:09] Lever's for the hiring, the interview process. We use Carta on the options side.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:16] BambooHR; Expensify; NexTravel, and Gusto for payroll. Mike Whitmire: [00:34:21] We actually just switched off, and we are now Paycom users. Blake Oliver: [00:34:25] Oh, is that because you exceeded their threshold? Mike Whitmire: [00:34:30] I don't know if we exceeded, or it was just we consolidated some of the functionality from Gusto and Bamboo into Paycom. Paycom just had some other stuff. I was pretty removed from that evaluation. Blake Oliver: [00:34:42] On the accounting or data side, it's NetSuite, Accrualify, Xactly, Excel, Salesforce, Avalara, and Outreach. Mike Whitmire: [00:34:51] Yep. Avalara. There was one. I forgot about them. Blake Oliver: [00:34:54] Sales tax for SaaS now is getting kind of complicated, isn't it? Mike Whitmire: [00:34:58] Yeah, it's ... Yeah, I would love to not talk about sales tax ever again. That'd be good. Blake Oliver: [00:35:04] Then, on the process side, it's Google Apps, or G Suite, Slack, Zoom, FloQast, of course, and Google Drive. Mike Whitmire: [00:35:14] Yep. That's it.  Blake Oliver: [00:35:15] That's just the small representative sample from accounting. If you actually go and look at what all the engineers are using, and what the marketing folks are using, and what the salespeople using, it's gotta be like a hundred things. Mike Whitmire: [00:35:26] Oh, yeah. Then, we're getting into Pardot; [ASADO]; We've got Ajira on the other side of the house. There's so much stuff, it starts to pile up. Blake Oliver: [00:35:35] That leads me into a great relevant question, which is: the controller is often the guy, or the girl in charge of managing all this stuff, at least on the accounting/finance side. How do you do it? It's not like we got trained for this. Mike Whitmire: [00:35:50] The good news is a lot of the solutions that we've ... We chose a lot of solutions because they could be administered by our accounting department. We have an IT team, but they're not super-robust and don't have a ton of cycles to deal with, like really, really bulky applications. So, we have been cognizant about that. I think Avalara, and Expensify are some good examples; just super-easy to use; integrations are pretty easy. Accountants can figure that stuff out. I think accountants abilities to figure out how systems work together and how to actually make them do that is very much underrated. If you think about it, Microsoft Excel is just lite programing. It's a foundational lite version of programing, and those skills, believe it or not, transition over pretty well to helping with systems, and integrations, and all that good stuff. David Leary: [00:36:39] That's what even small business bookkeepers are really doing, right?  Mike Whitmire: [00:36:41] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:36:41] They're doing less and less bookkeeping, and they're just connecting pipes, and apps. You're right, in a way, it's like they're kind of being a programmer. Mike Whitmire: [00:36:48] Yeah. I remember when we started the company, and I was doing all this stuff ... I got sick of whenever we closed a new deal, I didn't wanna enter the invoice into Xero. We were using Xero, and then a CRM called Close.io at the time. I fired up Zapier, ZAPE-IER ... I'm not even exactly sure how you pronounce it, but I fired up a Zap. I was able to connect Xero to Close.io, and every time we would close one - an opportunity in our CRM - it would pump, and create invoice, and that would be automated in Xero. I felt very good, and I was just a lowly accountant writing these integrations. Blake Oliver: [00:37:23] That's a beautiful thing, and you'll never forget how to pronounce it. I learned this from Heather Slatterly. It's "Zapier makes you happier."  Mike Whitmire: [00:37:34] Oh, yep. I will never forget now. That's good. I need something like that for FloQast, so no one calls it Flo-Quast anymore. Blake Oliver: [00:37:42] That was the bane of my existence on the marketing team was when I heard somebody say that, especially somebody who was new to the company. Gotta correct them very quickly. Mike Whitmire: [00:37:51] Oh, man. As you can tell, I've learned to laugh it off, yeah.  David Leary: [00:37:54] So, Mike, when you adopt these apps and technology solutions, what drives that? Is it the IT department coming in, like whoever mans the contract, and like, "Hey, this app's raising the prices; we need to go find a different solution ..."? Is it internal members of your team that are just trying to find- to make their own job more efficient? They're coming up the ladder to you. Is it your senior staff, and senior managers that are out there actively looking for solutions to add on? How do you determine ...? How do you build out that app stack? Mike Whitmire: [00:38:21] We've been very open and encouraging of adopting software. That's how we've ended up in the position of having so many applications. I don't say that as a bad thing, necessarily. I mean, I think it's kind of comical how many we have, but they're very important for running an efficient company. So, it comes from all different angles. We might have like a business development rep [inaudible] say that something might be a good option. We might have something come from my VP of sales. We listen to anyone who has an idea on this. [00:38:51] People are just up on this stuff, and they hear about it. Then, they'll bring it to the table, and we'll assess it. Then you just look ... Is it gonna deliver more value than it costs? If so, and we're gonna use it, then, yeah, I usually give it a thumbs up. We definitely do ... We review things on renewal, and you gotta be pretty cutthroat about it. Hey, am I getting value from this or not? You need to move on from applications that you're not getting value from. Blake Oliver: [00:39:16] Stepping back and going back to the big picture, what is the job of accountants going to look like ... Let's say we get out of this COVID-19/coronavirus situation that we're in here ... Things kind of get back to normal eventually. We don't know how long it's gonna take, but they will get back to normal, whether that takes six months, or a year, or more. Beyond that, what is the job of accounting gonna look like in 20 years, Mike, given how much it's changed in the last 20?  Mike Whitmire: [00:39:45] I'm of the opinion it's gonna merge with IT over time. It's sort of in the way accountants have merged with finance over the last 10 years or so, and they're starting to overlap a lot more with that group; and there's gonna be a lot more overlap with IT and particularly within the mid-market, the area that we sell into, that's gonna be out of necessity. A lot of companies are like FloQast. We don't have a ton of IT resources to dedicate to every application, to administering applications, to getting them set up. [00:40:15] The way I view things playing out is accounting systems, they sit at the heart of a lot of what a business does, and accountants are gonna be able to be the ones who are implementing these systems and administering them on the back end, as well, and structuring everything such that it makes sense within accounting. We're starting to see that shift. If you pick your head up, you see a lot of accountants who have turned into ERP consultants or, perhaps, NetSuite system administrators, at this point. [00:40:44] I think those people are pretty early on the trend, because that's ... The future of accounting is gonna require a deep understanding of accounting still; so GAAP knowledge, and debits, credits, all that good stuff, but also an understanding of systems, and integration points, and how to make everything work well for your department. So, it's more of a merging with IT skills is my view on the future here. David Leary: [00:41:07] If you're in enterprise sales, don't wine and dine CEO; don't wine and dine the chief technology officer. Go start wining and dining the accountants because they're ultimately making the call on the technology that's adopted at a company. Mike Whitmire: [00:41:20] That's the really interesting debate that's being had right now, is there are some companies out there like a ServiceNow, for example. ServiceNow sells ticketing and workflow software to the CIO, the office of the CIO. It's very up-market - Fortune 500 companies. They're of the opinion that the CIO should tell everyone what software they're gonna be using; but then, when you talk to the CFO, they are not of that opinion. They wanna be able to pick their own applications, and approve budget, and all that good stuff. So, that's gonna be a battle occurring over the next- over the coming years here. I'm really curious to see how it's gonna play out, but my guess is the CFO is probably gonna win in that situation, and, yeah, they'll be making the decisions around their own systems at the very least. Blake Oliver: [00:42:03] Power to the people, man. I don't want a CIO telling me what apps to use.  Mike Whitmire: [00:42:08] Yeah, no, I mean ... I'm not gonna go tell marketing what app to use. You guys choose whatever apps you want. But, I'm gonna do the analysis of Intacct, versus NetSuite, versus Oracle, versus SAP, and I wanna make the decision for what's best for me because I'm gonna actually be working in it. Blake Oliver: [00:42:24] Okay, last question, Mike, before we let you go. A couple of months ago, we were all talking about the talent crunch and how there aren't enough accountants to go around. Now, we're looking at 20-percent unemployment, or something like that. Now, I know that is a national figure. It may not represent accounting, but we have seen layoffs. We have seen some firms do five-, to 10-percent layoffs, or maybe more. What do you think is gonna go on with the talent crunch, now? Is this gonna trigger something where we do more with fewer people or are things gonna go back to normal? Is this a blip? How does coronavirus and this whole remote-work thing impact that, in your mind? Mike Whitmire: [00:43:03] Well, what we have seen, early on, is accounting and finance jobs seem to be much less impacted by layoffs than other positions. In the conversations I've had with my board members, with what a lot of the different companies are doing out there, it's unfortunately mostly layoffs needing to occur on the go-to-market side or customer support. The idea is if there's not as much business out there, and you're not gonna have as many customers, you just don't need as many resources in those groups. [00:43:33] We are fortunate enough that accounting has not been hit hard. That's because they're already running lean. There was already a talent crunch. We are seeing, with our clients, at least, there's not a massive- there's not a drop off in number of users. We're not getting calls from our customers saying, "Hey, we just had to let go of 10 people. Can you reduce my user count, or anything like that?" So, the good news is accountants have been less impacted than others by this whole mess. So, the talent crunch is actually still gonna exist in our field, I think. [00:44:05] What's gonna happen is people are gonna look at how do I scale my company without having to add more people to my accounting department? The early signs are- we're seeing a lot of people are turning to technology to try to figure out how to make that work. I think 2020 and 2021 is a really big year for all of our collective spaces in the cloud-accounting and finance area. It's a bummer of a time, but I do think it's a year where people are gonna really, really understand the value of applications like FloQast, and Jirav, and well.  [00:44:37] Yeah, it could be good.  It's a terrible situation, overall, but I do think for accountants, the talent crunch is gonna exist, and it's about finding efficiencies and just further supports the need to really hone- really brush up on IT skills, learn all these different systems, so that you're gonna be really valuable and really relevant in this space, going forward. Blake Oliver: [00:45:00] If you're an accounting, or finance professional, or an aspiring accounting, and finance professional, and you want to learn how to do that, check out Michael Whitmire's book, on Amazon, "Controllers Code: The Secret Formula to a Successful Career in Finance." You can preorder the Kindle edition. That will be auto-delivered to your Kindle on April 28. So, very soon- in four days, here.  Mike Whitmire: [00:45:25] I'm hoping it's something that is really helpful for accountants. I think it's a super-important topic to people in our field. We're very motivated, and career-driven, and wanna move up. So, hoping this can help some people out there. Blake Oliver: [00:45:38] The link will be in the show notes, so if you're looking for that book, you can either go to Amazon and just search for Controller's Code; search for Michael Whitmire; or hit the link in the show notes, and it'll take you right there, so you can preorder it with one click. Mike, if people wanna get in touch with you, follow you online, or learn more about FloQast, what's the best place for them to do that? Mike Whitmire: [00:45:58] If you wanna learn about FloQast, definitely check out the website. If you wanna connect with me, feel free to shoot me an email. I'm just [email protected]. I like posting some obnoxious LinkedIn content, so feel free to follow me on LinkedIn. Yeah, all that good stuff, but happy to chat with anyone who is interested in this stuff. Blake Oliver: [00:46:13] And that is FloQast spelled F-L-O-Q-A-S-T. No "U." Mike Whitmire: [00:46:18] Yes, F-L-O-Q-A-S-T. No "U," and that weird "Q" in the middle, yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:46:24] If you wanna follow me online, I'm @BlakeTOliver on Twitter. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:46:29] I'm @DavidLeary on Twitter.  Blake Oliver: [00:46:31] Definitely follow David and follow The Cloud Accounting Podcast on Twitter because we're tracking all this PPP stuff - the second round, and the loan forgiveness.  I realize, as I say this, though, that a lot of folks are gonna be reading or listening to this after all of that is probably already over because things are moving so quickly, but follow us on Twitter anyway, and we'll keep you up to date with all the latest cloud-accounting news. David Leary: [00:46:56] I think even if you listen to this a decade from now, PPP will still be in the news. Mike Whitmire: [00:47:03] Yeah, it's fascinating. This is gonna be- Blake Oliver: [00:47:05] Who knows how long these hearings will be going on. Mike Whitmire: [00:47:07] You guys will be talking about this for many podcasts to come. Blake Oliver: [00:47:11] Mike, thanks for your time today. Great chatting with you and have a great weekend. Mike Whitmire: [00:47:16] Yeah. Thank you, Blake. Thank you, David. I appreciate it, guys. David Leary: [00:47:18] Thanks. 

Sponsors Bill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill AccountingSuite: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Links 03:45 - I’ll be right back. How to protect your energy during Zoom meetings - Fast Company 06:03 - The Best Wi-Fi Mesh-Networking Kits - The Wirecutter Google Wifi - Google 08:06 - Impact of COVID-19: State of Accountants Report - SmartVault Survey Shows Impact of COVID-19 on the Accounting Profession - CPA Practice Advisor 22:25 - Banks Gave Richest Clients ‘Concierge Treatment’ for Pandemic Aid - NYTimes 23:55 - Public Companies Receiving SBA PPP Loans Under the CARES Act - FactSquared 31:56 - She got a forgivable loan. Her employees hate her for it. - CNBC 32:05 - Opinion | Our Restaurants Can’t Reopen Until August - WSJ 33:48 - Millions of People Face Stimulus Check Delays for a Strange Reason: They Are Poor - Apple News 35:57 - China Rolls Out Pilot Test of Digital Currency - WSJ 36:15 - How the pandemic makes the case for a “public Venmo” - MIT Technology Review 40:04 - SBA data breach could be worrying sign of things to come - Business Insider 41:35 - IRS braces for onslaught of coronavirus stimulus scams - Accounting Today 41:58 - Scammers are using fake coronavirus stimulus payment sites to steal your money - CNBC 45:32 - COVID-19 Bookkeeping Part 1: How to Properly Record PPP Loans and Spending - AccountingWEB 45:58 - Google Sheets PPP tracking templates from listeners: Jacob Schroeder his firm Ascend Consulting: https://twitter.com/JacobBSchroeder/status/1252307888552452098 Mathew May of Acuity: https://twitter.com/Acuity_co/status/1253439569149734919 49:32 - What's happening to my Expensify bill? - Expensify Community 55:24 - Art of Accounting: Deciding who to let go - Accounting Today Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.Reviews4GoodRight now, when you visit us on Podchaser, and interact, Podchaser is donating 25 cents per review - and 25 cents every time we respond to a review - to the Meals on Wheels America COVID-19 Response Fund. Pay us a visit on Podchaser, and do some good at the same time!  EXTENDED to April 30! For more information, go here: https://www.podchaser.com/articles/community/reviews-for-charityNeed Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Cloud Accounting Summit presented by Jetpack Workflow - https://go.jetpackworkflow.com/cloudaccountingsummit/ Hector Garcia - How to Make Video Tutorials: http://www.hectorgarcia.com/tutorial  ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Accounting Salon - SALONv:  https://accountingsalon.com/ Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptClients are looking for trusted advice and a sense of stability as they navigate the new normal, and by using Bill.com, accounting firms can free up more time for valuable strategic advisory services by helping clients shift their accounts-payable process online. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Bill.com, later in the episode. David Leary: [00:00:22] He agonized over getting this loan. He did take the loan. He said he put it in a separate bank account. He plans to maintain his payroll, and he understands that this loan was intended to help companies that were gonna have to shut down, or suffer major losses, or lay their employees off. But there's nothing in the program to differentiate his company that's financially stable, and a company that is operating at 50-percent capacity, or anything. Regardless of the stimulus, his company could have probably weathered the storm, he thinks, possibly.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by AccountingSuite. AccountingSuite is cloud accounting software that acts like a customizable ERP system. It lets you start out with just the features you need today and, in the future, as your business grows, you can easily add AccountingSuite extensions to give you the features you need. A major strength of AccountingSuite is its robust set of inventory management tools to track inventory levels, orders, sales, and deliveries from anywhere at any time. AccountingSuite has an extension for multi-channel online sales. After connecting your online marketplaces, AccountingSuite will download all your transactions for you to approve prior to entry into the accounting system. It's similar to working with bank feeds. AccountingSuite is offering Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners 50 percent off forever by using the promo code "CAP_50_2020." To take advantage of this exciting offer and to learn more about how AccountingSuite offers an upgradable path for your firm and company's future, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-S-U-I-T-E.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity. In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before May 31, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:49] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:52] And I'm David Leary. Blake Oliver: [00:02:53] We're recording on Saturday. Normally, we do Fridays, at least during quarantine, but we're recording Saturday because yesterday, we talked with Mike Whitmire from FloQast. We did an interview about his new book, and that is coming out as a bonus episode, right after this one. So, everybody be sure to check that out. David learned a little bit about the financial close in the mid-market. David Leary: [00:03:16] Yeah, it was eye opening for me to understand the difficulties that exist in that space. It's really hard to just digest things and comprehend things with the news all week, and then work, and Zoom calls. I'm starting to hit the limit. I'm actually looking forward to us doing the show today because I had a breath now, and it's Saturday. You're my only person I'm talking to today. It's amazing. Blake Oliver: [00:03:39] Oh, that's great. Well, I ... You're not talking your family? David Leary: [00:03:42] Well, not through Zoom, or-  Blake Oliver: [00:03:45] Right, right, got it. Yes, Zoom fatigue is a really big thing, I know. I suffer from it, too. Actually, there was a great article that I tweeted out. I'll find the link for that; stick it in the show notes. One of the recommendations - and there's a lot of these recommendations, but this one's a good one - is schedule 5, 10, 15 minutes in between all of your Zoom meetings because, otherwise, you're not going to have the break. You get more of a break when- even if your schedule's completely packed in an office because you're walking from one room to another. You're getting up, you're standing, you're moving around. There's intros in these physical meetings. Whereas with the Zoom, you're just constantly going from one to another, and you're not moving from your chair. David Leary: [00:04:30] That's really good because, right now, my experience is no Zoom meetings are starting on time, either. So, maybe people just build 15-minute- give people 15 minutes to get to the meeting on time; just build that into your schedule. Zoom should just make that a feature - you can't attend meetings back-to-back.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:48] Calendly- these calendar apps almost all have it. I think, actually, with Google Calendar, you can go into the settings, and you can- there's a setting called Quick Meetings, or something, where it gives you a 10-minute buffer at the end of every meeting. So, it makes an hour meeting, a 60-minute ... It makes a 60-minute meeting, a 50-minute meeting, and it makes a 30-minute meeting, a 25-minute meeting. Check that out. David Leary: [00:05:11] There are some tools to get some control over it. All right. I'll give that a ride.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:16] So, how are you holding up, David? David Leary: [00:05:17] I think I'm good. I'm holding up fine. I'm having Wi-Fi problems, though.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:21] Oh, no, that's the worst.  David Leary: [00:05:23] I'm starting to ... I found an article about people working from home, and their connectivity issues; had some interesting data in it. But I'm almost starting to feel like COVID-19's killed more routers than it has people, possibly ... Every time I turn around, somebody's like, "Oh, yeah, I had to go buy a new router and upgrade my router situation," over and over again. Blake Oliver: [00:05:42] Yeah, it's actually-  David Leary: [00:05:42] So, I'm gonna try to switch to a mesh network. This'll be a project I'll update next week, maybe. Blake Oliver: [00:05:47] Let me know- do you know which mesh you're gonna use? David Leary: [00:05:49] I have no idea. I've been putting this off. I have three routers in the house, in three different parts of the house. It's always been a little bit of a headache, but not enough of a headache to fix. But now, I think my main router is starting to see its day. Blake Oliver: [00:06:03] Yeah, well, I highly recommend you go check out the Wirecutter and just search for mesh wireless on Wirecutter.com because all their stuff is really well-tested. I personally have a Google router, the one that they sell. It's a mesh network, and that always worked great for me. It makes a big difference when you're walking around the house; you don't lose your connection. You get good coverage everywhere- David Leary: [00:06:26] And you can always print, right? Blake Oliver: [00:06:27] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:06:27] Because that's the problem. I go to the back of the house, and then, I'm not in the same network as the printer. Then, I have to walk to the front of the house and switch networks. It's always this dance.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:33] Yeah, yeah. It's worth it.  David Leary: [00:06:33] Yeah, I'm looking forward to some of the benefits from that. Okay [crosstalk] I'm in. I'm gonna do it. Yeah, I saw some interesting stats about the other people working from home. So, a lot of its connectivity; 16 percent of people have an issue every day-  Blake Oliver: [00:06:48] Ooh, that's bad.  David Leary: [00:06:48] -22 percent are having an issue weekly, and 15 percent monthly; just connectivity issues. People are comparing their survey from March- I'm sorry, October 2018 to March 2020. People are reporting good signal on their cell service. It's increased from 36 percent to 40 percent, but people reporting excellent, or very good has dropped from 40 to 29. Then, for people with- reports of bad signals, or no signals, or very bad have all increased. So, people are struggling with not only their connectivity at home, but even just their phone/cell service. The other graph that was really interesting is ... Oh, disinfecting of your phone. How often do you disinfect your cell phone? Blake Oliver: [00:07:34] Like never, before this, but I've done it maybe two or three times since quarantine. David Leary: [00:07:40] Okay, so Americans are answering [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:07:42] I know they're disgusting. I know phones are disgusting, apparently, because we're touching them all the time, right? David Leary: [00:07:47] Yeah. That's what I've always understood, too. It's worse than the bottom of your shoe, I guess. So, I'm like, oh ... Oh, well, but, yeah, 15 percent have never done it once, but now 35 percent are doing it every day. Blake Oliver: [00:07:58] Oh.  David Leary: [00:07:58] An amazing amount, 14 percent, are doing it every time they return to their homes. So, when they get home, they're disinfecting their phone every single time. Blake Oliver: [00:08:06] Enough about you, and me, David. I wanna know how are accountants doing overall? You know I love stats, right? So, every time I get a survey, I'm always so excited. SmartVault came out with this really great survey that Gabrielle Fontaine, Jane Aylwin, and Dawn Brolin did for them. It came out this month, and it's all about how accountants and accounting firms are handling COVID-19. How is it going for them? One of the really interesting takeaways, the key takeaway, from this is that firms that already had at least one cloud system in place prior to COVID-19 fared far better than firms that did not have any cloud systems in place. Kind of [crosstalk] we knew this, right, intuitively, but now we've got data to support it. This is a great report. Check it out. Link is in the show notes. [00:08:56] It is so detailed. There's like a before-and -after analysis. One of the questions upfront is: "Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, how prepared would you say your firm was for remote work?" Surprisingly, 29 percent said, "Our team already worked 100-percent remote." This is a survey of 1,100 accountants in 18 countries, by the way. So, this is a good survey; good sample size. 29 percent already worked 100-percent remote; 35 percent had team members who were enabled to work remote when needed. So, actually almost two-thirds, right? I have to do the math in my head. Yeah, two-thirds were already setup for this; but the other third were not. They had some systems and documents able to access remotely, or the 7.2 percent of firms that are not prepared at all, no systems, or documents from home, they're really struggling.  David Leary: [00:09:51] I talked to somebody that has a bigger firm here in Tucson, and basically what he made it seem is any of the departments that have moved forward with technology, those departments, those people were able to work at home; But as a total firm, you can't do 100 percent because there were just some parts, they had to be in the office still. They still have to physically go to the office because those parts of the business just have not modernized for whatever reason, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:10:14] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:10:14] So, I can imagine, if your whole firm hasn't modernized, this is a big struggle. Blake Oliver: [00:10:19] Yeah. There's some insight in this report as to what specific technologies seem to have mattered the most in this shift to working from home. Online client portal access is a big differentiator. The most successful firms, 80 percent of the most successful firms in this crisis, have an online client portal; only 55 percent of the least successful do. This success or failure is self-rated. Accountants were asked: "How well is your firm handling this transition to remote work?" Then, we're correlating that with what apps they have. So, online client portal access is a big one. E-signature, as well; 59 percent of the most successful firms have e-signatures, whereas only 34 percent of the least successful firms have it. Another one, both online portal and e-signature, the successful firms double the rate have that; over half have both of those, and only a quarter, about, of the least successful firms have both. The same thing- actually, teleconference might be the biggest difference because it's almost half for the most successful who can teleconference, or do video meetings, like Zoom, or Skype. The least successful firms, only 21 percent of them have that capability. David Leary: [00:11:34] It makes sense, right? You're not just working from home, you have clients that are stuck at home, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:11:41] Yes. David Leary: [00:11:41] If you need to exchange data with them, and you don't have a system to do it, what are you doing? Actually, that'd be great if somebody [inaudible] call us and leave us a voicemail. I would love- but those people usually don't listen to our show; the people that are not ... Because I'm like, what are they doing? If you don't have the digital tools set up to get documents from your clients, are they driving to your office? Are you meeting them somewhere? How is this happening? They set it down, then you go and pick the pile up off the sidewalk?  Blake Oliver: [00:12:09] A good chunk of firms are still going into the office, believe it or not. There's some data in here to support that. So, 8.2 percent of firms are currently still accessing the office is normal; still going into the office despite everything; 22 percent of firms, the clients and team have access, but they're reducing in-person appointments; 27 percent of firms, only team members are accessing the office, so no clients - clients are all virtual. Then, 42 percent of firms, all the team members are working remotely, and client interactions are all virtual. Then, 1.4 percent of firms have closed down operations completely. So, actually, the majority of firms are still accessing the office either entirely or in part. David Leary: [00:13:00] Do you think if it wasn't for PPP and the loan situations - because tax season kinda got delayed - do you think it'd be less? Like people would've taken a little bit more of a step back, and just stayed at home, and opted out?  Blake Oliver: [00:13:09] Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, I think the tax season and PPP together create this really difficult situation. I mean, look in that accounting firm office in the summer. It's  dead in the month of July, right? Yeah. It would- just not a good time. Not only do you have the compression of tax season getting extended, which doesn't really actually reduce any the pressure because of the difficulties of working remote; then, you have PPP, and all these loan things, and all this advisory stuff that has to happen, all at the same time; just makes it really hard to actually fix any of these problems. So, if you didn't have the cloud-accounting app set up, it's not like you were gonna get them implemented during this time. I really- I'd be willing to bet that very few of these implementations are happening [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:13:55] -almost four weeks ago, now, I talked to- right when the lockdowns all started, I talked to somebody at Right Networks. Apparently, Right Networks does- they have a full outsourced IT service. So, if you're an accounting firm, Right Networks will just take over everything for you - set up VPNs, make you virtual, whatever you ... Take your servers from your house and put it on their servers, whatever you have ... Not house, sorry, but your office, right? My understanding is he basically said they're busier than they've ever been. Immediately their phones were ringing off the hooks because people who've been putting this off for a decade are in panic mode because they're like, "Oh, my god, I have to work from home now, and I still have a server running underneath my desk that I've never actually set up for VPN, or remote access." Blake Oliver: [00:14:40] Well, and this survey backs that up, David. There was another question: "Do you think the COVID-19 pandemic will change the way accountants do business forever?" 62 percent said yes, more firms and clients will be open to working together remotely. Only seven percent said that things will go back to normal or the way they used to be. Then, the rest say it's too early to tell or they don't know. But 62 percent say we're gonna have more remote work as a result of this. David Leary: [00:15:08] I'm really surprised that it's not a higher number than 60 that think this is- it's not gonna go back. I just don't- Blake Oliver: [00:15:17] Well, I think I think the number that really sticks out to me is that only seven percent say that it's gonna go back to the way it used to be. David Leary: [00:15:24] Yeah, I guess you always have that five to seven percent ... They're always just gonna be that end of the curve there that ... They're gonna go back to that old way.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:32] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:15:32] But I'm surprised it's not 85 percent are in full agreement, like, yeah, this is never going to be the same. Blake Oliver: [00:15:39] Well, you know, it's a conservative profession. But 45 percent of all the respondents do say that more technology, more cloud, is gonna be a thing going forward. Then, 30 percent say increase in remote working. Interestingly, the percentage who say that there's gonna be more advisory as a result of this, more advisory services, the successful firms, it was 11 percent of those respondents said that there would be more advisory after COVID-19. Only four percent of the least successful firms said that. Clearly, the successful firms are bullish on the advisory services.  David Leary: [00:16:17] Partially because they possibly have systems in place to manage, and automate some of the work processes, and connect remotely, where they can focus ... Now they have energy left to focus on advisory, and they're doubling down on it, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:16:34] If you ask me, PPP is not just a compliance exercise. There's a ton of advisory going on with PPP from which bank to use, for how to do the calculations, for how to use the money, for how to get forgiveness. I mean, this is a ton of advisory work that's happening right now. David Leary: [00:16:51] Even AccountingWEB had an article from somebody from the AICPA talking about how you can help your small business clients beyond just the PPP. There's the EIDL; there's express bridge loans; there's Score; there's other alternative methods [crosstalk] of tax savings, and the employee retention credit. So, yeah, you're not just filling out loan applications, right now. You're having to do a whole breadth of services ... It's all advising, right? If you're answering questions, you're doing advising. Blake Oliver: [00:17:18] And the big one that I keep hearing about, as everyone wants to know, how do I do cash flow protections for my clients? , how do I tell them what's gonna happen, where they're gonna be cash wise? Like short term? Long term. Everyone's obsessed with that  now because that's a question that clients have. How much money do I need? Well, we touched on the PPP. Let's get into it. David Leary: [00:17:37] Let's get in-  Blake Oliver: [00:17:38] Let's talk about-  David Leary: [00:17:38] Start your engines.  Blake Oliver: [00:17:38] What's new with the PPP, David?  David Leary: [00:17:40] Start your engines. So, Monday, April 27, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern, the SBA.gov is going to turn on the Accept Applications server, and- Blake Oliver: [00:17:52] It's immediately gonna crash. That was your prediction when we were talking earlier in the week, right? David Leary: [00:17:58] I think that could be possible. If you think back to when it first started that first day, and they were reporting out results; there were about 5,000 here, another 2,000, an hour later; another 7,000, three hours later. The applications came in pretty slow at first, but now, my understanding is, starting Thursday night, or Friday - as soon as the President signed the bill - PayPal, Kabbage, Intuit QuickBooks, all the banks ... I've got called back by two lenders ... All the banks- everybody's getting these applications all ready to go. Before, I guess, they were manually typing these applications in, but now, these tech companies have it automated. They're ready to go. What happens to PayPal sends 100,000 applications within two seconds? Blake Oliver: [00:18:43] Mm-hmm. Yeah.  David Leary: [00:18:44] Does this even ... Is it still up by 10:45 a.m. is probably the bigger question. Blake Oliver: [00:18:49] I'd be willing to bet 20 bucks that it goes down in the morning. So, there's the question of whether or not it's gonna stay up. How much money is in this round [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:19:00] It's $310 billion. It's part of a bigger fund, which was $484 billion, but we just care about the PPP part. They're splitting it up in an interesting way. They're gonna put $60 billion that's basically spun off just for smaller lending institutions. So, smaller lenders are gonna be ones with $10 billion or less in assets. Then, the rest will be the ones that have $10 billion to $50 billion in assets. Blake Oliver: [00:19:28] So, maybe that'll help, I guess. I'm not really sure. I still have huge reservations about this program because they didn't change anything in terms of the guidance except they put out this FAQ, basically, it is intended to discourage larger companies, public companies, from applying for this money; clarifying what the certification is; what the definition of need is, or necessary is, when it comes to getting these funds. Well, let's step back for a second and talk about the whole blowback that occurred; the reason that this FAQ came out-  David Leary: [00:20:01] Let's not go into that yet [crosstalk] Let's talk about what's happening because ... Yeah, we can get into the bad players, and get into the blowback and all that. There's definitely lots on that. But let's just get maybe the rest of the facts out of what else is going on with the $310-  Blake Oliver: [00:20:15] Oh, sure. David Leary: [00:20:16] One other thing with the $310 billion is that banks, based on their own internal data, think they already have all the applications. The money's gone; like, they have enough applications in queue. Nick Simpson, he's a spokesman with the Consumer Bankers Association, right before the House voted, he said majority, if not all the funding Congress is considering right now is already exhausted; and analysts at Bank of America say that ultimately $900 billion in aid is probably gonna be needed to fund all the applications that are coming in. Now, step back and do the math on this. $900 billion. That's $45 billion for the banks that they get in fees. The last stimulus, in 2008, it was twice that. They got $90 billion, the banks did, in the bailout. But to do that, the government got preferred stock in the banks. Blake Oliver: [00:21:06] Right. Now, we're just paying them transaction fees.  David Leary: [00:21:06] They're getting half as much money- they're getting half as much money, and they never have to pay it back. It's just a gift this time. There's nothing on the [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:21:16] They have to do the paperwork, but that's it. David Leary: [00:21:19] Nothing. Time ... Okay, paperwork.  Blake Oliver: [00:21:19] Yeah, it's- I think it's ridiculous. It's crazy to me that we're paying the banks three, five percent to ... Just to do the paperwork on these loans. Then, of course, there's the issue of the program is never going to have enough money because simply the way it was set up. I think, actually ... I don't like the big banks. There's been a ton of blowback over this whole process against, like Bank of America, and Chase, and Citi, and all the big banks. It came to light that they had a two-tier system.  [00:22:01] All these banks set up a two-tier system, where the retail customers, the smaller customers, say under - in the case of Chase - under $10 million in assets, they had to go through the online portal. They instructed their retail banking staff not to help anyone personally; just to direct them to the online portal; the communication was terrible. People submitted apps; they never heard anything back. But the private clients, the commercial clients with lots of assets, got concierge treatment, and they got to just have their hand held through the whole thing. That's why Chase's average loan size was over half a million dollars. They were the number-one lender, and they also had the biggest loans, apparently. Of course, this is all-  David Leary: [00:22:44] -ultimately the law was written- basically, the instructions were first come, first served. That was never true because they stacked the applications.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:52] Well, yeah, it was first come, first served, as far as the SBA application process was set up. The SBA had to give out the loans first come, first served, but the banks were the ones submitting the applications. There was nothing in the law, or the rules, or guidance saying that they had to submit them in any particular order, even take them in any particular order. So, of course, the banks treated their existing bigger clients better. They want their clients to succeed. The big ones. they definitely want to succeed because the big ones already had loans with those banks. [00:23:25] It's just- that's the way business works. So, why would anyone expect anything else, anything otherwise? Here we are, blaming the banks for this. Well, this is the system that Congress set up. It's not the banks' fault. I mean, the banks are the way they are because they're so big. It's the system has created the banks. It's not like the banks are ... You can't blame the banks for being banks. We know they're dicks. That's the way ... You know what I mean? It's just the way it is. David Leary: [00:23:50] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:23:52] So, now we're demonizing the banks and then, we're also demonizing these public companies that took funds because the law said they could. So, you have Shake Shack, you have Ruth Chris Steakhouse, you have a giant list, thousands of public companies that have now taken PPP loans, and people are saying they have to give the money back. The Treasury is encouraging them to give the money back in this new FAQ. I was curious just how much of the money actually is going to public companies? I found a site called FactSquared that is tracking this; kinda how you were tracking PPP funds at your site, David; which, what's the URL for that?  David Leary: [00:24:36] PPPstats.info, which I have to update today to get ready for the V2 distributions.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Bill.com. Through these uncertain times, one thing has become clear. Accounting firms are in a unique and trusted position to help their clients adapt. For your firm, that means leaning into the services your clients have always depended on and more. For your clients, it means helping them move quickly to a remote model and bringing key financial processes, like accounts payable, online smoothly. Using Bill.com, the Intelligent Business Payments Platform, accounting firms can take a client's time-consuming manual AP process and transform it completely with automation, tracking, mobility, and transparency, easing your client's shift to working remotely and setting the stage for strategic conversations about how your firm can help them navigate the new normal. To learn more about how Bill.com can help your firm automate AP and offer client advisory services, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash B-I-L-L. Bill.com, the Intelligent Business Payments platform. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:25:55] So, you're tracking how much money is going out overall. This site called FactSquared is tracking how much money is going to public companies, which we know because they are required to disclose the loans in their public filings. So, they're going through all the SEC filings and looking for PPP loans. So far, they have counted 213 loans that went to public companies for a total value of a little over $800 million dollars. So, less than a billion dollars, and that is for 213 companies. How many of those have been returned? Seven. Seven out of the 213. So, nobody's returning the money, and it's not even actually [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:26:39] -said that was $800 billion or-  Blake Oliver: [00:26:39] I'm sorry. It's only $800 million; so less than $1 billion of this money is gonna these public companies that are getting shamed. It's not gonna make a difference even if they return the money. The total value of returned money, so far, is only $65 million dollars. This is a program that started out as a $350 billion program that has now ballooned into over $600 billion. I don't even know what it is right now, but it's a lot. It's all just a distraction. Blaming the public companies is a distraction. [00:27:09] The thing that is making this program fail has nothing to do with the banks, in the end, actually. I mean, it sucks that the big companies got priority because of the way the program was set up, and the small guys had to wait in line. That sucks, and it was the wrong way to do it. But, ultimately, what's going to cause this program to not have the effect we want is that it's so broad that everybody- virtually everybody qualifies, and everybody is applying. So, the money's gonna get spread out so thinly and to a ton of companies that don't really need the money, who are successful, that it's just not gonna have the impact. It's not going to actually save that many jobs. So, we're just ... It's just a giveaway. David Leary: [00:27:51] It's a giveaway. There's an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. Title of the article is: "PPP Loan Terms Amount to a Legalized Fraud." Blake Oliver: [00:28:00] Yes!  David Leary: [00:28:00] This is a ... He owns a business, a food-manufacturing business, with 200 employees. Blake Oliver: [00:28:07] This is an opinion piece by a guy, Pete Vegas. I read this, too. It's a great ... I'm glad you saw this. David Leary: [00:28:14] He has a business, and he did not have to lay off employees. But he agonized over getting this loan. He did take the loan. He said he put it in a separate bank account. He plans to maintain his payroll. He understands that this loan was intended to help companies that were gonna have to shut down, or suffer major losses, or lay their employees off. There's nothing in the program to differentiate his company that's financially stable and a company that is operating at 50-percent capacity, or anything. So, regardless of the stimulus, his company could have probably weathered the storm, he thinks, possibly. Blake Oliver: [00:28:48] Yeah, he's a food manufacturer. He's got plenty of work. He's an essential business. It's not getting shut down. People are buying food at grocery stores. David Leary: [00:28:55] Under normal circumstances, this would be considered fraud, but there's no wording in the application that prohibits such behavior. Blake Oliver: [00:29:01] Right, because the only thing you have to certify to-  David Leary: [00:29:04] You just get the loan.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:04] -the specific language is, "Current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations of the applicant." Virtually any business in this economic environment can claim economic uncertainty. I mean, this guy has a food manufacturing business. He hasn't seen the economic impact hit him yet, but it could. Who knows what's gonna happen in a few months? If he deems that it's necessary to support the ongoing operations of his business, who's gonna argue with him? So, everybody is applying for this money. [00:29:39] Then, you've got politicians who are now saying, "Oh, if you apply for this money, and you didn't really need it, the government's gonna come down on you. Marco Rubio was making- I just think they're idiotic statements in that regard. It's obviously not gonna happen. What are you gonna do? Go after 2.6 million businesses? David Leary: [00:29:55] No, they're gonna go after six ... You know, the Shake Shacks. They'll have some example ones, and the narrative will be written like, "Oh, look, we went and got this money back for you." Trump's a hero, or whoever went and did this. But that's not the reality. The rest of these companies, like you already said, they haven't returned anything, and they probably won't because there's no reason to. There's no penalty if you keep it. Blake Oliver: [00:30:15] Yeah, you can't ... Yeah, legally, they're totally in the clear, if you ask me. It would be really hard to prosecute this, so they're not going to, and there's just too many to do, anyway. It's just not gonna help all that much. There are zero jobs that that $3.4 million loan, for this guy, is gonna save. So, that's just $3.4 million that he gets for free from taxpayers. Is that gonna stimulate the economy? Who knows? Maybe.  David Leary: [00:30:42] It could stimulate some millionaire CEOs. Did you see the tweet storm from, is it Judd Legum? Blake Oliver: [00:30:49] No, I didn't see this.  David Leary: [00:30:49] On Twitter ... So, he had- apparently, he runs a newsletter, or a blog site called Popular.info- this is the website he founded. They go through all the SEC filings. He's been going through those filings, and he's finding companies that, they got their PPP loan on a Monday and ordered $290,000 in cash bonuses to executives on Thursday. Blake Oliver: [00:31:09] Oh, geez ... They're gonna find a ton of that. That's gonna happen. I mean, this like the hedge funds that have been rumored to be getting these loans. We're gonna find out about those, I'm sure. David Leary: [00:31:20] He said he identified 32 companies that have paid- they have CEOs paid a million dollars or more. Blake Oliver: [00:31:25] Then there's the whole fiasco where businesses have been getting these loans. They already furloughed or laid off all their workers and now they wanna bring the workers back, but the workers don't wanna come back because they're making more from unemployment, because now the federal government is topping up everybody's unemployment checks with an extra $600 a week. So, somebody making a minimum wage-  David Leary: [00:31:48] We heard rumors of that, right, from-  Blake Oliver: [00:31:48] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:31:48] -accountants and bookkeepers, the previous week, and a half, and now it's starting to hit national media. CNBC has covered it now-  Blake Oliver: [00:31:56] CNBC had an article called: "She Got a Forgivable Loan. Her Employees Hate Her for it." Wall Street Journal had an article, another opinion piece, called: "Our Restaurants Can't Reopen Until August," which it was- it's a restaurant owner who started calling employees to say come back, and they all said, no, thanks. If they return to work, they'll have to take a pay cut. Their plan now is to stay closed until August 1, because the federal unemployment benefit ends on July 31. David Leary: [00:32:27] Yeah, and I saw a graph in an article on MSNBC for Washington, California, and Mississippi. It was a graph that showed what amount of wages you get replaced by unemployment in those states, before the CARES Act, and after the CARES Act, based on your hourly wage. So, if somebody's like a $10-an-hourly wage, after the CARES Act, they're now making 200 percent more than they made before. Blake Oliver: [00:32:51] This is because they just used the same amount for the whole country, right? Because in some places, like New York, or L.A., or Seattle, or whatever, it's not nearly as much extra in a percentage situation. David Leary: [00:33:04] Exactly. The graph really- even at the end, if you make $40 an hour in Washington, you could still be making 90 percent of your wages with unemployment in Washington. I think we loosely talked about this last week, but, yeah, something good over here is kind of causing a different problem that was not anticipated on the other side with the PPP.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:26] It's just like these programs were all just created separately, and they didn't think about the impact. They're gonna have a ripple effect on each other. Anyway, hopefully, though, at least the people who applied are gonna get their money. There are still people from the first round that are waiting on their applications and waiting on money. That is ridiculous to me, because now what? We're a full month out from the passage of the CARES Act, and there are people from the first round of stimulus that still don't have their money, and there's lots of people who haven't even gotten their individual stimulus payments yet - those $1,200 checks.  [00:34:00] A lot of people were supposed to get them; I think like half of the 160 million people who were gonna get those, were gonna get them by direct deposit. But then it turns out the tens of millions of people used tax-filing services, like TurboTax, like H&R Block, like all those services that used intermediary banks to process their refunds. So, those people are not getting their money, and those are some of the poorest people. David Leary: [00:34:29] Yeah, MSNBC has a really good article that ... You might click on it, but it's where the $881 billion in U.S. aid went, in the month of spending. It has all these great graphs that shows where this money got distributed. If you scroll down, there's a graph about the ... Just the IRS. Yes, they sent out $155 billion, but there are still $36 billion that they haven't mailed yet or deposited that they're just sitting on. Four weeks later, half the money just has yet to get distributed. Blake Oliver: [00:35:06] $136 billion still pending. Wow, and $156 billion has been sent. Geez.  David Leary: [00:35:11] Yeah, and that's just that one part, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:35:13] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:35:13] That's not what the airlines got and what the Fed liquidity has, with the Treasury, with the banks. Then, obviously, PPP ... We talked about those numbers plenty of times. Even the state and local governments apparently can tap into a COVID fund. Even that, there's still $54 billion left of that. The money's not getting out fast enough. Blake Oliver: [00:35:37] Yeah. It's not just a matter of how much money is being allocated. It's that the rails that we have to send this money are so ancient, they're not working fast enough. It takes months to send money, basically, through these outdated systems. We've got E-Tran at the SBA. We've got IRS printing paper checks. China is testing a digital currency, now. This is the very first government in the world ... I mean, they might be the first one to actually have a digital currency, using cryptocurrency, that is controlled by the government. David Leary: [00:36:13] So, they issued their own. Blake Oliver: [00:36:15] Yeah. They're testing it out. This is a Wall Street Journal story called: "China Rolls Out Pilot Test of Digital Currency." Last weekend, Chinese and domestic state-run media outlets reported that the trials had started in four cities: Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Xiong’an, which is a suburb of Beijing. They've been researching this since 2014. The currency is called DC/EP, which ... It's a working titles. They don't have an official name yet, but it stands for digital currency/electronic payment. The goal is to replace cash in circulation - at least some of the cash in circulation - with an app. You know what it's like? It's like Venmo but run by the government. David Leary: [00:36:57] But I thought they already had that with ... What's the chatting up they all use in China. Blake Oliver: [00:37:03] WePay, or WeChat, which has a payment mechanism, but that's a private company. So- David Leary: [00:37:09] I guess. Depends on how you define private companies in China.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:12] Well, yes. So, the way this is gonna work ... Here's an example. In Xiangcheng, which is a district in the eastern city of Suzhou, the government will start paying civil servants half of their transport subsidy in the digital currency, next month, as part of the city's test run. This is according to a government worker with direct knowledge of the matter that The Wall Street Journal spoke to. Government workers were told to begin installing an app on their smartphones this month into which the digital currency would be transferred. They can transfer that money from the app into their bank accounts, or they can use it directly for transactions at merchants that accept it. [00:37:47] So, think about if we had something like this in this country. If we had a public Venmo ... I didn't come up with that; that's actually a term that a New York assemblyman, named Ron Kim, is using for a proposal he has, along with a Cornell law professor, named Robert Hockett. They are proposing that we, in the United States, create a public Venmo. The other term that we've used for this, or I've heard about, is 'digital dollar.' [00:38:11] It would essentially empower the Federal Reserve to open up retail banking accounts for every American citizen. The idea being that you would have an app on your phone. It's associated with your identification. The benefit of this is that the government could put stimulus money directly into your app, rather than telling the IRS to print checks, or rather than telling the loans ... Rather than telling the banks to do a loan process. Imagine if-  David Leary: [00:38:43] You're talking about the same U.S. government that ... I'm gonna tell you about how the SBA had a data breach about ... It's the same- we're talking about the same U.S. government here. Is this correct? Blake Oliver: [00:38:52] Yes, this is the same U.S. government, and I know ... If China does this ...? Well, I wanna hear about this data breach, but I guess my argument here is that if China accomplishes this, it's gonna give them so much control over their monetary policy to be able to inject stimulus directly into individuals' bank accounts, essentially. It would just be so powerful, right now. It would do so much for our economy. We have a consumer economy. It's driven by consumer spending. If people don't have money, they're not spending, and that creates a terrible cycle that can put us into a depression. So, the fact that people are getting their money fast enough is the biggest problem we have, right now, other than people dying from COVID-19. David Leary: [00:39:38] Yeah, if you could just go to the Treasury website and be like, "Here's my Venmo ID; just transfer the money there," so that way, people that are not banked could possibly get the money ... Yeah, I definitely could see using some of those tech wallets out there to do this, but even that's a logistics thing because then, who's left out are the people left out that don't have smartphones, or there are people left out that don't have one of these accounts. So, it's tricky. I don't know. But the SBA did have a data breach during this whole thing.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:09] I saw you share this article, or I saw it on Twitter, or something. Somebody we both know was featured in an article about it, right?  David Leary: [00:40:17] In Business Insider. Shayna Chapman was featured in this article because she tweeted about a letter she got from the SBA, this weird generic letter that actually almost looked like it was a spam letter because everybody and their brother is sending out fraudulent phishing letters about PPP loans, et cetera. It looked weird, and it basically said that 8,000 people had their loan applications breached, maybe. But this is not a one-time thing. Five years ago, the inspector general's office did audits of the SBA and found that they have longstanding security weaknesses and identified 35 open-information technology audit recommendations. Three times in the last six months, they've been warned about these issues in another report that was delivered on March 30. Blake Oliver: [00:41:04] Well, 8,000 people. That's a lot, actually, given ... It's, what ... They're gonna have over a million loans; 1.6 million applications, at this point. So, 8,000 ... It's quite a lot, actually.  David Leary: [00:41:17] Well, especially, when that breach happened, that might have been like half the applications at that time. Blake Oliver: [00:41:24] Right, so 8,000 out of 800,000, right?  David Leary: [00:41:28] Whatever they were that day. It's not of the full amount - 1.6 million, now. Blake Oliver: [00:41:33] Well, you mentioned fraud. Fraud is a big problem. The FTC has a report out that says that total fraud loss from COVID-19-related scams has reached $19 million in the United States, 25,000 reports, and the median fraud loss is $556. A lot of it is fake websites. There's over 180,000 coronavirus-themed sites that have been set up to steal data or misinform consumers. A great example of that is a website that looks like the IRS site for confirming your banking information to get your stimulus payment. You go to that. It looks like it's official. It's not. You put in your Social Security number, your address, and all that good stuff, and then they use that information to steal your payment. David Leary: [00:42:23] I saw an article kind of from the other direction, where they're just ... They think it's other governments and agencies. The U.S. government is giving out so much money, it's just a grab for everybody. Other countries have organized hacking efforts to just apply for these loans and create fake entities. People are just trying to get this money and accessing the IRS website to try to retrieve ... "Hey, I want my refund ..."; creating fake profiles, fakes Socials, et cetera. It's really being exploited, that tool to check on your status of your loan. Did you hear about landlords using it? Blake Oliver: [00:42:56] Yeah because if you have the information that somebody would give you on a rental application, you could use that info to check their payment.  David Leary: [00:43:02] Yeah, and then go, say, "Hey, Blake, I know you got your deposit from the IRS last week. You need to pay your rent now." Blake Oliver: [00:43:10] Oh, geez ... That's gotta be illegal, right?  David Leary: [00:43:15] No, it's illegal to ask them to give you sex instead of paying rent, which I understand that is happening, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:43:22] But it's not illegal to go check on their rent payment using this tool [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:43:27] Who knows, right? Blake Oliver: [00:43:28] There's probably no guidance. It's probably ...  David Leary: [00:43:29] Very gray. Let's talk about some good stuff, maybe. There's [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:43:35] I've got a good one. I've got a good one related to this. So, if you owe money to the IRS, they are suspending all of their collections activities. The IRS agents have been told by the director of the Collections Department for Small Business and Self-employed that they're gonna temporarily not collect. So, anything, any installment agreements that were set up for between April 1, and July 15, you can just stop making your payments on that, apparently. So, it's actually easier for people who didn't properly file their taxes and pay money to get a break than it is for people to get their actual stimulus payment. You just stop making the payments. David Leary: [00:44:20] Oh, we're in ... That is kinda good news, I guess, if you owe money. Blake Oliver: [00:44:23] I know. but why are we giving a break to the people who owe money, right now? These are people who took probably aggressive tax positions. I don't know; I'm just guessing. It doesn't seem like the right time to be giving a break to those folks ...  David Leary: [00:44:36] But that's what we're doing. I saw ... I deleted the article because it didn't have a lot to do with business, but I did see an article about the ultra-wealthy. Two years ago, three years ago, I think, part of the Trump tax thing, they adjusted what short-term gains- long-term gains, and how much you could carry forward your losses for selling stock and things like that. They changed that to where now it's kind of reverted, and it's in your favor. So, you can claim your gains from last year against the major losses you just had in the stock market now. Blake Oliver: [00:45:08] Wow.  David Leary: [00:45:08] That's all- that got shoved into the CARES Act. Blake Oliver: [00:45:12] Oh, so that is the break that could get you millions of dollars of tax savings? David Leary: [00:45:16] Yeah, if you-  Blake Oliver: [00:45:16] If you happen to have a ton of losses because you're really rich. David Leary: [00:45:20] Yes. So, they've changed that up for the rich. But some people are really doing things to help. So, obviously now, let's say you were lucky enough to get the loan. You've gotta track that forgiveness, correct? Blake Oliver: [00:45:31] Yes. David Leary: [00:45:32] We'll put these in the show notes, but there's three things that I found that are kind of helpful. One is a there's a blog post on AccountingWEB. It's how to do the bookkeeping, part one, and how to properly record a PPP loan. This article breaks down from here's how you create a bank account in QuickBooks to do it, all the way through creating a new bank account at the bank, and tracking your expenses separately, and how you wanna bucket them in. So, there's a good article on that. Then, Jacob Schroeder- two listeners, actually, tweeted this out. Two different spreadsheets- sorry, Google Sheets that basically you can use to track your PPP tracking. They're Google Sheet templates. One's from Jacob Schroeder, [inaudible] Consulting, and the other one's from Matthew May of Acuity. So, two listeners tweeted out Google Sheets that could be very helpful for all of you. Blake Oliver: [00:46:21] Those are great resources and perfect examples of marketing that is really effective in this time. These Google Sheets are getting shared all over the internet, and their logo is right there, and a link to their website. It's perfect. It's exactly what you wanna be doing. So what should we talk about next? Do you wanna talk about layoffs? I know you wanted to talk about upbeat stuff, but ... David Leary: [00:46:43] We could talk just a little bit more stimulus stuff, then we'll talk about layoffs. This is app news. Blake Oliver: [00:46:50] Okay, shall we switch to app news now? David Leary: [00:46:53] Yeah, let's switch to app news then. Blake Oliver: [00:46:58] What is new in the world of apps? David Leary: [00:47:01] So, there's kind of two chunks here. One is tons of tech players are now jumping into the helping small businesses. I think we talked a little bit before about the Small Business Relief campaign with Intuit and GoFundMe. The PayToday, which is like paytoday.club. Essentially it's about, hey, if you owe a small business money, pay them. That's Fundbox, Home Base, Gusto are involved in that. Now-  Blake Oliver: [00:47:21] Yeah. I mean, that's really ... It's nice, and cute, and stuff, but it's not gonna happen. David Leary: [00:47:26] Yeah ... American Express and about 40 other apps all came together for #StandforSmall. Even Melio's doing that, as well. PayPal is waiving ... Now, this isn't small businesses, much, but if you need to cash your stimulus check, you can do it through PayPal and not pay a fee. The two interesting ones is Facebook has created a $100 million grant program. Blake Oliver: [00:47:45] For what? David Leary: [00:47:48] For small businesses. Blake Oliver: [00:47:49] What do you mean? They're giving money to small businesses? David Leary: [00:47:52] Yeah, so you just ... A) you have to be a business that has between two and 50 employees. The second part is you have to have been operating within a year- I'm sorry, a minimum of one year. Then, the only other thing - and it's left very loose - the word "challenges." So, if you're a business experiencing "challenges," due to these COVID-19 outbreak. Blake Oliver: [00:48:11] Oh, so it's just as loose a definition as the SBA program, so virtually anyone can qualify for this. David Leary: [00:48:19] Yeah, but you have to say what you're gonna use the money for. Blake Oliver: [00:48:22] Oh, okay. David Leary: [00:48:23] Like, "Hey, I'm essential because I'm gonna ..." Maybe I'm a distillery, and I'm gonna make a hand sanitizer, or whatever it is. You're gonna say what you used it for. So, they're doing that. Then also, this'll be in the show notes - the links for this one, as well - Salesforce is gonna give out $10,000 grants, and it's just about as loose. So, if you're getting denied from the federal government, there's big tech companies that are offering grants, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:48:49] So, I've only got one app news story to talk about, and it's kind of weird. It's this email from Expensify. Did you get this email? David Leary: [00:48:57] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:48:58] So, I love the emails that come from the CEO, David Barrett. They're always long, but very interesting. They're the only product announcement emails that I will read in detail and not just skim over because he generally talks a lot about what's going on at the company, and it's really interesting. David Leary: [00:49:17] What I like about his emails, it's almost like you're getting a glimpse into their decision-making process and his brain a little bit. You're right, they're very long emails, but he kind of leads you on the journey to the final decision they make, towards the end of the email. Blake Oliver: [00:49:32] This week, I was kinda busy, so I kinda just stuck that email and my Read Later folder, and I was gonna come back to it. Then I saw this discussion happening online; people upset at Expensify, which, , I'm not used to. And I'm wondering what is going on. So, then I go, and I read the email, and it's actually kinda hard to figure out what is going on. It's like David is talking about how they have this concierge service, and they've been investing in customer support, and that, but the COVID-19 pandemic has just crushed their revenues. So, in a very long way, he gets around to saying they're gonna change the pricing, but then, it's not really clear to me, from reading the email what the actual change is gonna be. I think this really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way during this time- David Leary: [00:50:21] I think I saw somebody tweet about it. It kind of is like, "Hey, we know we have not given good customer service, but now we're gonna start. We've improved it, so now, we're giving you more customer service. But guess what? Feel sorry for us because ..." I'm summarizing the tweet [inaudible] right? "Oh, feel sorry for us because guess what? Nobody's doing any business travel, and we're losing money like crazy, and you should feel sorry for us, and now, we're gonna raise prices." It kind of read like that to a lot of people. Blake Oliver: [00:50:50] Well, and I haven't seen any price increases. So, this is the only company that I have seen doing a price increase at this time. I think there's kind of been sort of a general understanding that people just aren't doing it. Accounting firms definitely are not; they're actually doing a lot of free work for clients, so I think this is- that's part of the problem here. So, here's what actually is changing. I had to go to the website to really get clarity on this. What they are doing is, if you move 50 percent or more of your company's approved monthly spend to the Expensify card, which is that new credit card that Expensify has issued ... It's like a charge card, like Brex, and, I don't know, what are these other companies that do this? David Leary: [00:51:34] Divvy does it. There's lots of them.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:37] Yeah, so basically, those companies came out with their cards, so Expensify created a card. Expensify's saying if you move your expenses off of your personal, or company cards, and you use the Expensify card for more than 50 percent-  Thomas: [00:51:50] Daddy?  Blake Oliver: [00:51:50] Thomas, you cannot be in here right now, Bud.  Thomas: [00:51:51] Well, I want to [inaudible] because mom needs to go pee.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:51] Oh, Mommy needs to go pee?  Thomas: [00:51:51] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:51] She can go in your bathroom, Bud. Okay, bye. David Leary: [00:52:02] That's awesome. You have to save that. You have to clip that out and put it in his memory box. Blake Oliver: [00:52:09] Where was I? David Leary: [00:52:10] The 50 percent of your users on the new card. Blake Oliver: [00:52:14] So, if you put 50 percent of your expenses on the card, then your fee's not gonna go up, but if you don't, then there's gonna be an unbundling fee on a sliding scale. So, if like 35 percent of your spend for the month is on the card, then you're gonna get charged for 30 percent of the unbundling fee, and then there's ... Basically, the price is doubling for the subscription per user. It's gonna gradually increase over the next 12 months. This calculation, I don't know what it's gonna be. I don't know what the price is gonna be. I feel like a lot of people are frustrated. I don't know. Was this really necessary? David Leary: [00:52:53] Yeah, the timing is a little weird, you're right. Because most fintech companies, right now, are giving away free subscriptions, free discounts. They're trying to help all the small businesses. I'm not saying that Expensify is not trying to help. But it's also interesting because if they're gonna ... Obviously, there's competition, right? You have the Divvys, the Brex-es, those types of products that are out there, where they're not charging anybody to use those products. There's no fees. They're free.  Blake Oliver: [00:53:19] Right.  David Leary: [00:53:19] Expensify was always free, but those companies are- really, where they're making their money is on the ... They get some money every time somebody uses the built-in credit card [crosstalk] If they're going to encourage people to use the Expensify card, those should be free then. They're almost ... Feels like this a business model change to, "Hey, we're gonna be more like Brex, and Divvy," a little bit is what it kinda sounds like [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:53:45] -sort of halfway. Yeah, it's weird. David Leary: [00:53:48] But you can still use your old one. We're just gonna charge you to do it the old way. Blake Oliver: [00:53:52] Yeah, so it's confusing. It's weird. It's just- I don't know, but I- David Leary: [00:53:59] Would it have been better to rip off the Band-Aid and just be like, "Hey, we're gonna ... You have to take the Expensify card to stay on Expensify," or just that's it ... Or is that kind of dangerous because then people will be like, "Well, I'll just check the whole market for tons of different solutions now ..."?  Blake Oliver: [00:54:11] Yeah. I don't know. I definitely wouldn't have raised ... I would've figured out a way not to raise prices. I mean, if you need to, take on more capital to get through this. Part of the problem, I think, is that Expensify always charged for active users, which a lot of companies don't. They'll just charge you for every email address that has an account on your- in your company, but with Expensify, one of the things I loved about it, as an accountant, is that I could put my clients on it, and if they didn't use it, I didn't pay for them. But that's a big danger to Expensify, in a downturn, because then a bunch of users stop using it; they don't submit expense reports that month; and then Expensify doesn't collect any fees. David Leary: [00:54:46] Yeah, especially as you go up market to the bigger companies. A smaller company, a small business owner, they're still gonna have expenses they still have on a day-to-day basis. They might not be doing travel, but I think corporate travel is 100-percent stopped, right now. Blake Oliver: [00:54:59] Well, David, that's all I've really got today. Oh! There was that one thing I wanted to talk about, the layoffs. So, real quick ... I don't wanna talk about specific layoffs, just like more happening; like we've all heard about them. Ed Mendlowitz wrote an article on Accounting Today. I think it's kind of a funny topic. I mean, I guess it's helpful for partners, but it's a article called: "Deciding Who to Let Go." It's how do you ... It's a list of things to consider when you decide who you're gonna fire in your firm - 19 things, I guess, if you gotta do it, this is a helpful list. David Leary: [00:55:36] Is this satirical or is this- Blake Oliver: [00:55:38] No, this is for real. It's not a joke. David Leary: [00:55:39] For real, okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:55:39] He's actually like-  David Leary: [00:55:40] Here are some tips ... Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:55:40] What I like about Ed is - Mr. Mendlowitz, I should probably call him - is that he's old school, but like good old school. Like, if you wanna run your firm old school, you gotta listen to this guy. David Leary: [00:55:56] I like him. I've been listening his podcast- Blake Oliver: [00:55:58] Yeah, no, it's good. The stuff on sales, and firm development, and marketing, it's all really good; especially the sales stuff [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:56:03] -the tax update stuff is good that he does. You're in Phoenix ... He's in Phoenix. Blake Oliver: [00:56:07] Oh, he is?  David Leary: [00:56:07] Somehow, you guys should do a- you should go meet each other, stay six feet away, and ... It would be great. Blake Oliver: [00:56:14] Well, so there's only one thing I wanted to say about this. It's a great list of things to think about. I'll just read some of them, okay? So, here's what you should consider when you're thinking about who to let go. How well do they follow your instructions? Are they learning from each new job so that the third time they do similar work, they don't need instruction? Do they apply what they learned on one project to another or from working on one client to the next? Do they remember what they worked on so they can apply it if it comes up again, either on that client or somewhere else? Do they meet deadlines without constant prodding? Do they take ownership? Do they follow up diligently? Can they handle multiple projects? Do they work relatively error-free? Do they ask for help when they need it? Are they self-starters? [00:56:55] That's just a few of them. They're all great. As I'm reading this list, I'm thinking, you know what is not on this list here? Timesheets and utilization. The only item that is even related to that is the last one, which is: do they help you make more money? But notice how none of these things are about how many hours they're billing and what percentage they're utilized. It's irrelevant to this decision, which makes me wonder why do we track it, at all, for performance purposes? If you're not gonna fire people based on it, then why track it? David Leary: [00:57:28] I think I brought this up two weeks ago, three weeks ago. That's how they determine the layoffs is by your billable hours, and your utilization [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:57:37] They justify the layoffs with that, but that is not why they actually get rid of you. That's my argument. They get rid of you for all these reasons, like: Are you easy to work with? Are you a self-starter? All of that, because that's what determines both how well you work with people at the firm and how well you work with clients. But the actual time entries, that's not what ... That's just a consequence of all of this. Does that make sense? David Leary: [00:58:02] That's true because they're gonna give you less work to do. They're gonna- Blake Oliver: [00:58:03] Exactly, and that's what happening right now [crosstalk] That's what's happening now at big firms is you're working from home, and you're seeing your hours drop, and that just ... Because people aren't giving you work because they don't wanna work with you, so that's what gets you fired. But it's not not having the hours that gets you fired. It's the thing that happens before that, which is people don't wanna give you work. So, that's all I got this week. David Leary: [00:58:26] I think that's it for me, as well. So, Blake, if people want to ... Actually, a couple of things people need to know about. We're still doing the Reviews4Good promotion. So, if you go to Podchaser.com, you can leave a review on The Cloud Accounting Podcast, and they will make a donation to Meals on Wheels, who are donating meals to the elderly. If Blake and I reply to your review that you leave there, they'll double the amount that's donated, which is very exciting. Then, we have our voicemail. You can still call us-  Blake Oliver: [00:58:53] Yeah, if you wanna ... If you wanna leave us a message, we will take a listen. We will play it on the air, potentially. It is (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. We hope to hear from you. I've also been getting some emails. I don't have time today to read through them, but I'm gonna remember next time; we're gonna read through some of this listener mail. If you want to send me an email or otherwise contact me, you can reach me at [email protected], or on Twitter, @BlakeTOliver. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:59:24] I am on Twitter, @DavidLeary. If you wanna find me on LinkedIn, I'm @DavidLeary, as well, but I'm gonna ask now when people contact me on LinkedIn to say, "I listen to the podcast," because I just- I feel like I'm just having a conversation with robots on LinkedIn.  Blake Oliver: [00:59:38] I think a lot of people using this automation software that just sends messages to prospect. It's just sales stuff. David Leary: [00:59:45] What I do is I just reply back, "You'll love this podcast," and then, I give them a link to subscribe, over, and over again. But then they reply back. Then, after like the third time, I realize, oh, I've already replied to this same message to this person three times. Obviously, they're not reading it, so that's how I figured out it's a bot. Blake Oliver: [01:00:01] It's a bot ...  David Leary: [01:00:01] We'll get there. Blake Oliver: [01:00:02] Well, have a great rest your weekend, David. David Leary: [01:00:05] Yeah, and hopefully, PPP v2 goes so smoothly on Monday, we don't have to get together and do a show. Blake Oliver: [01:00:13] Uh, yeah ...  David Leary: [01:00:13] I hope it just goes smoothly. I hope it does. We can't ... Nobody has the energy for this. Blake Oliver: [01:00:19] We'll see. David Leary: [01:00:20] All right.  Blake Oliver: [01:00:20] Talk to you later.  David Leary: [01:00:20] That's a wrap.  Blake Oliver: [01:00:20] Bye.  David Leary: [01:00:20] Bye. ____________________ ClassifiedsHave you heard about the Virtual Cloud Accounting Summit hosted by Jetpack Workflow? It takes place on April 30, is 100-percent free, and offers you the ability to take advantage of over $6,000 in exclusive software discounts. Speakers include Ron Baker, Mike Michalowicz, Jackie Meyer, Jody Grunden, and more. To reserve your free spot, head over to go.jetpackworkflow.com/cloudaccountingsummit. ____________________If you wanna learn how to make video tutorials from an expert, sign up for Hector Garcia's live webinar - How to Make Video Tutorials - so you can learn how to create content to educate your team, your clients, and your prospects. Use coupon code "CAP50" for $50 off your purchase. Head over to www.hectorgarcia.com/tutorial. ____________________Still sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? Automate this process and get client answers instantly with ClientHub's QuickBooks Online integration. This feature was described as one that only an accountant would've come up with, as it solves a real big pain point. ClientHub is a modern client portal designed for cloud-accounting firms. Get started today with a free trial at clienthub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months. ____________________Are you looking to get some of the best content in the world to improve your team, and your firm, and some free CPE credits, too? Good news! The Accounting Salon has turned into a virtual event called SALONv, and it's open to the world. You can register for free at accountingsalon.com. ____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Hit the show notes, and the links to get more info, and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. 

Sponsors SmartBooks Genie: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/genie AccountingSuite: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 03:09 - SBA Paycheck Protection Program Report https://www.sba.gov/document/report--paycheck-protection-program-report - SBA 05:14 - Paycheck Protection Program Stats https://pppstats.info/ COVID Loan Tracker https://www.covidloantracker.com  06:17 - According to the JPMorgan Chase Institute, about half of all small businesses have a cash safety net worth less than 15 days. https://institute.jpmorganchase.com/institute/research/small-business/small-business-cash-liquidity-in-25-metro-areas - JPMorgan Chase 07:31 - Marco Rubio on Chase, via Twitter https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1250122282703433733 - Twitter 15:15 - Full interview with Alan Rosen on The Path Forward https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6XLyeX8-Mw&feature=share - YouTube 19:26 - Finance app use spies with pandemic https://bankinnovation.net/allposts/biz-lines/retail/finance-app-use-spikes-with-pandemic/ - Bank Innovation 20:40 - SBA Paycheck Protection Program Report https://www.sba.gov/document/report--paycheck-protection-program-report - SBA 28:16  - Chart Shows which States Received the Most PPP Loans  https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/small-business/news/21134380/chart-shows-which-states-received-the-most-ppp-loans - CPA Practice Advisor 29:12 - Millionaire White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says his WIFE is getting a small-business bailout because she is an artist whose $20,000-a-portrait business is struggling https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8200647/Larry-Kudlow-says-WIFE-getting-small-business-bailout.html - Daily Mail 32:17 - The full episode with Sabrina Parsons, and Michael Ly - Navigating the SBA Paycheck Protection Program https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/168 36:42 - Get My Payment – IRS stimulus-tracking tool https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment - IRS.gov  41:29 - More on Accounting Firm Layoffs at Going Concern https://goingconcern.com/category/firm-watch/ 42:04 - Federal Reserve takes additional actions to provide up to $2.3 trillion in loans to support the economy https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200409a.htm - Federal Reserve 42:27 - Correction from Ep. 169: It was Bird, not Lime! Sorry! "It Felt Like a Black Mirror Episode' The Inside Account of How Bird Laid off 406 People in Two Minutes via a Zoom Webinar" https://dot.la/bird-layoffs-meeting-story-2645612465.html - dot.LA 43:01 - 8 Signs You are Going to be Laid off https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-tsq43-89a5438?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share - PodBean 44:19 Microsoft announces Money in Excel powered by Plaid https://blog.plaid.com/microsoft-announcement/ - Plaid 44:35 - Tiller Money https://www.tillerhq.com/how-tiller-works/ 48:09 What if No one Pays Rent? https://www.npr.org/2020/04/08/830237502/episode-989-what-if-no-one-pays-rent - NPR 55:03 David's List of Top 10 Cloud Accounting Podcast Episodes https://www.podchaser.com/lists/top-10-cloud-accounting-podcast-episodes-of-2019-107a4PkuTm - Podchaser  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. 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Is your staff stuck in a never-ending monthly close process? Ever wish you had a genie that could help you out? Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, SmartBooks Genie, later in the episode. Blake Oliver: [00:00:20] Billions of dollars are gonna people who don't necessarily need it, and a lot of people who really, really need the money are left out in the cold. Now, we're being asked to spend another $250 billion to do what? I looked at the numbers. What will another $250 billion that you and I are gonna have to pay back, someday, David, what is that gonna get us?____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by AccountingSuite. AccountingSuite is cloud accounting software that acts like a customizable ERP system. It lets you start out with just the features you need today and, in the future, as your business grows, you can easily add AccountingSuite extensions to give you the features you need. A major strength of AccountingSuite is its robust set of inventory management tools to track inventory levels, orders, sales, and deliveries from anywhere at any time. AccountingSuite has an extension for multi-channel online sales. After connecting your online marketplaces, AccountingSuite will download all your transactions for you to approve prior to entry into the accounting system. It's similar to working with bank feeds. AccountingSuite is offering Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners 50 percent off forever by using the promo code "CAP_50_2020." To take advantage of this exciting offer and to learn more about how AccountingSuite offers an upgradable path for your firm and company's future, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash A-S-U-I-T-E.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity.In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before May 31, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________[00:02:40] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:43] I'm David Leary. Blake, two weeks ago, we sat down, hours after they opened up the PPP, and now we're here, two weeks later, and it's done. $349 billion is just gone. It's done.  Blake Oliver: [00:02:57] Exactly two weeks, right? Because it was April 3 that it opened up? David Leary: [00:03:01] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:03:02] And it is April 17, in the afternoon, and the funds ran out yesterday morning, was it?  David Leary: [00:03:09] As the day ... It depends on how you counted because they had to back out the fees that the banks would take. So, the final numbers I can read - that's from an SBA slide deck that came out this morning - the reported loans that got E-Tran numbers - these are not people that applied for loans; these are just people that the bank took the data submitted to the SBA, and an E-Tran number/tracking number was issued - that's 1,662,367, for a total loan amount of $342 billion. Blake Oliver: [00:03:39] Wow.  David Leary: [00:03:39] If you back out the $10 billion in fees that Marco Rubio reported on, it actually puts it to a negative one percent. 101 percent has now been allocated. Blake Oliver: [00:03:51] So, now, Republicans are calling for another $250 billion to be added to the program. Democrats have some sort of conditions they want before the $250 gets released, so there's all this political bickering going on, but maybe ... I think there's a little more nuance here to this discussion than just, "Let's add more money," or, "Before we add more money, we wanna get more money for hospitals ..." Let's actually talk about who this program has helped so far, what it has achieved, and maybe then, we can debate whether or not it's worth it, adding more money. Does that sound like a good idea? David Leary: [00:04:31] Yeah, because, I mean, we could just finish talking about some of the numbers that ... Because I think there's a big difference between the number of loans that were approved that everybody on Twitter - the politicians - are high-fiving about versus the money that possibly only made it to people's bank accounts.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:46] Right. That was part of the confusion. The first week of the program, I spent days and days trying to figure out how much of this money had actually been disbursed versus approved versus entered because the politicians were using "disbursed" in a lot of cases, and we knew for a fact that the money wasn't getting disbursed. So, at this point, we know that all of it has been allocated; it's all been claimed. But how much has actually gotten into small business bank accounts? David Leary: [00:05:14] So, I'm tracking this on PPPstats.info, and there's another website that popped up that did really a survey of people that had their E-Tran numbers. It's called COVIDloantracker.com. They had three percent; then the number moved to four percent; then it was five percent. So, five percent's the best we've seen so far. That's only $17 billion.  Blake Oliver: [00:05:35] That's five percent of the people who attempted to apply.  David Leary: [00:05:39] Five percent of the people that got an E-Tran number. Blake Oliver: [00:05:42] Oh, okay. So-  David Leary: [00:05:44] Because their survey that they had, you couldn't fill out- [inaudible] a question in the survey, and you couldn't continue on without E-Tran number to some extent. So, their survey only has people that got a response back. Blake Oliver: [00:05:57] I'm curious about that because that's a data point, one point in time. Maybe I'm annoyed that I haven't got my money yet. I go to this site; I fill out the survey ... It's basically prejudiced toward people who haven't gotten the money yet because if you got the money, and you're happy, why are you going online looking for this thing, right? So- David Leary: [00:06:16] That's true.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:17] I would take that with a grain of salt. Five percent seems really low to me. There are two other data points that I saw. One is data from Chase. On Tuesday, I think it was Tuesday, or Wednesday, Marco Rubio tweeted out that Chase had said that they had distributed ... Let me see where that is. I lost it. I don't wanna quote the wrong number, so I'm gonna find it. Give me a minute. David Leary: [00:06:45] Okay, so while you're searching for that, Blake, I've been tweeting on top of Marco Rubio all week. I actually asked him to come on the podcast, but to no avail ... He did not respond to those tweets. Then, I also had another run-in with a politician. So, AOC, the Representative from New York City. She had a webinar on PPP and the emergency loan, and I attended her webinar. I was the only person whose questions did not get asked during her webinar.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:09] Did not get answered?  David Leary: [00:07:09] Did not get answered, yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:09] Yeah, well ...  David Leary: [00:07:14] The politicians- Blake Oliver: [00:07:14] Nobody likes the media, David.  David Leary: [00:07:17] Nobody likes the media. I do have to commend, though, Marco Rubio ... For all the politicians that are out there, he's actually somewhat trying to communicate a little bit of what's going on and acknowledging the trouble with the program.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:29] Right. Okay, so I have that number. David Leary: [00:07:31] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:31] He said, on the 14th, that  the 14th that Chase had processed 300,000 PPP loans for $36 billion and had disbursed $9.3 billion. So, if you do the math on that: $9.3 billion divided by $36 billion, that is 25-26 percent. So, that would have been on Wednesday. Then, my other data point is this little survey that we did; that you did on Twitter, David, where you asked accountants, "Hey, how many loans have you applied for? How many have gotten an E-Tran number, and how many have gotten funded?" You put that all in a spreadsheet. We got quite a few responses to that, right? David Leary: [00:08:14] Yeah, and what drove that is ... mean, obviously, we're talking to accountants and bookkeepers, and this is what drove our initial skepticism about the numbers coming out on day one is we couldn't reconcile them with what we were hearing from accountants and bookkeepers. Blake Oliver: [00:08:26] Oh, yeah, and this was the crazy thing. It took us almost two weeks to figure this out, and it was thanks to Marco Rubio. The SBA does not have a way, in their system, to track what loans have actually been disbursed. There is no official government mechanism to see - here is the total amount that has made it into small business bank accounts - there's no way to measure the success.  David Leary: [00:08:46] They aren't requiring lenders to report it back up, either.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:49] No, so they don't require lenders to report it back. The only thing we can do is extrapolate and say, okay, the lenders, once the loan is approved, have 10 days to disburse the funds. So, worst case scenario - we know this didn't happen, but worst case - is that, as of yesterday, all the money has 10 days more to get disbursed. I'm gonna guess that is- I don't know if that's business days, or calendar days, or what, but ... Just to put this in perspective, this program is three weeks old. So, three weeks ago, the CARES Act passed, and this program was in there, and it's taken three weeks to get to this point. We know, from our survey that we did of accountants, that ... Let's pull up this spreadsheet here that you made. You wanna do the numbers? David Leary: [00:09:35] Yeah, so we had about 33 people respond on Twitter, so it's not some super-official thing, but I left it open to accountants and bookkeepers just to say, "Hey, how many clients have you had that applied for loans? How many got E-Tran numbers, and how many had cash actually had cash hit their bank account?" The responses - 703 applied; 187 got E-Trans; 68 had cash in their bank accounts.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:00] That's 703 loans total, across 33 accountants/bookkeepers applying- helping their clients apply. So, 187 of those got E-Tran numbers. That's 27 percent of the applications got approved. Then, of the applications that got approved, 68 got money in the bank. This is basically as of Thursday; maybe some came in today. So, 68 percent- or 68 of 187 is 36 percent. So, I don't know. What you were thinking might happen this week, but I think on Friday of last week, it was about five percent of the approved loans had gotten paid out, and now we're at 36 percent. I mean, this is taking forever. David Leary: [00:10:47] I think it's truly be reflected in the unemployment numbers. I mean, the whole point of the Paycheck Protection Program was to protect people's paychecks, to help small businesses to keep paying employees, so they don't have to go on unemployment. Blake Oliver: [00:11:00] Right. David Leary: [00:11:00] The unemployment numbers last week were another 3 million, 3.3. This week it was 5.2. I honestly- I think it's probably gonna hit 6 next week, and 6 the week after that. There's no sign ... If you really think- you wanna talk about extrapolating numbers, work the other direction. The accountants are telling us 187, right? Only 26 percent of people that applied even got an E-Tran number. So, work backwards from that, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:11:26] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:11:26] That's 4.3 times. So, if the reported loans is 1.6 million, at least 7 million people- small businesses applied. Blake Oliver: [00:11:35] Oh, and I guarantee you that it's gonna be more than that because there's tons of folks who didn't use an accountant to apply, right?  David Leary: [00:11:40] Yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:11:40] They're not represented in this. I think accountants, given their relationships with banks- a lot of accountants have relationships with lenders, and one of the things they do is help people get loans. So, that 26-, 27-percent success rate is probably really high compared to most businesses that don't have an advisor. I wouldn't be surprised if it was ... Well, we can just look at the total number of small businesses. [00:12:05] Oh, and one thing I wanna add before we go into that is the reason this program is not working, if you ask me, is here we are with 33 percent of the ... About a little more than a third of the $350 billion has been paid out, and we are three weeks after the CARES Act was passed, which was at the very end of March. Well, not the very end, but last week of March, right? This whole coronavirus thing that shut down the economy started in mid-March. So, we're a full month from when small businesses started feeling the impact - most of them - and most small businesses don't have more than two weeks of cash on hand. I guarantee you that almost all of them have less than 30 days, to your point.  David Leary: [00:12:49] Yeah, I think I tweeted that weeks ago. I think the average small business has about 27 days of cash, and restaurants have 14. Blake Oliver: [00:12:56] Right.  David Leary: [00:12:56] So, yes, they are now out of cash. Any of them that were holding on to some hope, like "Hey, I'm gonna ..." because this loan was made out like it's this forgivable money; you're just gonna get it. Even the emergency loan, the rules changed on that, after people applied [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:13:12] We're not even talking about the-  David Leary: [00:13:14] -money's not getting out there. I know-  Blake Oliver: [00:13:14] We're not even talking about the EIDL. Apparently, nobody has seen money from that. People have seen the upfront - up to $10,000 advance part - but the actual loan, we have no clue what is going on with that. It's been eclipsed by the PPP, and people have lost hope. So, where I wanted to go with this was now to think about, okay, the money has been used - $350 billion. How much more money do we need to actually make a dent? Part of me thinks that it's too late anyway because the businesses that are most impacted have already furloughed or laid off their workers. I mean, obviously, hospitality, restaurants ... What are they gonna do? Hire people back and put them back on payroll? I saw people suggesting that that was the best course of action on Twitter, and I'm thinking to myself, if I'm an employer, that makes no sense because I don't wanna take my employees off of unemployment, so then, they get ... I put them back on payroll, I pay them for eight weeks, and then, they have to go back in line for an employment? Doesn't really make sense. David Leary: [00:14:12] I mean, that's half the point of this, too, was the "Hey, keep your employees on your payroll, so that way, when everything gets opened back up in the economy, you don't have to do this game of trying to rehire your talent," but it's just not happening. Then, I've heard ... You understand about the unemployment; everybody's getting an extra $600 a week, right? Blake Oliver: [00:14:29] Right. So, a lot of people are making potentially more money on unemployment than they were as employees. David Leary: [00:14:36] I think, in the state of Arizona, the average unemployment's $240 a week? Blake Oliver: [00:14:40] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:14:40] So, now you add on $600 a week. It's significant. Blake Oliver: [00:14:45] Right.  David Leary: [00:14:45] So, now, what's happening is there are some employers that are paying employees minimum wage, and those employees are like, "Screw it! I'll just stay on unemployment. I can stay on this til July 31, and I'm getting, easily, 2,400 bucks a month. Blake Oliver: [00:14:59] Yep.  David Leary: [00:14:59] So, some good thing over here that's somewhat successful, even though I think there's problems and not enough people can even get through to apply for unemployment ... Over here, people are getting the money and that's possibly causing more pain for a small business owner, over here. The one that maybe did get their PPP loan, they can't hire their employees back.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:15] Right. So, I have an interview I wanna play for you that is a business owner talking about why he is going to not use the PPP money to pay his employees. This is really interesting. When I shared this out on Twitter, it ignited a firestorm. Some people were furious that this guy would think this way. Some people said it made sense, and they're advising their clients to potentially do the same thing. So, you won't mind taking a quick listen to this? David Leary: [00:15:45] Perfect because I have yet to hear it. I did not see this tweet. So, this is perfect [inaudible] my raw reaction.  Alan Rosen: [00:15:51] Restaurants don't typically have a ton of working capital sitting around their month-to-month businesses, so this capital is gonna carry us through our grand reopening, for lack of a better term. And if we wanna do this smartly, we have to wait til people are comfortable from this medical crisis to sit shoulder to shoulder in our restaurants, or in Broadway theaters, or movie theaters. And until that time, it would be, in my opinion, wasted money to start spending it. We have to wait til we have a very clear pathway to success. Interviewer: [00:16:25] So- so, let me understand this. The money that you received from the taxpayers, or backed by the taxpayers, is not reaching the workers. Alan Rosen: [00:16:35] Not yet. It will reach the workers when we ... Right now, by law, Tyler, we can't open today. I wish we could, and if we did open today and only did 70 percent of our revenue, or 60 percent, or 50 percent, that money would basically evaporate in a matter of two-and-a-half months, because that's the calculation for the PPP loan. It's two-and-a-half times your monthly payroll. So, if we- if we start to use it too soon, the perfect [crosstalk] sorry, Tyler ... But the purpose of the loan is to get small business back on their feet, not for two months, but for the rest of our 70 years, so that's what we're hoping to accomplish here. Blake Oliver: [00:17:13] That was Alan Rosen, the owner of Junior's Cheesecake, which is a famous New York restaurant. 600 employees. He could use the money to bring back his employees off unemployment, pay them for eight weeks. He's not going to do that. He's gonna hold on to it. David Leary: [00:17:30] So, let me make sure I understand his timeline. So, he applied, basically got approved and got cash in his bank five days later for money he may not even use for 12 weeks from now. Blake Oliver: [00:17:41] Yeah, he's gonna ... I mean, he has six months before he even has to start making payments on it, so he's gonna hold that capital for his grand reopening, which makes sense, right? But that's not what the program was intended to do. It's called the Paycheck Protection Program. David Leary: [00:17:58] Well, this is why I saw Marco Rubio talking about how the hotel industry doesn't get it, but the hotels have gotten rid of 100 percent of their staffs. You don't get this money because you have no employees to pay. That's the whole point of this.  Blake Oliver: [00:18:11] But the way the program is structured, you can apply for it, you can hold on to the cash, and you don't get forgiveness, if you do that, but a lot of business owners are saying, "Well, I'd rather have a one-percent loan so that I have something that I can use to restart my business when all this goes ..." Again, they could've designed the program so that you couldn't do this, but they didn't. Maybe this was an unintended consequence. [00:18:35] I think a lot of businesses are gonna do this. So, the money is ... We barely have information on how much of this is actually getting into small business bank accounts. We have even less information on how much is actually getting into employee paychecks. I feel like every layer that we go through is reducing the amount that actually gets to the employees. There's the banks ... Well, first, there's the SBA, there's the banks, SMBs, and then there's finally the paychecks. So, I don't know. We'll see. I mean, maybe this will help this business owner survive, and the restaurant can open up again, but I don't think that was what this was supposed to do. That wasn't the intent. Yeah, that's ... That is one example. I have some more numbers just to put everything in context- David Leary: [00:19:22] I noticed- Blake Oliver: [00:19:23] About how many businesses are getting these loans. David Leary: [00:19:26] I'm wondering if this is an indication of how many people may or may not ... We've talked about some these apps. There's an article about how finance apps, their usage is spiking because of the pandemic. We've talked about these apps in the past, these apps, like Earnin- these apps where you can basically get your paycheck two days early, and you basically leave a tip. Well, these apps- people are using these apps; it's jumped now 35 percent. So, I think people are using it to get what possibly could be their last paycheck before the paycheck ever actually gets deposited in their bank to get some money early- Blake Oliver: [00:20:01] Oh.  David Leary: [00:20:01] Because they have no confidence they're ever gonna see a paycheck again, so they're using these apps to try to get a paycheck. Blake Oliver: [00:20:06] Right. It's basically a free one, right?  David Leary: [00:20:07] Free paycheck. Blake Oliver: [00:20:08] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:20:08] They're using these tech companies to get that.  Blake Oliver: [00:20:08] So, 1.6 million loans have been approved. That was the number you had, right? That's the number I got. David Leary: [00:20:18] That's the final number from the slide deck, yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:20:19] Okay. So, 1.6 million loans. How many small businesses are there in this country? Do you know off the top of your head? David Leary: [00:20:27] I've seen, people have said there's 30 million businesses, and I'd say probably that you could shrink it down to 25 million small businesses. Blake Oliver: [00:20:35] Actually, it's 30 million small businesses. That 30 million number, that is all small businesses. David Leary: [00:20:40] All small businesses, okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:20:40] Yeah, which is like 99 percent of the businesses in the country are small ones. There's just a few thousand giant corporations. Those businesses employ about half the people in this country, a little less than half. So, 1.6 million out of 30 million is five percent. Five percent of small businesses got approved for loans and fewer than that, of course, a fraction of that, actually got the money so far. But let's assume that the rest of the money comes next week. We have funded five percent of the small businesses in this country, to some extent, for the next eight weeks, for their payroll. Some data came out of the SBA on average loan size and the different tiers; how many loans there were in different loan-size buckets. The average loan was- I'm not necessarily looking at the latest data because this was a report that came out through April 13. David Leary: [00:21:44] I got the slide deck here, so I can repeat the numbers, if you're interested. If you talk about the bucket, I can give you the number. Blake Oliver: [00:21:50] Okay. There are 1.6 million loans total. What was the average amount of the loan? David Leary: [00:21:56] The overall average size was $206,000.  Blake Oliver: [00:22:00] $206,000. Do you know what annual payroll that converts to? David Leary: [00:22:06] Yeah, I have that. It's $1.3 million, about. Blake Oliver: [00:22:10] Okay, so $1.3 million is the annual payroll, so that would be ... Let's say your employees, on average, make about $50,000 a year because that's- the average annual salary in this country is about little less than $50,000. That means that these companies have 26- 25-26 employees? That's the average. The average small business has a lot fewer employees. 80 percent of small businesses have 10 employees, or less; and 90 percent of small businesses have fewer than 20 employees. This average loan size is for a business with more than 20 employees; 10 percent of businesses. What I'm kinda seeing in these numbers is that the businesses that got these loans tend to be on the larger side of the small business spectrum, which kinda makes sense, right?  David Leary: [00:23:13] We saw that on within hours, because I think when we started looking at these numbers way back on that day, on April 3, the average loan size, then, was through a $373,000. So, it has come down over time, but ... This is the latest numbers from the SBA. So, loans that are under $150,000, they gave out 1.2 million of those. But of the total bucket of money, that's only 17 percent of the bucket. Blake Oliver: [00:23:41] How much of the bucket? David Leary: [00:23:43] 17 percent of the bucket went to 1.2 million small businesses. Blake Oliver: [00:23:47] Right. The ones that are basically fewer than 10 employees. David Leary: [00:23:51] Yeah, like 150K loan size ... ____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by SmartBooks Genie. SmartBooks Genie was born out of the struggles experienced by Calvin Wilder, as he grew his firm, SmartBooks, from zero to 40 people in eight years. Calvin has been using Genie to run SmartBooks for the last 18 months and now, he's making Genie available to all accounting and bookkeeping firms to power their client-accounting services.  SmartBooks Genie layers on top of QuickBooks Online to allow you to centralize your firm's workflows, manage the monthly close, automatically prepare client reports, and complete time-consuming manual processes that you're currently doing in spreadsheets or other isolated systems. By centralizing client management to get core work done accurately and on time, SmartBooks Genie will stay on top of the deadlines and scope of service that you're delivering to clients, so you keep your client engagements profitable.  To learn more about SmartBooks Genie and take advantage of its Early Adopter program offering 50 percent off monthly subscription fees, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/genie. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash G-E-N-I-E. SmartBooks Genie grants your wish for a streamlined practice.____________________ Blake Oliver: [00:25:07] Here you have less than 20 percent of the money going to 80 percent of the businesses, and the top 20 percent of the businesses collected 80 percent of the money. It flipped. This makes sense because the corporations got a weak head start. They got to apply two weeks ago, on April 3, and they made all the sole proprietors ... Anyone without a corporate entity had to wait until last Friday. By that time, most of the money was already spoken for. David Leary: [00:25:41] Well, yeah-  Blake Oliver: [00:25:41] So, the way that this program was set up, it was designed to give preference to larger small businesses. David Leary: [00:25:49] Well, I agree, as far as the way it was designed. It was already set up to where sole proprietors and subcontractor-level people couldn't even apply for a week. They already had- they were a week behind just even starting. But the "not" part of the design that happened ... There's stories from accountants about their own clients who are like, "Yeah, I have two clients that got their loan approved in five days." Then, you find out, oh, yeah, it's because it was $800,000. The bigger loans all got pushed through faster by the banks because the banks wanted to deal with ... The financial risk is different for the bank, and they pushed the bigger loans through.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:27] It's easier, right? You've already got all their information; you know who they are. So, not only is it less risky, but there's less paperwork to do. This is something that the designers of this program totally were okay with is that banks got to choose who they gave the loans to first. Of course, the banks are gonna choose their biggest, their best customers. You also have data that shows that if you were with a community bank, and you had a personal banking relationship, then you were much, much, much more likely to get a loan. David Leary: [00:26:56] Yeah, they definitely have a lot of data on that. The COVID Loan Tracker has data that shows that. Even the PPP has said the amount of community banks and lenders that did that loan out ... I think Marco Rubio just tweeted this out-  Blake Oliver: [00:27:08] Well, he argued with it [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:27:10] -5,000 lenders. 5,000 different lenders, and none of them loaned more than five percent of the total. 60 percent of the lenders are under $10 billion in assets. So, in general, a lot smaller banks were doing a lot of these loans, right? Blake Oliver: [00:27:25] Yeah. I said earlier how I don't think the COVID Loan Tracker data, in a lot of cases, is valid because it's not a statistically representative survey, since the people coming are probably gonna be the people who didn't get money. But they do have a stand on here that I think is legit, and it's: of the people who did receive money, it asked them, "Did you have a preexisting lending relationship?" Over 80 percent of people who got PPP money had an existing- a preexisting lending relationship. If you did not have a relationship with a bank already, you had a less-than-20-percent chance of getting a PPP loan. David Leary: [00:28:05] Yeah, I think that-  Blake Oliver: [00:28:05] So, that definitely gives an advantage to a successful, established small business that's big enough where they get to have that personal banking relationship. David Leary: [00:28:16] I think that comes out in the state data. I know that a couple people have tweeted and sent me the ... Bloomberg has some maps where they've mapped out each state and the percentages of loans that they had approved in those states. Some people are even loosely implying that, "Oh, look, it's the Trump states," but I don't think ... I honestly, truly believe, based on my experience in the Midwest, this has nothing to do with these being Trump states. What it is, is in these states, they have much smaller banks. You have farmers. Everybody knows each other. A lot of the businesses have already established loans with these smaller banks. It's all these mid-regional banks- Blake Oliver: [00:28:50] Right. Yeah.  David Leary: [00:28:50] -they were just able to handle ... The volume of what they had to handle was much lower, and they had relationships with these people, and they are able to process these loans much more efficiently than California, which only had 24 percent, because, in general, it's all ... People were going to the Wells Fargos, the Bank of Americas, the Chases, the big banks, probably, and the relationships weren't there. Blake Oliver: [00:29:12] Well, and if you had a personal banking relationship, like let's say you're a high net worth individual, or you're an important person, like Larry Kudlow's wife, the- Donald Trump's Senior Economic Advisor, Larry Kudlow, talked to Bloomberg about how his wife, who's a self-employed painter, was able to walk over to their local bank at their house in Connecticut, and fill out a one-page form, and get the loan, and it was super-easy, he said. To him, that represents the experience of everyone. That's because, for one thing, she's the wife of a high-ranking White House official. Two, they're wealthy, right? They have three homes. They're millionaires. They have a personal banker who's gonna guide them through this thing and make sure that they get taken care of. If you're just some random business customer at Bank of America, or Wells Fargo, or Chase, you're screwed. I think virtually none of the people who got it ... I mean, it's not- I don't know if that's ... A very small percentage of people who got PPP loans bank at the big banks, right? It seems like it, to me. I don't have exact data on that, but ... David Leary: [00:30:16] I fall into the group of people that applied. Got nothing. The very first day- I bank with BBVA. They sent me an email. I think we talked about this last week, loosely. They sent me an email, very first day. I was, like, "Hey, all right. It's gonna be ready tomorrow." Then I went to go to it- I got the button- I filled out my email address. I got the email the next day. I clicked the button. It took me to a page, said, "Start your application," and then had a 404 error and just died out. So, that day, I went and looked for sites, and everybody's pages were down. This was that Saturday morning. Then, I found a lender, a small local lender here in Tucson to apply. So, I applied. I never got a confirmation. I never got an E-Tran number. I got nothing. So, I stalked them on Facebook. This is my loan experience. I'll read you the reply- Blake Oliver: [00:31:04] At least you got a reply. I think there are a lot of people who never even heard back. David Leary: [00:31:08] Well, I had to stalk them on ... I had to go to LinkedIn. There was no other way. I just had to ... I bypassed the front doors, to some extent. Blake Oliver: [00:31:16] Got it. David Leary: [00:31:17] Essentially, I said, "Do I have an E-Tran number yet? How come you haven't sent just one email communication about the status?" I was told, "Not yet. We are waiting for more funds to hit our account to process more applications. We are a very small company with a lending staff of five people trying to manage well over 200 applications. This type of mass lending is not what our company is built for, but we are doing our best to help customers who couldn't get their banks to fund the PPP loan for them." Then, I said, "Where are you getting the funds from? Because my understanding is the SBA is not distributing the funds to lenders until the PPP loan amount has been "forgiven." He said, "That is correct. It's our own funds," but they're also a nonprofit, so they have to work with the city, and county, and other municipal organizations to get the funds.  Blake Oliver: [00:32:03] Right. They can only lend out a certain multiple of capital, so they've got to have capital requirements. So, they actually have to get money, so they can loan it out. David Leary: [00:32:12] Yeah, exactly. Blake Oliver: [00:32:17] Here's a big problem with this whole thing - everybody is trying to get the money. It's a $350 billion pot of money, which seems like a lot until you realize there's 30 million small businesses, and everybody wants a chunk of it. As Sabrina Parsons said on one of our episodes, a couple weeks ago, when we were talking about this, if every small business in the country applied, everybody gets $12,000. So, a big pot of money, way more businesses ... Really, anyone can apply for this, which kind of seems crazy to me that there wouldn't be an effort to make this maybe more targeted toward businesses that are actually hurt by COVID-19. I mean, you can make the argument that every business is hurt, but the way this program is set up, you can get this money even if your business is doing well. [00:33:09] I'll tell you why. I'm looking at the Treasury regulations, and here's what you have to certify to, to apply for this money. As part of your application, you need to certify in good faith that current economic uncertainty makes the loan necessary to support your ongoing operations and that the funds will be used to retain workers, and maintain payroll, or to make mortgage, lease, and utility payments. Well, everybody has either payroll or rent/mortgage/utilities, so that's everybody in the country. Then, current economic uncertainty makes the loan necessary to support your ongoing operations? I mean, every business in the country is going through economic uncertainty, right? I mean, uncertainty doesn't necessarily mean something bad. So, everybody is allowed to get this money. I can't believe they didn't make it a little more targeted. David Leary: [00:33:58] I would argue the same thing is on the other side on the CARES Act for unemployment. There's 12 reasons, and all it takes is somebody in your house had to stay home because the kids had to stay home. Basically, if your kid is out of school, you can apply for unemployment. It's that broad. So, these programs have been made very broad, but the execution, and the funding, and even the ... If you really look at the loan deck, or the SBA deck about the loan, they don't have- they don't see who these lenders are, but they have 15 lenders listed, by numbers, and 14 of them are all 200,000, 500,000, 400,000 ... Only one lender did 40- they did 40,000 loans of an average loan amount for $72,000. Everybody else focused on big businesses, big loans. Blake Oliver: [00:34:50] I bet you that among even the small loan amounts, there's a lot of high net worth individuals, who have S Corporations, who are self-employed, but make a lot of money, who went and got these loans because why wouldn't you? It's free money. You can use it to pay yourself, or you can use it to pay your rent. There's no need-based methodology of assigning who gets these loans, and it's first come, first served. The people with the connections get it first. This really infuriates me. Billions of dollars are going to people who don't necessarily need it, and a lot of people who really, really need the money are left out in the cold. Now, we're being asked to spend another $250 billion to do what? [00:35:31] I looked at the numbers. What will another $250 billion that you and I are gonna have to pay back someday, David ...? What is that gonna get us? Well, based on the data from the 13th, we're at about $250 billion in funding. So, $250 billion, if everything stays the same - the same mix of people apply - then that'll get us another 1 million loans. So, we're gonna go from 1.6 million to 2.6 million, which is still less than 10 percent of all the small businesses in this country. [00:36:05] A lot of those businesses in that 10 percent are not the 10 percent that are super-impacted by this crisis. It's just people who wanted free money. I'm curious if there's ever gonna be any fallout from this. Do we ever get to know who got this money? I was seeing stories on Bloomberg about there's hedge funds that have applied for this money; people who make millions, tens of millions of dollars a year, and have billions of assets are applying for this money. David Leary: [00:36:28] I think it's gonna take a decade for people to process what's going on, not just with the PPP, but I mean, even the data about people getting COVID, and now ... Have you seen some of the problems the stimulus payments are having? Blake Oliver: [00:36:42] Oh, God ... Yes. The IRS came out with that tool to track your stimulus payment. David Leary: [00:36:49] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:36:50] I don't think I qualify but, just for kicks, I went to see if I'd get the note that I don't qualify. Of course, I got an error message that my Social Security number and the stuff that I know is absolutely correct doesn't match anything in their system. Apparently, a lot of people had that same experience, right?  David Leary: [00:37:08] Not only does that site have some issues, there's glitches, but there actually is some reporting coming out now that if you used H&R Block, or TurboTax ... So, even though, when I file on TurboTax, and I have to pay, so I put my bank account number in so they can ACH that before I get my refund ... Apparently, that, if it's in TurboTax, the IRS is not storing that.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:29] Right, and this is because of people who had their ... TurboTax acted as an intermediary, so that's why the IRS doesn't have their checking info?  David Leary: [00:37:39] Yeah. So, if you're one of the people that have used TurboTax, you probably don't have the deposit yet. Blake Oliver: [00:37:44] And then, as we talked about before, it might take until August before people get their checks- David Leary: [00:37:48] The paper checks. Blake Oliver: [00:37:50] -because the IRS can only print- yeah, they can only print 5 million a week. David Leary: [00:37:56] Then, for all the bad service that the banks were giving, by the time the tech companies got involved - the PayPals, the Kabbages, Intuit became a PPP lender-  Blake Oliver: [00:38:00] Oh, yeah.  David Leary: [00:38:00] It was done. They basically attempted to process loans for a day and a half, and it was done. Everything was done. So, it's- Blake Oliver: [00:38:14] I feel bad for all the developers that spent all that time trying to get this thing up and running and then, the funds are out. David Leary: [00:38:21] If I had to guess, when they do put through any more money, it's gonna be different rules. There's just no way- there's no way it just gets funded exactly the same. It's gonna be different rules. Blake Oliver: [00:38:31] Well, I would hope so. I would hope that Congress would realize that the 24 million small businesses that don't have any employees, where it's really just a sole proprietor, they had almost no shot at getting this money. What about them? They don't qualify. I don't know if they qualify for unemployment in every state. It's harder to get unemployment when you're self-employed, I know.  David Leary: [00:38:57] One thing that started to heat me a little concerned - and thinking kind of going forward - is the verbiage that was used in tweets, and all these celebratory "PPP was a win," April 3, was the word "forgivable" was just used; forgivable loans. Now, you're starting to see more, and more, and more the words "potentially forgivable loans" being used in the media. Blake Oliver: [00:39:22] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:39:22] It's really kind of scary because it's starting to make me wonder, okay, are they gonna change the rules just like they changed the rules on the emergency from $10k to $1k per employee? Are they gonna change the rules of what people have to do to qualify to get this forgiven? Then the scary thing is, okay, now, eight weeks from now, when you use this money, and you have to justify it, you have to go back to your bank, who's gonna be processing these audits? Who's going to be signing off that this money was used in the proper way to get it forgiven? Are we setting ourselves up for another nightmare of insanity, six weeks from now? If the SBA was handling just the processing of the loans, and that was a one-page loan basically. Now, you're gonna get who knows how many reports to audit people?  Blake Oliver: [00:40:09] Yeah, the SBA application was like, I don't know, what, like less than 10 pieces of information, I feel like? Now, you've got to prove that you deserve loan forgiveness. How long is that gonna take the SBA to process? So, yeah, there'll probably be ... It'll probably be a mess, where small business owner comes back with the paperwork and ... Well, first of all, it's a mess for the accountants, who then have to prep all this stuff for their clients. So, now, I gotta prove that I get forgiveness. I gotta fill out another form, attach a bunch of paperwork, send it to the bank; bank has to process- all the banks have to process 1.6 million of these applications for loan forgiveness. They gotta send it to the SBA, who's then gotta process it and send back the forgiveness. If we thought this was a mess ...  David Leary: [00:40:51] Then, kinda thinking about ... So, we got the tax deadline extended, so accountants and bookkeepers have some elbow room, but then basically that time got filled up with PPP loans. Blake Oliver: [00:40:58] Right. David Leary: [00:40:58] So, now, it's outta money. It's funny, April 17, accountants, today, are taking a breath. I've noticed online people are taking a breath because they can't do anything for their clients, right now, today. But if you start counting out eight weeks from now, guess what else is going on eight weeks from now? Blake Oliver: [00:41:14] The tax deadline. Is that it?  David Leary: [00:41:14] The new deadline of July 15. It's not exactly it, but it's very- it's four weeks within it. So, basically, when this money hits, and people are gonna have to start filling out their forgiveness paperwork ,and their forgiveness reports, we are going to be in the heat of tax deadline season. Blake Oliver: [00:41:29] Well, and making it worse, a bunch of firms are laying people off. I don't know if you've been following this, but the last time we talked about it - we skipped a week talking about this because we did the interview with the AICPA folks - not a lot of firms had laid people off. But now I'm seeing a bunch of them. Armanino, my old firm, laid off eight percent of their workforce. Baker Tilly did layoffs. Burden did layoffs. We had Citrin Cooperman; five to 10 percent of their workforce was laid off. Crowe did layoffs. A lot of these mid-sized firms- David Leary: [00:42:00] They probably didn't get their PPP loan, so they can't [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:42:04] Well, yeah, they probably don't qualify, right? Well, and there's a whole new loan thing for us to talk about, David, which is the ... We don't get a break either. We get the Main Street Lending program, which is the one for businesses with, I think, more than 500 employees; like the mid-sized, or the larger businesses. So, that's all getting going now. David Leary: [00:42:27] Speaking of layoffs, I do not wanna forget to do the- mention this. So, I talked, two weeks ago, about Lime, and I said the scooter company, Lime, had their layoffs. Blake Oliver: [00:42:35] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:42:35] I screwed up, and I got it confused. It was actually the other scooter company called Bird.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:42] Oh ...  David Leary: [00:42:42] So, the story was correct. They laid off 400 people, all really in a bad way, through a Zoom, but it was not- Blake Oliver: [00:42:48] Right.  David Leary: [00:42:48] So, I'll get the correct article in. I just ... These companies start to sound the same after a while, so I do apologize. So, [inaudible] correction on that.  Blake Oliver: [00:42:56] They are copycats of each other. I think you deserve ... I do think you deserve a little forgiveness. David Leary: [00:43:01] Then, to swing back, off of you, and the firms laying people off, I was listening to the Big Four podcast, the Big Four Firms Podcast, I think it's called. He had tips on how you can recognize you're gonna get laid off. One of the things that was in there, I just was like ... I've still been thinking about it, like two days later. If your billable hours go down, you're probably a target to be laid off. Would you agree?  Blake Oliver: [00:43:23] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:43:24] So, what they do is they have the HR department come meet with you a lot, so you have even less billable hours. The HR department will  schedule meetings with you. "How's it going, Blake?" Blake Oliver: [00:43:35] Right.  David Leary: [00:43:35] Then, you're losing billable hours, so you're at even higher odds. They almost ... It's an extra- if you start getting emails, or meeting requests from HR people, you're probably gonna get laid off because they're gonna eat up your billable time. Blake Oliver: [00:43:48] Oh, man. David Leary: [00:43:49] So, it's ... Yeah, we're in there ... I do have a non-COVID, and non-PPP, and non-government-stimulus story, if you wanna jump into something other than that this week. Blake Oliver: [00:44:02] Let's just [crosstalk] do that because- David Leary: [00:44:02] I've been holding this for two weeks-  Blake Oliver: [00:44:06] Okay, yeah, let's talk about that because all I had this week that I really wanted to talk about was coronavirus-related stuff. So, let's hear something else. David Leary: [00:44:19] So, this is in the Plaid blog. Microsoft announces Microsoft Money is now gonna live in Microsoft Excel, but it's powered by Plaid. So, basically, to summarize this, it is bank feeds in Excel. Blake Oliver: [00:44:34] This is super-cool! David Leary: [00:44:35] For those lovers of Google Sheets, I actually just, coincidentally, the same week, got a Facebook ad for an app called Tiller- Tiller Money. It's Google Sheets- bank feeds for Google Sheets, essentially. Blake Oliver: [00:44:49] How do you spell that? David Leary: [00:44:50] Tiller? It's T-I-L-L-E-R-H-Q dot com. (tillerhq.com) Blake Oliver: [00:44:55] T-I-L-L-E-R-H-Q dot com. So, I can have bank feeds go into my Google Sheets?  David Leary: [00:44:59] I mean, basically ... Yeah, they're a personal finance app of some type. But once that data is in your Google Sheet, you can do whatever you want. This makes me rewind to ... Remember the Botkeeper demo way back in the day? Blake Oliver: [00:45:13] Yeah. David Leary: [00:45:14] A lot of Botkeeper's things was "No, bank feeds suck in QuickBooks and Xero. We get the bank feeds, and we do whatever we want to them, and then we move that data to QuickBooks and Xero." I'm thinking, wow, now that you can drop bank feeds and shove data from the bank feed into Excel; bank feed into Google Sheets; now you can connect to Google Sheets through Zapier to QuickBooks and Xero ... You could do some really interesting stuff as an accountant, and bookkeeper, for your clients. Blake Oliver: [00:45:45] Yeah. This is really cool. I might-  David Leary: [00:45:46] That's it. I'm almost speechless about it because it's so exciting where the imagination can go. Blake Oliver: [00:45:53] Yeah, this Tiller Money thing looks super-cool. I'm a big Google Sheets fan. It's $59 a year. So, I think I might just sign up to try it if I can find some time in my schedule. David Leary: [00:46:05] Yeah, because you could create it-  Blake Oliver: [00:46:06] Well, thanks for sharing that.  David Leary: [00:46:07] All those macros you can make ... Just think about all those macros you could do in Excel. Blake Oliver: [00:46:10] Yeah. David Leary: [00:46:10] And then get the data just like you want it and then, boom, it shoves it off to the accounting system. The possibilities here are very, very interesting on where that heads. Blake Oliver: [00:46:19] So, there's only really one other thing I wanna talk about, and it is related to the whole current economic situation. It's a little broader than just the PPP stuff- David Leary: [00:46:29] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:46:30] I just gotta get it off my chest because I try to talk to my family about this, and they're like ... They don't wanna think about it, right? So, you're my outlet, David; you and our listeners. So, my big worry, right now, big picture, is we have these $1,200 stimulus payments coming in for some people this week, maybe in the next few weeks in April. 1,200 bucks per person. Then, we've got the PPP money, which I think kind of everything we talked about makes the argument that, is it really gonna have that big an impact on stopping people from getting laid off, and going on unemployment, and all that stuff? We didn't even talk about this, but all the state unemployment offices are completely overwhelmed, right? I mean, people are calling nonstop, all day long, every day, and they can't get through. They can't even get on unemployment, so they're not getting that money. We don't know how many millions of people are stuck trying to get it, still- David Leary: [00:47:27] Yeah, and we haven't been able to look at that data, right?   Blake Oliver: [00:47:28] Right.  David Leary: [00:47:28] I'm sure people can't ... They've applied for loans; they've heard nothing. There's people probably in queues just waiting for a response from a state unemployment office. Blake Oliver: [00:47:37] My worry is that we're gonna get to May 1, and just a ton of people and businesses are not gonna make their rent or mortgage payments. Then, what happens to the economy if, all of a sudden, renters aren't paying rent, and people aren't paying their mortgages. Do we get into another housing crisis at that point? Do we somehow do rent forgiveness? That can't really happen on a national level. I can't see that happening. What happens? David Leary: [00:48:09] There's a Planet Money or Odd Lots podcast or [inaudible] Indicator ... One of those three podcasts, and I'll have to find it, and track this down. They totally addressed this, and how it works its way all the way up, and who winds up eating it.  Blake Oliver: [00:48:21] So, yeah, who does? If we did mortgage forgiveness, or rent forgiveness on a large scale, it's the investors, right, in the end. It's all of our pension funds, and 401(k)s, right?  David Leary: [00:48:33] Exactly, or foreign countries. Blake Oliver: [00:48:36] Foreign countries. Well, I think the American people would be [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:48:36] -be okay with it. Yeah. It's very, very interesting. So, I'll find that podcast and get that in the show notes. I think that [crosstalk] a lot.  Blake Oliver: [00:48:46] That would be great. The problem is, Congress is still on break, and they're not coming back anytime soon, so this isn't gonna get solved by May. So, I feel like, in May, we're gonna be talking a lot about that because some scary numbers will come out.  David Leary: [00:48:59] I mean, I don't wanna end on a downer, either, but they've talked about, for the COVID-19 deaths, and those three weeks in April are gonna be really bad ... I feel like the small business numbers, and the economy numbers, the next four weeks are gonna be really bad. Blake Oliver: [00:49:14] Yeah, they lag- David Leary: [00:49:15] We have not seen bad numbers yet.  Blake Oliver: [00:49:17] Right? David Leary: [00:49:17] We have not even seen them yet. Blake Oliver: [00:49:18] Yeah, that makes sense, right, because they lag- David Leary: [00:49:20] And it's scary.  Blake Oliver: [00:49:20] -behind all the leading indicators of COVID-19 deaths. I just wanna leave with one calculation. What if we spent our money maybe a little more wisely? Because I don't think this PPP program is all that great. Listeners, you tell me ... But these numbers don't sound good. What else could we have done with the $2 trillion dollars? So, let me just do a little math for you, David, right now, if you don't mind. David Leary: [00:49:45] Absolutely. Blake Oliver: [00:49:46] So, let's say there's, what, like 330 million people in this country. I could be off by 10 or something million, but it's about that much, 330 million? Let's say that 100 million of them are really impacted by this, which that would kind of makes sense. That'd be like 30 percent- between 20 and 30 percent losing their jobs, not being able to work, all that stuff. Which, that would be Great Depression-level unemployment, which is what could really happen here. Let's say it's 100 million.  Blake Oliver: [00:49:46] If we wanted to cover them for the duration of this crisis, what if we just gave each of those 100 million people two thousand dollars a month? That's 100 million times $2,000 is $200 billion. So, $200 billion a month to give all those people enough to get by. So, basically, for the cost of the $2 trillion dollar program, the CARES Act, we could give all those people $2,000 a month for 10 months, wouldn't that- David Leary: [00:50:48] I think I've seen some of this ... That's a proposal the Democrats might be running up the flag, right now, is they wanna just give everybody $2000 a month.  Blake Oliver: [00:50:56] It just kind of seems ... I'm a Republican; I'm not a Democrat, but that policy, that idea, which I think is gonna go nowhere, just makes a lot more sense to me than convoluted loans, and bailouts. Just give the money to the people who really need it to pay their rent and buy food. Kinda makes sense to me. I mean, even if you didn't spend the whole $2 trillion; what if you just spent half of it? That would get you for five months. David Leary: [00:51:21] Well, that's what they thought they were doing, right? Hey, $600 extra a week for unemployment, people on unemployment; we're doing the Paycheck Protection, so people keep getting that. The problem is, it's just not making it to the people fast enough ...  But if you came out and said, "Hey, here's the deal - everybody, for six months, or the rest of 2020, you're gonna get $2,000 hours a month showing up every month," that would just put everybody at ease. Blake Oliver: [00:51:43] Right. David Leary: [00:51:44] Just the knowing about it would put everybody at ease. The problem is, right now, it's like, "Hey, here's a bucket of $350 billion." Elbows and assholes trying to get it. It's just fight over it.  We're off a feed truck here. It's crazy. You're right, some way to smooth this out and give people peace of mind, when, right now, we don't even know when peace of mind- when we get to go back to work is, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:52:05] I don't know if there's a better way to distribute that money. I don't think the banks were a good idea for doing it. Maybe there's a better way to get it out to people, if we did something like that. I do think that some of the tech companies would be able to do it a lot better. David Leary: [00:52:22] Amazon. You just go to Amazon. It's just in your account. It just shows up.  Blake Oliver: [00:52:25] It just shows up as your Amazon gift card. That would be funny. Yeah.  David Leary: [00:52:29] Yeah, you just specify your apps, like, "Yeah, I would like to have some of it go to my Starbucks account, and some of it go to my Amazon account, and some of it go to my PayPal account." Then, they just push it down through that way. But I even think all of that's pushed eventually in the back end through the banks and rails that the banks own. So, who knows how we'll get there?  Blake Oliver: [00:52:44] Well, that's it for me this week, David. I think I sound like a Socialist, but I swear I'm not. David Leary: [00:52:51] I think everybody has to take a good weekend off. I mean, all our listeners ... It's funny, I can see it in our show download numbers. You can see where people- those three weeks before the tax deadline was extended, our show numbers started to go down. Then they extended the tax deadline, and all our downloads went up for that week because accountants and bookkeepers had breath. They could take a breather. Then, PPP dropped, and our download numbers reflected in that. My bet is we're gonna have a lot of listeners this weekend because accountants and bookkeepers have a little breathing room until God knows what next legislation comes down the pipe. Blake Oliver: [00:53:25] Maybe something new will crop up. Until next week, David, where can people find you online? David Leary: [00:53:30] You can track me down on Twitter, and LinkedIn. I'm @DavidLeary. One other reminder, Podchaser.com is doing a donation to Meals on Wheels to help feed elderly that right now are stuck at their houses. They can't go to grocery stores. If you write a review of The Cloud Accounting Podcast, and if Blake and I reply to the review, they donate money, 2X more, if we reply to your review. So, if you wanna help out a little bit, leave a review on Podchaser. Blake Oliver: [00:54:01] Oh, yeah, and we got a voicemail, David. David Leary: [00:54:04] Oh, yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:54:04] So, let's listen to [crosstalk] Here we go.  Voicemail: [00:54:08] Hi, David, I am Kristen, from Texas, and I just had to vent because my situation, I feel like, is too unbelievable. I had a great accounting job, which I left on February 28. It felt like the right time to actually start a marketing agency for accountants. The economy was good. I was financially stable. We really don't need to go into, retrospectively, why it was not the right move.  But I am pretty sure I am also disqualified for unemployment, and the small business loans. So, I will be catching up on your podcast. Anywhere I should start? Thanks! Bye!  Blake Oliver: [00:54:53] Well, this episode was definitely a great place to start. So, thanks, Kristen, so much for listening. Yeah, David, do you have any recommendations? Favorite episodes? David Leary: [00:55:03] I did create a list on Podchaser of our 10 best episodes of last year. So, you could search for that and easily see that on Podchaser, those episodes. The phone number that she used to call in on is (202) 695-1040. Blake Oliver: [00:55:10]  So, if you wanna leave us a message, we'll take a listen and maybe even play it on the air. Leave a message for us. What is that again? David Leary: [00:55:25] (202) 695-1040.  Blake Oliver: [00:55:28] And you can find me on Twitter. I'm @BlakeTOliver. I'm very active on Twitter these days. All the latest ... Follow me there, and you'll hear it there first, and then we can talk about it on the podcast. Anything else? David Leary: [00:55:40] No, I think that's it, but that's a good observation. All the PPP action is on Twitter. It's not on LinkedIn. It's amazing. Blake Oliver: [00:55:45] Until next week, David, have a good one. Hope you have a great weekend! David Leary: [00:55:48] You, too. Bye, everybody.____________________ Classifieds If you want to learn how to make video tutorials from an expert, sign up for Hector Garcia's live webinar, How to Make Video Tutorials, so you can learn how to create content to educate your team, your clients, and your prospects. Use coupon code "CAP50" for $50 off your purchase. Head over to www.hectorgarcia.com/tutorial.____________________ Still sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? Automate this process and get client answers instantly with ClientHub's QuickBooks Online integration. This feature was described as one that only an accountant would have come up with as it solves a real big pain point. ClientHub is a modern client portal designed for cloud accounting firms. 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Sponsors Relay Finacial: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core LinksAICPA statements AICPA plan to use payroll processors [press release update] Fees on PPP loan prep [press release] Statements from the administration on PPP processing and/or disbursements: VP Pence on 4/7 saying 71B has been disbursed Kevin McCarthy on 4/8 on Fox News saying we got 70B out in two days and “this has been a very successful program when you look on every angle” Mnuchin said on 3/31 that “Treasury and the Small Business Administration expect to have this program up and running by April 3rd so that businesses can go to a participating SBA 7(a) lender, bank, or credit union, apply for a loan, and be approved on the same day.” ResearchAccording to the JPMorgan Chase Institute, about half of all small businesses have a cash safety net worth less than 15 days: https://institute.jpmorganchase.com/institute/research/small-business/small-business-cash-liquidity-in-25-metro-areas Connect With our Guests Erik Asgeirsson, CEO at CPA.com Mark Koziel, EVP of Firm Services at AICPA Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! 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For more information, go here: https://www.podchaser.com/articles/community/reviews-for-charityNeed Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Hector Garcia - How to Make Video Tutorials: http://www.hectorgarcia.com/tutorial  ClientHub: https://clienthub.app Accounting Salon - SALONv:  https://accountingsalon.com/ Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptDue to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's likely that almost all the banks in your area are closed, blocking you from opening any new accounts for your clients. Wouldn't it be great if you could open a new business bank account, 100-percent online, without having to go to a physical bank branch? Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Relay Financial, later in the episode. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:00:20] Your poll is absolutely accurate. If, actually, you'd asked me what percentage, I would've guessed below five percent because I think it probably is below five percent, right now. There's very few banks that have started distributing funds. There are some that have ...____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. Back in October of 2013, I became ClockShark's first Twitter follower. Today, ClockShark has grown into a highly rated and very-much-loved time-tracking app that is now used by over 5,000 small businesses globally. With features like crew tracking, scheduling, overtime notifications, routes, geofencing locations, job costing, budgeting, and reporting, ClockShark has built a robust mobile time-tracking app to handle the unique challenges that face your mobile workforce clients. Their technology has been helpful as their clients work through the COVID-19 pandemic. Your clients will need accurate records of their expenses, and losses, and technology like ClockShark helps. With ClockShark, your clients can keep accurate records, like paid time off, and other important data to provide the necessary proof for CARES, and FFCRA Acts' benefits. This lets them get straight back to work without too much disruption after the pandemic has passed. ClockShark's standard plan is just $6 a month per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-L-O-C-K-S-H-A-R-K. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. As firms everywhere are positioning themselves to work remotely, BQE Software is committed to supporting you and your employees during this critical time. BQE's Core products operate 100 percent on a native cloud platform that's uniquely able to help you in your efforts to embrace remote work while maintaining your productivity. In response to the impact that COVID-19 has had on your firm and your clients' businesses, the team at BQE has let us know that Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners will now receive three months of BQE Core for free with an annual subscription package purchased on or before May 31, 2020. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:32] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:36] And I'm David Leary. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:02:37] Erik Asgeirsson.  Mark Koziel: [00:02:38] Mark Koziel.  Blake Oliver: [00:02:39] Thank you so much for joining us. Erik is the CEO at CPA.com and a member of the leadership team at AICPA. Mark is the Executive Vice President of Firm Services. They have generously agreed to join the show and help us understand a little bit ... I'm particularly interested in what is going on with the PPP SBA programs that are available for small businesses. There's just been a ton of chatter in the accounting community about these programs since they launched a week ago on Friday. It is Friday, April 10, and we're eager to get an update from you guys. Hopefully, you have a little more information than we do about what's going on at the SBA. Before that, would you mind just letting us know a little bit about what CPA.com is and the relationship between that and the AICPA? Because we've got some listeners who are not CPAs - international listeners. They may not be familiar with these organizations. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:03:38] Blake, and David, thank you for having Mark, and I on the phone- on the podcast. It's a critical time to communicate what's going on, so we appreciate this opportunity. Just real quick, a little bit about CPA.com. CPA.com is the business and technology subsidiary of the AICPA. We're focused on empowering firms with all of these digital capabilities that they're using today to support their clients. My role is also, as part of the AICPA leadership team, just helping with the overall business and technology strategy. [00:04:14] Mark, and I are part of the team, executive team, that are really leading all of our activities related to the CARES Act, and the Paycheck Protection Program. It's a historic time for the 44,000 firms in the U.S.; it's a historic time for our members all over the world. We've got a big team working hard at providing leadership and guidance around all of these important business stimulus initiatives that have been launched by the different government entities. So, I'll let Mark just give a little background on his role. Mark Koziel: [00:04:48] Thanks, Erik. My team - Firm Services - we manage the relationships for the 44,000 firms of the AICPA, starting- you have the Big Four; you have the major firm group, which is the top 100 firms. You have what we call our G400 community, the group of 400. That's firm number 101 to firm number 500. Then, the 43,500 small firms that are out there. We're small-firm driven. What we do ... That's where this CARES Act fits so well in the wheelhouse of trying to help small businesses understanding the intent of the program and understanding what truly small business is. Many of our CPAs, that is what they're doing each and every day. We know their phones are ringing off the hook, right now, and we're trying to provide as much support as we can to help them help their small businesses stay alive. David Leary: [00:05:45] All right. I think, for most of us, this focus is gonna be the last 10 to 30 days of what's been happening- Blake Oliver: [00:05:50] Which seems like six months. David Leary: [00:05:52] It does feel-  Mark Koziel: [00:05:52] It does. Each day has been like a year in the last week. So, when you ask what each of our divisions do, Firm Services, we're more on the practice-management side. We provide tools and resources. Some of those are- we have a private area for firms that choose to be members of that to get deeper support, but we've opened up all of our working-remote tool sets that we have to all firms, not just AICPA members, to help every firm that we possibly can, right now, because everybody's in that need. Eric's team, and a lot of the initiatives around cloud, around technology, those firms who have been listening to that over the last 10 years, for them, when they got the stay-at-home order, it was business as usual. There are other firms that struggled beyond that, but they're catching up now. When we get to the other side of this, you're gonna see new ways of doing business for a lot of firms. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:06:47] We've been doing check-ins. We wanna get to the Paycheck Protection Program. We've been doing check-ins with the many, many firms that we work with, and a lot of them have been saying- 1) They've been saying "Thank you for getting us up on these cloud solutions." 2) They've been saying that, now, their clients are thanking them because they're on these cloud-based solutions. Then, 3) they're saying, "We've got ..." Sometimes, there's many partners in a firm, and they're like, "The other partners now are more willing to move their clients to these modern platforms." Then, some of their clients that were resisting and staying in the desktop world are quickly moving to the cloud. So, in some ways, some of these solutions we have out there ... We're all talking about Zoom; we're all on Zoom. It's like a verb, now. I'm not gonna name names, but there's a lot of solutions like that out there in the accounting space that are doing the same thing.  [00:07:40] If we wanna get into ... I'll pivot us into what's on everybody's mind - the Paycheck Protection Program. You look what's happened over the last two weeks; it's only two weeks since the CARES Act was made law. It was signed by the President on March 27, and then, three or four days later, Treasury came out and gave direction on the forms and a little bit about the process. We've been involved throughout this. Pre it becoming law to the last 10 days, we've really worked through all the implementation items. [00:08:16] It was about 10 days ago that the forms were put out. We started getting guidance to the firms. We also were talking with the government officials, talking to the payroll companies who are playing a key role, and some of the banking community. Then on Friday, April 3, the application went live. The banks literally had 12 hours since the final guidance came out on Thursday night, April 2. Then, over the past week, there's been now over 500,000 applications that have been submitted- successfully submitted to the SBA - the SBA E-Tran system - totaling about, as of last night, over $140 billion in loans. There's even more bigger numbers in that, that are still on the banking side that are getting submitted to the SBA. [00:09:04] What we're doing- what we're trying to do is just build consistency in the process, a common understanding, and really trying to get the firms to understand, okay, here's the best practices around what documents are needed; understand how to do the calculation. Also, it's so critical to be in communication with the payroll companies, and that we've got this AICPA-led coalition that we stood up over the past three weeks and that's made up of the payroll processes primarily. And then on top of that, we're connecting to the banking community. There's four, 4000 lenders that are up now, but there's never been anything of this magnitude done in this short period of time. There are issues. When you started a program this large, there is gonna be issues. But, right now, the SBA is processing in one day what they processed in all 2019. We can talk about the issues. We can talk about some of the technical aspects of it. Mark's team's doing a fantastic job. I'll let Mark jump in on all the tools that they're putting in place for the firms [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:10:15] Yeah, let's- Erik Asgeirsson: [00:10:17] -I'll let you guys go. That was a little bit, but I just thought I'd give a little bit of a broad summary of what's going on. Every day's been a Monday. We're pretty much going seven days a week; not 24 hours a day, but we're working long days. Blake Oliver: [00:10:32] So, let's talk about that processing number, those application numbers. David, and I have been glued to Twitter, and the news trying to figure out what is going on. I'm hearing one thing from the accounting community, which is that not a lot of their clients are getting money in the bank. I did a little informal Twitter poll. 140-something folks responded. I asked: "If you applied for a PPP loan, do you have the money, or are you still waiting, or did you get rejected?" 4.9 percent, on Wednesday, said they had money. 89 percent said they hadn't heard anything. Then, slightly more- the remainder of that, more than the folks who got the money, said they had their applications rejected.  [00:11:18] I can't reconcile that number of five percent or so to anything official from the SBA, or from the administration, except for a few posts that came out. Vice President Pence said on Twitter that the SBA had processed $71 billion of funds, as of April 7. The President then made a video and repeated that this is a great success. Money is getting out to people. I don't know exactly what he said, but it seemed like, "Hey, money is getting out there." Some folks on Fox Business are saying that various amounts above that have been processed, that the money is getting out. Kevin McCarthy, on the 8th, he told Fox News that they got $70 billion out in two days [crosstalk]  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:12:07] -Blake, I think it's fair. There's three categories, I think, to look at. There's getting your application into the bank. That's phase one. Second phase is the bank getting that application successfully submitted to the SBA, and then, the bank giving the money to the clients. Your question is the third step. What people are talking about in the press are ... B of A may say, "We've taken in this many in applications." Then, Vice President Pence was talking about what the SBA had processed. Your question is the important question - how much money is in the hands of the businesses.  [00:12:45] Your poll is absolutely accurate. If, actually, you'd asked me what percentage, I would have guessed below five percent, because I think it probably is below five percent, right now. There's very few banks that have started distributing funds. There are some that have. I actually just ... It was on an email exchange- a firm, said, "Hey, my client just got funds." What's gonna happen is that's gonna really start occurring in the coming days. [00:13:15] This is how it works. You have to get the application into the bank. The bank then has to get it to the SBA. The SBA kicks back the approval, and then the bank distributes the funds. So, I think, over the next seven days, those numbers are gonna start catching up. So, 10 days from now, if we had this podcast ... Today is the 10th. If we had this podcast on the 20th, that number is gonna be in the $100-, to $200-billion level. Within 10 days, these funds will go out. [00:13:51] One thing that's important to know ... Everyone says you don't always just want the money immediately because you need to ... You wanna set up what's your ... Some businesses absolutely do, but some businesses wanna go out and get their employees back on payroll. We're working, now, on all the different elements of loan forgiveness. One concept that Mark, and I were just talking about in another seminar/webinar was that businesses should set up a special account to receive this funding. [00:14:22] The money's gonna come, and there's gonna be lots of stories on TV and in the press, over the coming days, about there isn't much money distributed yet, but that is coming, and we'll start hearing stories about it being distributed. Then, you're still gonna hear stories about businesses that haven't been able to successfully apply; that their bank in their town is not online. There's only 4,000 banks, out of the 10,000, that are online they're online. [00:14:51] I could talk to you about the why behind some of those banks having issues and what's driving that. We could also talk about the issues on why the banks are, today, only taking their existing clients. Then, we can also talk about how a number of fintech companies are gonna be standing up platforms. I'll let you drive the next question. But that was your answer to your question. I think you got- I'll say your Twitter feed gave you accurate data. David Leary: [00:15:20] Taking it a level up higher, based on tweets and recommendations the AICPA has put out, it sounds like you guys kind of are in the loop. You have a seat at the table with the SBA. You're in communications with the Treasury. You possibly were in communications, as this bill was getting developed. Is this a correct impression I have or not? Mark Koziel: [00:15:39] Yeah, I mean, there's definitely elements of that. We have a strong D.C. team, and they were in constant contact with many of the legislators who are sitting on the small business committees, who are going through this. We had our recommendations ... Not everything got through, as you saw. One of the things is- Erik mentioned about this leadership perspective ... The coalition where there was no common way that payroll was being calculated. [00:16:11] Erik gets the 26 together that are in the coalition and says, "All right, we need some consistency here. Let's come out with what we consider to be the consistent approach." Published that- that was on Saturday, the day after this thing launches, right? Then, you don't get guidance around any of that. They say that that's right, until Monday. Monday, they actually confirmed what it was that came out on Saturday. So, there's some of it where we're in, as the sausage is being mad,  and some of it, we have to re-stuff the sausage on the back end. There are so many factors to this. Blake Oliver: [00:16:47] Well, let me just say that for all the problems the PPP loan program is having, that was not the initial recommendation of the AICPA. I was a huge fan of your plan to use the payroll processors to funnel this money to small businesses. You guys put out a press release pretty early - you got together with Intuit, and Paychex, and I forget who the fourth member of this alliance was, initially; now it's quite large -  saying, "Let's create a way for the payroll companies to tap into this fund on behalf of their small business customers and get the money out that way," which kind of makes a lot of sense to me that it would be much more efficient than having banks underwrite a ton of loans. [00:17:27] This process that we've created seems designed to fail in that the SBA, on a good year, processes $20 billion of loans. Like you said, Erik, we're asking them to do that every single day? It seems impossible that they're gonna be able to do this when it's $350 billion of loans. Could you speak to this idea of the payroll companies - this original idea - and did Congress even consider it? Was it even an option? What happened to that?  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:17:57] Blake, I appreciate- I did see you post something about your support for that idea. That was on March 21; it was Saturday. Congress and the policymakers had asked us for some suggestions. The AICPA absolutely provides suggestions, and we had what our goals were. Our goals were to help the Main Street businesses; to get the funding in place for the Main Street businesses. We put together a number of different ideas. Mark's team worked on that. They talked to firms. [00:18:28] One of the prominent ones was this this idea of distributing the money through the payroll providers. We talked to the payroll providers that week, it was March 15, or 21. Then, Congress was- there was interest in our concept. They said, "Please issue something." So, then we worked hard on that, and then we issued that letter on Saturday. We actually sent it to all of the Senate, all of the House of Representatives; sent it to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, the SBA, and the White House. That kind of started this whole process off, and then, we quickly moved into this broader coalition. Then, Congress thought through what was the best way to do this, and they put that in place in the CARES Act, and in the Paycheck Protection Program. Then, we moved to supporting the implementation of that program. [00:19:22] I think, if I had to say why ... What they wanted to do was have a universal solution, and I think there's still discussion about leveraging payroll processes for some direct distribution. I can tell you that is still- they're still looking at new ideas and new ways to advance this distribution, so that's ongoing. What they wanted was a total solution, and the banks do offer a total solution because not everybody, not every small business uses a payroll processor. What they put forward with the Paycheck Protection Program was a process that would support any business, no matter how you did your payroll [crosstalk] It's not the SBA program. I'm sorry, go ahead, David.  David Leary: [00:20:07] Except for the fact that the whole loan application is based off of the payroll data. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:20:13] It is.  David Leary: [00:20:13] It's insane [crosstalk] The application has one box, and nobody can figure out how to fill it out. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:20:18] You know what? Any big program is gonna have issues and at this point, where I think we're on the path to implementing it ... I do think there'll be other- there'll be new things that come out in the coming weeks as they continue to try to help small businesses. So, it's just good to be in the conversation. I think that's what we're trying to be in the conversation. What we just wanna do is execute and get the businesses their funding and have the firms play a trusted advisor role [crosstalk] Go ahead, Mark.  Mark Koziel: [00:20:52] The one thing, David, and Blake, I know there has been a lot of buzz about this is wrong, and that's wrong, and they haven't figured this out. This prior webinar, we said, "Assume positive intent," that the intent was to get money in the hands of small business. They're doing it through a loan. They wanted a forgivable loan. The government wanted to provide a mechanism to get money into the hands of small business. They want that loan to turn into a forgiven loan on the back end. They don't want small businesses hung with additional loan dollars. The banks don't want small businesses hung with additional loan dollars. [00:21:30] Now, we just gotta figure out all the mechanisms in between. As an example, on the payroll, the talk about that ... It's 2.5 times your average payroll. That's the money they're going to give you. Erick mentioned the great idea of setting up a separate bank account; hold it over in this account. Then, you've gotta figure out how to pay it. You've got to have at least 75 percent of the expended funds be in payroll because that's what they were trying to fund. What is it that they're trying to do? They wanna keep people on your payroll. [00:21:58] They wanna say to Jack Waiter, and Susie Server that they need to stay with the restaurant. "There's a stay at home order. We're gonna keep you on the payroll for the next eight weeks. The minute we can open our doors up again, you can come right back in here. You don't have to go and file for unemployment. If you're on unemployment, come on back because we know it's a royal pain in the ass to go to the unemployment office every week. Stay on the payroll." That's what they want - equal payroll for this period and then move it forward. [00:22:29] The proof ... The business advisor, to the CPA firm can help navigate that with the client. If I've got $100,000 in loan, I gotta spend $75,000 in payroll. I gotta have 100 percent of the same number of employees I had from a year ago - to compare that to - and then I need to make sure I don't pay anybody less than 75 percent of what they were making before. Those are the rules. Here's who I have. Here's what I'm gonna pay them over the next eight weeks to make sure that I spend the $75K.____________________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Relay Financial. Relay is business banking made easy. Effortlessly collaborate with team members, manage payments, and issue corporate cards all from a bank. Relay is a 100-percent online bank that is 100-percent focused on small business. The checking accounts are FDIC-insured. Relay is truly delightful banking at your fingertips. Accounts can be accessed via the web, iOS, and Android. Accountants and bookkeepers love Relay because they get a partner portal, can manage staff access without compromising security, and enjoy enriched direct bank feeds to QuickBooks Online, and Xero. Quick story - I needed to give Blake some visibility into the finances of the podcast, but I did not want to give Blake access to all my company finances. By using Relay, I was able to spin up a new bank account just for the podcast and grant Blake only "Read" access in minutes. To sign up online in less than 10 minutes and enjoy stress-free banking with no monthly fees or minimum balances, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relay. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash R-E-L-A-Y. Relay, a bank that's a bookkeeper's dream.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:24:15] So, Erik, I appreciate your enthusiasm or, I guess, confidence that the funds will get out. We haven't seen any official numbers from the SBA on amounts dispersed, or when they expect funds to be dispersed. How much do you think of this is going to be dispersed next week? The reason I ask this is not to be a complainer or somebody who just likes to point out problems - I understand people are working really hard on this - but half of small businesses only have 15 days of cash reserves. We're two weeks after the CARES Act was passed, and there was already a period where many small businesses were shut down or seeing decreased revenues due to shutdowns, lockdowns, business closures in this country. [00:24:56] So, if the money doesn't get out soon, half of small businesses will have already furloughed their employees or laid them off, and then they can't pay payroll anyway. I don't have the exact numbers on this, but I'd be willing to bet that 80 percent of companies don't have more than 30 days of cash reserves. Just like most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, most businesses live payroll to payroll. So, is this program gonna deliver the goods? Have we heard anything from the SBA to give us any assurance in that regard? David Leary: [00:25:27] To add some context on that, her name's Jovita Carranza- she's the Administrator of the SBA? Blake Oliver: [00:25:34] She's the Administrator.  David Leary: [00:25:35] On the first day, she tweeted numbers out; about every hour, the first day, and it's been radio silence, since. I had my daughter look for three hours, searching the internet for numbers. They don't exist. Then, when people go radio silent ... Because if it was successful, they'd be out there touting this more. Blake Oliver: [00:25:54] Yeah. David Leary: [00:25:54] It was the GOP, and it was Trump, and it was everybody ... This is the greatest thing ever to happen to small business. The reality is it sure doesn't feel like that. Then because, now, it's radio silent, now, it's very scary. What's really happening? Blake Oliver: [00:26:07] The lack of communication makes it hard for accountants to communicate with their clients because clients are calling and asking CPAs, and bookkeepers, and accountants, "What's going on? People are getting money, and I'm not." We don't know how to communicate that; we don't know how to communicate the status because we don't have a status update on the program [crosstalk] I know that you don't have all the answers- Erik Asgeirsson: [00:26:32] -on this positive ... I think what we're doing, right now, is we're trying to play our role and to help. So, I think, in just trying to provide context, I think the answer is that not many people have received funds. So, that's the answer. We need to get ... I think this is why those- I said earlier, there's those three different groups of information. A big bank could say, "This is what we've taken in, in applications." Then, the SBA would- Administrator Carranza was sending out, via social media, on April 3, what they were receiving in, and they were putting E-Tran IDs on the applications, and they added that up. [00:27:16] Now, the next thing is the amount of funding that the banks have given to their clients? All I would say is, you're right, it needs to happen yesterday. We're one week since it went live, which was April 3, and two weeks from the law. It still needs to all happen immediately. But what we're trying to do is keep the- as Mark described, keep the businesses intact, get the funding to them through the banking systems, the 11,000 banks. That's what we're doing. [00:27:48] We've got to make that work, so you have to have some process, though. You still have to have some process to make sure it's effective. We don't want ... There's the checks and balances so you don't have fraud occurring, and I think that's something that [crosstalk] we all gotta think about. So, I think the money- I'll just finish up- I think the money is gonna get there, and it's gonna get there in the next week. That is something that I think the banks are committed to doing. There's also gonna be lending. I'm hearing, right now, that people will lend in advance. If someone really needs the money, they're gonna start giving them loans prior to that final step in the approval process-  Blake Oliver: [00:28:33] Well, I think it-  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:28:33] -from beginning to end, it's gonna be- it's seven days; now 10 ... For a lot of this money, it'll be about two-and-a-half weeks, I guess, for it to get out there. Blake Oliver: [00:28:41] That's a best case scenario. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:28:43] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:28:43] David, you were gonna say something. David Leary: [00:28:46] I feel like everybody's being too cautious about fraud. We learned this in the 2008 stimulus package. It took too long to distribute it, and now we're in the same boat again. It's $350 billion, and we're worried about fraud. It's free money just being basically printed up. Just give it away. Now, yes, there's probably gonna be $1 billion, $2 billion of fraud, but it's much better that small businesses get the other $348 billion. It just-  Blake Oliver: [00:29:12] Don't forget that there is no requirement that these businesses prove need. So, we've probably got a lot of businesses that are applying for these PPP loans that arguably don't need the money, don't now; maybe will need it in the future. Then, the way this whole program has been structured, the banks are giving the loans out first to their customers with existing lines of credit; existing loans. This was the criticism that was levied at Bank of America over the past weekend was that in order to get the loan, to even apply, you had to have a business checking account, and an existing loan with them, or a line of credit. I think, at first, even a credit card wasn't good enough [crosstalk] Basically, they're getting free money from the government to give to their existing customers, which is effectively de-risking their portfolio ... Are those the most needy customers? David Leary: [00:30:07] Their biggest customers, based on the average of the loans [crosstalk] The biggest.  Mark Koziel: [00:30:11] -also, not that I'm here to defend the banks, but you have to understand, too, I mean ... To Erik's point, they were given 12 hours to have a system up and running. They knew they were gonna have this massive influx. So, how are they gonna manage? They were managing, to be honest, probably slightly better than the SBA, who is just getting the influx of everybody, trying to manage the number of applications out of the gate. [00:30:35] Now, you're having more loan options, more banks that are creating these options. We get the question all the time: "If my bank won't do it for me, then where do I go?" I know a business that just switched banks, in March, well before this program was announced. Every bank is saying, "We are not going to allow applications for anybody who wasn't a banking customer on February 15." That is a consistent thing. But one of the tests is that the business had to be a viable business operating on February 15. How does a bank verify that? They were a banking customer on February 15.  [00:31:12] Now, you have fintech companies that are coming in, and they're going to start creating options, and you're gonna see that the market's gonna open up now. I know it was stressful for those, "Oh, my God, my bank turned me down; I'm rejected; I got nowhere to go ..." The options are open. I've answered a bunch of social media posts about that. There are fintech solutions that are available now. There's gonna be even more. 4,000 banks - to Erik's point before - gonna turn into 10,000 banks probably very soon. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:31:44] Blake, I just wanna offer a couple of points here just on ... We're not ... We're just trying to- we're not defending anybody, but I just think it's good to provide information on what each group, each of these stakeholders, are kind of working through. The lenders, the real reason why they- right now, they're just saying existing customers, it's due to the anti-money-laundering regulations, the FinCEN regulations. For them, it would take- it takes them one to three hours more. It's very hard to just do all the verification for a non-existing client. So, that's the why. They just said, "Let me ... That's what we can do, and we're standing this up really fast." That was the reason. It wasn't like, "I  just wanna give it to my existing." They've actually gone to Treasury. There's that red tape, and they're saying, "Can we relax some of those MAL rules?" That would probably ... There's discussions going on about that, that would give the banks some more ability to take on non-customers. [00:32:54] Then, just with the system here, you need to have a centralized system, so you wouldn't have double applicants. You're right. I hear you, David. You don't wanna get the money out. I actually don't ... I think we've- you can self-certify. So, people are trying to make it really effective, but you don't wanna have a system that's so broken that somebody can apply four times and you don't know. They've centralized it, and they're centralizing it with the SBA systems. This week, the SBA brought in Amazon Web Services to step up their portal to kind of give them more capability. Things are getting better, but it hasn't ... There's absolutely been bumps along the way and frustrations. There needs to be better communication, and Blake, that's what you're doing here with this podcast. David Leary: [00:33:45] So, to tie up on ... If I'm hearing you correctly, as more the tech companies get in, the Intuits of the world, with QuickBooks, and they have a much smaller-sized customer base, as far as business sizes, we should see this average loan amount start dropping? Right now, it's still $250,000. That's a $1.6 million-a-year payroll.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:01] Yeah, that's like 30 or 40 employees, as best we can tell, and 80 percent of small businesses have, I think, 10 or fewer employees. So, it definitely seems like these loans are going to the top 20 percent of small businesses, right now, at least the ones that are getting authorized. I don't know that; we're just speculating based on available data. We're not speculating ... We're just making our own calcs, right? Average loan amount based on the total number of loans, and the total amount authorized, but it makes sense to me because who are the businesses that would have the resources to be able to apply on Friday? It's somebody who has a finance professional, or a CPA, who can mobilize them very quickly, but that is-  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:34:44] That's right. That's right, Blake. I think actually what ... Today's a big day, I mean, today we're speaking, right now, it's April 10, and today, the independent contractors can start applying. The average loan size is gonna go down. There's 30 million in America- we're talking ... I know you've got worldwide listeners. There's 30 million identified businesses in America, but only 6 million of those businesses, 5.9 million have employees. So, you've got 24 million that are, essentially, individual contractors are sole proprietors. That's the batch that's coming in, and that's why we've gotta get this confusion sorted out, and we've gotta make it ... [00:35:24] Because they don't- they don't have- they're a smaller team; they may have an advisor. There'll be a lot of people doing this by themselves. So, I think, with these other entities coming online ... I think the banks, too, are gonna work at getting it better, making it better; and the firms ... That's what we said on April ... We're trying to mobilize the 44,000 firms so they can kind of get clarity out there. You're right, the loan amount's gonna come down, and, yes, the larger businesses, larger small businesses were the first ones probably to apply. Blake Oliver: [00:36:00] So, one smaller piece of this was the agent fees. That's still kind of a sore point. I think a good number of accountants, including myself, read the Treasury regulations, or rules and said, "Oh, this is nice. They're providing an agent fee." So, if I prepare a loan application on behalf of my client, if act as their agent and get this for them, then I can get a piece of the action, too, because the banks - let's not forget - are getting five percent on loans under $100,000; three percent on loans between that and, I think, $350,000. No, it's three percent from $350,000 to $2 million; and then one percent up to $10 million; from $2 to 10 million; something like that. Anyway, it's as much as five percent, so the banks stand to make $17.5 billion from this program at most. [00:36:48] The agent fees were gonna be paid by the banks - in the rules - and agents could earn a quarter percent, half a percent, or one percent, but the banks are refusing to pay the agent fees. I haven't heard of any banks paying agent fees. Some accountants thought, "Hey, I'm gonna be an agent. I'm gonna get these fees that'll compensate me for my time." Then we learn that, according to the rules ... The AICPA put out a press release on this, warning CPA firms that you can't charge your clients for loan preparation; if you act as an agent, you can't charge clients. You gotta get that from the agent fee. But the banks aren't paying the agent fees. Other than giving up on that, is the AICPA planning to do any lobbying to get the banks to actually pay the agent fees? [crosstalk]  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:37:32] Blake, I think you got three questions in there. Mark's gonna take ... Mark, there's three questions here. 1) Are the banks supportive of the agent fees? 2) What's the AICPA's advice to the firms on being an agent or not being an agent? Those are two parts. So, why don't you, Mark, take that first question, and then I'll- if that's okay, then I can come back to the other question. Does that make sense, Blake? Those are the two questions - what's the banks' rule, and what's the AICPA's advice on this? Blake Oliver: [00:38:01] And I apologize for bombarding you with multiple questions [crosstalk] the last one would be what is the AICPA's plan? Is there going to be some lobbying in this respect, or are we just giving up on that? Mark Koziel: [00:38:16] We are asking for additional clarification, and everyone's eyes lit up because they saw dollar signs based on what was in the guidance. That wasn't even in the act, that was in the guidance. What the act intended was to make sure that the client wasn't losing this loan they were getting to all kinds of fees and charges. That was ultimately what it was. But that's not in the application. I know, and I've had some members yell at me for trying to oversimplify this process, but I've seen the application. I've actually completed it for a friend. I will tell you, it's five minutes to complete the application. Yeah, there's the documentation. [00:38:59] But I think more importantly than what we're going to do for the client to fill out this application is, up front, there's actually four loan options. PPP is not by itself. I hope our members are sitting down and providing an advisory service to their client to figure out which federal program is right for them. That gets paid, right? The application, itself, and then, you have that whole eight-week verification. The example I gave - who's gonna sit down with the client and figure out that they won't have to pay, or loan on the back end because they can get everything forgiven? That could be paid.  [00:39:37] This whole idea of assisting in the application ... Some of this is coming from 7(a)- SBA rules on 7(a) loan packages that take weeks to put together. That's where agent fees come from, and that's where bank fees come from. The five percent that the banks are getting, on the high end, for the smaller loans, think about it - what are they getting on the back end that they usually get for most loans? Blake Oliver: [00:40:04] They're getting the one-percent interest if the loan is not forgiven, which, yeah, admittedly is- Mark Koziel: [00:40:08] They laughed when it went from a half to one-  Blake Oliver: [00:40:10] They negotiated that. I mean, that shows you the power that the banks have. At the last minute, they were able to negotiate doubling that interest rate because it wasn't good enough for them. I don't know. It just- it feels to me like, as a practitioner, the banks sure got a sweet deal compared to the accountants. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:40:27] Well, if I could- Mark, do you want ... This is ... I'm just- context here; so, just so you have context and it's not trying to take an editorial position one way or the other [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:40:38] And I know you guys didn't write the law. I get that.  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:40:40] Yeah, but on that, just because we've spoken to people, on the loan going from half a percent to one percent that was really the small banks; the small banks just didn't have access to capital, and they would lose money. They would lose money on that. So, that's it. I think there's truth to that. The small banks were gonna lose money on the half-percent rate, so they put it up to a percent. The goal of this is to get it forgiven, but that ... That's one.  [00:41:04] The other point is on this- the agent fees. You have to look at- you've got the borrower, the lender, and the agent - that three-party group, here. Then, you've got the advisor. The advisor could be the agent. Mark just did a great job of explaining that. The banks are supportive of agents; the banks I've spoken to. I'm sure there are some banks that are not. They're saying, "No, we're supportive of that. We're supportive of paying the agent fee. So, I'd like to understand that. I'd like to understand if you wanna- if someone- one of your listeners, if someone is having a bank that says we won't pay that, I'd like to understand that a little bit more. I'm sure it's happening, but I'd welcome to learn about that [crosstalk] Blake Oliver: [00:41:53] And I should just say, I don't have anything more than anecdotal evidence in regard to that [crosstalk]  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:41:57] -I'm just talking generally. This is what I'll say on this side - what the banks don't want ... So, the banks say they wanna pay. They wanna have an agent. The agent comes in, helps their client do it, fill it out, they wanna pay him. They also don't want somebody just coming in and dumping a thousand applications and trying to abuse the process. So, there's that. So, we need to listen. We need to work together. Mark, and the AICPA has put out, I think, a really good piece of guidance there on saying how to think about this. It's almost just take it outside of this agent relationship ...  [00:42:34] If you wanna be an agent, okay, and just understand what that entails. Then, the banking community wants to be supportive of this. They wanna be supportive of the process. I know that's something we're gonna work on in the coming days is maybe to get some statements about this whole borrower/lender/agent relationship and just try to give clarity. Our goal here is common approach, clarity, consistency, help the small businesses and help everybody do things in a similar way, on the same page. Mark Koziel: [00:43:10] Blake, I think that's ... Erik makes a great point. One of the biggest recommendations we have for firms is talk to the bank first. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:43:17] Right. Mark Koziel: [00:43:18] Don't just think you can go in there with 100 applications and say, "I want my agent fee." That's probably gonna be problematic. But if you have a conversation with the banker up front, I think that you will find more support in that. Now, being an agent also doesn't mean that you're gonna sign as authorized representative, necessarily, on the loan application. There's a lot of certifications in there, borrower certifications, that need to take place inside of that. But I've talked to plenty of firms. I've said it. I've written it. People have yelled at me for it, but the reality is, I'm a Buffalo guy. You know what? At the end of the day, we- I practiced in a recession all my life. You did what you had to do for your client, period. Didn't matter if I get paid for it or not, I'll figure that out. But what I will also say is a best practice that if I'm value-pricing my client, we're not even having this discussion. Blake Oliver: [00:44:10] That's true. Mark Koziel: [00:44:11] If I'm value-pricing my client, then it just got done, and it was part of the process of what we do. So, let's talk about the right systems to have as a firm to make sure, when things like this and emergencies happen, we're well prepared for it.  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:44:28] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:44:29] I think the agent fee just falls right in this- there's just a lot of miscommunications, or misunderstandings. There's a press release here. You guys put out a recommendation here. There's what people are hearing over here in the media, so they're confused about the agent fees. I mean, there's arguments about gross versus net, right? Conflicting information in the two parts of the bill, right? This just continues to happen. I'm sure by the time people listen to this episode, there's gonna be another stimulus package either on the table or being voted as we're recording this.  [00:44:57] How does the AICPA get- just be stronger in it and really have more leadership and more control over the direction of this because the ripple effect is bad. Accountants, and bookkeepers, I think, have suffered almost more than anybody in the last 10 to 30 days. It's heartbreaking, the weight that they're feeling from this. Their clients are panicking, and then they can't get ... They almost feel like, in a way ... This is coming out of my mouth, but it's because I've heard it indirectly - they don't feel like they're getting the support from the AICPA that they maybe would want or need. At a much stronger level, it's just a lot of recommendations, right? Erik Asgeirsson: [00:45:32] Well, David, what I can tell you is that we are absolutely trying to make our voice be heard. Mark used- everyone's very focused, and well-intentioned about supporting the $22 trillion economy, keeping these businesses intact. You have the healthcare workers focused on the healthcare of the U.S., and the world, and we're just trying to keep the businesses intact. I understand the frustrations, people saying the government officials, the AICPA, banks- some firms aren't doing enough. That's- people are frustrated, and it's understanding that they're venting. But we are- we're working together.  [00:46:17] The way we're trying to do this, to have a really good voice - and that's what we've stood up in the past month - to say, "Let's have a collective voice ..." We're trying to get dialogue going with the SBA. Treasury has been the driver. So, Treasury anyway [inaudible] but Treasury's been the driver of the act. SBA's playing a big role. Secretary Mnuchin, and some of his team really were instrumental in it. What we're just trying to do, right now, is, yes, we don't- we're not setting the standards, so we use the word 'recommendations,' but we're putting our brand out there; not just our brand, our position, and we're doing this from a leadership standpoint. [00:47:00] That's what I would say to the people there that are saying, "We want it to happen faster." We agree with you, and we're trying to build bridges. So, I would say to your listeners, whatever you can do to help is if they want, call their congressmen, and say, "Let's get on this common page, and let's have agreed upon, generally - we're using this word, 'generally accepted' - let's all get generally accepted principles, so we can all move fast." That's one thing that everybody could do. Mark Koziel: [00:47:30] It's interesting because the gross payroll is an option; the $100K limitation being on salary, not adding in the benefits. We were openly criticized for that and coming out with a recommendation, a position, on that, that proved successful. We also said employer FICA is a portion of that. Got that not quite right. But we can't get too far ahead of it. We're- like partner comp. We've been everywhere in D.C. to get an answer to this. Some banks are allowing for partner comp to be added into the wages for the employer version. Others are telling partners, "No, you're self-employed. You got a file that individually." So, there lacks consistency. Where with the payroll companies, that one's just been really hard to unravel. It's not from lack of trying. Some things, we're gonna get right; some things not so right. [00:48:24] What I think is important here is that many people are treating this like it's tax code, and it's tax legislation; that, if I get this wrong, I'm gonna be penalized, and my client's gonna be penalized, and we're gonna have to pay interest," and all this stuff. Well, in the last guidance that came out, the FAQs, there was a particular section in there that talked about safe harbor and said, "Look, things are changing fast. We understand that. Your application will be accepted based on the information you had at the time. So, things may change after the fact of when you applied, but that's okay."  [00:49:04] But then, think of the fact that the small business who did apply early on Friday and decided to use net before that got worked out on Monday - we made the recommendation on Saturday, but on Monday, then, it gets worked out - they filed on that on Friday, and they continue that through the loan process, they're actually gonna get 30 percent less than they could have had they waited and filed on Monday with a different answer. So, we're trying to drive that consistency. We're proud of when it happens, and we're frustrated when it's not; probably just as frustrated as everyone else because I guarantee you I can multiply me by 10 people at the AICPA getting 100 hundred emails a day to ask about partner comp-  David Leary: [00:49:50] So, you're chasing the answers just the way the accountants and bookkeepers are, right now. You're doing the same thing [crosstalk]  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:49:55] -I think we're trying to categorize- I think we're chasing- we're prioritizing; we've got dialogue. We're working directly with- if it's  Intuit, ADP, Paychex, large banks, SBA, input into Treasury ... We're trying to do this in a thoughtful manner. I wouldn't call it chasing- David Leary: [00:50:21] Reconciling would be [crosstalk]  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:50:23] -here's our list. This is what we wanna do. We wanna just open up- making sure we're having good dialogues. So, I think, in some ways, we ... Mark just did a good description of a real-life situation that just occurred. There's ways, even, correct that, but we should do a follow up. I mean, communication matters. We should do another podcast in another 10 days or so with you, two weeks, and just state what's happening at the current time. I mean, we're moving ... Right now, we're looking forward. We're looking at loan-forgiveness steps. We're looking at the restart steps ... The U.S. economy has never been shut- the world economy has never been shut down like this. We've gotta stabilize it, get the funding to the businesses, and then we're gonna have to work on the startup. I think it's ... The government officials are working hard at it. They're working hard at it, and they want suggestions. They want input. They wanna know what's working/not working, and we're trying to do all of that. Blake Oliver: [00:51:23] This is really great to hear. As a member who- just kind of watching from the outside, I don't feel like, in these public communications, I get this level of transparency that we're getting, right now, from you, Erik. It's so great to have you on. I think our listeners will really appreciate it. I understand that making public policy happen is delicate. You have to balance- you don't wanna piss people off. You want to be friendly with everybody on both sides of the aisle and the administration. As we've found with this administration, being antagonistic doesn't get you what you want in a lot of cases. [00:51:58] But at a certain point, there comes a time when the AICPA could wield its big sword as the voice of CPAs and the voice of small business in this country. How bad does this have to get before that happens? If the money isn't flowing next week, is AICPA gonna issue a press release and say, "This isn't working, guys. Let's do this payroll plan. The $250 billion more that we're gonna put into this program, maybe we don't put that into this program because it's really not flowing." Is that an option? Erik Asgeirsson: [00:52:26] I think you're ... The AICPA does ... We could share with the listeners, at times, they will put out strong-  well-worded, strong-worded messages. On the push out of the tax date, when there was a disagreement, that statement went out ... That was a statement saying this is what the position should be. Yes. You know what? If the money is not flowing, right now, and seven days from now, and there's now money flowing, we'll put some statements out that we have issues with this process. I think the money is gonna be flowing, but we'll be with it ... Yes, we would ... We're ready. [00:53:07] We offered that solution ... As I described earlier, there is still discussions on is there ways to use that plumbing, that plumbing to the businesses, through the payroll providers? We're active with that. So, we're working on other alternatives, as we work on the play that's been put in motion. So, the play that's put in motion, we wanna make that work. Then, we will make statements, if it- if what you said, there's no money flowing in 10 days. Then we're also very much always trying to iterate, and innovate, and think of other ways to do things. Mark Koziel: [00:53:45] Blake, I think your comment ... This is a challenging balance for us. We try to describe to our members some of the advocacy things that we're working on, and how, and why. The challenge always is when we have big wins, we can't shout from the mountain tops that we had a big win because that means somebody lost, right? To your point, you said it, you do need both sides. The advocacy process is long and hard. Average legislation in D.C. today, to get a piece of legislation through, averages between seven and eight years, today. It used to be three to five. So, that process is more than double.  [00:54:31] The fact that they've gotten this legislation for the stimulus pushed through as fast as they did and the banks turning over as fast, it's gonna create problems, no doubt. There are problems in D.C., and our government is challenged with the bipartisanship that's out there today. Well, we have to manage that as a profession, and we do. We get our pieces into the right people in the pipeline. So, the fact that Senator Rubio says it, or Congressman Conaway says it, and they don't attributed to AICPA doesn't mean that AICPA wasn't there in some way to provide that support. Erik Asgeirsson: [00:55:15] Well said. Well said. Blake Oliver: [00:55:17] Well, that is ... I think that's a good bow at the end of this, tying it up. So, thank you both so much. Erik Asgeirsson, Mark Koziel, thank you for joining us today. We hope to have you back again. Really appreciate that. Any final words before we let you go? Mark Koziel: [00:55:35] You better hurry up because Erik's already invited himself back. He's gonna be the tri-host by the time this thing's done, so you better get rid of him soon.  Erik Asgeirsson: [00:55:42] Blake, and David, I appreciate what you guys are doing. You've got a great listener base. It's important. There's never been a more important time to communicate. So, keep asking your good questions. Thanks for having us on, and we do look forward to being on again. Mark Koziel: [00:55:59] Thanks, guys. ____________________Classifieds If you want to learn how to make video tutorials from an expert, sign up for Hector Garcia's live webinar, How to Make Video Tutorials, so you can learn how to create content to educate your team, your clients, and your prospects. Use coupon code "CAP50" for $50 off your purchase. Head over to www.hectorgarcia.com/tutorial.____________________ Still sending spreadsheets of unclassified expenses to clients? Automate this process and get client answers instantly with ClientHub's QuickBooks Online integration. This feature was described as one that only an accountant would have come up with as it solves a real big pain point. ClientHub is a modern client portal designed for cloud accounting firms. Get started today with a free trial at clienthub.app and enter promo code "CAP25" for 25 percent off your first three months.____________________ Are you looking to get some of the best content in the world to improve your team and your firm and some free CPE credits, too? Good news. The Accounting Salon has turned into a virtual event called SALONv, and it's open to the world. You can register for free at accountingsalon.com.____________________  Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info and be sure to check out our special stimulus pricing of four episodes for just $100. 

Get to Know Heather Smith Heather Smith Cloud Stories Podcast Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.Reviews4GoodRight now, when you visit us on Podchaser, and interact, Podchaser is donating 25 cents per review - and 25 cents every time we respond to a review - to the Meals on Wheels America COVID-19 Response Fund. Pay us a visit on Podchaser, and do some good at the same time!  EXTENDED to April 30! For more information, go here: https://www.podchaser.com/articles/community/reviews-for-charityNeed Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptBlake Oliver: [00:00:04] Hey, everybody, Blake, here. Last month, David and I put out a call to all of our listeners to give us a call. We set up a Google Voice number that you could dial and leave a message. One of my favorite people, Heather Smith, heard that and sent us a message. So, the following is an update from Heather Smith on the state of COVID-19, down in Australia. She's based in Brisbane. Heather is the host of the popular podcast, Cloud Stories. So, if you haven't subscribed, definitely check that out. Search 'Cloud Stories, Heather Smith,' and give it a listen! I hope you enjoy this update from Heather Smith. If you want to leave us a message, you can dial us. Call (202) 695-1040 and leave a message. We'll take a listen, and maybe we'll even play it on the air. Now, over to Heather Smith. Heather Smith: [00:01:05] Hey, Blake, David, and The Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners, it's Heather Smith, here. I'm dialing in from Brisbane, Australia. For us here in Australia, COVID-19 is coming off the back of the unimaginably terrible bushfires. We had over 11,000 bushfires burning 5.4 million hectares of land, killing over a billion animals. As a country, Australians were quite frazzled, recovering from these bushfires, when the coronavirus started emerging. [00:01:33] Here are some snippets about what's been happening here. There have been measures limiting interaction, which have gradually become more restrictive through the month of March. From midnight tonight, 30th of March, indoor and outdoor meetings are limited to two people, with some exceptions, and on-the-spot fines enforcing them. Plus, many states have closed their borders. Federal Parliament has passed two packages worth over $17 billion in a response to the outbreak of the virus; plus, individual states have been announcing their own packages. [00:02:06] Some of these stimulus packages are tied into what the business will report to the tax office, so what they will report; not what they have, what they will report. So, they're somewhat open to manipulation. In simple terms, the higher the payroll reported, the higher the stimulus received. While I'm sure anomalies will be investigated, you can imagine businesses are trying to optimize the outcome. There'll be a moratorium on renters being evicted for the next six months. They're also looking at that for commercial renters, too. Unfortunately, lots of staff are being laid off. Qantas laid off 20,000 people. Virgin Australia laid off 8,000 people.  [00:02:47] Though, as we head into lockdown, it's not all doom and gloom. The buzz word seems to be 'pivot.' Retail shops are closing down, though notably, weirdly, this has not actually been enforced by government. But they are closing down, and they're pivoting towards online sales. Cafes are pivoting to offer takeaway meal packs, and cafe owners have told me- some of them have told me they've never been as busy as they are now. Butchers have told me the last two weeks of sales have been equivalent to a year's worth of sales. [00:03:28] I also know of crocodile-spotting helicopter tours who have pivoted towards helping farmers muster their cattle. Also, some lovely news - our animal shelters have reported all animals have been fostered with three times the applications to available animals being submitted. That's our RSPCA, our Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. So, that's lovely. [00:03:58] Accountants and bookkeepers are trying their best to keep on top of news - what is fact? What's speculation? - while supporting clients as best they can, while the framework underneath them keeps shifting. They are exhausted. They are under a great deal of strain. They've been working very hard to try and support their clients. For me, like many modern accountants, I'm quite comfortable working entirely online. I've been proactively engaging in self-isolation since mid-March, entering my third week now. My family, too, are also working from home. [00:04:35] So, within my community, I know of more people who've committed or attempted to commit suicide in the last fortnight than who actually have coronavirus. I've been running an online community chat group, every afternoon at 4:00 p.m., for our community to come along, and decompress, and share their day. What I'd like to leave with, as well as the stay at home and be safe, please call, FaceTime, Zoom, or connect with everyone - your family, your friends, your neighbors, your business owners - and check that they're okay. Take care and remember to breathe!  ____________ Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar party, Facebook group, podcast, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Hit the show notes, and the links to get more info.

Sponsors BREX: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/brex ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 03:05 - Navigating the SBA Paycheck Protection Program https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/168 04:20 - SBA Paycheck Protection Program https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program-pppSBA issues details for Paycheck Protection Program loans https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2020/apr/paycheck-protection-program-ppp-loans-sba-details-coronavirus.html - Journal of Accountancy 06:28 - Fun facts about PPP loan stats from Jovita Carranza, 26th Administrator of the SBA https://twitter.com/SBAJovita  11:01 - Some coronavirus stimulus checks may not arrive until September https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/some-coronavirus-stimulus-checks-may-not-arrive-until-september Accounting Today 17:22 - Customers Fume as Wells Fargo, Bank of America Struggle with Stimulus Loan Rollout https://www.newsweek.com/customers-fume-wells-fargo-bank-america-struggle-stimulus-loan-rollout-1496097 Newsweek 17:57 - Marco Rubio scolds Bank of America, via tweet https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1246114718990979075  21:25 - SoftBank-Backed Lender Kabbage Cuts Off Businesses as Cash Needs Mount https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/softbank-backed-lender-cuts-off-businesses-as-cash-needs-mount - Bloomberg Technology 23:44 - WeWork Asks Landlords to Help It Cut Its Rent Bill by Up to 30% https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/wework-asks-landlords-to-help-it-cut-its-rent-bill-by-up-to-30 - Bloomberg Technology  25:30 - Companies Form #paytoday Coalition Encouraging Enterprises and Government Agencies to Pay Their Small Business Suppliers Today https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/03/31/2009086/0/en/Companies-Form-paytoday-Coalition-Encouraging-Enterprises-And-Government-Agencies-To-Pay-Their-Small-Business-Suppliers-Today.html - GlobeNewswire#PayToday https://paytoday.club 26:07 - Small Business Relief Initiative: QuickBooks and GoFundMe combine forces https://quickbooks.intuit.com/small-business/coronavirus/ 26:25 Intuit announced updated resources for U.S. firms and their clients https://intuit.me/2JLAJai - Intuit 27:30 Going Concern's Layoff Watch '20 https://goingconcern.com/?s=Layoff+Watch+%E2%80%9920 28:21 BDO USA Is Cutting Everyone's Pay to Stave Off Layoffs https://goingconcern.com/bdo-cutting-pay-to-stave-off-layoffs/ - Going Concern 29:25 Goldman Says Recovery May Be Fastest In History https://www.pymnts.com/coronavirus/2020/goldman-says-recovery-could-be-the-fastest-in-history/ - PYMNTS 30:07 - Lime eyes layoffs as COVID-19 squeezes revenue https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/03/23/lime-eyes-layoffs-in-s-f-as-revenues-get-squeezed.html San Francisco Business Times 31:34 - David almost got phished!  33:39 IRS issues warning about coronavirus-related scams https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/tax-law-and-news/irs-issues-warning-about-coronavirus-related-scams/ - Tax Pro Center - Intuit  33:49 Hospitals VPNs Targeted by Ransomware as COVID19 Takes its Toll https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com:443/news/hospitals-vpns-ransomware-covid19/ - Infosecurity Magazine  34:41 - Idaho, Mississippi, and Virginia are the Holdouts on July 15 Tax Deadlines https://taxfoundation.org/idaho-mississippi-virginia-tax-deadline/ - Tax Foundation 36:58 - AICPA Calls on Accounting Profession to Support Rollout of Small Business Relief Program https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aicpa-calls-accounting-profession-support-164500760.html - Yahoo! Finance 40:40 - Feed our egos, and help feed people in need at the same time!  https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/cloud-accounting-podcast-588480 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.Reviews4GoodRight now, when you visit us on Podchaser, and interact, Podchaser is donating 25 cents per review - and 25 cents every time we respond to a review - to the Meals on Wheels America COVID-19 Response Fund. Pay us a visit on Podchaser, and do some good at the same time!  Extended to April 30! For more information, go here: https://www.podchaser.com/articles/community/reviews-for-charityMeet Blake and David in person!  POSTPONED - BQE Succeed - Encore at Wynn Las Vegas Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptRight now, Brex is offering approved accounting partners the ability to offer their clients a $1,000 sign-up bonus and waived card fees for life, when they sign up for a Brex Corporate Card. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Brex, later in the episode.____________________  Blake Oliver: [00:00:20] Well, apparently the IRS can only cut 5 million checks a week. There's 100 million checks that need to go out, so it'll take them 20 weeks to cut all the checks.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. Way back in October of 2013, I became ClockShark's very first Twitter follower. Today, ClockShark has grown into a highly rated and very-much-loved time-tracking app that is now used by over 5,000 small businesses. With features like crew tracking, scheduling, overtime notifications, routes, geofencing locations, job costing, budgeting, and reporting, the ClockShark team has built a robust mobile time-tracking app to handle the unique that face your clients who have mobile workforces.  By using ClockShark, you and your clients will be confident that their time-tracking data is correct and perfectly synced with their QuickBooks, or ADP, allowing payroll to be on time, and accurate. While other time-tracking apps are charging as much as $8 or more per month, per employee, ClockShark offers ClockShark Standard Plan for just $6 a month, per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-L-O-C-K-S-H-A-R-K. ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by BQE Core. If you have clients that are architects, engineers, consultants, or lawyers, Core is the app for them to best manage their firm, increase their staff productivity, and ultimately increase their profits. Core is an all-in-one app for project management, including time and expense tracking, budgets, forecasting, client billing, and accounting. It includes a full-function mobile app, and a cutting-edge voice-based assistant. Even though Core is an all-in-one app, it still works nicely with accounting apps, like QuickBooks, and Xero. To learn even more about BQE Core, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-O-R-E.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:21] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:25] And I'm David Leary. Blake, another week. Here we go. I felt like this one was super-exhausting. Blake Oliver: [00:02:30] Well, we just recorded the special episode all about the Paycheck Protection Program; the SBA loan/stimulus package/bill to help small businesses with their payroll. We just did that last night, right? Was it last night? David Leary: [00:02:45] Last night, and I feel like it's all getting gray. It just keeps going, and going, and going. The politicians are very happy with it. I mean, apparently it opened and launched, but I think we'll jump into the things that did not work at the launch or banks that aren't ready. We can chat about that a little bit. Blake Oliver: [00:03:02] Yeah. All the details are in that special episode. Check it out. Short story is, if you are a small business with fewer than - typically fewer - than 500 employees, you, or you on behalf of your clients, can go out and get them a loan from an SBA-approved lender, and they can get up to $10 million; supposed to come really quick. The applications open today, Friday, April 3. But the final rules didn't get rolled out until yesterday, on Thursday, so the banks have been scrambling to get ready. The thing that is really kind of shocking and has been all over Twitter is the fact that some of these big banks are not- they're only lending to a very small subset of their customers, right, David? David Leary: [00:03:45] Yeah. If you look at the politicians' view of this, this is this great savior. It's gonna help so many small businesses. Then you look at the opposite side of small business owners saying, "Hey, Bank of America - who I've been with for 20 years, but I've never gotten a credit card with; I only have a business checking account - is saying I can't even apply for the loan because I didn't have a checking account, and a credit card, or possibly a loan already with them."  Blake Oliver: [00:04:07] Yeah. David Leary: [00:04:09] We're seeing that from a lot of banks. Blake Oliver: [00:04:11] I was thinking about this. Must've been my mind as I slept because I'm thinking about this program, and I'm saying to myself, wait a minute ... So, the SBA is going to pay banks - and we didn't mention this - the banks are going to get one-percent, three-percent, or five-percent commission on the amount of this loan. The SBA is just gonna cut them a check and pay them that amount for originating these loans. So, the loans under $350,000, the banks get five percent of that to keep. Well, they get five percent on top. They get to keep a five-percent commission. Then from $350K to $2 million, they get three percent; then $2 million to $10 million, they get one percent. So, they're getting a pretty decent fee.  [00:04:52] On a $100,000 loan, they're gonna get 5,000 bucks to originate that loan. I just don't imagine that there's going to be that much paperwork that it costs them $5,000 to originate that loan. I think they're gonna make a good amount of money. If the whole thing is $349 billion dollars, which is the amount that was allocated for this program, five percent of that - if they're all small loans - is like $17.5 billion? That's a good chunk of cash that we're paying the banks. [00:05:27] Oh, and they're also allowed to charge one-percent interest on the loan, if the loan isn't forgiven, which they negotiated up from 0.5 percent at the last second. Now, business owners are gonna get charged one-percent interest over the two-year term of these loans by the banks. The loans are 100-percent backed by the federal government, so there's zero risk for these banks, if they process the loans correctly. [00:05:50] Here's the part that's crazy that we were just talking about. They get to pick and choose who they lend to. So, Bank of America, which is only going to lend to people who have a checking account, a business checking account, before February 15, with them and also have a credit card, or a line of credit, they're basically de-risking their portfolio because money is fungible. So, they get to give loans to their existing clients, and they have no risk, and they get to choose like, "I'm just gonna give this to my existing clients." So, now, they're reducing the risk on their portfolio, and they're getting paid to do it. David Leary: [00:06:25] All right, so I've been watching Jovita Carranza, SBA. She is on Twitter, @SBAJovita - J-O-V-I-T-A. she is the 26th Administrator of the SBA.gov. She's been tweeting out, every hour today, stats on these loans, as they come through. So far - this is as of 45 minutes ago - 13,669 loans came through at $4.3 billion. So, my concern with that- I started doing the math. If you take that- divide the $4.3 billion times the 13,669.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:58] Divide $14.3 by the number of loans-  David Leary: [00:06:58] Number of loans.  Blake Oliver: [00:06:58] 13,669 loans.  David Leary: [00:06:58] Divide that by eight because, in theory, you're getting a loan for eight weeks of payroll is essentially how this is supposed to calculate out, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:07:11] It's like two-and-a-half- is it two-and-a-half months of ...? It's two-and-a-half times whatever your monthly payroll is. That comes out to eight weeks- eight weeks, is that right?  David Leary: [00:07:22] Yeah, essentially, it's eight weeks. You take that number, divide it by eight, and then, you get the weekly. Right now, the weekly payroll of the people that are getting loans is at $39,000.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:33] $39,000. Okay, so multiply that by 52. That is an annual payroll of $2 million. Let's divide that by, like, $50,000 to get somebody's ... Kind of a typical middle-class salary. So, that is a business with about 40 employees, if everybody is getting paid, on average, $50,000. David Leary: [00:07:53] I think what's happening is the banks, they might say it's because of these loans ... There's a lot of excuses; but emails- people are getting told, "No. Go find another bank. We can't service you on this." I think what's happening is they're prioritizing the loans. If a small business just needs 50 grand to make it through the next eight weeks, they're just putting them at the bottom of the pile. Why would you process that, if you can process somebody who's asking for the full $10 million? So, probably everybody asking for the full $10 million is getting all the attention and getting processed first. Blake Oliver: [00:08:23] I'd be really curious to see what that is. Yeah, they make the commission on each loan, so it makes more sense for them to process fewer applications that have higher dollar values. They make more money, in the end, even though the percentage goes down, it's still easier. More profitable. So, the whole program is $349 billion, and in the first day, we've processed - up to this point, which, it's like 4:00 PST - we've processed $4.3 billion. So, let's do 4.3 divided by 349, and we have, in the first day, processed 1.2 percent. David Leary: [00:09:09] So, this is going to take a year? None of this makes sense. It's not working. Blake Oliver: [00:09:15] It's not fast enough. David Leary: [00:09:17] Because, apparently, also all these loans that are being pumped out today, some of these people had some insight tracks to possibly pre-apply and have all their ducks in order; kind of like going to the Black Friday sale. Some people were in line already. We'll see on Monday where these numbers are at, but they're gonna ... To really get all this money distributed in eight weeks, how many of these are gonna get processed a day?  Blake Oliver: [00:09:38] Yeah, this was supposed to be the biggest day. So, what's happening here? It's not fast enough. This is the same problem with the checks for the individuals. If this money doesn't get out to the small businesses, like this coming week, then I think a lot of them are not gonna be able to make payroll. They're not gonna be able to keep people on payroll. So, then the money will be unused because they're gonna lay everybody off. You can't use the money unless you're paying people on payroll. We've got some more follow-up. We can finish with Paycheck Protection Program, but then we can talk about the stimulus checks that are going out to individuals. There's issues with that. David Leary: [00:10:23] Last week, we talked like it's probably gonna be, realistically, five weeks, but now there's issues with the distribution?  Blake Oliver: [00:10:28] Yeah, well, apparently the IRS can only cut 5 million checks a week. There's 100 million checks that need to go out, so it'll take them 20 weeks to cut all the checks. David Leary: [00:10:42] Now, that's physically printed checks, correct? Blake Oliver: [00:10:45] Right.  David Leary: [00:10:45] But ACH, they could process more than that, possibly, if they have your bank account numbers [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:10:50] -they have ACH information for- I saw a number, 60 million. Here's an Accounting Today article called: Some Coronavirus Stimulus Checks May Not Arrive Until September." They have 60 million direct deposits they can do. They're gonna do that in mid-April. So, those are the ones that Mnuchin said were gonna come in three weeks, a week ago. So, now, in two weeks, those are supposed to come, according to his timeline. But then there's another 100 million people where they have to send checks. They can only send 5 million per week, so it'll take 20 weeks. So, the final round of payments may not go out until September. The checks are gonna be issued in reverse adjusted gross income order, starting with the people with the lowest income first, but still, there's gonna be a lot of people in there who cannot wait another month because they've got to pay their May rent. Not to mention the fact that $1,200 is not really enough to pay rent in a lot of places that are being really, really hard hit by coronavirus.  David Leary: [00:11:44] Especially if they work for a smaller company, who now still is not gonna have this loan to keep paying them or keep them on the payroll. Blake Oliver: [00:11:53] Right, and this 5-million-check-per-week rate, I think that might be historical, based on what they've been able to do in the past. What are they gonna do if their process takes longer because of COVID-19 and having to maintain distance and all of that and people being out, or sick, or what ...? That's why there has been a lot of chatter about fintech companies coming in, and helping, and assisting with this; taking over this process and getting the money to people.  [00:12:20] Supposedly, there's going to be a website, where people can go and put in their direct deposit information. Mnuchin said this in a press conference that we're gonna have a website, where people can go in; they put in their information and then can get the money sent to them. But I'm thinking, oh, no! Now we've got a big fraud risk because the information that the IRS can use to verify them is not necessarily that hard to acquire; because what is the IRS gonna use to verify your identity? Probably information from your tax return and your Social Security number. So, I, as a hacker, could obtain that ... It's not that difficult. So, there's gonna be a lot of people who can't get their payments because some hacker went in and stole it, just like with regular tax fraud, right?  David Leary: [00:12:58] Yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:12:58] So, the fact that we don't have a national identification database ... This is something that we've resisted doing here in this country because of privacy concerns. We don't want the government to have - the federal government - to be giving out an ID to every American. But then, this is the problem. When you actually need to get something to every American, you can't. There's not an easy way to do it. David Leary: [00:13:21] I was listening to a podcast with somebody who worked in the 2008 banking crisis, and he was in charge of rolling out the stimulus money for that. He said the mistake they made is they were too careful in rolling it out. Basically, his opinion is you actually should just err on the side of we don't care ... "Are you a business? All right, here's a check. Are you a business? Okay, here's a check," and take the chance that, yes, some percentage are gonna be fraudulent; some percentage of those are gonna be people that maybe don't deserve the money, but it's the only way to get the money out to everybody as fast as possible. Even with this, if it means there's gonna be some percentage of people that are gonna put in fake numbers and get checks, they have to take the chance because you've gotta get this money out as fast as possible to the vast majority of people. Even if even if a criminal gets it, they're gonna go spend it, right? It gets it into the economy ...  Blake Oliver: [00:14:09] Yeah, exactly. Think about it this way - we're paying, let's call it $17.5 billion ... It's not gonna be necessarily that much, but I don't know, $10-$15 billion dollars to the banks to get this money out to these businesses. I bet you if we just gave the money away without having all this paperwork and stuff, there would be less fraud than that. It just doesn't make sense. [00:14:29] Let's just talk about this whole program, like the way it was thought out in the first place, it's super-complicated, of course. Congress comes up with something that's super-complicated, when you need to do it really quickly. They could have just made it grants instead of making it a loan, to start with, since most these loans are gonna be forgiven anyway, just make it a grant. Then, if you don't spend the grant on payroll, then there's like some tax-clawback provision, at some point, anyway. [00:14:52] But these are loans that are forgivable, and then, if you go out of business anyway, you're not gonna have to pay it because there's no personal guarantee. So, making it a loan, maybe that wasn't even necessary. It's just like way ... All this paperwork that has to suddenly happen very quickly ... We're talking like 30 million potential loan applications because there's that many small businesses - when you count all the freelancers and independent people who are gonna have to go out and do this next week.  David Leary: [00:15:17] The name of the game here is speed, right? It's speed. That's the name of the game.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:21] Right, and the people who really need this money are the really small businesses, the sole proprietors who don't have any work now, who don't even get healthcare from their employer, who didn't get laid off because they didn't have an employer to begin with. The program is making them wait a whole week before they can get any money. So, what if all this money ... Well, at the rate they're going, it won't be gone, but ... What if these people who really need it end up at the back of the line, and then there's this huge backlog, and the money runs out, and they never get any? I see that happening. David Leary: [00:15:54] It was very clear. Did you see the unemployment numbers this week? Blake Oliver: [00:15:58] It was crazy. It was like-  David Leary: [00:15:59] 6.6 million. Blake Oliver: [00:16:01] So, what are we up to, total? Like 10 million, or something? David Leary: [00:16:04] The total was 6. [crosstalk] three last time, and then, 6.6. It'll probably go up to 12. The whole point of the Payroll Protection Program is to give small businesses money, so they don't have to lay people off, so they don't have to go file for unemployment. It's very clear that this money is not going to solve this problem anytime soon, which means unemployment is gonna just go up-  Blake Oliver: [00:16:26] Yeah, unless it just magically gets out to people faster than it seems like it's going to. Yeah, at this rate, I don't see it. But maybe the banks will work over the weekend; they'll work really hard and more of this money will get out on Monday. David Leary: [00:16:41] If you have any clients that have successfully had a loan approved, I would love to see proof of that. Tweet it at us. Show some proof. Because all I see on Twitter ... I've yet to see one small business owner say, "Yes, my loan got approved for the Paycheck Protection Program. I'll see my cash in three days." Nobody is tweeting that. Tons of businesses are showing all their denials, but nobody is showing that they successfully moved through this loan process, and that's scary. Blake Oliver: [00:17:08] A lot of people are pissed at Bank of America. I've seen that on Twitter because #PPPloan is trending. They're all taking screenshots of the Bank of America website saying, "Based on our records, your account doesn't qualify to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program loan through Bank of America." Apparently, you can't even apply if you don't already have an online banking username and password. I guess that kind of makes sense, but, I mean, are they gonna ... If you get one, then can you apply? David Leary: [00:17:33] Well, I get that because branches are closed; there's physical constraints going on, as well, on this. At least they could try to apply at Bank of America and get declined. Other banks aren't even up yet. They're like, "We might be up on Monday." Other banks aren't even ready yet because so many late changes came. Obviously, we'll be talking about this a lot, again this week ...  Blake Oliver: [00:17:54] There's even a video from Marco Rubio that's trending on Twitter, where he's calling out the banks, but not in a way where like, "Hey, banks, you suck." He's more like, "Come on, guys, we bailed you out during the financial crisis. You gotta help us ..." I'm thinking, what the hell!? You set this up!  David Leary: [00:18:13] Actually, this morning, I saw him tweet about how important this was and what a great move by Trump, et cetera, et cetera ... All the politicians are celebrating this as this great thing. I think it's gonna- I think by the time we get through all those Sunday morning political shows and by the time Monday morning hits, the tune's gonna change from politicians on this because it's not something to be celebrated, at this point. Now, if the numbers were different- if it was 1.3 million loans were given out, and they've hit- $100 billion has been, after one day, then let's go celebrate. Blake Oliver: [00:18:46] Right.  David Leary: [00:18:46] What's $4.3 billion dollars? It's s*&%! It's s$%&! [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:18:51] I will bleep it. I think the number to highlight is the volume of loans. Something like 13,000-14,000. That's nothing. That's a drop in the bucket of the millions and millions of small businesses. For them to be touting those numbers as very successful is- it's silly because we said it's 1.2 percent of the amount allocated by Congress that's been, so far, given out on this first day. Let's say there are 30 million businesses, and let's say 14,000 of them got funding today. Then, divide 14,000 by 30 million, and we get what? 0.0005?____________________ Introduce your clients to Brex. Brex is a corporate card unlike any others. It offers instant approval, no personal guarantee from the business owner, advanced fraud protection, the ability to issue additional, and physical cards as needed, and a 360-degree view of all spending activity. Brex has all the features that business owners love. Brex has also built all the features that accountants and bookkeepers love, as well, like instant receipt capture, and matching, intelligent categorization, smart category management, and automatic reconciliation, smart admin tools to easily enforce policy controls, issue, and shut down cards, as needed, granular reporting, and deep integrations with QuickBooks, NetSuite, Expensify, and Xero. To learn more about Brex, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/brex. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash B-R-E-X. Brex is the corporate card making accountants' lives better.____________________David Leary: [00:20:31] Very disappointing. To make matters worse for small business owners ... I don't wanna turn this into a pessimistic show, here, but my understanding is [inaudible] some accountants and bookkeepers is there are clients now who have ... This is where the tech companies start coming in, right? People have credit cards with some of these newer startups for the spending cards, and their credit lines are getting shut down and lowered on the credit cards with no warning whatsoever. Blake Oliver: [00:20:54] Oh, yeah. Are you talking about Kabbage? [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:20:55] I think I saw Divvy. It's Divvy's related credit card. So, apparently that's ... I've seen some things that said Divvy's done that. Kabbage, apparently, because people have ... Kabbage works like- they watch your inventory, and your accounts receivable, and give you real-time credit- Blake Oliver: [00:21:11] Because they're plugged into your QuickBooks file or whatever.  David Leary: [00:21:13] Your data, yep. Apparently, they have started to shut down people's credit left and right. Blake Oliver: [00:21:18] Well, yeah, and specifically, Washington Post had an article: "SoftBank-Backed Lender Kabbage Cuts Off Businesses as Cash Needs Mount." It's got quotes from a bunch of Kabbage customers saying that Kabbage didn't give them any notice. Then, they learned that their credit lines had been suspended only upon logging into their accounts. So, imagine that you're thinking, "Oh, God, I can't make payroll. I'm gonna log into Kabbage, and get my loan, like I would normally do." You log in, and then, there's no money - how much that would suck. There's an example here. Joydeep Paul, who runs Medserv Healthcare Solutions, an emergency-medical training company in Princeton, New Jersey, said his line of credit was cut from $22,000 to zero. "You just turn it off without saying a word - not an e-mail, not a phone call. Nothing." Ouch. David Leary: [00:22:09] This is not just a Kabbage thing. This is apparently happening across the board with a lot of the players in their OnDeck, Fundbox, some of these other ones. They've all had to tighten up their underwriting standards because, to some extent, they've really been out there giving very expensive loans to begin with. Blake Oliver: [00:22:26] Yeah, I think they have a ton of exposure. David Leary: [00:22:28] We've talked about this in the past. They're giving out loans at 30 percent. Very risky loans. It's just a risky game. So, now, instantly, the money's drying up. Then, you, as a small business owner, can't borrow from these companies. But then I look at these companies now, what road do they have to actually give new loans? Because the government, in theory, is giving loans out at one percent. Who's gonna take a loan at 19, 29 percent?  Blake Oliver: [00:22:52] Well, and their risk profile just increased dramatically because a ton of these businesses are gonna default on these loans, if they haven't already. It's just a matter of time. So, Kabbage isn't gonna be able to get their money. They're gonna have to write off all these loans, and then they can't lend out more because they've gotta have a certain amount capital in reserve. David Leary: [00:23:11] I don't know if you saw this, Kabbage even knows this. They laid off 80 percent of their staff-  Blake Oliver: [00:23:15] Wow.  David Leary: [00:23:15] They furloughed 80 percent-  Blake Oliver: [00:23:18] That's not a good sign. I have a hard time imagining how some of these lenders make it out of this. Interesting fact - Kabbage, in 2017 - raised $250 million from SoftBank. You know who else SoftBank invested in? David Leary: [00:23:31] WeWork, and then one of the scooter companies that just laid off people. I wouldn't be surprised if they're pulling their money back out of places. Blake Oliver: [00:23:38] We've talked about WeWork, when they were gonna go public, and they were filing for their IPO that got aborted because everyone realized it didn't make sense. One of the big questions - I had this on the show, a lot of analysts pointed this out - was that, well, what happens to WeWork in a recession? Because everybody was talking a few months ago about how, oh, there's eventually gonna be a recession; what happens to WeWork because WeWork has long-term leases, and they do short-term subletting. So, now, all these businesses that can't go into the office are gonna cancel their WeWork memberships. [00:24:14] I actually saw some folks that we know on Twitter saying, "Well, I had to pay April, but I'm not gonna pay May ..." because there's a cancelation, 30-day notice kinda thing. So, they're gonna cancel- everybody's canceling, or a bunch of people are. They're not gonna pay for May, and WeWork is gonna be unable to pay their rent, or their mortgages on the buildings that they own. They're locked into long-term leases. So, now, WeWork is trying to negotiate with their landlords to get a discount. There's an article in Bloomberg. and the headline is "WeWork Asks Landlords to Help it Cut its Rent Bill by Up to 30 Percent." David Leary: [00:24:53] Which is interesting because my understanding is one of WeWork's big successes was they negotiated tons of their leases when everything crashed in 2008, so they already had pretty good deals from all the leases [crosstalk] renegotiate them even lower.  Blake Oliver: [00:25:08] We'll see if WeWork can survive this ... If this goes on as long as we think it will, which I'm betting on August/September that this really calms down and people go back to work then, could be a problem. David Leary: [00:25:24] I did see some things the tech companies are doing that are good. There's something called paytoday.club. This is some tech companies - Gusto, Fundbox, Homebase ... Actually, other tech firms can actually join this. The gist of it is if you owe a small business money, you need to pay them. So, right now, currently, small businesses are owed $900 billion in receivables and a lot of it is corporations, or government agencies. They owe this money, and they need to pay these invoices. Blake Oliver: [00:25:55] Mm-hmm.  David Leary: [00:25:55] It's super-super-important. That will get money back into small business owners' hands [inaudible] ... They have artwork. They have a hashtag, #paytoday. That's out there. Then, I don't know if you saw Intuit is doing a small business relief initiative with GoFundMe. Blake Oliver: [00:26:12] I hadn't seen that. David Leary: [00:26:13] They've started to bring on other tech companies along with that. The gist of it is you sign up for a GoFundMe, and if you can raise $500, Intuit'll match- give you an extra $500. That's the short answer, but there's a lot of hoops to jump through. You've got to use the right hashtag and ... I think it's one of those, it's much better on paper that maybe possibly execution. But Intuit did step up to the plate today. I saw information that Intuit is going to do the Payroll Protection Program loan right from inside of QBO. So, all your data's there; obviously, Intuit has QuickBooks capital, and they're gonna start doing those loans from within QuickBooks. Now, when that starts, I don't know. Blake Oliver: [00:26:55] Yeah, that's the big question, right? How quickly can they make it happen? David Leary: [00:26:58] But if you could get one-click loan- if you could apply for that loan using one click in QuickBooks ... Especially now that QuickBooks owns Credit Karma, Intuit has all the data. They have the small business data and the credit card data ... They could approve these loans so much quicker ... So much quicker. They have payroll for a million small businesses. Just start pumping this data out and get this money out. Some tech companies are starting to step up to the plate and bypass these government programs with creative ways to help. Blake Oliver: [00:27:27] Makes sense. We've talked about the potential threat to accounting jobs on the show. There have been some layoffs, though, not a ton, here in the U.S., which is good news so far. We'll see how long that lasts. Friedman, which I think is mostly in New York, ended up cutting 50 folks loose. They were one of the first firms to go do that. KPMG has also done layoffs in Canada, and Australia lost a couple hundred jobs. Those are the ones that Going Concern is covering. They're doing a good job of covering the layoffs. They have a header on all of their articles, "Layoff Watch '20," so you can easily find those and see where else jobs are getting cut. [00:28:16] BDO USA, notably, is cutting everyone's pay instead of doing layoffs. The CEO announced this, and this article came out yesterday. Wayne Berson said that BDO is taking a five- to 10-percent pay cut at all levels, salaried, from May 1 to August 1. Hourly is the same, just starting one or two days later after the salaried guys. The pay cut will be on a sliding scale, starting from employees making $60k or more annually. I think that's a good way to go - rather than laying people off - is everyone take a small pay cut. David Leary: [00:28:48] Yeah, because I think the other route - and I think I heard this is happening at KPMG in Canada - the partners were just cutting lower staff people because the partners don't wanna take a pay cut.  Blake Oliver: [00:28:59] Right, but that's a bad move. If this works out ... I mean, it could still go very, very badly, but if things actually work out and the economy kicks back into gear in the fall, you're not gonna wanna be left with looking to hire staff after having laid people off. Nobody's gonna wanna work for you. So, the best thing is to just try to keep everyone employed; maybe take a loan; hold the course. David Leary: [00:29:24] I think I saw Goldman Sachs was predicting that this is gonna be the fastest recovery ever. Blake Oliver: [00:29:30] It should be, assuming the government does the correct amount of stimulus; gets money into people's hands. My big fear is that zillions of people can't pay their rent; zillions of people don't pay their mortgages; then we get into this mortgage-crisis situation where, if people aren't paying their mortgages, then you have a zillion foreclosures, and then we have a housing crisis, and we all know how well that went. So, that's why it's so important that the government gets the stimulus out, so people can keep paying their rent, keep paying their mortgages because, for a lot of people, that's the biggest expense they have. David Leary: [00:30:02] Yeah, and I think if you do have to lay off people, there's probably some correct ways to do it. I don't know if you heard about Lime? The scooter company?  Blake Oliver: [00:30:06] Oh, yeah. They're probably doing horrible, right now. David Leary: [00:30:11] They invited a bunch of employees, apparently, into a Zoom webinar. They realized quick- the employees started realizing, wait a minute, the people that are invited to the webinar versus not invited to the webinar are people ... The people running the webinar are people that they didn't recognize. Blake Oliver: [00:30:30] Oh ...  David Leary: [00:30:30] Two weeks ago, they got sent home to work from home. They haven't heard anything from management or the founder. Then, they basically get included in a webinar; not a Zoom meeting, a Zoom webinar. During the webinar, they shut off all their computer access to the network and then kicked them out of- basically laid them off. Blake Oliver: [00:30:48] Wow.  David Leary: [00:30:49] Just not the right way to do these things. You're right, when these things do recover, people will remember this, and people aren't gonna go to work for those companies. Blake Oliver: [00:30:58] No. David Leary: [00:30:58] You've gotta stay classy as you do these things, or you're gonna burn bridges going forward with talent. You just can't afford to do that. Blake Oliver: [00:31:04] Obviously, you can't do these in person, but at least do individual one-on-one meetings, even if it takes you days, just do it. To do it in a group setting like that is just horrible. David Leary: [00:31:14] We talked about phishing attempts and ransomware, if you want.  Blake Oliver: [00:31:19] Yeah. I've been reading about how security is a big problem with everyone working from home in this confusing time. It's easier than ever to fall for phishing attacks. So, yeah, what's going on with that? David Leary: [00:31:30] Well, I can tell you my experience this week. I fell for a phishing attack. Blake Oliver: [00:31:34] What? Did you send $10,000 to Nigeria or something? David Leary: [00:31:38] No! So, I got an email. It came in, and it was from a coworker who, coincidentally, is a coworker I have not exchanged any emails yet, but I just started to that morning.  Blake Oliver: [00:31:49] Because you're- you have a new job. David Leary: [00:31:50] New job, right. I got an email that said ... Most of the team's in New York City, and they're really locked down in New York City, right now. It was like, "Hey, I need you do me a huge favor. What's your cellphone number?" I'm like, all right ... Didn't think anything of it, but I didn't notice the email address wasn't a real email address. It had that person's name. Blake Oliver: [00:32:09] Okay.  David Leary: [00:32:09] Things have been chaotic [crosstalk] I replied back. I gave my cellphone number. Then, instantly, I get a text. So, it moved from a fake email to a fake text. The texts were like, "Hey, where are you at? Can you go to the store? I need to get some gift cards for eBay. Let me know when you're at the store ..." This is the importance of having multiple communication channels with your coworkers. Blake Oliver: [00:32:32] Yeah. David Leary: [00:32:33] I was able to- I just finally asked the person who I thought it was- on Slack, I was like, "Hey, are you sending a message on WhatsApp, right now?" Then, I told the person I was texting with- not WhatsApp, sorry - the text ... I said, "Hey, please respond to my message in Slack," and that's when this person knew I was onto them and said, "No, I can't do that right now," and they left. Blake Oliver: [00:32:52] At what point did you get suspicious? David Leary: [00:32:55] At least four or five texts in- Blake Oliver: [00:32:58] When they asked you to go to the store and buy gift cards? David Leary: [00:33:00] Not even then because it wasn't fully reconciled, because I was like, oh, she's in New York. They're locked down [crosstalk] It did not even register.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:11] Well, good for you for doing the thing that we always preach and verifying this information; secondary communication channel.  David Leary: [00:33:18] It's like two-factor, right? It's always two-factor. Go down some other tech path and get an answer a different way that's separate from the one you're currently conversing in, if you get any tingling that something's wrong. So, it can happen to everybody. It happened to me, folks. It can happen to everybody.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:32] That's brilliant. David Leary: [00:33:33] So, the IRS is warning that phishing attempts are increasing, and it's all related to COVID-19 stuff, so you have to be very careful; very, very careful on that. They're warning about that. Then, the other thing that's going on - and this is not good - is ransomware is starting to target hospitals and hospital VPNs. If it's not-  Blake Oliver: [00:33:54] That would be the worst timing ever.  David Leary: [00:33:57] Yes. If it's not bad enough for hospitals, right now, there's a variant of REVIL group. They're probing the internet for vulnerable systems because VPNs- everybody's using- as open doors for VPNs, right now, trying to let their employees work from home. So, that's really scary, if they're targeting hospitals-  Blake Oliver: [00:34:20] I've only got one item of follow-up left here, which is the tax deadline. So, we've all moved on from that real quick, didn't we?  David Leary: [00:34:27] That was just last Friday. Blake Oliver: [00:34:30] I think so. David Leary: [00:34:31] It felt like a decade ago. It was just last Friday we took a breath, like, "Oh, the deadline's been moved ..." Everybody breathed, and now, we're right back at it.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:38] There's some parallels to what's going on with coronavirus and what's going on with the tax deadline. There are still some states that are just letting people walk around because, "It's not a problem here yet. Maybe it's a problem in New York. But, hey, in Texas, we're fine!" At least statewide. There are some states that still haven't delayed their state tax deadlines to match the new federal July 15 deadline. Idaho, Mississippi and Virginia are holding out. Virginia, in particular, is offering taxpayers relatively little relief. [00:35:09] According to the Tax Foundation in Virginia, the tax payment deadline has been postponed to June 1, but the tax filing deadline is still May 1, which is their normal deadline. That's important because interest rates accruing the next day. So, on May 2, your interest rates are accruing. Only late-payment penalties are waived through June 1, not interest. The Commonwealth is urging everyone to file by May 1, as usual, to avoid interest. [00:35:34] That's gonna create a bunch of issues because people have heard, oh, the tax deadline is extended, and then they're not gonna file. They're gonna wait until July 15 in Virginia, and then, they're gonna pay a bunch of interest. In Idaho, they only bumped their deadline to June 15. That's not confusing. Then, Mississippi extended filing and payment deadlines one month to May 15. What is wrong with these states or what is wrong with these lawmakers, I should say, in these states? David Leary: [00:36:00] That's the bigger problem. I think it's the lawmakers ... Anything to be complicated. People will do it to be complicated. Blake Oliver: [00:36:08] Just make it simple ... They should just have done a blanket federal and state delay - every single tax deadline that was before July 15 is now on July 15. Just keep it simple. David Leary: [00:36:22] All this just rolls onto accountants and bookkeepers. Blake Oliver: [00:36:27] Oh, my God! I've never seen so much chatter in the groups that we're in with all the accountants. It's insane. People are not sleeping. It's worse than the week before tax day. David Leary: [00:36:37] At least in tax day, they know what they're doing with it; there's just a lot of volume. Blake Oliver: [00:36:41] Right.  David Leary: [00:36:41] This, it's changing deadlines. It's changing this ... The loan- you can do this, or you can't do 1099 vendors now, and the Payroll Protection Program ... The AICPA had- they basically called out that accountants should help these small business relief efforts. I would argue that accountants and bookkeepers are actually delivering on that promise. Blake Oliver: [00:37:01] Right. Oh, but notice how [crosstalk] the accountants- all this work is piling onto accountants and CPAs. Yet there is no provision in these acts to pay accountants for their work. Most of the banks ... I think virtually all the banks are not gonna honor this agent fee that's apparently possible, where people can get ... If you file on behalf of your client, you can get like a one-percent commission. They're not gonna do it. They're gonna keep it for themselves. David Leary: [00:37:30] Yeah, and my understanding, as an accountant, or bookkeeper, you have to do a little bit of creativity here. Maybe you create a 90-day CFO package and you have a client buy that. Then, part of that service is you'll take care of any loan things they need done during that time. Blake Oliver: [00:37:45] Right, but that makes you look like a jerk, because now you're taking money out of that client's funds. It's because the banks, they're getting that commission on top, so it's not like it ever comes out of the principal that I'm getting loaned; whereas the accountant, if they wanna earn a fee, they have to charge the client and take it out of that loan. It's just setting us up to look bad, even though we're the ones doing all the hard work. David Leary: [00:38:10] Yeah, I think, obviously, our healthcare professionals, anybody that's working at grocery stores, and food service delivery, and those professionals, as well ... I mean, for crying out loud, sanitation services are still running, right? I think there's a lot of people that are heroes, but I also think, right now, accountants and bookkeepers are completely unsung right now. People have no idea what they're going through because they're feeling the brunt of the tax deadlines; they're feeling the brunt of tax payments; they're feeling the brunt of these loans.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:35] Oh, yeah.  David Leary: [00:38:35] They have 50 jobs, right now ... Not to mention the whole scariness for their clients that's going on. Blake Oliver: [00:38:42] I only have one client, right now, and this client is applying for PPP. So, after this recording session - it's Friday. I wanna go have a drink - I'm gonna be pulling payroll reports and compiling information so that my client can apply. Thank God they're not making me do it. I can't even imagine what I'd be doing right now if I had 200 clients to worry about. So, to all of you who are listening, who are dealing with all that, right now, I mean, at least David and I appreciate you. David Leary: [00:39:10] Yeah. Go to your refrigerator, when you listen to this, get a beer, toast the mirror, and pretend you're toasting Blake and I because we'll be toasting you. You're right, Blake. In these groups- in some of these Slack channels, and Facebook groups, it is insane what they're dealing with, right now [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:39:24] Yeah, it's ridiculous. David Leary: [00:39:27] I have some cool tech news, app news, but I don't know what else you have. Are we still talking stimulus? Is there anymore? Blake Oliver: [00:39:33] Well, unfortunately ... I would love to hear that but we're gonna have to save it for the next episode because my company is having a team happy hour, so I'm gonna go join that [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:39:43] A Zoom happy hour- Blake Oliver: [00:39:47] A Zoom happy hour. So, I'm gonna go try to do that, decompress a little bit ... What are you up to this weekend, David? David Leary: [00:39:52] I don't know, what am I up to this weekend? [crosstalk] I'm not gonna do any Zooms. I am Zoomed out. I have no brain power left for another Zoom. I'll probably play catch-up a little bit. I'm gonna actually probably apply for the loan, myself, tomorrow, so I'll see how that goes.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:01] Oh, let me know how that goes. David Leary: [00:40:09] I'll see how that goes [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:40:09] Does your bank have a page up to let you do that? David Leary: [00:40:13] Well, they sent me an email. Then, I clicked the email because it said, "Click here, and sign in." Then, I signed in, and it had a pop-up that said "Click here to apply." As soon as I clicked that, I got a 404 error page, so it's not looking good. The page may not really exist yet. Yes, I will let you know how that goes next week. David Leary: [00:40:13] The other thing I'm gonna work on - and hopefully any of you listening, I'll have some information about this up on Twitter and social media - but there's- one of the review sites we ask people to write reviews on, Podchaser ... Podchaser is partnering with Meals on Wheels, and Meals on Wheels is donating ... They feed elderly, who can't leave their houses, which, right now, is every elderly person in the country. Blake Oliver: [00:40:56] Right.  David Leary: [00:40:56] They're doing a fundraiser for Meals on Wheels. The way this works is every time you leave a review on a podcast, they will donate 25 cents. Then, if Blake, and I- if you leave a review on The Cloud Accounting Podcast and if Blake, and I reply back and say, "Hey, thanks for the review," they're gonna double that amount. So, you can help us writing reviews about the podcast on Podchaser.com. That would be great. Then, it'll help raise money for Meals on Wheels. I'd love if we were able to be one of the top podcasts raising money for Meals on Wheels. Just a way for us to kind of give back a little bit.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:25] Cool. Well, David, it's always a pleasure. If people wanna reach you online, where can they do that? David Leary: [00:41:33] On Twitter and LinkedIn is probably the easiest - @DavidLeary.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:34] I am @BlakeTOliver. Until next week. David, stay healthy and safe. David Leary: [00:41:41] Awesome. Bye.____________________ Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar party, Facebook group, podcast, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Hit the show notes, and the links to get more info.

Sponsors Melio Payments: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/melio Jirav: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/jirav Show Notes https://www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program-ppp  Connect with Michael and Sabrina Michael Ly, Founder/CEO of Reconciled Website: https://getreconciled.co/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelly/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/michael_ly_ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/burlingtoncfo Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software and Board Member of Oregon Pacific Bank Website: https://www.opbc.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrinaparsons Twitter: @mommyceo Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Meet Blake and David in person!  No current appearances planned.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad:https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptMichael Ly: [00:00:03] One of the things I'm telling clients is this is not a growth loan; this is not a VC, or private equity fund investment; this is not angel funding. The intention of this loan- the intention of these loans is to keep people on payroll.____________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Melio Payments. Do you have clients that are logging into their bank website to manually pay their bills or, even worse, clients that are still handwriting paper checks because the alternatives are either too complicated, or too expensive? You need to introduce them to Melio Payments. Melio Payments is easy-to-use B2B payments and receivables. Think Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle but for small businesses.Melio is an app that all small businesses are capable of using, regardless of size, shape, or budget. By using Melio, your clients can pay their bills easier than using their bank website, and you get the process and controls you need, like support for multiple users, approvals, and two-way syncing with QuickBooks Online. Melio can also help your clients improve their cash flow by allowing them to pay their bills using their business credit cards to take advantage of up to a 45-day float until their next credit card billing cycle. Now, paying the rent can lead to earning those credit card points your clients love. To learn more about Melio Payments, and to get your very own Melio.me link that you can use to receive payments from your business clients, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/melio. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash M-E-L-I-O. ____________Blake Oliver: [00:01:29] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:01:32] And I'm David Leary. Michael Ly: [00:01:34] And I'm Michael Ly. Sabrina Parsons: [00:01:35] And I'm Sabrina Parsons. David Leary: [00:01:37] Blake, I've got special guests for us tonight. Blake Oliver: [00:01:40] I am so excited, David! Thank you so much for setting this up. David Leary: [00:01:43] There's lots of questions on what the programs rolling out from the SBA are. Even me, as a small business owner, I don't know what the answers are. I'm trying to navigate them myself. So, I brought on an accountant/bookkeeper, Michael Ly, who is advising hundreds of his clients, probably, on how to navigate this process; and then Sabrina Parsons, who's been on the podcast before. She actually is on the board of directors at a bank, and Sabrina has inside tracks with the SBA, and the SBDC, so she can kind of give us, like what's happening behind the scenes during this process, as well. With that said, Michael, and Sabrina, if you guys wanted to jump in and maybe say hi? Michael Ly: [00:02:19] Yes, hi. Thanks, David and Blake, for having us; for having me and for having both of us. David, yeah, your situation is very similar to many millions of other small business owners across the country. Sabrina Parsons: [00:02:31] Yeah, thank you. I'm really happy to be back with you guys, Blake and David. The last time we were together, we were actually at a conference, which seems so far away and so foreign now, since we're not allowed to ever do that in person for I don't know how long. So, I'm glad to be talking to you guys in some way or another, and I'm really glad to be doing this content today because the number of small businesses in the United States, right now, that are struggling is staggering. But there are some programs that can help them, and these programs are very difficult to wade through and figure out what's good for what business. So, hopefully we can help people. Blake Oliver: [00:03:11] Sabrina, what bank are you affiliated with? Sabrina Parsons: [00:03:14] I'm on the board of Oregon Pacific Bank, which is a small community bank in Oregon. Blake Oliver: [00:03:20] Gotcha. Michael, for the folks who may not know who you are, listening in, where are you located, and what's your firm look like? Michael Ly: [00:03:30] I'm normally located in Burlington, Vermont, though I'm sheltering in place in Tempe, Arizona, right now. I am CEO and founder of Reconciled. We're an online bookkeeping and business advisory practice. I've got 27 employees working from nine states and serving about 150-plus clients across the country. Blake Oliver: [00:03:49] So, you must be really busy right now with all of these SBA loan questions, applications, I imagine?  Michael Ly: [00:03:55] Oh, yes, yes. From sunup to sundown, that's all I'm doing right now. Blake Oliver: [00:03:59] So, even though we can't see each other, and we can't get together, you, and David, and I are all in the same state because I'm in Phoenix, right now. I'm normally in L.A., but I am also sheltering in place in Phoenix. Michael Ly: [00:04:09] Yeah, the one time the three of us are in the same state, we can't even see each other in person.  Blake Oliver: [00:04:12] So, we're representing Phoenix, Tempe, and Tucson. Those are like the three cities in Arizona, right, David? David Leary: [00:04:20] Yeah, there's still Flagstaff, and there's still a couple other, but yes [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:04:20] Okay.  Michael Ly: [00:04:20] They're the only three worth gonna, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:04:20] Right. What we're gonna talk about tonight is the two types of SBA loans available. I understand there are two, right now, and, of course, this could all change very quickly. We've got the Paycheck Protection Program, also known as the PPP, and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, a.k.a. EIDL. By the end of this, we will all be really sick of acronyms. Am I right? Did I get that right, Michael? Michael Ly: [00:04:54] Yeah, you got that right, and actually, those are the two we'll talk about, primarily, on the show, but there's actually plenty more that the SBA does, but those two specific ones have gotten the most press over the past several weeks. Blake Oliver: [00:05:05] Yeah. So, where do we wanna start with all of this? David Leary: [00:05:09] I think I've heard from a lot of accountants and bookkeepers, there's a little bit of a playbook here, right? Like, "Hey, you want to first get control of your expenses; go for any free money that you can go for; renegotiate interest rates in your loans and any terms you can with your vendors. Then, it's like, okay, now stimulus is out there ... You go to CNN, and you see there's gonna be, what is it, $350 billion dollars for small businesses. It goes live tonight at midnight, and it's just this grab. But then you step back, and the rules are just overwhelming. What's a small business owner ...? What should you do first? Do you do the emergency thing first? Do you do the Paycheck Protection Program first? It's kind of, in a way, Michael, I'm coming to you is a client, maybe, and I'm like, "What do I do? What's the first thing?"  Michael Ly: [00:05:53] That's a great question, David, and that's a question I've been asked hundreds of times throughout the past several weeks. So, first, the first advice is what you exactly did is you asked an advisor of yours. If I was advising you ... You came to me as an advisor, and you said, "Hey, here's the situation ..." So, I'm telling every client, "It's great that you came forward and that you're wanting to advise ... Hopefully, the advisor you're working with has actively come out to you and been proactive with you to help you through this worldwide pandemic situation; very unique situation." I recommend any of the listeners to go to their banker, to their attorney, to their accountant, CPA, business advisor and talk through this, and if they're working with an SBDC rep, or an SBA rep to work through this. [00:06:34] The first thing you wanna assess is what is the state of your business and your cash flow? You wanna work with your accountant, or your internal accounting staff, to assess that situation and to really see if your business- how it can survive and if it will survive over the next 60 to 90 days and for the rest of the year, and what kind of impact this COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic will have on your business. I think that's the first thing you wanna know before you apply or go for any assistance. You just kind of want to know the state of your business. [00:07:06] Secondly, every state, depending on where you are, and every industry is actually gonna have different types of grants and incentives that are available to you, so you're gonna want to research and reach out to both your state's economic, or development authority to see what grants might be possible in your area. There are both private and public grants, and assistance, and loans that are being made available that are on a state-by-state, and industry-by-industry basis. Just doing a quick Google search is gonna help you, and also reaching out to your industry's trade association, which can be very, very helpful. That's where I would begin your journey before you look at any of this. David Leary: [00:07:47] Okay.  Blake Oliver: [00:07:47] So, then, let's say we do that, and we've determined that it ... We are gonna survive, or we have a path to survival, if we take advantage of some extra financing, or take on a loan, or something like that, because we don't want to do it if we're just gonna fold anyway, right?  Michael Ly: [00:08:01] Right, right.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:03] So, we decide, okay, we can get through this. We just need the financing. So, now, we're gonna go get one of these loans and maybe this is a good place for Sabrina to come in ... Well, let me ask this. There's so much, I can't even think. Why are the banks involved in this? How is this whole thing working? So, this is a federal program with the Small Business Administration, but the all the lending is going through the banks, not the SBA; the whole loan process is all happening through the banks. Sabrina Parsons: [00:08:33] Yes. So, that's just for the PPP. It's just for the Payroll Protection Program where it's going through the banks. The EIDL, that's a loan that's actually ... That loan structure has been around for a long time, and it's used in mostly natural disasters. So, think of Katrina, New Orleans- that comes raging through; what you saw in Houston. You have a huge national disaster ... Sandy. Small businesses get wiped out. They have to close. [00:09:09] The SBA is able to offer these loans as soon as the state declares a state of emergency. When the governor of the state says state of emergency, oftentimes they'll do that, and they'll declare it in certain counties. Your county has to be declared. Now, given COVID-19, we're pretty much at a place where every single governor has declared every single county, so it's unprecedented. Almost everybody is eligible to try and apply. Now, not everyone is going to be able to get that loan, but that loan is not through banks. That one is directly- you apply directly to SBA.gov, and it goes through Treasury; that is not through the banks. [00:09:58] That is a true loan. It is not gonna be forgiven, and there are qualifications. If you don't have a good personal credit score as a business owner, you're not gonna get that loan. 650 or below, and you're not gonna be eligible for that loan. If you're not willing to put personal guarantees on the line, you're not gonna get that loan either. To Blake, or David, I forget which one of you said, if your business is gonna fold, you certainly do not wanna get an EIDL loan because you will be personally responsible for paying back that loan. That one isn't through the banks. [00:10:32] The PPP is through the banks because it's in the format of the SBA 7(a) loan, which are always done through SBA-approved lenders. Those are lenders that have gone through a process. They get approved by the SBA, and the SBA backs those loans. The SBA is gonna PPP loans at 100 percent, if they're used correctly. So, that's just to kind of position these two particular loans. The process is different. How you get them is different. Who qualifies is different. The EIDL will not have forgiveness, although it's a great interest rate over 30 years, 3.75; whereas the PPP, if you don't get forgiveness, it's 24 months at a very low interest rate, but it's only a 24-month loan. David Leary: [00:11:22] For the emergency one, if I heard you correctly, I have to put up personal guarantees, regardless of my business formation. So, if I'm an S Corp, et cetera, I still have to have personal guarantees. Interesting. Sabrina Parsons: [00:11:35] Yep, you have to have personal guarantees, so you have to think through that. One of the things that, from that bank perspective, because ... The reason that I know a lot about the loan process is because I'm on the board of Oregon Pacific Bank, but through Palo Alto Software, we work with a lot of small businesses, so that's where I'm in touch and working very closely with the SBA, and the SBDC. Through going through all of that, what we're realizing is people- number one, they don't understand the difference, and some businesses may need both. [00:12:14] My advice to a business, very much along what Michael said, you've got to start with understanding what is this gonna do to your sales, your revenue, and are there any expenses that you can cut except personnel? Because you will not have the loan forgiven, if you're laying off people because the Payroll Protection Program is exactly for that. So, you have to go- you've got to do your numbers. You've got to figure out how is my revenue affected? Are there any expenses I can cut? I'm gonna model this out without losing and laying off any staff because if I do, I'm not forgiven. [00:12:52] Once you do that and you understand how much cash you need to make it, say, the next six months - let's just think six months - then you have to go through the Payroll Protection Program and say, "Okay, I'm eligible for a certain amount that I can borrow," and that is different from the amount that is forgiven. So, you figure out what you can borrow, what is forgiven; and I'm suggesting that people borrow what is forgiven, but that number may not match what you need. You may need more, and you may need to use it for things that you can't be forgiven - inventory, other expenses that aren't payroll expenses. Blake Oliver: [00:13:38] Michael, that's what you were talking about when you said run these numbers. It's not just will I survive as a business, it's also does it make sense for me to take this loan because I have to keep all of my staff or substantially all of them, right? Michael Ly: [00:13:51] Correct. Correct, exactly. One of the things I'm telling clients is don't view this as ... This is not a growth loan. This is not a VC or private equity fund investment. This is not angel funding. The intention of this loan- the intention of these loans is to keep people on payroll. It's to keep businesses afloat and keep people on payroll. [00:14:12] I've had many clients who have shut their doors or temporarily shut their doors, and they're thinking, "Okay, well, I've laid off all my employees, or I furloughed all of them, or terminated all of them. I wanna get this loan and bring it back to work ..." The first question I ask is: "Des your business have any potential to bring in revenue at all for the next two to three months, or four months? Are there any customers that are gonna be purchasing from you? If you're a restaurant, or a retail store, do you have any reason that you think you're going to be an ongoing concern? Because if you don't, you'll be bringing people on thinking that you're gonna get forgiveness and then you're just gonna be laying them off again. It's a pointless process for you." That's really why you want to evaluate, and as Sabrina said, the point is you believe you continue to be an ongoing concern and that their goal is to keep people on payroll, to operate your business, and that you still have customers out there that are willing to buy your product or service. Blake Oliver: [00:15:07] Sabrina, I think I heard you say that if I don't get the forgiveness, it's a 24-month loan? What is that interest rate then? Sabrina Parsons: [00:15:16] The interest rate is very low. It's 0.5 percent, so it's almost nothing, but you have to pay it back in 24 months. So, again, exactly what Michael said, the point of this money is to keep people on staff and to pay your rent or mortgage interest; so, you can use it for that, as well. Right now, we're going through ... It's April 2. People have had to pay their personal rents, and personal mortgages, and there's all this forgiveness, and you can't get evicted. On the business side, all the commercial building owners also need to pay their things. So, they're trying to help you keep people on staff and pay your rent, basically. That's what they're trying to help you do. So, Michael's exactly right on. Your business may also be a going concern, but may not be able to support itself, if you have to keep everybody on. [00:16:08] Now, another big question people have is, "I've already furloughed or laid people off. I can't do this?" You can, if you bring people back. So, you can bring people back, but again, it's got to make sense. You just have to do the numbers . You just have to figure out how much can I get, how much is forgiven, and what does that do to my current financial forecast? Once you figure that out, it makes a whole lot more sense, because I don't think that you want to get saddled with a loan that has to get repaid in 24 months. Now, if the loan is $6,000, maybe that's fine, but if you're trying to deal with 50, 60, 70 employees, those people's payrolls, you're talking half a million to $2 million. Nobody wants to be saddled with that, even at a low interest rate and have to pay it back in 24 months. Michael Ly: [00:17:00] That's where accountants are so relevant, right now. If, at any time in history, accountants are relevant, it's now for small business owners because accountants are equipped to be able to help their clients figure out which route to go makes sense for their business. Blake Oliver: [00:17:16] There may have been some breaking news just a few hours ago. I recall seeing something, somewhere on Twitter, about this interest rate changing from half a percent to one percent at a news briefing.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:17:28] It's changed a couple of times. It was actually up at four percent for 10 years, and that's what a lot of people thought for a while, and the banks, as well. Then, when all the paperwork to the banks came through, and it was actually half a percent for 24 months. So, if it's changed again, I haven't heard about it, but it's changed twice- I mean, it's already changed once. It was originally a 10-year loan at four percent, and that changed to be a half a percent for 24 months. Michael Ly: [00:18:01] Yeah. Blake, I think you're referring to the SBA's administrator finally put out on the SBA website, between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. They put out the interim final rule that the administrator wrote up of how they would go about advising and providing guidance to the banks and community banks. That did say, in that final rule that's going to the Federal Register now, that the loan interest rate would be one percent for this loan. Blake Oliver: [00:18:30] Okay, so that just happened because I'm reading here, on a CNBC story that is dated April 2 at 7:09 p.m. Eastern, and we're recording at 8:00 p.m. Pacific, that Mnuchin announced in a press conference this afternoon, or in the evening, Eastern Time, that interest rates were raised to one percent, after hearing concerns from banks. So, I guess-  David Leary: [00:18:57] I'll check his Twitter [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:18:57] Yeah, because that's where official policy is made these days. So, apparently, there was a resistance from the small banks. Sabrina, maybe you have some insight on this. Resistance from the small banks because they're getting a cut of all of these loans that are being originated, and it wasn't gonna be that much money. Like, for a $100,000 loan, it would be $5,000. Now, they're raising this percentage, so the banks are gonna get more for these smaller loans, or something like that?  Sabrina Parsons: [00:19:30] Yes, exactly. I do know that the banks were concerned. Now, ours is a small community bank, and our perspective had been, you know what, we need to help small businesses. We need to help our community. There is a small fee that the bank gets for getting the loan through; and given that interest rates are basically at zero - 24 months and 0.5 - our community bank's perspective was it's fine. It'll be worth our while, and our community desperately needs it. But there was definitely some kind of pushback from some small community banks that said, "We don't get anything."  [00:20:11] Now, the biggest thing there to really consider is it's all the very small businesses that they're most concerned about; that they have this volume of thousands and thousands of businesses that need Payroll Protection Program loans that are gonna be less than $100,000; because the loans above half a million- and I forget, there's ... I think it's half a million, but loans about that amount, they get three percent for, but if you're getting $1 million, the bank's getting $30,000, and that's not bad. It's not the business model the bank has, but you're making something from it, and it's worth the time; versus, for $100,000, you're making $5,000. [00:20:56] So, there was definitely concern, not just from the banks, but I think from the general community, that if you didn't make a teeny bit more incentive for the banks, you don't want people playing with things and not serving all the businesses. You don't want cherry picking. The SBA will the auditing banks, so they do want preference for underserved entrepreneurs - entrepreneurs of color, women, and rural entrepreneurs need to get preference. Banks are gonna have to prove that they're doing that. This was kind of a concession to sort of make sure that we can serve as many small businesses as possible.____________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Jirav. Jirav sounds a lot like giraffe, and that's no accident. Giraffes are the tallest animal in the world. That gives them a great view. Our goal at Jirav is to give you a similarly great view of what's going on with your business. We do that by helping you understand where your business has been and, most importantly, predict where it's going.  Jirav connects your cloud-based accounting, payroll, CRM, and billing data together to automatically update shareable online dashboards, monthly reporting packages, and sophisticated financial plans, and budgets in real time. If you're using Excel for reporting and forecasting, you'll save hours every month with Jirav. To learn how accounting firms are using Jirav to deliver connected insight, strategize growth, and help their clients make more profitable decisions, visit Jirav.com, and start your 30-day free trial. That's J-I-R-A-V dot com. See farther with Jirav. ____________David Leary: [00:22:40] All right, I got all my ducks in order. I know I'm not gonna have to lay off people. I'm ready to apply for these loans. I've started to see things about fees. Can the bank charge me a fee, like an origination fee? If Michael's helping me prepare my paperwork, is he allowed to charge me in the process of trying to apply for this loan? What's okay and not okay out there? Sabrina Parsons: [00:23:01] A bank can't charge you. That's absolutely not allowed. The bank cannot charge you for the PPP, and the SBA is not gonna charge you for the EIDL at all. Now, in terms of will Michael? I expect he will, and he should, if he's doing work for you. The work has to be done. In our company - we're a small business; we're under 100 employees; we've been affected by this, and we've been looking at it - we do have a CFO. So, he's taking his time, and his effort, and he's looking at all of this and seeing what makes sense for us. I would expect that if Michael's gonna do this, he should be charging you, and you should pay him because you should want him to do really good work. Michael Ly: [00:23:43] Yeah, no, definitely Sabrina. Like any accounting firms, we're prioritizing on focusing on our own customers first because those customers have agreements with us. They're paying us advisory fees, and monthly servicing fees, right now. In the same vein, the banks- many banks have communicated that they're gonna first prioritize and focus on their current customers that they have relationships with and that they may also already have SBA-backed loans with. They're gonna be focusing on those customers, putting them in line - that would make sense - before new customers get in line with them. [00:24:17] Like I tell my customers, you do want to reach out to your current banker, or your current bank. If you don't have a relationship with them already besides just a deposit relationship, you want to find out who the bank lender is at your bank and have a- communicate with them, form that relationship, and begin to let them know what assistance you'll need, and what option you want to go with, and get the help of your accountant, or your attorney, or your advisor to walk you through this, as you apply for these loans. Blake Oliver: [00:24:45] The banks are gonna get one percent because the SBA is going to pay the interest to the bank on the small business's behalf if they comply with the program and use the PPP money to maintain payroll. Sabrina Parsons: [00:24:59] They're not actually ... If you get full forgiveness because they're ... You have six months' reprieve, basically, to pay back the loan. If you get full forgiveness, the bank is only getting that percentage, either five, or three percent, depending on the amount. The bank is not getting paid the one-percent interest. It's beyond that, and anybody who keeps the loan and doesn't get full forgiveness. So, that's my understanding that the bank isn't necessarily gonna make any money, per se, from the loan, those eight weeks. The little bit of money to be made is from that three or five percent that they're gonna get, depending on the loan amount. Then, if people borrow more than is forgiven, or they don't spend it in the right way, then the bank can make that one percent, and it's the actual- it's the borrower that will pay it. Blake Oliver: [00:25:54] Okay, so the one percent applies only if the loan is not forgiven. Sabrina Parsons: [00:25:58] Exactly.  Michael Ly: [00:25:58] Correct. Blake Oliver: [00:25:59] The portion that is not forgiven. What is this three to five percent, again? Sabrina Parsons: [00:26:02] So, it depends on how much you're getting. It's a sliding scale. If you're eligible for ... I think it's- and I'm trying to find the exact information here ... If you are eligible, up to $500,000, the bank gets five percent of that. Beyond that, the bank gets three percent. Blake Oliver: [00:26:20] So, that comes out of the amount that I would get is like [crosstalk]  Sabrina Parsons: [00:26:25] Nope. That's getting paid by the SBA. Blake Oliver: [00:26:27] Oh, okay.  Michael Ly: [00:26:27] It's basically a lender fee. It's basically a lender fee, yeah.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:26:30] Yep.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:30] So, the banks are gonna make a lot of money from this. Sabrina Parsons: [00:26:34] Well, it depends, right? If your average loan is $50,000, and you get your five percent, $2,500 for the amount of scrambling, and work, and dealing, that's not ... The banks aren't making a ton of money. I mean, if you're looking at it from I'm gonna be a ... This is gonna be a huge moneymaker; maybe in bigger communities, where businesses are bigger, if your average loan size gets up above $500,000, it's an opportunity for banks to make money. Blake Oliver: [00:27:08] Because they're making five percent on those bigger ones? Sabrina Parsons: [00:27:11] Three percent [crosstalk] It's five percent on the lower amount; three percent on the bigger one; but it's just more money, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:27:16] Right.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:27:16] From the community bank perspective, as a board member, the opportunity I see is it's an opportunity to actually serve your customers, serve them well; help them so that they don't go out of business. I don't want them to go out of business because then I don't have a customer. So, I am incentivized to help them stay in business, and it's an opportunity to actually serve people who may become customers. Anybody who's banking with a community credit union, they don't do SBA loans. They're not SBA-preferred lenders. Blake Oliver: [00:27:53] Oh, interesting.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:27:53] Different banks are ... Yeah, community banks can't. Credit unions can't be SBA lenders, the way the credit union makeup is. There are gonna be people out there who have banks that are not SBA-approved lenders, and they're gonna have to go to other banks. So, it is an opportunity, if done correctly, to grow your customer base. I think that's the bigger opportunity. It's, number one, you don't want your customers to go out of business because that's not good for you, and, number two, if you're able to figure out a way to streamline this and help a lot of customers, you could be in a really good position, once we get out of this crisis [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:28:35] The reason I brought this up - I'm sorry, Michael. I'll come back to you - is that I did- in my head, I did the math. I said, okay, $350 billion; five percent of that is $17.5 billion dollars. That's a lot of money that the banks are gonna get. Michael Ly: [00:28:52] Yeah, well, the majority of these loans, again, are gonna be smaller than $350,000, and the final rule said for loans not more than $350,000, they would receive that five percent; but then it does step down to three, between $350,000 and $2 million; and then it drops down to one percent, if it's a loan above $2 million. So, between [crosstalk] $2 million and $10 million max that you're allowed on the PPP, the banks only gonna get one percent of that loan. Blake Oliver: [00:29:17] And it's limited to ... Is it two-and-a-half times your average monthly payroll? Michael Ly: [00:29:24] Yeah, two-and-a-half times the average monthly payroll cost, and there is a definition to that monthly payroll cost that's provided by the SBA on what they're defining as monthly payroll costs. Blake Oliver: [00:29:36] And I should say, is it the monthly payroll costs? So, I take a month of my payroll costs and multiply it by 2.5, with all those provisions, or is it a larger period of time? I was confused on that. Michael Ly: [00:29:47] Yeah, according- Sabrina Parsons: [00:29:48] You have to take- Oh, sorry. Michael Ly: [00:29:50] I was gonna say, according to the final rule, it's the previous 12 months of payroll costs and the average of that [crosstalk] So, it's the total. Yeah, over 12 months [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:30:00] So, when I go to the bank, I have to have some report that shows my payroll for the last 12 months and then the current quarter, by month. Sabrina Parsons: [00:30:07] Yeah, well, they'll actually ask you on the application. So, the SBA has an SBA application. Some banks are rolling that into their applications, but the SBA already released it. It's out there, and you can get it - their actual application. On their application, what they want to see is that actual calculation of ... You have to do everything. You go, you do your rolling 12 months; you get your payroll, you divide it by 12, you multiply it by 2.5, and now you've got what you're eligible for. So, that'll be a line. Then, the next line will be basically you have to figure out what is actually eight weeks, because that's not two-and-a-half months, and it's eight weeks of now, and what are all the approved expenses? So, that's a different number. When you go to them, you do have to have some records. [00:31:02] Basically, if you've been using accounting software, and you have your payroll in it, you'll have some records. If you have been paying payroll tax, you'll have all of that. That's really what they want. They just want to be able to see that. One of the things that a lot of people are recommending is that when you get your PPP money, that you actually open an account, you put it all in that account, and you pay only approved expenses because it's a very clear, easy, trackable way to be able to show and make sure you're gonna get your forgiveness; rather than co-mingling, and then you have to be very careful with recordkeeping. You still have to be careful, but if you're getting a chunk, and you're gonna pay eight weeks of payroll, and rent, and utilities, which are approved, put it in a separate account, and pay it all from that account, and only pay those things, and it'll make your recordkeeping easier. David Leary: [00:31:58] I do the calculation based on my payroll, and that's how they figure out how much the amount for the loan is, but I can use it, and spend it on my rent, and other items. Michael Ly: [00:32:09] Yeah, there's a list of forgivable expenses that are covered in the covered period. It includes payroll, rents, utilities, and other items that's been listed out by the SBA. David Leary: [00:32:19] Is my rent and all that included in the original calculation? Sabrina Parsons: [00:32:22] No, and that's why the original calculation is two-and-a-half months, I guess. You get to calculate two-and-a-half months, and you only get forgiven for eight weeks. That allows you potentially to have some extra, to pay for rent and other things. Blake Oliver: [00:32:41] I was wondering if the wo-and-a-half months was just how long they hope this is gonna last, at the longest. That it's like, "Let's really hope that it's done by April, May, mid-June ..." because if not- that brings me to my next question, which is the amount is $350 billion. How quickly is this gonna go, Michael, or Sabrina? Sabrina Parsons: [00:33:03] Every small business in America applies for it, and everybody just gets $12,000. Blake Oliver: [00:33:11] Great [crosstalk] Wow, I hadn't thought about that. Sabrina Parsons: [00:33:15] So, there you go. But not everybody's gonna apply, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:33:18] Right.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:33:18] To Michael's point, and what he said already - you may be in situations where it just doesn't make sense. If you've already laid everybody off; if you've shuttered; if you can't open for the next two months, you should be thinking of other options. Maybe it's the EIDL, and maybe it's something else. But not everybody is gonna apply for this. It isn't going to make sense for everybody. Michael Ly: [00:33:44] Correct.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:44] When do the payments start? Do they start immediately? Is the whole amount due in 24 months, or what?  Sabrina Parsons: [00:33:52] No. Oh, the payments for the borrower? You get six months' reprieve.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:55] Okay, got it. Six months, and then I start making payments on principal and interest, if I [crosstalk]  Michael Ly: [00:33:59] Correct.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:59] If it wasn't forgiven. Sabrina Parsons: [00:34:03] But I really would encourage small business owners to be working with a financial advisor, whether you have someone internally, or you're going to an accountant. Because I really ... The way this loan pans out, you should be getting what can be forgiven. That's what this is for, and that's how you should think about it. That's really, I think, what people should think about calculating. Then, if you need more, go to the EIDL, and then think about how you're gonna deal with the EIDL. If you're gonna go bankrupt, don't get any of it. Michael Ly: [00:34:37] And if you're hoping or banking on forgiveness, you've got to remember that the whole purpose is for payroll, and payroll costs. So, at least 75 percent of this loan, in order to be forgiven, needs to be spent on payroll costs. You can't be using this for rent, utilities, and other costs that are listed as forgivable costs and have that add up to more than 25 percent of the loan- of the portion you want forgiven. So, you really need to focus on making sure that this is spent on payroll costs, and that you have a way to spend that, and you have the people employed, or people returned from unemployment, in order to do that. Blake Oliver: [00:35:20] Sabrina, you said I shouldn't get this unless I'm gonna still be in business, but is there a personal guarantee? Do I have a risk, if I take this and then, I go out of business? Sabrina Parsons: [00:35:29] No. The Payroll Protection Program does not have a personal guarantee, but the whole ... If you're really going out of business, you probably have already laid people off. When you do your calculations, you're gonna see it doesn't pan out ... It's not just to pay yourself. You can do that. There is a independent contractor, and sole proprietor clause to this; nonprofits can also apply. They've also beefed up unemployment, and everybody's getting $650 more per week. So, I mean, you really have to weight it.  [00:36:04] The whole purpose of this program is to help businesses that really can survive and need that extra help to keep their FTE where it is and not pour people into unemployment. Obviously, you can do whatever you want to do, and people are gonna do it, but from a kind of mission of helping small businesses, I really would advise people to think very clearly what their options are and apply for the right programs. David Leary: [00:36:36] So, I have a question, Michael. You've advised me to ... Or Sabrina [inaudible]. I'm gonna set up a different bank account; I'm gonna make sure I only use this money to do payroll, and my rent, and the qualified expenses. Does that mean in six months, when it's time to get it forgiven, do I have to create some report, and go back to the bank, and show them something, or is this more like an IRS audit situation? Like, maybe, one day, the SBA will show up and want to see justification ...  Sabrina Parsons: [00:37:02] No, you will have to ask for forgiveness. When you ask for forgiveness, there will be a process which is not clear yet because they barely have clarity on how you can apply for it, but there will be a process, and you will want to do that a good 60 days before the six months, because you will have spent all your money in eight weeks. As soon as you spend your money, you should be working with your bank and saying, "Great, what's my process? How do I get this forgiven? Here's all my recordkeeping. It's all in shape, and I have everything I need, and I can prove everything that I need to prove," so that you immediately just get it forgiven and you don't have to worry about. Blake Oliver: [00:37:41] Now, somebody said that I can get this loan even if I'm a sole proprietor; I don't have a business entity; I'm an independent contractor. I think there's lots of different terms that are all interchangeable, here. So, how is that gonna work? Michael Ly: [00:37:55] Yeah, I believe the application process opens up for another set of borrowers, like self-employed, and independent contractors, starting April 10. That guidance, I think there's gonna be more clarity put out even for that group of people, but they're gonna have to wait until April 10, in order to do that. Blake Oliver: [00:38:14] I assume then- let's say I'm that person, I'm gonna be the only person on payroll, right? I can do that? They're gonna let me do that, instead of having to go [crosstalk] Go ahead, Sabrina. Sabrina Parsons: [00:38:24] There's gonna be a process. There's gonna be a process for it of being able to prove, from your taxes and what you filed. People have asked me, "Well, so my 1099 people, they don't count as FTE, if I'm not using them?" They don't. When we're talking for the PPP, if you employ people, it's people on payroll, you pay payroll taxes for. Your independent contractors are eligible, but they're gonna have to apply on their own. Like Michael said, that application date starts April 10, and I almost think that it's because they're not sure what that process is gonna look, and they're just dealing with this one first. Blake Oliver: [00:39:03] You mentioned that if every small business in America applies for this thing, we're all gonna get $10,000, which, to me, indicates that we've got, what, like 35 million small businesses that might apply? Sabrina Parsons: [00:39:16] If you look at exactly all the numbers. This isn't enough. I think Michael alluded to ... There's already talk about what's next because this isn't gonna- or maybe, Blake, you asked - does this mean it'll be over in eight weeks? Probably not. So, there's gonna have to be another aid package. They're gonna have to do something else. Blake Oliver: [00:39:36] Where I was going with that question is - are the banks gonna be able to process tens of millions of loan applications, potentially? I mean, even if it's just in the millions, it's a lot to do all very quickly. How soon is this money actually gonna get out to people? Sabrina Parsons: [00:39:50] That is a really good question. I have heard from some people that larger banks already have a full online application process, and they're saying you can get your money in 48 hours. I have no idea if that's really gonna be the case, given that- Blake Oliver: [00:40:07] Well, Chase doesn't. Chase just has a landing page up saying that they're not gonna be done by ... They're saying they're not gonna have it by Friday. David Leary: [00:40:14] I saw an article on CNBC that says that every bank they've asked has said they're not gonna be ready this evening. This goes live in, what, three hours, two hours? Another hour, right, on the East Coast? Midnight, right? Sabrina Parsons: [00:40:26] Oregon Pacific Bank will be ready. Blake Oliver: [00:40:29] All right!  David Leary: [00:40:29] There's one.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:40:29] I know a few other banks that will be ready. U.S. Bank apparently has an online application, and they're one of the ones promising 48-hour return. I don't know how that is possible, but for what that's worth ... Michael Ly: [00:40:46] Yeah. It's interesting to see how the online and fintech players are trying to get involved, even Fundera and other online fintech players. Although they're not SBA lenders, they're trying to help customers get their documents together and ready. They either must have some kind of referral fee relationship with banks that do SBA lending, or they're trying to position themselves as an agent. There is information about being an agent and how agents get split on the SBA fee. They get a small portion of that fee. It is interesting to see how the fintech players are positioning themselves, in order to take advantage of this application process and help process these loans. David Leary: [00:41:29] Yeah, I'm on my bank website, right now, BBVA Compass, or it used to be Compass. It's just BBVA. They are a national preferred lender by the SBA, but it says nothing of the PPP on this website, in any way, shape, or form. Sabrina Parsons: [00:41:43] Wow. David Leary: [00:41:45] Blake, you said there's just a holding page on Chase's, right now? Blake Oliver: [00:41:48] Yeah, it basically said that they're not accepting applications at this time, but just check back. Then I read another news story, where they said they're not gonna be ready by tomorrow. Michael Ly: [00:41:56] Yeah, and many of the [crosstalk] I'm just gonna say, many of the larger banks have emailed, and I've seen emails from clients that they've received these emails, have said, specifically, "Do not go to your branch. Do not come in. We will provide information. Your branch, your lender at the branch, will not be able to help you." So, many of the banks are not ready and will not be ready tomorrow. Blake Oliver: [00:42:17] So, we'll find out. I think we'll see just how many of them are on the ball with that. Sabrina Parsons: [00:42:22] And I would say this is a great time to reach out to your community bank. The reason I joined a community bank board is that community banks were created to really be a part of the community. They're smaller. They can be more nimble; not all of them, but there's a couple other community banks here locally that I know are also ready. They don't have as much of the sort of big infrastructure and all the organizational structure to get through to be less nimble when something like this happens. I would say think about, if you're not banking at a community bank, just reaching out and seeing because they may be very happy to help you. Blake Oliver: [00:43:06] That's great.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:43:06] They won't do it in person, though. Do not go to the branch!  Blake Oliver: [00:43:09] And this is good because we should all be social distancing. It would be ridiculous if millions of small businesses showed up at their banks to have to fill this out. Michael, I want to make sure, before we go, that we talk a little bit about the practical aspects of handling this for your clients. You said you have, what, 150 clients? How are you going about helping your clients with this? Do you have a- did you email them a service offering? What's the workflow? What documents are you getting together? Is this driving you insane? Are you up all night? Michael Ly: [00:43:41] Me, and my team have been working a lot. Definitely. One is we've- I personally got on the phone over the weekend and over the past few weeks and actually contacted all of my major customers that I had a relationship with and just talked to them by phone, just checking in on them, making sure they were okay and their families were okay. Then, I'm letting them know about their options that we were aware of and then helping them prepare the documentation in order to work with their bank. [00:44:09] Oftentimes, we would ask, "Hey, if you want us to interface with your bank, we're more than happy to be the direct communication line so that you don't have to be involved other than going into your bank, and signing, and approving that you do wanna do this loan or do wanna go through this process. We're also helping just calm anxiety and fears with our customers who are worried if they can even still be in business, or maybe they're doing really well, and they're trying to assess, "How do I continue to grow during this time when most of my friends and peers around me are not? How do I have enough empathy and also take advantage of the opportunities that this pandemic is providing some of my e-commerce clients and other clients, where industries are growing and doing very well?" Blake Oliver: [00:44:52] Yeah, that's a good point. In every economic downturn, there is opportunity, and some businesses will fold, many will fold, but many giant successful businesses came out of downturns. If we can help them, like you're doing, then that's ... We're doing some good there. Michael Ly: [00:45:10] Yeah, exactly. I've been spending almost every day with a few other accountants that many of you know; we're doing a daily update on Facebook Live for our peers, and also for clients that we can send video formats to. I'm also engaging a local [crosstalk] chambers. Yeah?  Blake Oliver: [00:45:26] Tell us about that group. Where can Sage Intacct chamber that tell you. Where can people listen in or join? Michael Ly: [00:45:35] Yeah. I'm doing a daily Facebook Live on my Facebook page. Just search for Michael Ly on Facebook. Michael Ly, spelled L-Y. I'm doing that with Jacob; Jacob Schroeder, Amy Walker, Chris Macksey, and Dan Luthi, who all are accounting firm professionals, and accounting firm owners. We're providing that daily update at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, 2:00 p.m. Pacific, every day. We'll continue to, as we go through this pandemic, until we get out of it, just so that we can continue to provide recorded and live advice and answer questions for people. Blake Oliver: [00:46:13] Sabrina, thank you so much for joining us. If people want to connect with you, find out more about the Oregon Pacific Bank- did I get it right?  Sabrina Parsons: [00:46:21] Yep. Oregon Pacific Bank. Blake Oliver: [00:46:24] Where can they connect with you? Sabrina Parsons: [00:46:25] The best place to send people is just my email address: [email protected]. I usually am a huge advocate of work/life balance, and now that we're just stuck in our homes all the time, I have lost all sense of it. To be honest, I feel like closing the door of my home office and pretending nothing else is going on outside of my house, which is a typhoon of teenagers on Xbox, eating everything in sight. I'm available a lot. So, just email me! [email protected].  David Leary: [00:47:03] Sabrina, I feel like, in the past, you've always advocated ... Not work/life balance; you've [inaudible] work/life integration, and I think you've achieved [crosstalk] at the peak of this, right now, right? We've achieved this now. It's your dream, Sabrina.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:47:19] Oh, God, I don't know if this is my dream, but, yes, I certainly have always advocated integrated life. I don't think I quite imagined this, you know? I say to all of you who have little, little kids, I get it. It's really, really hard. But I will see your little kid and I will raise you by two teenage boys, any day [crosstalk] how do we trade?  Blake Oliver: [00:47:47] Maybe you can ship your teenagers over to me and you can take my five-year-old, who's bouncing off the walls because they closed the pool at the complex we're staying at. It's a challenge for everyone, right? Sabrina Parsons: [00:47:58] It is. It is David Leary: [00:48:00] So, thank you both for joining, because I feel like I have a little better plan of attack on Saturday, when I sit down to decide some calculations of what I think I want to do or not do. Hopefully, any accountants and bookkeepers listening will- they'll maybe reuse what you're saying when they communicate with their clients, because I think even accountants and bookkeepers, this has been changing so dynamically and so fast that they can't keep up with it. If they can't, for sure, the clients can't. Blake Oliver: [00:48:25] Michael is ... You're really on the cutting edge; you were on this from the beginning. I think a lot of accountants- I mean, we're all so busy. It's the worst possible time this could happen in that it's tax season and the deadline wasn't even extended until, what, last week? I mean, I don't even know what ... I don't know even when things are happening anymore. They're happening so quickly, and nobody has had any time to wrap their minds around this. So, thank you so much, Michael and Sabrina, for joining us and helping us get some clarity, because now I feel like I understand at least the PPP a lot better. Michael Ly: [00:48:59] That's great. Well, thank you. Thank you for having us on. You're right, accountants, this is your opportunity to shine. I've even seen accountants send emails to their clients that said they're available to help after July 15th, so I'm just amazed by that, and going, "This money, and their business will be gone by July 15, without your help." Accountants, this is your opportunity to shine. Your tax returns are delayed. Go and reach out to your customers and give them some help on this process. Sabrina Parsons: [00:49:28] Anyway, March was 8,000 days between now; and July 15, it's gonna be another 20,000 days before we even get there. Blake Oliver: [00:49:37] Well, it's because we're living on an exponential timeline now, right?  Sabrina Parsons: [00:49:40] Oh, God!  Blake Oliver: [00:49:40] Every week is twice as long as the week before. We're never gonna get to the end of the year at this pace. David Leary: [00:49:50] All right, well, we should let everybody get back to the application process because it opens in a few minutes, so we should probably wrap up.  Blake Oliver: [00:49:55] Yeah, I'm gonna be furiously checking all of my bank websites that I have relationships with, seeing if they are ready. If you're listening for the first time, this is The Cloud Accounting Podcast. This was a very specific episode on the PPP program, and the SBA loan options for clients. Normally, it's a weekly news roundup of all the latest accounting news with a bias towards technology. So, come back and join us for one of our regular episodes. If people want to reach you, David, online, where can they do that? David Leary: [00:50:26] The easiest place is gonna be probably Twitter, or LinkedIn. I'm just @DavidLeary.  Blake Oliver: [00:50:30] I'm @BlakeTOliver. Michael, Sabrina, thanks again so much for joining us, and we'll talk to you soon. David Leary: [00:50:36] That's a wrap.  Sabrina Parsons: [00:50:36] Thank you so much. Michael Ly: [00:50:38] Bye, everybody.____________ Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar party, Facebook group, podcast, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Hit the show notes, and the links to get more info.

Sponsors BREX: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/brex Minute7: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/minute7 OnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes 04:11 - Forecasting the Economic Impact of COVID-19 06:55 - Kinsa Wi-Fi Thermometers On-Demand Webinar: Forecasting the Economic Impact of COVID-19 - Jirav 08:26 - Experts Say The Coronavirus Outlook Has Worsened, But The Trajectory Is Still Unclear - FiveThirtyEight 11:16 - Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure - Bloomberg 13:11 - Intuit, CPAs Want SMB Relief Via Payroll Processors - PYMNTS.com  16:32 - Coronavirus stimulus checks will come within three weeks, Mnuchin says - CNBC 17:01 - Virus payments from IRS may take months, not weeks, to hit bank accounts - Accounting Today 17:52 - IRS closes Practitioner Priority Service and e-Services Help Desk due to coronavirus - Accounting Today 20:56 - COVID-19 Resources for Accountants Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource Center - AICPA COVID-19 Small Business Resource Hub - Gusto 26:07 - IRS releases guidance on tax deadline postponement for coronavirus - Accounting Today 26:45 - AICPA asks IRS for wider tax relief amid coronavirus - Accounting Today 28:04 - Boston area CPA still making house calls - Twitter 29:07 - PCAOB grants auditors 45-day relief period from inspections - Compliance Week 29:28 - Wells Fargo Cancels Ex-CEO's $15M Stock Award - CFO 31:16 - How Accountants and Bookkeepers can help their Small Business Clients Navigate through COVID-19 - LinkedIn  32:57 - Ignore these horrific-sounding economic numbers - Yahoo! Finance 36:01 - COVID-19 CFO Pulse Survey: PwC 41:12 - Revolut launches its neobank in the US - TechCrunch 44:59 - Square will open its first bank — in Utah  45:47 - Coronavirus Stimulus Offered By House Financial Services Committee Creates New Digital Dollar - Forbes 46:12 - How a Flurry of 'Digital Dollar' Proposals Made It to Congress - CoinDesk 48:41 - Robinhood Apologizes To Users For Outages - PYMNTS.com 49:42 - Microsoft claims ‘inflection point’ for remote work as Teams surges to 44 million daily active users - Computerworld  52:10 - The Best Hair Clippers for Home Use for 2020 - The Wirecutter Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Meet Blake and David in person!  No current appearances planned.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptRight now, Brex is offering approved accounting partners the ability to offer their clients a $1,000 sign-up bonus and waived card fees for life, when they sign up for a Brex Corporate Card. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Brex, later in the episode. ____________________David Leary: [00:00:20] Have you done any of these "Use Zoom to do a social thing ..."? I'm getting invited to a lot of them. Blake Oliver: [00:00:25] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:00:25] I think it's kinda fun to do, but I also ... I'm now in a Zoom, eight hours a day. I don't wanna do another Zoom in the evening. Blake Oliver: [00:00:35] .  David Leary: [00:00:35] Actually, in a way, it makes you miss going out and having a drink. Blake Oliver: [00:00:39] Yeah, yeah.  David Leary: [00:00:39] It hit me yesterday. I was like, I don't know when I'm gonna see these people again.____________ This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Minute7. Are you struggling to get your clients to juggle between two apps, one for time tracking, and one for expense tracking? What if I told you that you can put them on one app that does both? Minute7 does time and expense tracking for professional service firms at a price you would pay for just one app.Minute7's super-easy-to-use interface enables employees to quickly enter time, and expenses from their PCs, Macs, iPhone, and Android devices, even including the tracking of associated customers, or jobs. Minute7 syncs with both QuickBooks Online, and QuickBooks Desktop for invoicing or reimbursement. There are some apps that do time tracking, and some apps that do expense tracking. To learn more about how the highly rated Minute7 does both and to get three free months by using code "CAP," when you sign up, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/minute7. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash M-I-N-U-T-E-7. ____________________OnPay is an easy-to-use full-service payroll that's the right fit for all your clients, whether they have just one or 500 employees. They handle all the complicated stuff, like agricultural payrolls, Form 943, multi-state, and H-2A visas. OnPay even makes it easy to switch from other payroll services by doing all the data entry for each client that you set up. Right now, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get three free months of OnPay payroll service. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash O-N-P-A-Y. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:20] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:23] And I'm David Leary. Blake, we're back at it. Blake Oliver: [00:02:26] We're back at it. I'm still in Phoenix at my parents' place. They haven't kicked us out yet, so that's a good sign. We've survived as a family - five-year-old, wife, grandparents - all together. David Leary: [00:02:38] Now that you have some help ... One of the motivations for you vacating L.A., besides it being L.A.-  Blake Oliver: [00:02:43] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:02:43] -and going to Phoenix with your parents was you need some assistance for working at home because it's hard to do work at home with your kid there. Blake Oliver: [00:02:51] Yeah. David Leary: [00:02:51] Is that better now? Blake Oliver: [00:02:53] Oh, yeah. I mean, it would've been impossible. I said I would have had to quit my job, or my wife would've had to quit her job. We can't raise an active five-year-old boy, and both try to work; or she would have had to take advantage of some of that medical leave, or family care leave that is now available to folks. So, yeah, it's a good thing. I'm really grateful that we're in this situation, and we both can work remotely, which is fantastic. David Leary: [00:03:17] Yeah, I had to lock down my calendar a lot tighter this week, but it was smoother. But I had to be really diligent about, like, "Sorry, I'm actually gonna go, and have lunch, and do a run," and, "Sorry, I'm not doing meetings during this time because I actually have to maybe do heads down and do some work," right? Because the previous week before was just too chaotic. Then, on top of that, having kids at home, just ... I think it was like that for everybody. Two weeks ago, it was complete chaos, and this week has felt a little bit more execution-wise. You finished the week up with a big, huge webinar, or something? 1,200 people? 1,800 people? What was it? Blake Oliver: [00:03:50] Yeah, so we, last week, decided to spin up a COVID-19 template in Jirav; something we could roll out for partners who wanna do quick forecasting for their clients. Under 30-minute set-up template - you've got a three-way financial statement forecast for the next 12 months. So, we planned a series of webinars, and we did one on Friday. It was called Forecasting the Economic Impact of COVID-19. We did it on CPAacademy, and 1,758 people attended this webinar. I've never had that happen, at that scale, on CPAacademy. They had to spin up another GoToWebinar instance and have it simulcast into that one, I think, because we broke the limits. David Leary: [00:04:35] Wow. So, it's not 1,700 people said they'd think about coming and then only 30 percent actually show; It was, straight up, 1,700 people were trying to get into the room to-  Blake Oliver: [00:04:44] Yeah, and over 2,000 registered, so ... It's a popular topic. In that webinar - I will put that link in the show notes - I show the model that I created for the growth of COVID-19 in the United States and the impact of that, in terms of cases, and hospitalizations, and deaths. It's a very simple model; not anything nearly as sophisticated as what these epidemiologists are creating that you may have seen online. But the cool thing about the model I made is that you can actually see the formulas. It uses the exponential growth formula of a virus, and you can modify the assumptions, and you can see what happens. It has limitations, but I think it's really a helpful tool, at least it was for me, in understanding what happens and how quickly a virus can grow in the population, depending on how you change some of these assumptions. [00:05:41] It's kind of a sobering webinar because, well, the chance that we're going to open up the country in April is nonexistent, if you ask me. I mean, unless we wanna do that, while thousands of people a day are dying, which I just don't see it. I don't see politicians doing that. So, we're in this for the long haul. My conclusion, after doing this webinar and a bunch of research around it, is we're gonna peak in May, probably. Then, it's gonna come down, June/July ... I don't see things getting back to normal until August, or September, which, that's a lot longer than most people think. I saw some polls ... We actually did a poll on the webinar - When do you think the economy will reopen; in other words, it will be mostly back to business as usual? Five percent on the webinar said April; 24 percent said May; 34 percent said June; 16 percent said July; then, 21 percent said August, or later. These were folks that already saw the webinar. I'd already talked about the model, at that point, so maybe I influenced them a bit. But I think most Americans are a little more optimistic than that, so they're [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:06:55] I suspect everybody's a little bit more optimistic than the reality that's happening. But there are some signs, though, at a generic level. There's a website- there's a company called Kinsa, and they basically have Wi-Fi thermometers. They have four or five years of data of when people are getting sick, and they can track it state by state. You could really see where the states - as social distancing was implemented - how the ... Obviously, everything's gonna be influenced; not just COVID-19; the generic flu; everything's gonna be ... People aren't gonna spread disease and get other people sick, if they're social distancing, et cetera. You can really see that on this map. Finally, these states are starting ... You're starting to see these declines and even decreases in the amount of illness that's happening, with temperatures. So, I think it's maybe- there is some hope in things like this. I saw another article with a- and we talked about this cell phone data. They're starting to show data where you could see effects of social distancing and which states are doing better than others. But you're right, it's not two weeks out; that's for sure. We are not even close to that as of yet.  Blake Oliver: [00:08:05] You know I like to be a Debbie Downer on this show, so I might as well just get it out of the way; get it out of my system here. So, FiveThirtyEight - this is the famous statistics polling site where they aggregate all the polls; started by- I think it's Nate Silver - and-  David Leary: [00:08:24] He's the one that told us Hillary was gonna win, right? Blake Oliver: [00:08:26] Well, yeah, there was a 90-percent chance that she was gonna win on his site. But, you know, there's always that 10-percent chance. I mean, they accounted for it. What they did is they polled a bunch of experts, like a dozen or more experts, and they asked them for their estimates around the number of COVID-19 deaths, ultimately; and then also when the peak is gonna be. The idea is that if you poll a bunch of experts, even if their estimates range widely, which they do, on the low estimate, people are saying, "Oh, this could just be like the seasonal flu." On the high end, this could be millions of people dying. So, how do you actually get a number that is sort of an average? Well, you take all those ranges and then you average those out. So, it's looking like the best estimate of the crowdsourced kind of numbers is 250,000 deaths, which I think is a lot more than most people are thinking it's gonna be, at least in the general public. That's with the trajectory we're on, where we- David Leary: [00:09:29] Is that a survey of experts, or the survey of the general public? Blake Oliver: [00:09:32] That's a survey of experts, yeah.  David Leary: [00:09:33] Okay because my understanding is when you do those types of averaging like that, you have to do the entire general population. It's like,  how many beans are in this jar, or how much does that cow weigh?  Blake Oliver: [00:09:44] Yeah. David Leary: [00:09:46] Because if you only have people who are experts in cows, it totally gets screwed up, and they're off. You have to have the whole entire population set. So, it's interesting; if these are just experts in this, it could still be overinflated a little bit, if they're not taking in everything. Blake Oliver: [00:10:01] Yeah. I mean, you can read the article and tell me what you think ... People have to have some sort of ability to judge this. I don't think the general public can accurately make an estimate. You couldn't even make an estimate. So, you have to poll people who at least can have an opinion. David Leary: [00:10:18] Yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:10:18] That's the consensus view is 246,000 deaths, and the experts, on average, think that hospitalizations will peak in May, not in April. So, if hospitalizations peak in May, we can kind of just look at this like a bell curve and think, okay, this started in March, really; so, March, April, May; that's three months. So, two months coming down from this would be June, and July; and then August, September, we start to get back to normal. David Leary: [00:10:47] So, I mean, it's good, though, if the peak could be pushed out. We're not close to the peak yet. It gives more time for manufacturing and things to catch up, right? [crosstalk] face masks, and other stuff, and the ventilator machines. Who knows what we could have three weeks from now? So, it's actually maybe good that it's out there. But, yeah, this expectation that this is all gonna be done two-and-a-half weeks from now is completely off base. We could talk about- related to this is what billionaires think about this. Blake Oliver: [00:11:15] Yeah, sure. What do they think?  David Leary: [00:11:16] What caught my eye about this is because the billionaire that was quoted in the article ... This is an article that was on Bloomberg. It's an interview. The title of the article is: "Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren't so Sure." This quote is from the founder and chairman of the payroll processor, Paychex.  Blake Oliver: [00:11:37] Oh, what does he have to say? David Leary: [00:11:38] This is what caught my eye. They frame this up, and they kind of paint a picture of him saying this ... The billionaire Tom Golisano was smoking a Padron Cigar on his patio in Florida on Tuesday afternoon, and he was worried. "The damages of keeping the economy closed as it is could be worse than losing a few more people," said Golisano, the founder and chairman of the payroll processor Paychex, Inc. "I have a very large concern that if businesses keep going along the way they're going, then many of them will have to fold," because this is the new argument that's been popped up this week, right? Blake Oliver: [00:12:11] Right.  David Leary: [00:12:11] Should people die and put businesses back to work? There's definitely a ... Not all billionaires think like this. Mark Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks, he became a billionaire; he sold his startup to Yahoo! way back in the day ... I think it was Broadcast.com, I think he actually owned, or something, and then now he's on the Shark Tank. Most people know Mark Cuban from that. He just said the people should ignore anything somebody like him says, as in him, himself, being a billionaire, and that lives are at stake. So, not every billionaire thinks this, but that's a whole 'nother level of ... I was really shocked that somebody from Paychex is saying this [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:12:46] Well, their businesses is being hurt a lot, right now, because all these small businesses are letting people go. I think these payroll processors, most of them charge by the employee. So, if I let go of all my staff, then I'm not paying as much to Paychex.  David Leary: [00:13:01] Which could ... Did you see the- follow the logic on this? If they're making money per employee, obviously, they don't want people to lay off employees, or get rid of employees. Blake Oliver: [00:13:11] Right.  David Leary: [00:13:11] Which probably leads to ... Did you see the announcement by the AICPA with Intuit and Paychex?  Blake Oliver: [00:13:17] Yeah. So, it's funny, I thought maybe we'd already talked about this last week, but it was only this week that this happened. The AICPA came up with, actually, a really good plan that then Congress, of course, seems to have completely ignored, which is instead of having the IRS mail checks to people, use the payroll processors, like Paychex, and ADP, and I don't know- David Leary: [00:13:43] Well, first, it was just only Intuit, and Paychex, and the AICPA-  Blake Oliver: [00:13:45] Oh, yeah.  David Leary: [00:13:45] They had a coalition. When I saw that, I was like, where's all the other players? Blake Oliver: [00:13:52] Yeah. David Leary: [00:13:52] But now they've involved- now, I think it's like 20 payroll ... It's almost like they got the announcement faster than they got people on board. But I just thought a coalition would be more than two people: two apps. I was kinda surprised by that. Blake Oliver: [00:14:06] It's a great idea, actually. So, it's basically create a central payroll account that the payroll processors can tap into on behalf of their small business clients. That way, small businesses can run payroll, and it doesn't come out of their bank account; it comes out of this central payroll account that the federal government would fund. Maybe it's loan-based, or grant-based, or whatever, and maybe it's a percentage of the payroll [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:14:34] -I process my payroll as normal. I send it to ADP to do the direct deposits, and when they shoot out those direct deposits, they're adding in that extra 1,200 bucks, or whatever the proper amount is that's from the government [crosstalk] the accounts. They're using existing rails instead of passing out checks; physically mailing checks. Blake Oliver: [00:14:51] Yeah, and this makes so much sense because it's fast. It's already set up. Like you said, it's existing rails, and it would allow businesses to keep employees on their payrolls rather than laying them off, and then the employees having to go through unemployment insurance, which ... I don't know if you saw the number. I think everybody in the world saw that chart of 3-point-something-million unemployment claims last week. That just blows out of all possible [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:15:19] Well, there's reports of state websites for unemployment crashing; completely crashing, yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:23] Right. They're not set up to deal with this. The CDC wasn't set up to make enough tests. Now, unemployment insurance ... They've all just been sitting around twiddling their thumbs, not getting ready for the wave of people that are now going to be filing for unemployment. I know, in California, it can take a while to actually get your first unemployment payment. With all these people applying all at once, it's gonna take even longer. So, people have rent due in April. How are they gonna pay their rent? David Leary: [00:15:51] Yeah, and you're right, using the payroll processors, this money could be almost fully distributed in two weeks- Blake Oliver: [00:15:56] Exactly. David Leary: [00:15:57] -instead of waiting, and printing checks- Blake Oliver: [00:15:59] It could be almost immediate. It really just depends. Here's the problem with these stimulus checks. So, Congress, this week, got through that giant $2 trillion stimulus bill, which contains individual cash payments in there - $1,200 for individuals, and $2,400 for couples with $500 added for every child. Then, it phases out for individuals starting at around $75,000; if you make $99,000 or more, annually, you don't get anything; but a big chunk of the population is gonna get these checks. [00:16:32] Well, the problem is Mnuchin, Steven Mnuchin, who is probably being optimistic here, is saying the checks are gonna come in three weeks. Okay, so that's a little too late to help me with my April bills. I'm not getting one, but any of the people who are gonna get one, they're not gonna get one in time for their April bills, so people living paycheck to paycheck are gonna have problems. But I think that's optimistic [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:16:54] I agree with you because I feel like, after 9/11, didn't they mail out ... Didn't Bush mail out checks after 9/11? I remember it took five, six weeks for these checks to roll off these printers. Blake Oliver: [00:17:01] Yes, exactly. Accounting today had an article called; "Virus Payments from IRS May Take Months, Not Weeks to Hit Bank Accounts." They talk exactly about that. The last time the IRS sent stimulus checks, in 2008 and 2009, it took more than two months to get the money in the mail. Mnuchin is saying three weeks. Historically, the IRS, it's taken them two months. Oh, by the way, the three-week number, that's only for people who already have direct deposit setup through their tax filing. So, if they filed 2019 tax returns, and they have direct deposit turned on, Steven Mnuchin is saying you're gonna get your money in three weeks. Everybody else-  David Leary: [00:17:41] Assuming you still have that bank account, et cetera [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:17:42] -if it hasn't changed, right? So, anybody else, it's gonna take months. Remember, this is being handled through the IRS. I mean, I feel so sorry for the IRS because- David Leary: [00:17:52] I saw an article that they're half shut down [crosstalk] starting to shut down- Blake Oliver: [00:17:55] Right! How are they gonna get the checks out? The problem is that the IRS doesn't have a central database on all this stuff. They have to take what Congress appropriated and then figure out how to put those households together and how to figure out how to get the money to them. They don't necessarily know what your family looks like. Maybe you had a kid; maybe you got married. They don't know this. David Leary: [00:18:18] Again, there's probably no funding for the IRS in this bill to actually take on this additional work. Blake Oliver: [00:18:22] Yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's so much in the bill. Just to go over the scope of it, NPR has a really good visual breakdown. If you scroll in our show notes, David, down to relief packages, you'll see this image of how the $2 trillion breaks down. Now, obviously, our listeners can't see this, but you can kind of imagine it. So, the biggest bubble on this bubble chart is individuals, for $560 billion dollars. Payments to individuals, $560 billion. Then, there's a slightly smaller bubble for big corporations. They get $500 billion. Small businesses, $377 billion. State and local governments, $340 billion. Then, this kind of surprised me ... Public health - this is what we should be funding, right now - is one of the smaller bubbles, only $154 billion. Then, there's education, $44 billion, and some safety net stuff. I'm not sure what's in there. That's $26 billion. That's how the $2 trillion breaks down. David Leary: [00:19:23] There's tons in this. Some of these questions are- with the vacation stuff. That's not really in the bill, but that was a different bill, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:19:29] Vacation stuff?  David Leary: [00:19:31] The vacation- the paid time off; the sick-  Blake Oliver: [00:19:34] Oh, that was the first bill [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:19:35] That was the first bill. Family ... What was it called? The Families First Coronavirus Response Act. That was March 18, yeah.  David Leary: [00:19:43] So, you have that bill. Accountants and bookkeepers are getting tons of questions about that. Blake Oliver: [00:19:47] Well, and that's causing a lot of stress for small business owners, because that bill requires small businesses to offer paid sick leave and expanded family medical leave. Those small businesses have to pay that money out, upfront, out of their own pocket and then, get reimbursed by the government. So, how long is it gonna take for them to get reimbursed? I guess it's through payroll tax credits. So, you're gonna  send less payroll tax money to the government ... A lot of the payroll services have to very, very quickly figure out how to make this work in their software. David Leary: [00:20:20] Yeah. Now, our accountants and bookkeepers have to be experts in that. Then, now, the stimulus package went through and now, there's all kinds of tax-related complications with that. But then, on top of all this, for the individuals that are getting refunds back- as if accountants and bookkeepers are not busy enough, right now, all the non- You don't get the money if you're a non-filer, right?  Blake Oliver: [00:20:39] Right.  David Leary: [00:20:42] So, all of a sudden, now non-filers for the last two or three years are showing up to accountants everywhere, "I need to file my taxes ..."  Because accountants and bookkeepers are not busy enough, now they have to start doing previous tax year stuff, as well. Blake Oliver: [00:20:56] By the way, we should mention this, since we're not experts, and there's way too much to talk about on this podcast, if you want a good place to get COVID-19 resources for accountants, I spotted two places, David. Let me know if you have any other recommendations. The first one is the AICPA Coronavirus Resource Center; link is in the show notes. It's AICPA.org/news/ ... It's too long. They made it too long. I'll just put it in the show notes. Gusto's URL is a little bit easier. Gusto has been doing an amazing job on putting out resources for accountants. covidresources.gusto.com. Go to that. It's a small business resource hub with updates about the practical, how to do this tax stuff, to how to emotionally manage your team during emergencies. They've got breakdowns of the latest legislation, how to get COVID-19 loan relief for small businesses, legal requirements, how to protect against the spread, what you have to do on a state by state basis. This is really cool. David Leary: [00:22:04] I complained last week about there were too many emails about COVID-19 [crosstalk] the tire shop, "We're washing the counters ..." This week, I feel like everybody and their brother is creating a portal; a website with COVID-19 resources. Apps are doing it; accounting firms are doing it ... Everybody's doing a lot of unnecessary work. Part of me is thinking, why isn't there just a wiki somewhere, and everybody contribute to the same wiki once, because it's essentially like everybody building their own version of a Wikipedia. Blake Oliver: [00:22:34] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:22:34] There's a reason ... You only need one Wikipedia. You don't need hundreds of them. It's just there's a lot- a lot of people are doing a lot of work that maybe doesn't need to be done, if it was a little bit more collaborative. The AICPA should lead that effort of, "Hey, here's an  open-sourced wiki where everybody can contribute to."  Blake Oliver: [00:22:50] That's be a great idea. I'd like that. While we're speaking about the AICPA, did I mention that Engage 2020 is canceled? David Leary: [00:22:57] No, you have not mentioned it, I don't think, on this show [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:22:59] Okay, well, it is. I got an email-  David Leary: [00:22:59] If we did, somebody will rewind, and they'll be like, "Yes, they did!" and they'll let us know [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:23:06] I'm losing track. I got an email from Teresa, at the AICPA, who manages this event, yesterday. She said, "Engage 2020 is being reimagined as a yearlong digital experience, the cornerstone of which will be an online conference with a virtual exhibit component. That means there will not be an onsite Engage 2020." Yeah, so that's the news. They weren't able to reschedule. David Leary: [00:23:35] We pivoted Accounting Salon, which is the small conference that I put on with Amanda Aguilar - do you remember - of Accounting Salon, which we usually do in May. We had to cancel that, obviously, for everybody- we don't have to go into the reasons why, but, yes, we had to cancel that. We pivoted it into a virtual conference, and we've opened it up to everybody. So, instead of it being an invite-only, teeny-teeny little conference, it's now open to the world. There's free CPE credit, and anybody can join that. The link will be in the show notes for the Accounting Salon Virtual Conference, as well. We're calling it Salon V. Blake Oliver: [00:24:05] Salon V. I like that. David Leary: [00:24:07] Really, that's the only ... [inaudible] the conferences, so many things are canceled. If people want CPE credit, there's not a lot of options. I mean, this is more of an event, but then you have CPAacademy, but there's not ... A lot of these conferences do CPE credit, but they're not set up to do CPE credit online, and that's a big challenge. I don't even know ... Have you been following that? Are CPE credit requirements going to be delayed now? Are people going to get forgiveness for not getting them done? Have you seen anything on those [crosstalk]?  Blake Oliver: [00:24:37] No, I haven't seen anything since we talked about it last week. I don't imagine they will be, because people have been getting it online for a long time, so you can go do that. The state societies do it; at least the big ones; the AICPA does it. You've got free sites, like CPAacademy. So, yeah, go get your CPE. Subscribe to the Jirav blog, and next time I do a CPE webinar, you'll get one of those sent- you'll get a notification sent out to you. I've got some follow-up. David Leary: [00:25:07] Yeah. Good. Good. ____________ Introduce your clients to Brex. Brex is a corporate card unlike any others. It offers instant approval, no personal guarantee from the business owner, advanced fraud protection, the ability to issue additional, and physical cards as needed, and a 360-degree view of all spending activity. Brex has all the features that business owners love. Brex has also built all the features that accountants and bookkeepers love, as well, like instant receipt capture, and matching, intelligent categorization, smart category management, and automatic reconciliation, smart admin tools to easily enforce policy controls, issue, and shut down cards, as needed, granular reporting, and deep integrations with QuickBooks, NetSuite, Expensify, and Xero. To learn more about Brex, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/brex. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash B-R-E-X. Brex is the corporate card making accountants' lives better. ____________Blake Oliver: [00:26:07] We talked last week, when we were talking with Kelly Phillips Erb, it was ... At that time, when Stephen mention, the Treasury secretary, had announced via Twitter the tax deadline was being extended, but the IRS, itself, had not actually announced it on their website. Shortly thereafter - I think it was the next day - the IRS confirmed that, yes, in fact, the tax season is delayed, at least for some filings; the individual deadline, for sure, until July 15. David Leary: [00:26:39] That's right ... It was not actually confirmed with the IRS when we [crosstalk] the episode last week.  Blake Oliver: [00:26:45] It was policy announced via tweet, as is common these days in the administration. The thing is that a lot of other filings - non-individual filings - are still on track. They're not delayed. So, the AICPA has recommended that relief should extend to all deadlines for filings; estimated taxes, relief for all filers, such as payroll, excise tax, estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax, et cetera. The AICPA also said the relief should apply to tax-exempt organizations and fiscal-year corporations for tax returns, information returns, elections, claims for refund, and other correspondence. [00:27:25] Basically, just extending the individual deadline does not really help out accountants all that much, if there are all the other deadlines that are still happening. It all needs to get pushed past July 15. The fact that these deadlines haven't been extended is one of the reasons why, in most states, CPA firms are designated as critical businesses and are still open. You can still go into the office. In California, the governor has said that accountants are essential. So, I think most accountants are working from home, but you'll find some still in the office because they aren't set up any other way than to work at their office. David Leary: [00:28:04] Well, not just that. There's a tweet from Meghan Valero, and she said that somebody, a Boston-area CPA, does not want to let his clients email tax documents, even if they're password-protected. He is doing home visits to each client.  Blake Oliver: [00:28:17] Oh, great ... Potentially spreading the virus from house to house. David Leary: [00:28:21] Yes. We don't want that, as an industry. We don't wanna be the ones that are spreading this around. Blake Oliver: [00:28:26] Also complicating tax season is the fact that the IRS, like you said, is closing a lot of services, or they're running low on staff. They announced on Friday that they're shutting down their Practitioner Priority Service line. The E-Services Help Desk, as well as the E-Services Fire and Air System Help Desks until further notice. So, if you're a tax practitioner, now you can't get that priority service. You're having even a harder time getting your tax questions answered. This is after they've already closed their in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers. So, now you can't get face-to-face service during the pandemic, and you can't even get them on the phone. David Leary: [00:29:07] Well, did you see the PCAOB is going to give a 45-day relief? If you're getting audited, like, "Hey, we're gonna stop right now and not do anything." They could take the staff from the PCAOB and move them over to the IRS temporarily to help out with volume and work that needs to be done. Blake Oliver: [00:29:23] Were they really doing a lot of work to begin with, I think, is the question there.  David Leary: [00:29:26] That's a whole episode ... Yes, we can revisit those types of things.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:28] Hey, real quick, follow-up on Wells Fargo; something non-coronavirus-related. Wells Fargo disclosed, in a regulatory filing, that it has clawed back the February 2019 award of $15 million in stock to their ex-CEO, saying that that stock was conditional on Sloan's role and responsibility for the company's progress in resolving outstanding regulatory matters. So, this is the ex-CEO who basically was in charge when Wells Fargo failed to actually do what it promised to do, when it came to fixing the problems at the bank relating to that fake account scandal. David Leary: [00:30:13] Now, those numbers don't look like anything compared to the stimulus package. It's kind of crazy in the grand- how perspective is completely changed now, when you start talking about from a dollar figure. Blake Oliver: [00:30:25] Well, and Sloan, by the way, he still gets to keep his $1.5 million in base salary that he earned in 2019, despite the fact he didn't get a severance, so I think he's gonna be just fine. David Leary: [00:30:35] He's getting a check, just like everybody else. He's gonna get a check-  Blake Oliver: [00:30:39] No, no, he won't because it phases out. If you make more than $100,000- David Leary: [00:30:42] Oh, that's right.  Blake Oliver: [00:30:42] -as an individual, you're not getting anything. I think it's $200,000 for couples. David Leary: [00:30:48] But did he get- did he make income in 2020, though, enough? Did he break the-  Blake Oliver: [00:30:52] Well, no. So, the way this individual payment-  David Leary: [00:30:55] I thought you just said 2019. Blake Oliver: [00:30:57] Yeah, the way this individual [crosstalk] based on your tax return from 2019, and if you didn't file for 2019, it's based on 2018.  David Leary: [00:31:04] My brain was thinking 2019 was two years ago. So, that shows how this week's gone [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:31:08] You're living on exponential time, so you're already in next year. Yeah. David Leary: [00:31:16] I have an article that's COVID-19-related. It's a long-form read from Alison Ball. She's Global Influencer Strategy at Intuit. She wrote this on her LinkedIn page. It's how accountants and bookkeepers can help their small business clients navigate through COVID-19. It has the typical stuff - model cash flow, blah-blah-blah-blah - but what I really liked about her article is she actually has good ideas for each industry. If you have clients that are in a salon, if you have clients that are plumbers, if you have clients that are fitness centers, gyms, yoga studios, here's different strategies you can do with that client to get through this hump that we're currently in, if you wanna call it a hump. It breaks down for industries ... It's not just the generic same blog post that everybody else has been putting out. She has real specific advice for people to do. Blake Oliver: [00:32:05] I have a good example from my own experience. My son usually goes to art school for an hour on Saturdays. Of course, that had to close, so now the school is doing virtual art lessons; encouraging families to continue to pay every month, and we still get something for it. So, I'm happy to contribute to that. David Leary: [00:32:28] Yeah, and we're starting our online school stuff all next week. That's gonna spin up here in the Tucson area. I've noticed I've done a little bit more ... I installed that app, Seamless, so I've been doing restaurant ordering to go, which I've never really did before. I'm just trying to go out of my way to support smaller businesses and push through. Blake Oliver: [00:32:49] To round out our coverage of coronavirus COVID-19, I actually have some good news. So, let's finish on some good news. How about that? David Leary: [00:32:56] That works. That works. Blake Oliver: [00:32:57] Two stories. The first story is a headline in Yahoo! Finance: "Ignore these horrific-sounding economic numbers." This is by Rick Newman. He's a senior columnist with Yahoo! Finance. He says, "The terror began with Goldman Sachs predicting a 24-percent decline in second-quarter GDP on an annualized basis. Then Morgan Stanley raised it to a 30-percent decline. Now, Capital Economics is forecasting a 40-percent decline in second-quarter GDP annualized. This sounds horrific. During the worst year of the Great Depression, 1932, GDP shrank by only 14 percent. Is the coronavirus recession really two or three times as bad as that?" He continues on and says basically, "The answer is no." The problem right now is that everybody is annualizing this data and coronavirus is unique because we are basically stopping the economy. Then, as soon as it's over, we're gonna start it up again. So, if you annualize, you're assuming that this is gonna continue as it is for 12 months, and it's not. David Leary: [00:34:02] Which even you, in your most pessimistic projections, didn't have it go out that far.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:06] In my most pessimistic prediction, it actually is better for the economy because everybody gets sick really quick; several million people die; then we go back to business in July. This is the debate about the economy versus people, or medical advice, or health is if we just let everybody get infected, a lot of people would die, and we'd go back to normal. So, we're just stretching this out on purpose to give the healthcare system more time to cope. David Leary: [00:34:32] Well, specifically, the healthcare employees. Blake Oliver: [00:34:35] Right.  David Leary: [00:34:35] That's the ultimate problem. If we lose 200,000 doctors and nurses in this country, that's probably not gonna help the economy at all. Blake Oliver: [00:34:44] No, and that will actually end up being worse for the economy. Think about it. Millions of people dying would be really bad for the economy. So, anyway, even worst-case scenario, I think we're probably back to business in the fall. Maybe it's not full steam, but we are back, and we are testing people, and we are quarantining the people who need to be quarantined. We get everything going the way South Korea has been doing it, and they're able to keep functioning. We get to that point, then the economy restarts, so this annualized GDP number for the second quarter doesn't make sense anymore. [00:35:16] If you actually anticipate growth in, say, the fourth quarter, or third quarter, the actual GDP drop is only gonna be 1.9 percent for the entire year compared with 2019. It's not gonna be a 40-percent decline in GDP. It's gonna be a few percentage points, and that is good news because, yes, we're gonna be in a recession, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that bad or that long. It's not gonna be the Great Depression again. Of course, there's a lot of assumptions in there, which is that we don't have everybody in the country defaulting on their mortgages and not paying their rent. So, we're gonna have to figure that out as a country. But if we can avoid a housing crisis because people aren't paying their mortgages or whatever, we should be okay.  [00:36:01] That's backed up by a PwC survey. This is that second item of good news. They surveyed 50 CFOs at big companies and asked, "If COVID-19 were to end today, how long would you estimate it would take for your company to get back to business as usual?" They said- 66 percent, two-thirds, said less than a month; 24 percent said one to three months; only eight percent said three to six months; two percent, six to 12 months; nobody thinks it would take more than 12 months to get back to business as usual. So, this is good news. Two-thirds of CFO say less than a month, once COVID-19 ends. David Leary: [00:36:37] I think that only stands true, though, if they keep their employees. Blake Oliver: [00:36:42] Right.  David Leary: [00:36:42] If you let go of your employees, and you have to rehire staff, that could add a lot of extra problems. Blake Oliver: [00:36:49] Well, and this is why I don't think there have been a ton of layoffs at big companies. Most big companies are using their cash reserves to continue to pay people, weather the storm because they know when this thing ends, they're gonna need those people. It's the small businesses that don't have the cash reserves - that are going payroll to payroll - that had to lay everybody off. That's where we should be focusing the relief is keeping those people employed. The problem is our system isn't set up to do that,  and it's all through unemployment. So, everybody had to get laid off and now file for unemployment, and it's a question as to how long it's gonna take them to get the money they need to pay their rent and to pay their mortgages? That's the big question [crosstalk] but David, we're supposed be staying positive! This is positive! David Leary: [00:37:32] Positive. Positive.  Blake Oliver: [00:37:34] Sorry, what were you gonna say? David Leary: [00:37:35] I was gonna say, in a way, this is almost a play on Andrew Yang's universal basic income. Blake Oliver: [00:37:43] Oh, yeah. David Leary: [00:37:44] Because I think they're gonna ... Even if you still have jobs, there's- at a certain level, they're going to supplement income still. It's gonna be interesting [inaudible] social experiment ... Will people just say, "Ah, forget my job. I'll just take this free money," or will people still work? Because that's the big fear of doing universal basic income arguments. People will just quit working entirely. Blake Oliver: [00:38:03] That was one of the holdups of the bill in the Congress was some Republicans were saying that the unemployment benefit increase was too generous, so some people would actually be making more money unemployed for this four month period, and they didn't want to incentivize that, which kinda makes sense, but ... It'll be an interesting case study to see what happens. I think people wanna work. I don't think they wanna stay unemployed. David Leary: [00:38:27] Yeah, because not working is making everybody crazy, right now [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:38:31] -what these Congress people don't understand is everybody just wants to get out of the house and go to work because they don't wanna be with their families. We're spending too much time with our families. We're going nuts. David Leary: [00:38:40] So, I have two articles that are not super-COVID-19-related, but I think it's helpful for the way accountants and bookkeepers could help their clients, assuming you actually have time to do some advising outside of the finances. Blake Oliver: [00:38:52] Sure.  David Leary: [00:38:52] You probably have heard about distilleries are now making hand sanitizer. I even think that's in the bill, to be honest. I think I heard something about that. There's an incentive for distilleries to make hand sanitizer actually called out in the bill [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:39:06] Now, I disagree with this, David. I think this is bad policy. I think the distilleries should be making as much alcohol as possible and sending it, for free, to all of us ... But that's just me.  David Leary: [00:39:18] I saw another article, where a lot of restaurants now are selling their truffle butter directly to consumers, and restaurant wholesalers. Now, you're seeing farmers - organic farms - because restaurants aren't buying all those little organic hens anymore that they would sell. So, restaurant farmers are figuring out how sell things either online ... Where I'm going with this is, I think, if you are an accountant, or bookkeeper, look at these articles and see ... Look at your clients, as well. Is there other ways you can help them pivot a little to go either straight to the consumer or change what they're doing to make money? Blake Oliver: [00:39:54] The businesses that survive are gonna be the ones that can adapt to a new model, a new business model. Some, your fixed costs are just too high. There's just no way you can survive. That's why a lot of restaurants are going out of business or just not paying their rent. But there are some that can do it. Personal trainers, right? Offering virtual training sessions ... If you're not trying that, then you're just dooming yourself to not having any revenue for months. David Leary: [00:40:19] Well, everybody's worried about the cruise ships. It's like, well, convert two or three of the cruise ships into hospitals. Blake Oliver: [00:40:26] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:40:26] There's probably ... If you start thinking about this, even at this gigantic scale, there's lots of alternatives for whatever resources we have, and the way we're using them, to them to be utilized in a much better way temporarily. Blake Oliver: [00:40:38] Well, I'll tell you this. I'm never going on a cruise. There's just no ... At this point ... Floating pandemic jails is the way I view them, at this point. David Leary: [00:40:48] But they're gonna be so cheap. The prices ... It's gonna be- the deals, Blake, are gonna be ... You'd get the unlimited amount of spirits to drink for a very good price!  Blake Oliver: [00:40:56] I guess if I could afford one of the suites on the cruise ship, where if I were locked in that thing for a month, I wouldn't mind; Then, yes, I'll do that. David Leary: [00:41:05] Should we jump into the app news yet? What do you think? Blake Oliver: [00:41:12] Yeah, let's talk about some app news. There was some big news with Revolut. That's how you say that, right?  David Leary: [00:41:18] Yes.  Blake Oliver: [00:41:18] The bank; the neo-bank. What's going on with them? David Leary: [00:41:22] So, Revolut is ... I think we mentioned they planned on launching in the U.S.; they launched last week. Amidst all this chaos, they still moved forward and launched their bank in the U.S. As of right now, you could get the app in the U.S. app stores and sign up for an online bank, if you'd like; especially if you're trying to get your tax refunds, or you need to file some taxes and get a direct deposit account. Blake Oliver: [00:41:43] So, this is one of those apps where- it's spelled R-E-V-O-L-U-T. I download the app, and I can sign up for a bank account without having to go into a bank branch? David Leary: [00:41:53] There's no physical branch whatsoever. Blake Oliver: [00:41:56] Wow. FDIC-insured up to $250,000. Are there any other cool features of this that I should know about? I don't know anything about this. David Leary: [00:42:05] It's not business-focused; it's consumer focused. Blake Oliver: [00:42:10] Okay.  David Leary: [00:42:10] Obviously, I've not tried it. I don't know anybody else who's tried it, but the vibe I was getting from reading about it in Europe is people who use it, love it. You don't hear a lot of people talk about loving their bank very much. They really love it as a service. I think it's interesting because it's gonna gray those waters of a product, like Venmo-  Blake Oliver: [00:42:34] Oh, yeah ...  David Leary: [00:42:34] Or Venmo and these guys could have to head this way to become a bank because you have your debit card; you're doing your banking in here; it's all one app; you also just ... Because everything's starting to get categorized automatically. Then, do you even need an app like Mint at that point? Blake Oliver: [00:42:49] Right! So, I'm looking at the screenshot in this TechCrunch story, and the screenshot shows my balance and a trended balance. I have a line of my- here's what I have in my bank; here's what I'm spending; and then it's broken down by category. So, it looks like I can categorize, and I can see how much I'm spending on each category. That's really neat. David Leary: [00:43:08] I think what's different about this versus some of these other apps is this is really running- it's real bank. It's not an app running on top of data it has to get from your bank. It puts them at a very competitive advantage. Blake Oliver: [00:43:23] Here's something cool from the article. It says that one of their key features is that you can convert from one currency to another based on the interbank rate, with a low fee, sometimes without any markup for popular currencies and small transactions. You can hold foreign currencies in your Revolut account or send money to another Revolut user or bank account in another country. That's pretty neat. Then, they also offer, in the U.S., the ability to receive your salary two days in advance if you share your Revolut banking details with your employer. Is this the one that also allows you to do cryptocurrency? David Leary: [00:43:55] That I don't know, if they do that or not, the crypto.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:58] Yeah, it looks like you can actually hold Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency in your Revolut account, just like a foreign currency. They work with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and XRP, in the app.  David Leary: [00:44:14] I helped my daughter open an online bank account with Capital One, and we did it all online through a website. You can actually open bank accounts now without going to a branch. It's possible. But to be completely a challenger bank ... This is one of these new banks. They don't- they really haven't existed before. They're brand new. They don't have 80 years of institutionalized decision-making, and plans that they're stuck in, and the old ways. It's gonna be disruptor. This is not gonna be the first. We've been taking about this for months, right? Apps are becoming banks; they wanna become banks. Did you see Square has filed to become a bank officially, and they got their charter [crosstalk]?  Blake Oliver: [00:44:53] Yeah! Does that mean that they are now a bank, or is there some additional process that has to take place? David Leary: [00:44:59] So, their application to become a bank was conditionally approved by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp - FDIC - and they got also approved by the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. So, they officially are launching a bank. It's gonna be called Square Financial Services in 2021. Blake Oliver: [00:45:16] Got it. So, no impact in 2020, but we should look forward to that in 2021. That's gonna be a big deal because now people buying a point-of-sale to start up a new business, once all this COVID-19 stuff is over, they're just gonna sign up for a Square bank account along with their credit card processing. David Leary: [00:45:33] Well, is this gonna be what tips it? Square got it. I think Kabbage was applying ... I think I saw I think in an article before, Kabbage and some other players. Are we gonna see the Intuit bank? Is this gonna be the domino now? Blake Oliver: [00:45:47] I think Intuit has to do it. Yeah, I think we're gonna see it happen. Let's see, we were talking about crypto a little bit. Did you see that news about how the Digital Dollar almost made it into this giant Senate bill? David Leary: [00:46:01] Yeah, I think you tweeted that, and I was a little shocked. I didn't read the article when you tweeted it, but I was just like ... I don't think it's probably ... The times we're in, right now, to do some experimenting with what is a dollar-  Blake Oliver: [00:46:12] We've talked about the concept of the Digital Dollar in previous episodes, and this is the idea that the Fed should create its own dollar-backed cryptocurrency and use it to give a free bank account with the Federal Reserve to every American. This way, the Fed could loan money, or inject money, or print money straight into an account of every individual in the United States in a time of crisis rather than mailing a check or having to go through the banks. It would be a way to create liquidity for individuals. [00:46:49] I thought it was a brilliant idea when I heard about it months ago. Wouldn't it have been great to have something like that, right now, so that people wouldn't have to wait for months to get their checks from the IRS? Well, somebody tried to sneak this into some legislation in the House, when it wasn't clear that the Senate bill was gonna pass and maybe the House would do its own version of this. Language actually made it into the House bill to create a Digital Dollar and get this to happen. Then, it got stripped out, and the House bill never happened, so it didn't make it into the Senate bill either. I think it shows that there is a wave of support for this coming. I think, maybe, after this crisis, given how bad it's gonna be for individuals and small businesses because of the lag, maybe this will actually happen for real. David Leary: [00:47:38] I think somebody put on that tweet thread that the government's already been doing this, in a way, for food stamps and distributing money through electronic means already. They just charge up your card. Blake Oliver: [00:47:48] Yeah, they do these prepaid debit cards is what they're doing. That's how California does it. They partner, I think, with Bank of America. So, if you file for unemployment, they'll send you a debit card and then load it up every week with your money, and that's how you can spend it, just directly that way. So, this would be ... The Digital Dollar accounts would actually be set up via the banks. You'd register with a bank to have one of these accounts, and that would be linked to the cryptocurrency or whatever. Then you could transfer the money from that account into a regular bank account or just spend it directly using a debit card maybe the bank provides. They would still go through banks to actually provision the tech, but it would be something that the federal government could just directly inject cash into, if they needed to. David Leary: [00:48:41] Did you see that Robinhood ... We've talked about Robinhood. Their whole platform crashed on [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:48:46] They're still around? David Leary: [00:48:47] -swings in the market. They're still around, but they are apologizing now. Blake Oliver: [00:48:51] Oh!  David Leary: [00:48:51] They're apologizing for the recent outages. They say they owe it to their customers- that they'll do better, and they're giving out a small credit. I think you talked about the credit before [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:49:04] It's like 15 bucks, though, right?  David Leary: [00:49:07] -apologized, yeah.  Blake Oliver: [00:49:07] Aww.  David Leary: [00:49:07] They said that their engineering team has further strengthened and stabilized the systems. Blake Oliver: [00:49:12] Well, it's a free product. You get what you pay for. David Leary: [00:49:16] We'll see how they do with that. Then speaking of other products that have kind of gone free in a way, have you seen the reports on how much the usage ... We talked about Zoom, I think last week, but even Slack now is going through the roof. Blake Oliver: [00:49:30] Oh, I saw that Slack posted- or the CEO of Slack wrote about how many new users they're seeing, and their stock went up, I don't know, 14 percent or something because of that. You had some data on Microsoft teams, right?  David Leary: [00:49:42] Yeah, and I can't find the article ... I cannot find the article, but I heard this on a podcast. Microsoft Teams ... Because a lot of companies are already on Office 365, they've had Microsoft Teams for two, three, four years, probably, and they've never used it. With everybody working at home, since they already have it, they're just turning it on and using it. Microsoft Teams, in one week, added as many users as Slack entirely has. Blake Oliver: [00:50:05] Wow. David Leary: [00:50:06] It just shows kind of that Microsoft scale, right? In a week, they added a whole entire Slack- Blake Oliver: [00:50:13] That's crazy. David Leary: [00:50:14] -in one week of use. But these. Yeah. Work at home is the way to do it. On a lighter note, have you done any of these- used Zoom to do a social thing? Blake Oliver: [00:50:23] Yeah, we did a work happy hour once, in the last three weeks, and then we kind of let that go. But I'm in favor of it. David Leary: [00:50:34] I'm getting invited to a lot of them. Blake Oliver: [00:50:36] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:50:36] I think it's kind of fun to do, but I also am like ... I'm now in a Zoom eight hours a day. I don't wanna do another Zoom in the evening. I think that's the ... Actually, in a way, it makes you miss going out and having a drink. Blake Oliver: [00:50:52] Yeah, yeah.  David Leary: [00:50:52] Even with all these conferences getting canceled, I'm starting to- it's starting to set into me that ... I'm exchanging emails from people that I normally would be able to give a hug to at a conference. It hit me yesterday. I was like, I don't know when I'm gonna see these people again, like physically see these people. I don't know if I'm gonna physically see you, who knows when, Blake.  Blake Oliver: [00:51:11] In September. It'll happen. August, September. I'm confident. I mean, it has to have ended at that ... Schools have to open in the fall. There's no other option. As a parent, I'll vote for anyone who says they're gonna open the schools in the fall, regardless [crosstalk]  David Leary: [00:51:30] I think that's one of the things you're gonna see ... Teacher funding. Teachers are gonna ... People are gonna vote for teacher raises. Teachers are gonna get funding; school budgets are gonna go up. Absolutely, they will. Nobody ... Because this is the alternative. We don't have schools, we don't have a funded school system, kids are gonna be home with you. Blake Oliver: [00:51:46] Oh, God, no ... No!  David Leary: [00:51:47] Nobody wants this. Blake Oliver: [00:51:47] No, David, no! David Leary: [00:51:50] School budgets are going to skyrocket after this [crosstalk] because they can threaten ... Now, they can threaten. Now, a teacher strike means something. "Hey, we're gonna strike." Oh, no, no, no. We've been through this. Yeah. They're gonna get through that, somehow. I think that's about it. I don't know, is there anything else we haven't beat on this week? Blake Oliver: [00:52:10] I have an article, "The Best Hair Clippers for Home Use in 2020," because, you know, we're all gonna start cutting our own hair pretty soon. In case you're wondering, the Wirecutter says that the Wahl Elite Pro High Performance Haircut Kit #79602 is the best home hair clipper, and you can get it for 50 bucks on walmart.com. Link is in the show notes.  David Leary: [00:52:32] I saw Veronica Wasek, who is an accountant. I saw it on Facebook ... She does a lot of YouTube videos and training videos for QuickBooks. She was out there saying she's started her own self-haircut today. So, accountants and bookkeepers, this is a new skillset. You can ... Do you have to get a new credential, so you'll be like a CPA and then whatever the licensing for the hairdresser is? Blake Oliver: [00:52:55] Well, you can cut your own hair. You just can't charge anybody to cut their hair. So, don't be charging your family members to cut their hair, or you're gonna be in violation of state licensing laws, in most cases. David Leary: [00:53:07] Not in Arizona, though. I think in Arizona, you just have to disclose.  Blake Oliver: [00:53:10] Wasn't that a bill that got shot down?  David Leary: [00:53:13] I don't know if it's shut down, right now, but [crosstalk] So, a reminder to everybody, if you are cutting your hair, call us and tell us about this. Blake Oliver: [00:53:20] Yes!  David Leary: [00:53:21] I wanna hear how it's going out there because I feel like the vibe I'm seeing online, and people are doing tweets, here ... They're frustrated with the SBA loan process ... I've even seen people frustrated with some of the benefits corporations are giving. Give us a call. Vent. Let us know how it's going out there, for all of you that are out there, all of you listeners. What's the phone number, Blake?  Blake Oliver: [00:53:44] It is (202) 695-1040. That is (202) 695-1040. Leave us a message, we'll take a listen, and we might even play it on the air. David Leary: [00:53:56] And is there any limit? Can people just leave a five-minute message if they want? Blake Oliver: [00:53:59] It's Google Voice, so whatever limits they have. I don't know. David Leary: [00:54:01] We'll just assume it's unlimited, at this point. Blake Oliver: [00:54:05] Yeah, leave us a message. If you start ranting. and it gets cut off-  David Leary: [00:54:08] Hang up and call back! [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:54:08] -hang up, and call back, and finish your message. That's right. All right, David, I'm gonna go spend some time with my family; some more time with my family ... Getting a lot of family time in.  David Leary: [00:54:20] I'm trying to. Actually, this is a question for you. Is this a good idea or a bad idea, based on our knowledge of Florida? Right before all this started, I ordered ... In Arizona, lawn chairs, outside patio furniture, they dry-rot eventually. The sun is just too intense. So, I ordered the new- they call them ... Let's just call it material. They call them slings. It slings, and you have to reattach this to the chairs. So, I ordered them, custom made, from Florida, and they showed up. I'm wondering, based on our knowledge of how Florida had zero social distancing happening the las two weeks, do I touch these? Blake Oliver: [00:54:56] I bet that Arizona sun is just gonna kill everything. It's been outside long enough. David Leary: [00:55:01] Exactly. So, I'll post some pictures, and if people wanna see that, they can just follow me on Twitter. Now, what if they wanna see you sitting by the pool? Blake Oliver: [00:55:08] You can follow me on Twitter, @BlakeTOliver, or connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm Blake Oliver CPA. You're also welcome to email me; [email protected]. How about you, David? David Leary: [00:55:18] I'm @DavidLeary on Twitter and on LinkedIn.  Blake Oliver: [00:55:21] Until next week, stay safe. Stay healthy.  David Leary: [00:55:25] Bye, everyone. ____________ Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar party, Facebook group, podcast, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Hit the show notes, and the links to get more info.

Sponsors Bill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark OnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes 24:54 - Senator Dumped Up to $1.7 Million of Stock After Reassuring Public About Coronavirus Preparedness 26:38 - Some webinars re: Food Service and Accounting During This Crisis  Five Crisis Numbers for Food & Bev - YouTube Now What? Business Ops Guide for Restaurants 03 18 2020 - YouTube 29:24 - Planning for the Coronavirus Recession - CPA Trendlines 32:34 - FYI, CPA Exam Candidates, COVID-19 Just Killed Prometric - Going Concern 34:35 - Tracker: These Public Accounting Firms Are In Mandatory Work-From-Home Mode - Going Concern 39:36 - How to (and not to) write an email about COVID-19 to your clients - The Profitable Firm 43:23 - Find Kelly's Forbes contributions here - Forbes.com Connect with Kelly Phillips Erb Twitter: @taxgirl LinkedIn: Kelly (Taxgirl) Phillips Erb Website: Taxgirl.com Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds High Rock Accounting: [email protected]  Bookkeeping Side Hustle: www.BookkeepingSideHustle.com/bookkeeping-guidebook Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  TranscriptDid you know that you could use AP automation as an entry point to offering client accounting services? A successful transformation from clunky manual processes to automated processes can lead to your clients wanting even more of the services your firm can provide. Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Bill.com, later in the episode. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:00:21] What the bill does is it expands the eligibility for small businesses, meaning those that are under 500 employees to receive loans under the Small Business Act. These loans are specifically targeted for folks who are affected by the virus, and they can be used for payroll ... ____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by ClockShark. Way back in October of 2013, I became ClockShark's very first Twitter follower. Today, ClockShark has grown into a highly rated and very-much-loved time-tracking app that is now used by over 5,000 small businesses. With features like crew tracking, scheduling, overtime notifications, routes, geofencing locations, job costing, budgeting, and reporting, the ClockShark team has built a robust mobile time-tracking app to handle the unique that face your clients who have mobile workforces.  By using ClockShark, you and your clients will be confident that their time-tracking data is correct and perfectly synced with their QuickBooks, or ADP, allowing payroll to be on time, and accurate. While other time-tracking apps are charging as much as $8 or more per month, per employee, ClockShark offers ClockShark Standard Plan for just $6 a month, per employee. Head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash C-L-O-C-K-S-H-A-R-K.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by OnPay. Many times when choosing a payroll service, you have to choose between a new startup with a great app, or an established company whose tech may feel behind the times. With OnPay, you get the best of both worlds - a great app from the established company that has been providing payroll services for over 30 years in all 50 states. OnPay is an easy-to-use full-service payroll that's the right fit for all your clients, whether they have just one or 500 employees. They handle all the complicated stuff, like agricultural payrolls, Form 943, multi-state, and H-2A visas. OnPay even makes it easy to switch from other payroll services by doing all the data entry for each client that you set up. Right now, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get three free months of OnPay payroll service. To learn more, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash O-N-P-A-Y. ____________________Blake Oliver: [00:02:20] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: [00:02:23] And I'm David Leary. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:02:24] And I'm Kelly Phillips Erb.  David Leary: [00:02:25] Kelly! Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us! Almost a year ago, I tried to have you join the podcast, and I think you had tickets to a hockey game, or childcare took precedent. So-  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:02:38] Probably. Yeah, probably hockey. David Leary: [00:02:39] So, last week, all this tax change, and deadlines, and all these things kept coming out, and I was like, "Oh, I should get Kelly on again." Then, you responded to me. This time, you were like, "I'm not doing anything now. Kids are just at home." For those of you who don't know who Kelly is, Kelly Phillips Erb, she is @taxgirl on Twitter. Kelly is a columnist. She writes for Forbes, and she writes for Bloomberg Tax. To some extent, I feel like she's been- with all the rumors that were happening last week, she was the one constantly tweeting on top of things and saying, "This is just a rumor. This hasn't been finalized yet," from the tax situation. Blake and I are sending articles to each other, and I almost feel like I'm running around with my head cut off, like a chicken. There's just been like a week of announcements, or hopeful announcements, with deadlines, and tax refunds ... We're bringing Kelly on to hopefully straighten Blake and I out on where those things are at. Before we jump into that, though - Blake, how's it going? Blake Oliver: [00:03:32] It's okay. I apparently left Los Angeles at exactly the right time because they just shut down the city. I'm in quarantine now in Phoenix. Gonna ride this out from here. So, I'm in my parents condo, and they're helping to take care of Thomas, our five-year-old son. My wife and I both work, so this is the only way we can make it work. One of us would have to quit our jobs, otherwise. So, yeah-  David Leary: [00:03:53] That's been my struggle this week with the kids around. It's super-hard. Blake Oliver: [00:03:58] It's really hard. David Leary: [00:03:58] It's super-super-hard.  Blake Oliver: [00:03:59] I've got some stories about working remotely with kids, so maybe we can help offer a little bit of advice, or maybe- yeah, Kelly, what are you doing to get through this? Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:04:08] Well, my poor kids ... I've been working from home a lot, like my whole career. It was actually one of the reasons that I set up my practice the way that I did, because I'm a tax attorney, as well. My kids have- they've been at the office. Yesterday, my daughter was watching the White House briefing with me. This is just something ... Honestly, they know more than a lot of people in Congress, right now. They've been paying attention ... That's how I keep them occupied. I regale them with tax stories. Blake Oliver: [00:04:41] That is great. The apple does not fall far from the tree, as you said in your tweet. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:04:46] Yes. David Leary: [00:04:46] We should have them join the podcast and clarify [crosstalk]  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:04:47] I don't know that you want that. They have some very strong opinions. Blake Oliver: [00:04:52] We could do a Kid's Edition for all the accountants to have their kids listen to, when they have to do calls [crosstalk]  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:05:00] -well, nothing for nothing, and actually, what might be a really cool future piece is I did have a discussion- I know this is off topic from tax, but I did have a discussion with my daughter yesterday because, in the midst of all this financial news, she did look at me and said, "Mom, do we have money? Are we gonna be okay?" I do think that's something that a lot of kids are really anxious about, right now. Blake Oliver: [00:05:19] Well, one thing that a lot of accountants were anxious about was the tax deadline. So, maybe you can fill us in on what has happened in this crazy week, when it comes to the filing deadlines, the payment deadlines. Maybe walk us through the timeline because a lot has changed really quickly. David Leary: [00:05:35] I think, as of last Friday, nothing was ... I don't even know if some of the extensions were announced then. It was just lots of rumors, at that point; even as of last Friday, when we recorded. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:05:45] Right. What happened was, in terms of how the rumors started, different offices were making decisions about keeping people home. It alarmed a lot of tax professionals, who were worried that they were not gonna be able to have face-to-face contact with their clients. While it's true that a lot of folks can work remotely, sometimes you do have to get signatures and other things that maybe can't be done remotely, especially for certain clients who are, technologically, a little challenged. [00:06:14] There were some conversations that were had. The AICPA, for example, was having intense conversations with the service about moving the deadline. I think what happened is a lot of people who were involved in some of those high-level conversations decided that it was a done deal, and they announced it to various folks. I did get an email from - and I'm not gonna name it - but from a fairly large tax and accounting firm that very competently announced that there was a deadline shift to October. I also saw colleagues of mine suggesting that the deadline had been moved to July. Again, this was all last week, before anything was final. Then, what happened from there is that the White House has been holding regular briefings about the COVID-19 crisis and what's been happening, and in one of those briefings - I wrote about it; I actually saw it when it happened, and I think this is what contributed to the confusion- David Leary: [00:07:17] Before you talk about the briefing, for a moment, didn't the AICPA, late last week, put out recommendations, as well, on what they thought deadlines should be? Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:07:25] Yes, and there've been a number of groups that have done that. It's not just the- I mean, the AICPA, obviously, has been very on top of this, but there have been also a number of other groups that have said to the service, "We need to change these deadlines," especially as the states were changing them. Last week, California extended ... There have been a number of states; I have a list of those, as well. Some states were extending deadlines. The reason that this all mattered - for those of us who are in the profession - is because Monday was the deadline for a lot of small business, and business tax returns. So, a lot of tax professionals were hopeful that there was gonna be an announcement before Monday, March 16, that the deadline was being moved for corporate and individual returns, and that didn't happen. [00:08:13] But I think that was kind of what was fueling the sense of urgency was that they wanted to get that announcement out before March 16 and, of course, that didn't happen. What did happen is that the president had a briefing, where he had Mnuchin- Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, on the White House briefing. He announced, during the briefing, that the payments would be delayed. What he actually said was that they were going to accept deferred payments and waive penalties and interest. He did not say that the deadlines would be extended. In fact, he very clearly said that if you needed an extension, you could apply for one. [00:08:57] Well, not everybody watch the briefing, obviously, and you know how folks hear sound bites. Then, the headlines started flying that the tax deadline had been extended. I think some of that was an honest mistake. I think some of it was folks saying that tax deadline meant payment. Then, there's been a lot of discussion - you've probably seen on Twitter - about whether or not there's really any- would have been any impact on taxpayers to not file a timely extension, if they didn't. There's a lot of confusion that came out of that announcement, and the IRS was very, very slow to issue guidance. A lot of folks felt that maybe the reason for that was because they were blindsided, that they didn't expect that announcement. I don't know what happened. None of us were in that room. But I do know that the IRS guidance did not come out immediately. [00:09:46] The IRS has issued guidance, twice now, in response to it, in response to that conversation. On - I believe it was - the 18th, and the 19th, they issued guidance clarifying that payment deadlines had been extended but filing deadlines had not. Many of us were actually writing about that this morning, when the notification came over Twitter from the Treasury Secretary that the filing deadline has also been pushed to July. That is not yet confirmed on the IRS website; although, again, it's from the Secretary of the Treasury, so I think we can rely on it. But if you check the IRS website, as of Friday morning, it does not say that the filing deadline has been moved. So, I think we're all  sitting, waiting for guidance. [00:10:37] Further complicating things, the Senate introduced a bill yesterday that would extend the filing deadline and would also extend the time to make estimated payments through October. So, again, a lot of dates being thrown around; a lot of information being thrown at taxpayers, who are maybe in a position where they're not meeting with their professionals regularly, right now, because of the crisis. So, it's a really confusing time for a lot of folks. Blake Oliver: [00:11:07] We definitely know, now, that the tax- the individual tax deadline is now July 15. Do I have that right? Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:11:14] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:11:15] That's filing and payment; but estimated payments for like the second- estimated payment, all that, everything's still the same, other than that change. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:11:27] Well, yeah, but there's a lot of confusion, as you probably know [crosstalk] because the guidance from the service specifically says that the estimated payments- the waivers for the penalty, and interest on the estimated payments are those due on, and they actually use that language - "Due on" - April 15, and they're not due, now, until July. Well, of course, June happens to be the fluky date in the estimated payment scheme, where you make one on April 15, and then you make another one two months later. So, that's confusing for folks because they're trying to figure out, does that mean that the estimated payments- the second estimated payment is actually due before the first? I think the way it sits, right now, the answer is yes to that. [00:12:13] There were some folks tweeting, and I actually thought it was pretty funny. They said that the IRS made it as easy as 2-1-3, because now, of course, the estimated payments are out of order. If the Senate bill gets pushed through, or if the IRS issues guidance, I expect that we're gonna see that resolved because that is something that a lot of people are confused about, right now. It just realistically doesn't make sense that - especially now that the filing deadline has been moved - why would you move filing, and payment deadlines to July, but still expect people to pay estimateds in June? It's just not logical. David Leary: [00:12:51] Kelly, have you been keeping up with the whole, "Hey, the IRS is gonna cut checks ..." They're gonna be sending people money. Like all of that stack of news that keeps seeming to change, as well? Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:13:00] Yes.  David Leary: [00:13:00] Is the IRS capable- are they staffed to do this, or are they gonna be shut down because of the virus? How are they gonna print and mail these checks? Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:13:08] Oh, my gosh. Well, that's like another week of podcasts for me to rant about [crosstalk] funding. But it is remarkable to me that Congress is so dismissive of the money that they send to IRS, and yet they keep giving them more jobs to do. The way that this- the bill is set up, right now, and again, this is a proposal. This isn't fixed. I do think we're gonna see some kind of check. It's just a matter of how it's gonna happen. Right now, the way it's written is it would be tied to returns, to tax returns, so that does signal, I think, that the IRS would be in charge of cutting those checks. Are they staffed for it? I honestly ... I don't know.  [00:13:46] You've seen, as well as me, folks complaining nonstop. I have, and I'm not kidding, phone calls from the lien department that haven't been returned since July of last year. So, with that kind of lack of response time, I don't see how we're gonna have services ... The reason I hedge a little bit is because the Senate wants this - some people in the Senate want this - to be a priority. The president wants this to be a priority because money in hand is good for people, for the economy, is kind of the theory, right? But I don't see the IRS going and hiring a whole lot of folks to make this happen, so what I fear is gonna happen is that I think these checks will go out from the service; I think they will be a priority; but I think what that means is that other taxpayer-related services will get pushed back. Blake Oliver: [00:14:39] Well, and what about the coronavirus situation at those IRS offices, as David said? We talked last week about how the union representing IRS workers is complaining that the IRS management isn't taking enough precautions for their employees. Many of those workers at the IRS are- I think almost 40- 40 to 50 percent are not that far away from retirement. It's kind of an aging workforce there because they haven't been hiring in recent years, so their current staff has just been not really turning over. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:15:10] Right.  Blake Oliver: [00:15:10] So, what is gonna happen if these people are the ones keeping- continuing to work, and there is a COVID-19 outbreak in those IRS offices? Are they just gonna keep working, or are they gonna go home? Maybe you have some insight into this, Kelly, but I doubt they have the systems to work remotely. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:15:27] Well, I know that some of them do work remotely, but typically those are things like revenue officers; folks who are making calls and doing case management. I think that's something that is more easily done from home. When you're talking about taxpayer checks, notwithstanding the physical piece, which is that not everybody has direct deposit, I think there are some real security issues that you have to worry about when you have remote workers, at that point, because how- who has access to the system? Who has access to account numbers? The amounts of the checks, even though I know people have been talking about them being floated as flat checks, if you read the Senate proposal, it's not flat. It actually is gonna depend on how much money you make, and how many kids you have, and your filing status. All of those kinds of things would be tied to tax returns. [00:16:18] You also have to have a valid Social Security number or [inaudible] taxpayer identification number. Again, those are things that are gonna have to be cross-checked on systems. I don't see that being an efficient system that's gonna be done from home, so I agree. I think that there's gonna be a lot of challenges in terms of staffing, and worker retention, because that's another issue. When you talk about- when you were mentioning the numbers of folks who were coming up for retirement age, let's assume that those folks stay in the job, and they don't get sick. What kind of signal is sending out to future workers about the way that they value Treasury workers, and IRS workers? [00:16:56] So, I do think that they have to be careful. If we decide they're essential, and accountants and attorneys are not, which is what - in some states - seems to be the case ... In Pennsylvania, where I am, right now, for example, attorneys were dubbed nonessential. We actually have been forced to close. There's a lot of moving parts that I think are gonna make this difficult, not just for taxpayers, but for tax professionals, and for the service. David Leary: [00:17:23] I think that covers what's happening with taxes, and the IRS, but I've talked to a lot of accountants and bookkeepers, and they're very scared. A lot of small businesses are in pain. They're afraid they're gonna lose half their clients because so many businesses are shut down. So, is there any that you've seen on the radar, in these bills, as you're reviewing them, that's gonna help small businesses, specifically? Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:17:45] Yeah, I think so. There was a lot of concern in the House bill, the one that got passed last week, about whether or not that relief was targeted enough to help small businesses. So, the Senate bill, which the House bill last week- that was passed last week has been signed into law; that was signed this week. There's a new bill that's been introduced in the Senate by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. I referenced it earlier. It has some tax relief, but it also has some small business relief, and also some student loan relief. Again, right now, these are proposals ... It's in the bill. [00:18:21] The bill is actually over 200 pages long. It's huge. I slogged through it last night, and I do have a piece up about it. It offers a lot of relief for a lot of different segments of the economy, and small businesses are in there. One of the things that it would do is there are small business loans that are available, but the criteria for those can be kind of difficult. What the bill does is it expands the eligibility for small businesses, meaning those that are under 500 employees, to receive loans under the Small Business Act. These loans are specifically targeted for folks who are affected by the virus, and they can be used for payroll; they can also be used for those paid sick leaves that folks were anxious about having to pay; continuation of healthcare, salaries; it can also be used for mortgage payments, rents, utilities, and debts. [00:19:20] The key bits on these are that the loans that are used to cover payroll may also be eligible for forgiveness under the bill, if they keep employees. They're trying to create incentives to hold on to employees and not let them go. Also, folks that run bars and restaurants, if they're using the money to pay employees that normally would be tipped, they also may be eligible for loan forgiveness. So, that's one piece in that bill that I think a lot of senators are on board with. There are some other bits that aren't quite as popular. One of-  Blake Oliver: [00:20:01] I just wanna ask you one question about that part you just mentioned. You said small businesses. It is all small businesses, or is it limited to certain types, or a certain size? How much money can they get? Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:20:15] The way it's written, right now, is under 500 employees, and the loans are up to $10 million. Again, that doesn't mean that every small business can get a loan of up to $10 million because the loan criteria still exists, but it's expanded it so that more businesses would be eligible, and they would be eligible to do things that you might normally not be able to get loans to do. Like, if you go to your bank normally and say, "I need a small business loan so I can pay my folks- pay my employees," they might be a little skeptical. This has made that very clear that it can be used for payroll support. [00:20:51] Again, I think the more interesting piece for a lot of small businesses is the idea that, if they hold on to employees, they might be eligible for loan forgiveness. If that makes it through, I think that's a game-changer for a lot of folks who are paying employees, right now, to not do anything, or to work limited hours. They don't wanna let those people go, but as a small business ... I'm a small business owner. You can't promise people that you'll keep paying them, if the money isn't coming in. Blake Oliver: [00:21:22] Yeah, and that's the thing that could kill this economy is when you have 20 percent or more of the workforce suddenly out of work. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:21:28] Right.  Blake Oliver: [00:21:28] People can't pay their bills. They can't pay their rent. They can't pay their mortgages. That's where you get a situation that spirals out of control. So, hopefully, this will make it into the bill. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:21:38] On a related note, they also have- there is a proposal that would allow folks to take either distributions, or loans from retirement plans and not be penalized, and that would be up to- the number that's in the bill, right now, is $100,000. Basically, the idea is that if you are forced to stay home, or if you have expenses that are related to the coronavirus because you're taking care of someone, or you have healthcare expenses, that you would be able to tap those retirement accounts and not be penalized because, as you know, take them now, you can be penalized. Also, it's not clear that all retirement plans that allow for loans would extend in these circumstances, and the bill says, yes, it would be appropriate. Blake Oliver: [00:22:29] But that would definitely be a last resort sort of thing to do, from a financial planning perspective, because the markets are way down, and you don't wanna [crosstalk] all the advice I've seen is to stay in until the markets come back with your retirement accounts. Right, David?  David Leary: [00:22:43] What a nice gift from these senators, who were briefed on all this February 24th, and some sold stock. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:22:50] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:22:50] Now, they're telling us we can cash out some of our portfolios, now that the market's down 40, 50 percent. Wow, what a gift from our senators! Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:22:58] I agree with you that it's a last resort, but I also think, realistically, that most Americans don't have easily ... They can't just run out and grab $10,000 out of a savings account. I mean, a lot of your everyday Americans' savings, quite frankly, is in retirement accounts, and I think that that's sort of what that's a nod to. I agree that it's unfortunate that the markets are down, and it's not an ideal time to have to do that, but if the choice is that, or how do I pay for groceries this month, I think that it's an option.____________________This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Bill.com. Small businesses want client accounting services. In the 2019 Bill.com Hire/Fire Index survey of small businesses, more than half prefer to hire accounting firms that offer a wide range of accounting, tax, and financial services. Another 40 percent said they would hire a firm based on its ability to offer proactive advice about their businesses, and 48 percent said they would stop referring their accounting firm if it could not offer strategic advice. An easy way to offer profitable client accounting services in your firm is to start with accounts payable. Using Bill.com, accounting firms can take clients' time consuming, clunky, and manual AP process and transform it completely with automation, tracking, mobility, and transparency, setting the stage for more conversations about what else your accounting firm can do to help the client. To learn more about how Bill.com can help your firm offer client advisory services, head over to cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash B-I-L-L. Bill.com - the intelligent business payments platform.____________________Blake Oliver: [00:24:48] I just wanna touch on that story, David, that you mentioned because I think everybody in America should know what happened here. It's just shocking. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina sold off as much as $1.7 million in stock just before the market dropped in February. This is a guy who is privileged to have access to national intelligence that included information on the coronavirus. There's a recording of him warning a group of his constituents about this, while simultaneously telling the public that everything was gonna be fine. This is one of the most shocking things that I've seen come out of this, and two other senators- Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:25:31] I think the number's up to four, now, actually, I think I saw an article this morning that they're saying that at least four senators-  Blake Oliver: [00:25:38] Yeah, there was the new senator from Georgia, was it? I forget her name. Also, Dianne Feinstein. So, this is not just a Republican thing. This is- this crosses the aisle. I bet we'll find that a number of highly placed people in Congress did insider trading.  David Leary: [00:25:54] This Burr guy's even worse because, when they had the bill a decade to go, after the 2008 situation - they passed that bill about Congress and insider trading - he's one of the three senators that voted against it. So, this guy's probably been doing this constantly, any time he gets news. This is when people overthrow governments. It's crazy. Like, what are they thinking? They're so greedy. It's unbelievable to me! I don't wanna get started. I was cussing last night. I told Blake, I'm gonna cuss on the podcast. It is unacceptable, at so many levels.  [00:26:27] In the meantime, you're hearing about ... I'm glad this bill stuff for restaurants. I went to two webinars this week that are really focused on restaurants who are struggling with cash flow, obviously. I'll put the show links in, but there are two webinars put on by accountants and bookkeepers that just specialize in restaurants; really just helping them get through the next week, two weeks - how do you do it? So, when these loans ... These loans need to get here.  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:26:51] In states like mine, our governor, Governor Wolf, in Pennsylvania, has actually ordered all restaurants to close even for takeout after 8:00 at night, now. I'm not sure why that provision's in place, but I do know that all dine-in restaurants are closed now, in the state of Pennsylvania ... My husband teases me because I over-tip at the best of times, but I we ordered pizza last week, when the quarantine ... Because of the kids; because when the quarantine first hit ... I over-tipped the pizza guy, and he was shocked. I wanna say whenever I tipped, I didn't ever tip him like by egads. It was a few extra dollars over what I would normally give. I was just giving it to him, and he asked me if I wanted change. I said no, and he literally stood there, looking stunned. [00:27:44] My takeaway from that is that nobody else was doing that. That was the thing that was bothering me. He said, "Well, thanks very much for this." I said, "Well, you came out here and gave me food. Of course, I'm gonna give you a nice tip for that." I do think people need to remember that, as they're doing their takeout, and their delivery, that while there are bills in Congress that are intended to help the restaurants, we can do our part, too. I know that folks don't necessarily have lots of cash floating around, but if somebody is bringing you food, they're working; they're hustling to get ... It's a convenience for you. I say make sure that you acknowledge that they're out hustling. David Leary: [00:28:26] It'll be interesting data, whoever puts that out, because Square obviously knows how much people are tipping, or all these electronic point-of-sales do, right? If tipping is down because that's even worse. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:28:36] [Distorted audio] I almost always tip in cash for my delivery folks, so I'm not [distorted audio] Blake Oliver: [00:28:43] Well, clearly, this is a disaster for restaurant, for hospitality, for entertainment. My brother-in-law is a jazz musician, and all of his work evaporated in one week, and now he's at home wondering, "How am I gonna pay the rent?" It also doesn't help that he's an extroverted person, so now he's stuck at home, and doesn't ... He's called me more in one week than I think I've talked to him in a year. It's tough for people.  [00:29:10] Accounting is not necessarily going to escape. I mean, we're the sort of industry that tends to do pretty well in a downturn because people need the numbers; they need plans; they need to know how they're doing; where they can cut. I spotted an article in CPA Trendlines, a report looking at what happened, in previous downturns, to the accounting profession and trying to figure out what might happen now. If past recessions are any guide, then they are estimating that the profession could lose up to 100,000 jobs, which would be about 10 percent of the current accounting workforce, encompassing all accounting. That would be for about 10 years. Sorry, it would be 10 percent and could take up to seven years to recover all of those jobs. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:29:57] Wow.  Blake Oliver: [00:29:57] It's like this ... This is really serious. I mean, Steven Mnuchin, he came out, and he said we could have unemployment at 20 percent. Then, I went and looked at what unemployment was during the Great Recession, and it was- 10 percent was the highest. I don't mean to be an alarmist, but I think we need to be realistic, and this could be worse. This could be Great Depression-level unemployment, if we don't address this issue of people not having paychecks and still needing to pay the rent. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:30:26] Right, and I think that's why some of these provisions are important. It's interesting because I know when the payment deadlines got pushed, but the filing deadlines didn't - which, again, I understand that the filing deadlines needed to be pushed - but when they weren't, someone had asked me, how does this help the profession? I said it's not intended to help the profession. That wasn't ever what the pushing this off was about. It's about giving people more money to hold on to. Delaying the payments mean that taxpayers hold onto their money a little longer. [00:31:00] In that Senate bill, they actually would extend estimated payments all the way through October, so that you wouldn't have to pay estimated payments as a self-employed person, or otherwise someone subject to estimated payments through October. Then, also, corporations, it would be the same. Corporations would have their tax payments delayed through October. So, I think that one of the things that Congress is trying to do is to delay these payments as long as possible. What that would mean for the economy, long-term, I don't know that we know what that's gonna mean. But extending payroll taxes, for example - that's also in the bill - extending the payment deadlines for those; just allowing folks to hold on to money a little longer. Blake Oliver: [00:31:52] Yeah. The big question is how long does this shutdown go? Does it extend from California, and New York, and Washington, into other states? I mean, if it goes until the fall, which might be necessary, then it's gonna take more than just delay of payments because those payments are gonna be due at some point. We can kick the can down the road only so long, right?  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:32:14] Right. Absolutely [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:32:14] Where should we go next, David? Because I've got some stuff about the CPA exam; working from home in public accounting firms ... David Leary: [00:32:28] Yeah, we can probably get into working from home a little bit, and then [crosstalk]  Blake Oliver: [00:32:31] Before we do that, let me just say, in case anyone didn't know, Prometric, the testing centers where people go to take the CPA exam, those are closed for 30 days, until April 16. I think it's unlikely they'll be opening in April. Probably not necessarily gonna happen. So, people who were gonna take the CPA exam, now, that's delayed. NASBA has advised the State Boards of Accountancy they should allow folks who aren't able to take it in this window to delay that. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:33:02] Are accountants subject- CE compliance, is that on a rotating basis, or is it annual? [crosstalk] for attorneys, that we've actually extended- the Bar has extended the deadline because those are quarterly, depending on who you are. So, everybody is- kind of everybody's divided into groups, so people whose continuing-education requirements are due in April have been extended. Blake Oliver: [00:33:30] Oh, that's interesting. I haven't heard anything about that. The requirement in California is 80 hours, every two years, and it's based on your renewal date for your license. So, probably, that won't be adjusted for some time. I don't know, maybe people are coming due. Luckily, there's actually a lot of online options. I don't know about in the legal world, but there's a ton of online options now for continuing education for accountants.  David Leary: [00:33:53] Which are more important than ever, right? Because conferences are being canceled everywhere. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:33:58] Right.  Blake Oliver: [00:33:58] AICPA Engage has been canceled. That was the big AICPA conference. That has been ... Well, it's been delayed, and there is no date, as of yet, when it will be rescheduled. A bunch of others, of course. David, you're tracking that at accountingconferences.com. David Leary: [00:34:15] Correct. Blake Oliver: [00:34:15] Which is a website that you set up to help people know what's been canceled. I think we can safely assume that anything in April and May is canceled, at this point, right?  David Leary: [00:34:23] There's a couple of ones that either ... Probably they just haven't communicated it in a way where it's easy to figure out, but that's the whole point of the site is you just go to one spot, and they're all listed, if it's been canceled.  Blake Oliver: [00:34:35] Now, going to the remote work, and the working from home, I think it was last weekend, we were talking about how a lot of accounting firms and the big ones, in particular, were still having people come into the office. That has, of course, all changed in the course of a few days. Going Concern has a list of public accounting firms that are in mandatory work-from-home mode, and you can find that link in the show notes. It's a long list. I can't even read them all ... All the big ones - Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young, KPMG, RSM, Grant Thornton. I think Grant Thornton was the first to send everyone home. [00:35:08] This is really important because you can't- a lot of them were sending out emails saying, "Work from home if you can; if your client work allows it," but that doesn't really work in public accounting because everybody's gonna take that to mean, "Well, if I can come into the office, I should. If I'm not sick, I should." Now that everyone's mandatory work-from-home, hopefully ... The cases of COVID-19 that have been spreading in some of these offices ... Ernst & Young had a case; a few cases; so did some of the other Big Four. Hopefully, this will- we'll do our part, in the accounting world, to limit the spread. David Leary: [00:35:41] I think the working at home is getting ... We've talked about this. You're going through it. I'm going through it. You're working at home with your kids. Blake Oliver: [00:35:49] Yeah.  David Leary: [00:35:49] I've started to really worry about the mental health of accountants and bookkeepers in this because, yes, accountants and bookkeepers are in the same spot. They have to go home. They have to work from home. They have a spouse there that's maybe working, not working, right now. There's a lot of stress. The kids are there. There's a lot of stress. But I think what's different for accountants and bookkeepers is they're taking on the stress of 80 of their clients, who are all freaking out and coming to them ... The burden- the mental weight that I feel like is on accountants and bookkeepers that I've spoken to ... To be honest, I started crying yesterday. It really concerns me about the mental health of our accountants and bookkeepers who are out there. That's why I'm glad the tax deadline got moved, because it's just- it's a weight that's off their shoulders a little bit. They get some elbow room to take a breath; but they're weighing on that. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:36:34] We have the same issue in the law, because I have clients on the compliance, and the controversy side ... I have clients, right now ... I got a call ... Keep in mind, we've been talking about working from home. I got a call yesterday about an offer in compromise that I had submitted. It's crazy to me that someone is calling me to talk about an offer in compromise. I feel like all of those kinds of issues should be pushed off, right now. The IRS should not be collecting. The IRS should not be pursuing taxpayers who are not getting paid right now. It's a similar thing.  [00:37:13] In this particular case, I have- one of those taxpayers had a heart issue and was in the hospital for all of December. He's out now, but when I was talking to his wife last month, when we saw this coming down the pike, she was joking - we were only sort of  joking - that this is the kind of thing that could send him back to the hospital, because it's an enormous amount of stress to put on taxpayers. Exactly what you're saying about bookkeepers and accountants, we have the same issue in the law that those folks ... We're shifting those burdens to us. We're the ones staying up at night, staring at the ceiling, wondering how we can maneuver an additional extension so that somebody doesn't lose their house. It is a lot of stress to carry around. Blake Oliver: [00:38:01] I'm curious to know how people are ... David, you posted something on Twitter about the emails to clients, or emails from companies about coronavirus, and some of them are coming off good, and some of them not so good, right?  David Leary: [00:38:16] I mean, there's the volume of them.  I'm getting emails from a place I bought car tires from eight years ago - a tire repair place - how they're handling ... Every time I open my email, there's 40 more. It's just noise.  Blake Oliver: [00:38:16] Yeah, and it doesn't ... It just adds to the stress, if they're not helpful. If they're just repeating something we already know and saying, "Oh, we're wiping down surfaces to protect you." Okay, great ... Everybody is doing that. I was curious, what's the best practice for accountants communicating with their clients about this? Because I did a webinar, earlier in the week, with Will Lopez, over at Gusto. We asked the folks on the webinar: "How many of you have done a mass email to your client base? How many of you have communicated?" Actually, a good chunk had not yet done it. [00:39:08] So, there's a challenge here because everybody's getting communications about COVID-19, like you said, from the random tire place, where they bought something eight years ago, so we don't wanna just add to that noise. We wanna be- as practitioners, we wanna be sensitive, but we also don't wanna be out of communication with our clients. So, what is the best way to reach out to them? I thought that Karen Rayburn of "The Profitable Firm," she wrote a really good post about ... It's called, "How to (and not to) write an email about COVID-19 to your clients." David Leary: [00:39:41] Oh, good find.  Blake Oliver: [00:39:41] Yeah, and the first thing she says is the smartest thing, which is, if you can, call them individually; leave a message, send them a text message, be personal with this because it's very sensitive, and ask them how they're doing. You should also send a firm-based communication. Then, she has guidelines for how to do that. For instance, start positive. Don't start by telling them there's a global pandemic, and a stock market crash. We all know this, right?  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:40:09] Right.  Blake Oliver: [00:40:09] I keep getting those emails saying ... It's just nonsense. Then, make it clear; keep it short, and make it clear why you are writing that email and have a call to action. Don't just write this email for no reason. So, if the call to action is: "Schedule a meeting with me to talk about what we can do during this time," have a link for them to book the meeting, and then, perhaps, link to something longer. If you've got a lot to say about this, link to a blog post on your website. Don't write an essay. I thought that was really nice. It's good advice for how we can stay in touch with our clients and be sensitive, at the same time. David Leary: [00:40:48] It makes sense to have it [crosstalk] Oh, go ahead.  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:40:50] I was just gonna say, I would add two quick things. One is - and it may sound self-serving coming from a lawyer - but my husband also is a lawyer, and he does employment and corporate law. One of the things that they've been working with clients on, who are small-business owners, is crafting those kinds of emails because, sometimes, depending on the industry, there may also be mandated requirements; things that you have to disclose. Blake Oliver: [00:41:17] Mm-hmm.  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:41:17] Obviously, if it's just working from home, that might not be something, but we were talking about things like service of process; things that you might not think about normally. One good piece of advice is - you know I always say - you should always have a team, anyway. You should always have a good accountant; you should always have a good lawyer; you should have a good health insurance advisor. There are people that you should have on your team at all times, but now, it's a good idea, I think, for small business owners to shoot their lawyers a note and say, "Is there anything I need to be telling my clients?" It doesn't all have to be doomsday, but it may be that if you're not gonna be at your office, you have an obligation to let them know. If records are offsite, you have an obligation to let them know. Again, really industry-specific, that would be one thing that I would consider doing - just a real quick email to your attorney. [00:42:05] The other thing I would consider is - I started doing this last week - rather than send out a mass email, which we have not done from the firm, we actually started putting a tag on the bottom of our signatures. It's in red. Our logo's red, too, so it doesn't look weird. It just reminds- well, not reminds people, but advises people that we're working from home remotely, and that we appreciate their patience, and we've given them alternative contact information, and told them that the best way to reach us is by email. [00:42:36] So, I think that there are ways that you can communicate with your clients without it being so over the top. Every time someone gets an email from me, at the bottom, from the firm, it just says ... I think it's two sentences. Again, "Just please note that we are currently working remotely. The best way to reach us is via email. Here is also a really good fax-number type thing." So, I think that there are soft ways that you can advise clients without punching them in the face. Blake Oliver: [00:43:03] Yeah, that's great. Great advice. I would love to keep discussing this with you, Kelly. This has been super-helpful for me, personally, and I know our listeners are gonna find all of your reporting and insights really valuable. If folks wanna follow you online, read what you're writing, and stay up to date, where's the best place for them to do that? Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:43:23] So, I'm on Twitter. It's just @taxgirl. That's pretty easy, as well. Otherwise, I'm at Forbes.com/sites/KellyPhillipsErb, which is kinda hard to find sometimes. So, the easiest thing to do is to go to Taxgirl.com, and I usually have links to newsletters and articles from there.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:44] Taxgirl.com. That's great. And I'm at blakeoliver.com. You can follow me on Twitter, @BlakeTOliver. And how about you, David? David Leary: [00:43:53] I'm @DavidLeary.  Blake Oliver: [00:43:55] And if you have a story for us, if you wanna tell us about what is going on in your life, right now, just leave us a message. We have a voicemail box set up. It's (202) 695-1040. Then, we'll take a listen, and maybe we'll even play it on the air. We really wanna hear from our listeners - how are they coping? What are they doing to stay sane? Do you have any best practices, tips, or just thoughts about what we've been talking about here on the show? David Leary: [00:44:25] I think that's a wrap. Blake Oliver: [00:44:26] All right. Thank you, again, Kelly, so much for joining us. We hope to have you back, if there's any other significant developments; I'm sure there will be. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:44:35] Sure, and you've been warned that I'm wordy. I apologize in advance.  Blake Oliver: [00:44:37] No, this is great. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:44:39] Well, not in advance [crosstalk] late now, but in advance of in the future. Blake Oliver: [00:44:43] No, this is fantastic. It is. It's so helpful. David and I try to stay up on top of this stuff, but it's been overwhelming [crosstalk] We have day jobs, too, so ...  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:44:51] Oh, yeah, me, too. Blake Oliver: [00:44:54] We're keeping everyone informed. Thanks, Kelly. Thanks, David. Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:44:57] Thank you!  Blake Oliver: [00:44:57] And I'll see you here again next week. David Leary: [00:44:59] All right.  Kelly Phillips Erb: [00:44:59] Awesome. Thanks. Bye.____________________ClassifiedsHigh Rock Accounting is searching for rock stars. We’re a growing accounting firm looking to increase our team. Our ideal candidate will be self-motivated, eager to learn, and grow with the firm. We help businesses succeed by utilizing cutting-edge technology to provide accounting solutions that increase business efficiency and competitiveness. Our goal is simple – enhance accounting operations, improve accuracy, and reduce costs. As a High Rock star, you'll be responsible for full-cycle accounting in a cloud environment. E-mail [email protected]. That's careers@ highrock.co.____________________Accountants and bookkeepers, are you itching to make a career pivot and escape the 9-to-5 grind and the [00:53:30] busy season stress and start to build your own career path where you work virtually on your own terms? Then you need to get your copy of the newly released Bookkeeping Side Hustle Guidebook and learn actionable steps to become a virtual bookkeeper without the overwhelm. Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners can get the e-book for 30-percent off with the code "CAP30OFF." Get your copy at bookkeepingsidehustle.com/bookkeeping-guidebook. _____________________Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar party, Facebook group, podcast, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Hit the show notes, and the links to get more info.

Sponsors SmartBooks Genie: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/genie ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark OnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes 02:49 - Practice Ignition's Top 50 Women in Accounting 2019 - Practice Ignition  03:42 - IRS Facing Union Pressure to Take More Coronavirus Precautions -  Bloomberg 05:32 - Last week's discussion re: AICPA tax-deadline extension 07:42 - Coronavirus Is a Preview of Our Self-Isolating Future - Medium 09:51 - Carl Icahn’s biggest short? Commercial real estate - The Real Deal 10:56 - The Coronavirus Is Creating a Huge, Stressful Experiment in Working From Home - The Atlantic 13:30 - Tech Tools for Working through the Coronavirus - CPA Trendlines 20:17 - TurboTax phishing scam with Excel attachment makes the rounds - Accounting Today 21:13 - The Monster Lurking in Hidden Excel Worksheet - Trustwave 21:34 - Microsoft Human-operated ransomware attacks: A preventable disaster - Microsoft 23:37 - Billionaires like Jeff Bezos use the same phone you do — and that makes them very, very hackable - Business Insider 25:46 - For GE, Dropping KPMG Won’t Be Easy - Wall Street Journal 31:48 - Amid shifting industry, college accounting programs add technology, data analytics courses - Hartford Business 32:40 How Much Does a CPA Make? - Divvy 34:05 - Three common challenges (and three solutions!) for women in the profession - AICPA Insights 36:38 - Wells Fargo Chairman Elizabeth Duke Resigns - Wall Street Journal 39:53 - Amazon Opens Cashierless Supermarket in Latest Push to Sell Food - Wall Street Journal Amazon is opening its first full-size, cashierless grocery store. Here's a first look inside - CNBC 43:18 - Delaware Lawmakers Eye Ban on Cashless Stores - U.S. News Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person!  May 31 - June 3, 2020: BQE Succeed - Encore at Wynn Las Vegas Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds High Rock Accounting: [email protected]  Bookkeeping Side Hustle: www.BookkeepingSideHustle.com/bookkeeping-guidebook Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  

Sponsors Melio Payments: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/melio Jirav: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/jirav Show Notes 03:15 - Oracle NetSuite postpones Las Vegas conference amid virus concerns - Review Journal 06:41 - A simple model for forecasting the impact of coronavirus and controls - Jirav  07:18 - Coronavirus: The Case for Canceling Everything - The Atlantic  09:08 - Companies encouraging remote work and travel bans due to coronavirus - Business Insider 11:51 - AICPA Calls for Tax Filing Relief Amid Coronavirus Pandemic  16:24 - TikTok: TikTok-maker is launching Google-like work tools during coronavirus outbreak - The Economic Times 17:52 - Coronavirus prompts Microsoft, Google, and Zoom to offer free software - Vox 18:53 - CPA business executives worried about coronavirus - Accounting Today 19:16 - Conditional coronavirus relief provided by SEC - Journal of Accountancy 20:10 - Trump tells GOP he wants payroll tax waived through election - Accounting Today 20:46 - Trump calls for deferral of tax payments from coronavirus victims - Accounting Today 24:35 - Coronavirus: Italy to suspend mortgage payments amid outbreak - BBC  26:34 - Bitcoin is also having a very, very bad day - TechCrunch 27:41 - Calming clients' fears during the coronavirus outbreak - Journal of Accountancy 28:50 - Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020 - Sequoia Capital Publication - Medium 33:58 - David Leary on Twitter “I'm guessing they could probably map out who is going to show signs of being infected next…” - Twitter 34:17 - Coronavirus outbreak: How Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok are dealing with hoaxes - Vox Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person!  May 31 - June 3, 2020: BQE Succeed - Encore at Wynn Las Vegas Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast ClassifiedsGo here to create your classified ad:https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  

Sponsors BooksTime: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bookstime ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark BQE Succeed: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bqesucceed Show Notes 03:16 - What companies are disclosing about coronavirus risks - Journal of Accountancy 05:38 - Wells Fargo Fined $3B Over Fake-Accounts Scandal - CFO 06:43 - House Report Says Wells Fargo Continues to 'Abuse' Customers - CFO 08:07 - 'Shark Tank' judge Barbara Corcoran gets her $400,000 back from scammers - CNN 09:22 - LendingClub buys Radius Bank for $185 million in first fintech takeover of a regulated US bank - CNBC 10:56 - Robinhood Outage Extends Into Second Day - CFO 13:58 - Are Banks Afraid of Payment and Money Transfer Apps? - CPA Practice Advisor 15:01 - NetSuite 2020 Release 1 Delivers Automation, Integration and Insight Enhancements that Will Enable Businesses to Grow - NetSuite Blog 17:56 - Sage Exits Latin America With £1M Deal - PYMNTS.com  20:02 - $75M legal startup Atrium shuts down, lays off 100 – TechCrunch  24:56 - Deloitte introduces VR platform for relocating staff | Accounting Today  26:19 - QuickBooks Connect London is cancelled 28:26 - Mnuchin directs IRS to boost audits on wealthy - Politico 30:40 - Opinion | No Need for a PCAOB If Auditing Conflicts Are Eliminated - WSJ 33:36 - Suspected Casino Ransomware Attack: Officials Investigating - CBR Online 34:47 - Why women leave firms — and what we can do about it - Journal of Accountancy 37:46 - My Sexual Harassment Experience at PwC - Reddit 40:03 - Remote work options can boost gender diversity: AICPA survey - Accounting Today 41:30 - We received our first ever Cloud Accounting Podcast voicemail!  42:42 - Feedback on last week's question - What should Intuit have bought with that $7 billion? 43:43 - I'm joining the Melio faMelio - David Leary on LinkedIn Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person!  May 31 - June 3, 2020: BQE Succeed - Encore at Wynn Las VegasNeed Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds High Rock Accounting: [email protected]  Elefant: https://elefanttraining.com Bookkeeping Side Hustle: www.BookkeepingSideHustle.com/bookkeeping-guidebook Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  

Sponsors ClockShark: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clockshark Splashtop: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/splashtop BQE Succeed: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bqesucceed Show Notes 02:57 Shark Tank host Barbara Corcoran loses $400,000 in a scam - CNN 04:55 Email Scammers are Savvier, and More Successful than Ever - WSJ 07:51 Los Angeles is now the least affordable housing market - Housing Wire 10:59 SEC and PCAOB offer potential relief for audit firms in China amid coronavirus - Accounting Today 11:49 Under Armour is Investigated for Accounting Fraud - Yahoo! Finance 12:58 Intuit confirms that it is buying Credit Karma for $7.1B in cash and stock – TechCrunch 13:23 TurboTax's Bid to Buy Free Tax Prep Competitor Might Violate Antitrust Law, Experts Say - ProPublica 15:01 With Credit Karma, Intuit to boost personalization - Bank Innovation 16:02 How to Cancel Your Credit Karma Account If You Hate the Intuit Acquisition - Wirecutter 22:54 Intuit Corp (INTU) Q2 2020 Earnings Call Transcript - The Motley Fool 26:12 Intuit ProConnect and Karbon Ink Practice Management Partnership - AccountingWEB 28:05 Fintech firm Revolut bags $500 million in funding round led by TCV - CNBC 29:35 Best Online Business Banking for 2020 - Quicksprout 31:43 What's new in QuickBooks Online: February 2020 - QuickBooks 33:04 Misty Megia steps down as global head of QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program - Accounting Today  34:05 Pilot.com Launches Three New Products That Reach Beyond Bookkeeping - oaoa.com 38:31 Drake Software Status - Drake 41:17 IRS quietly deletes guideline that Fortnite virtual currency must be reported on tax returns - CNN IRS backtracks on whether video game currencies are taxable - The Verge 45:29 AI Comes to the Tax Code - WSJ 47:55 Accounting profession leaders call for action against climate change - Journal of Accountancy Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person!  May 31 - June 3, 2020: BQE Succeed - Encore at Wynn Las VegasLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds High Rock Accounting: [email protected]  Elefant: https://elefanttraining.com Bookkeeping Side Hustle: www.BookkeepingSideHustle.com/bookkeeping-guidebook Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  

Sponsors Bill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Timesheets.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/timesheets BQE Succeed: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bqesucceed Show Notes 05:20 – Intuit Near Deal to Buy Credit Karma for $7 Billion - WSJ 08:39 – If you aren't paying for a product, you ARE the product 10:44 – More discussion on the IRS Free File flubs 11:19 – Tax-prep analyst sees more free filers hampering revenue growth -  Accounting Today 15:26 – Nevada Democrats Say They’ll Replace Their Caucus App With iPads And A Google Form - FiveThirtyEight 18:15 – Bloomberg botches tax return question in Democratic debate: ‘I can’t go to TurboTax’ - CNBC 20:11 – Just in case you forgot: All People are Tax People – Washington Post 21:32 – Accounting rule Warren Buffett loathes boosts Berkshire's bottom line to $81B – Fox Business 26:17 – Hacking of Accounting Firm Affects Medical Group – Career Info Security 29:07 – Want to Be a CFO? Consider Some Numeric Body Art – CFO.com 32:14 – Tweet us your (accounting-related?) tatts 33:16 – Go here for more PCAOB discussion! 33:52 – Weakening the oversight of US auditing is a very bad idea – Financial Times Without an Independent Watchdog, Who Will Audit the Auditors? - WSJ 35:30 – How Accountants Took Washington’s Revolving Door to a Criminal Extreme – POGO 38:01 – Let's See What Some Folks Are Saying About the Proposal to Fold the PCAOB Into the SEC - Going Concern 39:39 – U.S. House Subcommittee Scrutinizes Accounting Rule Maker - WSJ 46:11 – Rippling starts billboard battle with Gusto – TechCrunch 50:45 – Client Hub Now Automates Resolving Unclassified Expenses – AccountingWEB 53:48 – QuickBooks Online: Evolution and innovation Updates 56:42 – Another satisfied listener! Thank you!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person!  May 31 - June 3, 2020: BQE Succeed - Encore at Wynn Las VegasLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds High Rock Accounting: [email protected]  Elefant: https://elefanttraining.com FutureFirm.co: https://futurefirm.co/cloudaccounting/ Bookkeeping Side Hustle: www.BookkeepingSideHustle.com/bookkeeping-guidebook Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd  

Sponsors SmartBooks Genie: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/genie Analytix Solutions: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/analytix BQE Succeed: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bqesucceed Show Notes 03:03 – Love by numbers? Here are seven reasons to date a finance professional |  AICPA Insights 04:34 – Is $11K in Amazon gift cards worth a prison term? One Michael Mann associate is about to find out | Times Union  06:27 – Check out last week's episode for more MyPayrollHR discussion  07:20 – The U.S. Inspector General blames the IRS for Free File faux pas | Accounting Today 09:25 – Rhode Island cares how you feel when you file your 1040s | Reddit 10:28 – Faster than a speeding bitcoin, ransomware shows no signs of stopping | NYT 12:31 – Not surprisingly, cyber incidents take first place in the list of business risks | CFO 13:07 – Are slush funds the answer to ransomware attacks, or just a quick fix? | NYT 14:04 – Gone phishing ... Puerto Rico just can't catch a break | AP News scam   14:55 – Has the Trump Administration done something semi-intelligent? | Bloomberg Tax 15:45 – Stats be damning – What exactly has the PCAOB been doing for the past 16 years? | Accounting Today 19:44 – Humans – the missing link in tech solutions? | ScaleFactor 26:57 – Come on in, the remote work is fine! Full Read: The 2020 State of Remote Work | Buffer 35:41 – Has San Fran lost its tech luster? | CNBC  36:37 – A little talk about how Slack is lacking  40:13 – Another case for remote work – the struggle to find workers is real | Wall Street Journal 41:48 – Remote Work – If you're not commuting, you're not polluting | Forbes  43:00 – Another "new" accounting app for small business - Kashoo | PRWeb 44:01 – Square waits for no one – they just do stuff | Square 44:20 – New at Xero: Mileage in Xero Expenses is now in open beta and the February Global Release Update | Xero Blog 45:33 – Freelancers need love (and bookkeeping) too – Joust to the rescue! | Small Business Trends 48:10 – Feeling the love and the free ad spots – we've got REVIEWS!  50:06 – FreshBooks sets sail for the UK | GlobalNewswire 50:34 – Xero's not the only fish in the sea, according to one accounting-software minnow | AFR   52:27 – Receipt Bank axes its credit card in the wake of new plans? | AccountingWEB  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! May 31 - June 3, 2020: BQE Succeed - Encore at Wynn Las VegasLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds High Rock Accounting: [email protected]  Elefant: https://elefanttraining.com FutureFirm.co: https://futurefirm.co/cloudaccounting/ Bookkeeping Side Hustle: www.BookkeepingSideHustle.com/bookkeeping-guidebook Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

Sponsors BREX: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/brex Edgewood Business Solutions: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/edgewood BQE Succeed: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bqesucceed Show Notes 03:03 – Oh, my! What big FAANGs you have!  These five tech players have a combined $4.1 trillion market cap | Investopedia  05:22 –  Setting the accounting world on fire – well, at least part of it | Sawyer County Record 06:09 – Cash is still king in NYC | NYT 08:06 – How the Astros brought their C (for cheat) game | WSJ  13:49 – Sage Marketplace offers over 100 ways to customize Sage Biz Cloud | Sage 14:14 – Gusto Cashout service is now free for employees | Gusto 16:05 – Acumatica beefs up its payroll features and integrations | Accounting Today 18:04 – KPMG buys stake in LumaTax | Accounting Today 19:00 – Visor takes a new approach with Get Grid | Get Grid 22:47 – Etsy – "Mistakes certainly do happen ..." continues plaguing sellers with an array of accounting headaches |  eCommerce Bytes 23:37 – Facebook and the IRS square off over a measly $9 billion | WSJ 28:31 – Pioneer Bank faces the music for its actions, or lack thereof re: MyPayrollHR | The Daily Gazette 30:42 – AICPA see deregulation as a huge threat to CPA licensure | Accounting Today 38:06 – Help Wanted – Intuit is looking for QBLive bookkeepers, and they're not afraid to advertise inside of QBOA | Facebook 41:28 – BOA could hit Intuit where it hurts | PYMNTS.com 42:30 – WePay – Scaling the Books? | WePay  43:30 – United Airlines takes a train-them-yourself approach to hiring | CNBC buys  43:45 – Try, try, try again - KPMG relaunches Spark | KPMG Spark 47:58 – Overruled - UpCounsel shuts down | LawSites 49:05 – Comings and Goings: Damien Greathead moves to Practice Ignition, and Jody Padar joins Botkeeper | Insightful Accountant/Accounting Today 49:43 – Jumping ship or business as usual? Intuit's Alex Chriss dumps a huge chunk of his Intuit holdings | Yahoo! Finance Chriss's Intuit trading history over the past year might provide some perspective | Wallmine Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! May 31 - June 3, 2020: BQE Succeed - Encore at Wynn Las VegasLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds High Rock Accounting: [email protected]  Elefant: https://elefanttraining.com FutureFirm.co: https://futurefirm.co/cloudaccounting/ Bookkeeping Side Hustle: www.BookkeepingSideHustle.com/bookkeeping-guidebook Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

Sponsors G-Accon: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/gaccon OnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 00:50 – More Super Bowl earworms here | Ad Age 01:34 – Last week's discussion on tax-prep confidence levels 03:54 – Fake news or worthwhile information? You decide! | Business Insider 06:38 – More helpful journalism from Biz Insider's Eric Rosenberg | Business Insider 10:09 – Which tax software is the best for firms? | CPA Trendlines 11:53 – Intuit ProConnect expands their tax professional ecosystem | Silicon Valley Daily 12:35 – No news is no news when it comes to the Summit Hosting outage, but we're covering it! 20:06 – As per usual, Reddit users have something to say about Summit | Reddit 22:48 – The real cost of ransomware attacks? | Coveware 26:14 – OOPS! That's our bad! – Microsoft makes a huge data boo-boo | Threatpost 28:39 – Just what we need – another report. That'll fix what ails our government! | Accounting Today 30:43 – It's only money ... $22 TRILLION worth ... | Politico 34:03 – When you see complex accounting shenanigans, be like Mr. Buffett and run the other way | Yahoo! Finance 35:06 – You might not like green eggs and ham, but Sam.I.Am likes The Cloud Accounting Podcast!  Thanks for a great review, Sam.I.Am!  37:11 – There's more to CFO-ing than numbers | WSJ 41:03 – Blake sees goodwill in a new light, thanks to David 46:07 – The Gene Marks tome - Outfoxing The Small Business Owner: Crafty Techniques For Creating A Profitable Relationship 47:00 – Teller sets its sights on Plaid with a $4M raise | TechCrunch 49:34 – Former CAP guest, Jason Deshayes, shares his delightful bank-feed experience  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Classifieds FutureFirm.co: https://futurefirm.co/cloudaccounting/ Elefant: https://elefanttraining.com Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

Sponsors Bill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Timesheets.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/timesheets OnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes 02:20 – Blake gets his nerd on in the hunt for the true meaning of goodwill 04:40 – Google hopes you won't pay attention to its new search results format | The Verge 06:47 – Reviews and feedback!  Thank you!  07:31 – Our in-depth discussion of the four-day workweek is here 07:41 – How to stop serial meeting holders in their tracks – charge them for every meeting they schedule! | Bloomberg 09:42 – Donny takes us to task on our discussion of RPAs in the Predictions episode  10:34 – More on the Gartner definition of RPA | Gartner.com 13:24 – Divided we accountants fall over the definition of goodwill | WSJ 14:38 – Some more insight on goodwill from Calcbench | Calcbench 25:13 – Why train your staff online when you can build a $450M campus like KPMG? | Bloomberg Tax 26:55 – More new accounting standards equals ever-rising audit fees | Accounting Today 28:17 – What you need to know about tax-zapper software! | AccountingWEBMore info on the zappers here | Wikipedia 29:17 – Grounded for life – Former WF CEO gets the boot from banking | CFO 31:00 – Seeing red – Cachet files for Chapter 11 | Albany Business Review If you missed it, here's our discussion with Cachet's General Counsel last year 32:08 – $35 TRILLION worth of stupid accounting tricks | Bloomberg 35:38 – Is the Big Easy just a Big Target for hackers? | PYMNTS 36:57 – Totally tubular, man! Everything you ever needed to know about pneumatic tubes | Pneumatic.Tube  38:00 – The Digital Dollar Projects gets us one step closer to Fed-backed cryptocurrency | CFO  39:18 – Pass the bucks - China's testing out its own digital dollar | NPR  40:20 – Have phone, will vote? King County thinks so | WSJ 43:52 – Maybe it's not Mint to be | Fast Company 47:00 – Mint might not be your thing, but You really Need a Budget | YNAB  49:20 – Tax prep jitters? Not according to this survey | Finance Buzz 50:55 – VCs are placing some pretty high bets on B2B fintechs | PYMNTS 51:45 – Ceterus, playing the accounting firm with engineers games, rakes in a total of $30M | The Post and Courier 52:31 – According to Glassdoor, you need to become an accounting manager | Going Concern 53:41 – Need to beef up your firm's password management? Check out this guide | Tom's Guide  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!            Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Classifieds FutureFirm.co: https://futurefirm.co/cloudaccounting/ Elefant: https://elefanttraining.com Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

Sponsors QuickFee: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickfee AccountingSuite: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuite OnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpay Show Notes 01:52 – David can see clearly now, just in time to admire the cracked screen of his smartphone 02:42 – Blake's upping his skills game at Jirav, learning financial modeling 03:08 – Blake's second webinar - Webinar Recording: How to Build a Financial Model for an Accounting Firm | Jirav 04:25 – The most effective way to master a new tool or software is to use it for yourself, or a client 05:24 – Is there life after The Cloud Accounting Podcast? Blake reveals his retirement plan 06:57 – Side hustles can help you understand your clients' pain points 07:42 – American remote-worker ranks have nearly tripled in the past two decades! 08:02 – Business on top, PJs on the bottom - just one of the reasons why remote work rules!  08:18 – Reviews! Thank you, I <3 smilies, Aassas, and Glafollette!   13:43 – Visa changes it stripes, with some $5.3 billion Plaid | Bank Innovation 14:30 – Is data the new oil?  15:46 – Everything old wants to be new again, when it comes to fintechs, at least | Advisorhub 16:30 -- Visa's Acquisition of Plaid Presentation | Visa 17:42 – No QuickBooks Online Advance? No ChronoBooks for you! | Intuitive Accountant 19:16 – Perhaps Intuit killed the wrong tool? The ChronoBooks backlash begins 23:38 – Who needs a one-percent reward, when you can boost your Karma with every purchase? | Expensify  27:12 – Dave Barrett makes a case for Karma | Expensify 27:23 – Do you Concur? Emburse wants to change your mind! | Accounting Today 29:19 – Google ups its productivity game with the acquisition of AppSheet | AppSheet  31:16 – Stand up and shout  - FASB is the villain! | Accounting Today 33:02 – While it might delight CPAs and auditors, this 10,000 page codification, for mere accounting mortals, is a bit much 33:28 – The End of Accounting by Baruch Lev and Feng Gu | Amazon 34:32 – There's really no place for GAAP-basis financials in a subscription economy 37:11 – The CCPA implementation comes with a pretty hefty price tag - $55 BILLION |The Hill 39:11 – Could the CCPA be more trouble, and new risk than it's actually worth?  41:00 – Email still poses the biggest security threat for small businesses | PYMNTS 42:17 – Deepfake audio fraud is the new risk in town | Axios 43:28 – Are Google and Facebook too big to fail? Apparently not when it comes to invoicing scams | Fortune  44:19 – While paper check usage declines, check fraud continues to rise | WSJ 45:09 – UK small businesses are just not that fond of open banking |  PYMNTS 46:29 – Be afraid; be very afraid of the Buffett Indicator | CCN 47:05 – Mr. Buffett buys low, and sells high, or holds ... Be like Mr. Buffett!  49:41 – Time to move to Finland? | Quartz at Work 51:44 – Eliminating useless and constant meetings might be even more useful than a four-day workweek 52:28 – Who needs humans when you can hire an Alphabot? Walmart's trying to stay in the game with warehouse automation | Gizmodo Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!   Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   ClassifiedsFutureFirm.co: https://futurefirm.co/cloudaccounting/ Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

SponsorsQuickFee: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickfeeAccountingSuite: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/asuiteOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayShow Notes 05:31 – Fresh back from the Sage Accountants Advisory Council, in Dallas, Blake is basking in brisket afterglow and ready to talk cloud accounting! 06:21 – David takes a field trip to a real accounting firm!  07:53 – It’s tax season! Yay … | Accounting Today 08:41 – Are IRS audits becoming an endangered activity? | CNBC  11:51 – When the IRS fails to collect from cheaters, it costs everyone else up to $3K | Accounting Today  15:25 – Wanna get new biz for your firm? Start during tax season! | CPA Trendlines 17:08 – IRS calls open season on tax-prep competition, and gives the Free File program a makeover | ProPublica  19:43 – Straight from the source - Free File: File Your Taxes Online for Free | IRS 23:16 – According to a recent survey, accountants are upping their tech game and their advising skills! | AccountingWEB 29:56 – Hello Pot, this is Kettle – Is Amazon feeling too much heat from Honey? | PYMNTS 31:28 – California – Land of Confusion – When it comes to the new privacy law | Fox and Hounds Daily   35:42 – Way to keep that private info safe, Facebook! | Bloomberg  37:35 – No time like the present – the California Board of Accountancy switches to email distribution of its newsletter, just in time to let everyone know they raised their fees | CBA 39:30 – New Year's Bug Takes NYC Parking Meters Offline | PYMNTS 41:53 – Virtually screwed –Thomson Reuters’ Virtual Office goes down for the count … But at least they’re providing status updates!  | Thomson Reuters  47:49 – What’s your favorite way of dealing with client 1099s? | CPA Trendlines 49:51 – “Hey, you! Get off of my screen!” Chase just says no to screen-scrapers | Bank Innovation  51:51 – Do banking consumers really want to know who owns their bank data? | CNBC  54:43 – What is open banking, anyway? | American Banker  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!   Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   ClassifiedsFutureFirm.co: https://futurefirm.co/cloudaccounting/ Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd

SponsorsJirav: www.jirav.comHi, this is Blake, and I just wanted to let you know that this episode of the Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Jirav, my employer. “Jirav” sounds a lot like “giraffe” — and that’s no accident. Giraffes are the tallest animal in the world. That gives them a great view. Our goal at Jirav is to give you a similarly great view of what’s going on with your business.We do that by helping you understand where your business has been, and most importantly, predict where it’s going. Jirav connects your cloud-based accounting, payroll, CRM, and billing data together to automatically update shareable online dashboards, monthly reporting packages, and sophisticated financial plans and budgets in real-time. If you’re using Excel for reporting and forecasting, you’ll save hours every month with Jirav.Learn how accounting firms are using Jirav to deliver connected insight, strategize growth, and help their clients make more profitable decisions. Visit jirav.com and start your 30 day free trial. That’s J-I-R-A-V dot com. See farther with Jirav.Show Notes 00:38 – Looking back - how many 2019 predictions came true?  03:17 – Blake's first prediction for 2020 comes true less than a minute later ... Well, sort of ...  03:38 – Culling All Accounting Conferences – less definitely may start to be more! | Accounting Today 05:33 – Is there any value in free?  09:01 – Duh ... Overstating the obvious isn't really making a prediction | E27 09:31 – Dynamic pricing is just not a thing, at least not for the smaller players 11:09 – Hmm - is "used" the new "new"?  11:28 – What's going to have the biggest short-term impact on accounting? One hint: it's not humans | Journal of Accountancy 13:25 – Blockchain in 2020 - boom or bust? | Enterprise Times  14:50 – Armanino releases blockchain-powered app for instant attestation | Accounting Today 16:49 – Government still says no to crypto | Real Daily 19:58 – Everybody’s losing their minds over 5G! But, why? | The Verge 21:14 – Blake takes issue with 2020 being the breakout year for 5G – lack of speed isn’t the problem; lack of use is  23:25 – 2020 just might be the year of foldy, rolly, hidey devices ... Maybe 25:12 – 2020 sees the hiring of non-accounting grads at CPA firms continue | Journal of Accountancy 26:25 – Blake says it's going to take a good decade to create and implement the changes needed in the CPA exam and curriculum  27:49 – Want to stay relevant, and innovate? Pull your head out of last year! | LinkedIn 29:33 – Millennials might be so 2019, but they still have some decent asks when it comes to employment | Boomer.com  31:31 – Open banking in the US? Maybe in 2030 ... | Accountancy Today 33:19 – What's the most important issue facing the accounting industry? Here are at least 100 | Accounting Today 35:30 – Things are different all over -  2020 Accounting Changes from Down Under | Accountants Daily  37:42 – Automation - great for those with actual skills; not great for the not-so-great ...  37:55 – What do accounting regulators actually DO? | CFO Dive 40:17 – For your reading pleasure - 120 AI Predictions For 2020 | Forbes 42:17 – Speaking of Voice AI – 46 industry pros share their 2020 Voice AI predictions | Voicebot.ai 45:01 – VR will continue to make people nauseous in 2020  45:08 – Four (just four?) Creepy Applications That Will Change Your Business In 2020 | Inc.com 47:36 – Is Netflix going to be your next bank? | Banking Innovation 49:24 – The moment we've all be waiting for - David and Blake offer up their 2020 predictions! 🎉 49:30 – Nobody's staying in their lane! David says watch out for blurred, crossed, and muddied lines more than ever.  50:59 – According to Blake, 2020 is the year that one of the GL players - think QuickBooks, Xero, et cetera - becomes a bank.  52:28 – David's no-brainer prediction - Xero and Sage will have to launch their own version of Live product to compete with QuickBooks Live. Mark his word! (For the record, Blake disagrees)  54:24 – Podunk is not the proper nomenclature, David ... 😁 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!   Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer!Show Notes 01:48 – When it comes to staying organized, there’s only OneNote for Blake 04:24 – This one time, at Pod Camp ... David’s reminiscing about the early days of podcasting 06:00 – Laws, laws, everywhere – We talk about what’s new for 2020 in California - Assembly Bill 5, and the California Consumer Privacy Act 10:31 – Who's gonna drive you home? Uber argues that they’re not “really” a ride service 13:34 – Time to get your CPA? Certain recognized professions, such as accounting, may be exempt from the AB 5 requirements 14:23 – A refresher on European data protection laws | European Commission  16:48 – The devil’s in the data – just how much data will businesses be required to provide to consumers? | NYT Bits Newsletter 21:11 – Multifactor authentication, anyone? Moss Adams is the latest to report a data breach | Accounting Today 25:27 – Receipt Bank rakes in $73M in new funding with an eye towards tackling the US market | Enterprise Times 27:58 – Show me your AI … Google’s latest AI innovation targets breast cancer detection | WSJ  32:15 – Face value – H&R Block targets our need for personal interaction with its new software offering | Accounting Today 34:01 – Top tips for 10-year Customers here | SaaStr 34:33 – Apparently, accounting clients do not have commitment issues! | Accounting Today 37:06 – There’s gotta be better way than a 100-percent interest rate on small-biz loan! biz | PYMNTS  39:02 – They’re going the distance – the IRS updates 2020 mileage rate |Small Business Trends 39:13 – Perhaps the FASB fears change? WSJ 40:31 – In the meantime, however, this is what FASB’s working on for 2020 | WSJ  43:21 – Big Four, Big Tech, Big To-Do About Nothing? | Bloomberg Tax  46:46 – Stats abound  50:20 – Stayed tuned! Predictions are coming! Really! Before the end of the year! We promise!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!   Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer!Show Notes 00:54 – Smart and Smarter? A look back at smartphones over the years | Reuters 01:03 – Tech years = dog years – we look at some of the massive changes that have taken place over the last decade | WSJ 06:05 – Seven tech and marketing predictions that fizzled out over the past 10 years | Econsultancy 13:29 – Small online businesses are still scrambling in the wake of Wayfair | WSJ 17:59 – Scott Greenberg’s decade review of federal tax policy in tweets | Twitter 18:49 – In case you missed it, here are some Accounting Standards Updates issued by FASB back in December 2019 | FASB 19:03 – Three Considerations for Cloud Computing Accounting Rules | CFO 21:00 – Who ya gonna call? QuickBooks Live Bookkeepers, hopefully … | YouTube 23:06 – QuickBooks Live is making an impression, or 734 million-plus impressions, according to AdAge | AdAge  25:57 – A “glitch” caused a delay in Federal Reserve direct deposits | CNBC 29:10 – It’s actually “Athleta …”  29:20 – Want to work in retail? You might want to brush up on your app skills! | NYT 36:20 – How invested are firms in tech? | Accountancy Age via Ryan Lazanis' weekly newsletter, Future Firm Top 5  38:38 – The marketing and high-growth connection for accounting firms | Bill.com  43:56 – Got some holiday cash burning a hole in your pocket? Check out our snazzy merch store!   Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!   Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast 

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer!Show Notes 01:59 – What’s in a name? Ask Richard Kopelman, CEO of Aprio | Aprio 04:07 – The U.S. can’t seem to tear itself away from using paper checks, but Australia can! | Eureka Report 04:57 – Another review! Thank you, Karen Bertrand!  06:05 – Bill.com’s best share price, according to Jim Cramer | CNBC 07:03 – Is there an acquisition in Bill.com’s future? Some traders think so | Quartz Actual article title: “Why Bill.com’s stock is soaring, while other IPOs sink” 09:27 – Are there any reasons to avoid buying up Bill.com shares? | Forbes 11:16 – California’s credit score could be crumbling | The Sacramento Bee 13:25 – Summit Hosting acquires iNSYNQ’s assets in the wake of this year’s ransomware attack | MSSP Alert  15:45 – Liberty Tax’s parent pays a pretty penny to settle with the Justice Department, and IRS | Accounting Today  17:57 – An unethical culture breeds unethical behavior – check out our discussion with Kelly Richmond Pope in Episode 139 for a refresher!  18:26 – QuickBooks launches Starling Bank integration for SMEs | AltFi  18:53 – Who really owns your data? The PNC v. Venmo battle raises that question | CNBC And more insight on the war between banks and fintechs | WSJ 20:25 – Communication really is key – Withum CEO sends motivation via email | Accounting Today  21:40 – Time to weight in! Go take Intuit’s rate survey now! | Firm of the Future 23:31 – Can you get any satisfaction from CAS? | Accounting Today  25:38 – PaySauce/Xero collaboration – Great for New Zealand;  So-so for U.S. | Reseller News 26:12 – Farming industry as a niche for U.S. accountants? Probably not the most lucrative row to hoe | USDA 27:13 – You better check your breaches, especially if you or your clients use Zynga! | Firefox Monitor 27:52 – More insight on data breaches here | Forbes   29:07 – And suddenly, there came a ringing … Is your Ring Doorbell account letting everyone in?  30:00 – Keep it on the downlow! Some companies don’t feel the need to disclose their boo-boos | WSJ 36:03 – We predict happier news is coming your way, next episode!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!    Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer!Show Notes 01:57 – The gentlemen discuss a big reveal at the Digital CPA Conference – a proposed revamping of the CPA licensure model and what it could mean!| AICPA 06:14 – With more specialization, CPAs will now be more useful to employers! 09:04 – Although the AICPA says there’s been a boost in diversity, it’s still falling a bit flat | AICPA 11:26 – QuickBooks Live adds a standalone set-up service feature | Firm of the Future 12:38 – Hook, line, and Amazon … Check out our Amazon discussion in Episode 138 16:28 – Another review! Thank you! 📝😊 17:38 – The best technologies for CPAs - if you’re still living in the year 2000 | Journal of Accountancy 21:12 – Show me the money … Someday? Please? California can’t account for its cash | Forbes 26:46 – Oracle may have missed the earnings mark, but the cloud gives them a silver lining | CFO 28:17 – Bill.com’s IPO is winning! | CFO 29:59 – The fintech v. bank wars continue – with a lopsided proposed data-sharing agreement | Bank Innovation 32:53 – JPMorgan Chase partners with Yodlee to offer customers more control of their data | Business Wire 34:41 – If banks don’t step up their game, the likes of Intuit and Xero will find their own solution | AccountingWEB UK 36:10 – Eight to 14 percent of Americans own crypto – meaning the time for crypto-tax solutions is now! | CPA Practice Advisor 41:20 – A one-stop shop for all your payroll and HR needs? QuickBooks Online Payroll rolls out Elite Payroll, a full-stack offering | Accountex Report  41:46 – Find your way around tax forms quicker with Xero’s Map Accounts to Tax Lines feature | Xero 42:38 – Intuit’s Pro Series rolls out some new and maybe not-so-new features | AccountingWEB 43:44 – This point-of-sale really ties the room together and helps cannabis distributors be more zen | Yahoo! Finance  44:01 – More on the conundrums of cannabis in Cali in Episode 113 45:55 – It may be the season of giving, but to whom, and how much does one tip?  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsIntuit QuickBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickbooks Show Notes 00:57 – Meet the coaches - Michael Palmer, Michelle Weinstein and Heather Townsend!  01:41 – The number-one concern for accountants and bookkeepers - the art of pricing 02:44 – Heather provides a different perspective on the definition of value pricing 03:52 – Michelle encounters many accountants who want to double revenue without working on their mindset first 04:23 – Michael shares two key factors to getting value pricing right - self-worth and education 06:23 – Heather says it's about overcoming the mental blocks first, and then focusing on the growth 07:31 – A hard pill to swallow - learning to see your own, or your firm's own value 08:58 – Setting your prices too low will ensure that you never get the time to provide true value 09:30 – Michelle  says it's often the oldest 'legacy' clients that take up the majority of your time, with little to no profit  11:04 – If you don't choose to deliver value, your competitor will 12:14 – In addition to seeing your own value, Heather says it's about freeing up the capacity  and time 13:43 – With so many tasks moving to automation, Blake sees capacity in terms of relationships, and the time it takes to maintain those 15:29 – Heather runs down a short list of things to micromanage when you want to build your value capacity 17:20 – When you're an 'accountingpreneur,' as Michelle names it, there's nobody there holding your hand. It's up to you to learn these skills and tactics and get things done 18:45 – If you're perfectly fine with being comfortably numb, you'll never be able to challenge the status quo 20:04 – Short-term sacrifices lead to long-term payoffs 20:53 -- Find the one thing you can focus on right now, and just do it. Simple, right?  Connect with Michael, Michelle, and Heather Michael Palmer, Ceo of Pure Bookkeeping North America   Twitter: https://twitter.com/1michaelpalmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachpalmer/?originalSubdomain=ca  Website: https://purebookkeeping.com/us/ Michelle Weinstein, Consultant and Founder of The Pitch Queen  Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepitchqueen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleweinstein/ Website: https://www.thepitchqueen.com/ Heather Townsend, Founder of Accountants Millionaire Club  Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherTowns LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathertownsend/ Website: http://www.accountantsmillionaire.club Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! We're currently all out of dates for 2019 📆 Want to book us for your event? Check out our prospectus, or get in touch for more info! 🧾👀Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: Will Farnell: https://twitter.com/willfarnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell/status/1191506218424176640/photo/1

SponsorsIntuit QuickBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickbooks Show Notes 01:25 – Meet the legends!   02:54 – Our guests share their biggest takeaways from QuickBooks Connect 2019 03:04 – For Michelle, it's AAA - apps, automation, and AI 03:28 – For Laura, it's the evolution of advisory 03:47 – Clayton's takeaways included latest iterations of cloud evolution and getting ready for new opportunities 04:54 – Clayton sheds some light on what he's doing now 06:04 – Laura's got her head and her firm in the cloud! 06:59 – Michelle's recent focus revolves around app selection and integration along with consulting and training 09:05 – What's changed since the very first QuickBooks Connect?  09:49 – Michelle's seen a huge improvement in networking over the years 10:18 – Just because you hit legend status doesn't mean you stop learning new things! 10:30 – Laura see a shift to development now that the majority have found their way to the cloud 11:16 – Clayton thinks people are moving away from "appstraction" and moving towards action 12:41 – After all the hype of cloud fades, you can now focus on the actual productivity  14:44 – More talk of what's to come for these three  Connect with Michelle, Clayton, and Laura Laura Redmond, CEO and Founder of Redmond Accounting Inc Twitter: https://twitter.com/Redmond_Laura LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraredmond/ Website: https://redmondaccounting.com/ Clayton Oates, Founder of QA Business Pty Ltd Twitter: https://twitter.com/Clayton_Oates LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claytonoates/?originalSubdomain=au Website: http://claytonoates.com/ Michelle Long, Owner of Long for Sucess, LLC  Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichelleLongCPA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellelongcpa/  Website: https://longforsuccess.com/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! Stay tuned!  Want to book us for your event? Check out the prospectus or get in touch for more details!    Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: Will Farnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell/status/1191506218424176640/photo/1

SponsorsIntuit QuickBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickbooks Show Notes 02:05 – Meet Lee and Mary from Breakwater Accounting and Advisory! 02:48 – Meet Rhondalynn, author of "Pricing Value"  03:50 – Rhondalynn speaks to some of the challenges when it comes to adopting a value-pricing model 05:19 – How can you do value pricing if you never talk about value?  06:21 – Breakwater's challenge in moving to value pricing - really understanding the true value of the services they provide 08:31 – Another challenge for Breakwater has been the pricing itself, and how to determine their value on a per-client basis 09:29 – People only pay for what they value  10:22 – What does it cost a client - personally, financially, or strategically - to not have a solution to their problem?  11:54 – It doesn't take a lot of time to figure out when clients are solely focused on cost, and not value 12:52 – Peace of mind is one of the most difficult values to put a price on 14:18 – A large majority of small businesses suffer cash-flow and working-capital pain. Focus on finding ways to solve for that pain, and showing them what they could be saving  15:32 – Rhondalynn gives a practical example of adding value and solving a client's pain point 17:20 – The value-pricing conversation is very different than the conversations clients typically have with accountants 18:14 – Adopting value pricing means moving clients  towards accountability and action - creating a valuable partnership   Connect with Lee, Mary, and Rhondalynn Lee Leonard Podolsky, President & Founder of Breakwater Accounting + Advisory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-leonard-podolsky-b7958a90/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lee_podolsky  Website: https://www.breakwatercorp.com/ Rhondalynn Korolak, Managing Director, Imagineering Now LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imagineering/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/rhondalynn Website: https://imagineeringnow.com/ Mary Hambleton, Director of Operations, Breakwater Accounting + Advisory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-hambleton-09a68918/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MEHamb  Website: https://www.breakwatercorp.com/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! Sadly, we do not have any 2020 travel plans as of yet.       Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: Will Farnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell/status/1191506218424176640/photo/1

SponsorsIntuit QuickBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickbooksShow Notes 00:57 – Meet the women behind Next Level Women Leaders - Stacy, Nancy, and Laura! 01:49 – Next Level Women Leaders focuses on helping women align who they are inside with how they appear on the outside 03:09 – Women tend to absorb the stories we're told growing up, along with the cultural expectations when creating their own stories 04:40 – In the accounting world, women have the dual challenges of finding their own value, as a woman, and as an accounting professional 06:23 – How do we fix the imbalances?  06:56 – Establishing personal values is the foundation for creating the most fulfilling path in career and life 07:45 – Momentum happens wherever you're at 08:31 – We all, men and women, need to get back some of the hope we had before we grew up 09:28 – Go here to hear what else Jina has to say about diversity  12:30 – It was actually Episode 124 – Our discussion on women CEOs and women-led companies  13:15 – These Next Level women define success  14:59 – So many people compromise their own values so they can fall in line, instead of carving out their own space 16:39 – As more women find their power, and voices, the better off we all are 18:14 -- We get the elevator version of a Next Level Women Leaders two-day workshop 21:41 – E&Y has yet to get on board with allowing women to define their own style | HuffPost 22:48 – The Next Level founders took their belief in each other and the impact it made on them, as individuals, and combined forces to start sharing that powerful force with other women 23:58 – Don't toy with me - we talk about the, still, lack of diversity in the world of toys  Connect with Nancy, Stacy, and Laura Nancy Buffington, Owner, Nancy Buffington, LLC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nbuffington/ Website: https://www.nancybuffington.net/ Stacy Ennis, CEO & Founder of Creatively, LLC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacylynn/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/StacyEnnis Website: https://stacyennis.com/ Laura Tully, Wardrobe Styles and Owner, Laura Tully, LLC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-tully-b183a3109/ Website: https://www.lauratully.co/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! Sadly, we do not have any 2020 travel plans as of yet.    Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: Will Farnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell/status/1191506218424176640/photo/1

SponsorsIntuit QuickBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickbooks Show Notes 00:57 – Claudell is so far beyond MIA, we couldn't even say her name right!   01:05 – Who needs Claudell, when you have a real LIVE QuickBooks Live bookkeeper to talk with? Meet Pam Bingham!  01:30 – David's got a gazillion questions!   02:54 – Pam shares what it's like to be a QuickBooks Live bookkeeper 03:30 – Job-in-a-box - QuickBooks Live provides its bookkeepers with everything they need to start - from equipment to training 04:48 – The main focus of QuickBooks Live bookkeeping is helping clients clean up and prep their books for month-end closes, and tax time 06:35 – While some providers aren't crazy about QuickBooks Live, Pam took this opportunity and ran with it 07:58 – QuickBooks Live can give bookkeepers some stability when their own practices face constant changes 08:38 – Your practice is what you choose to make of it - plain and simple 11:08 – For clients, QuickBooks Live allows them the freedom to focus and work on the top priority, their business 12:28 – Most of the work done for QuickBooks Live is offline. The face-to-face client meeting is typically a small fraction of the entire process 13:25 – Unlike driving for Uber, being a QuickBooks Live bookkeeper is about building and maintaining long-lasting relationships  Connect with Pam Pam Bingham, EA, Founder, PB Tax and Accounting Services  Twitter: https://twitter.com/PBTaxAccounting LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pambingham/ Website: http://www.pbtaxinc.com/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! Sadly, we do not have any 2020 travel plans as of yet.           Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: Will Farnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell/status/1191506218424176640/photo/1

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer! Show Notes 00:14 – We made the list! Congratulations to fellow accounting professionals and former guests, such as Dawn Brolin, Roman Kepczyk, Ariege Misherghi, and Donny Shimamoto, as well, for making the Accounting Today Top 100 Most Influential list | Accounting Today 01:21 – Format is key – one thing the Accounting Today list lacked was readability. We think there’s just a better, smoother way to present this kind of read   02:15 – It’s cool to see the list evolve with the everchanging industry landscape and include accounting folks across different digital media platforms, including YouTube, and podcasts, as well as CPE professionals, and even politicians!  03:07 – What’s more important that any list? The Cloud Accounting Podcast won't put you to sleep!  Thank you, reviewers!   04:49 – Let’s talk numbers … A lot of numbers … Courtesy of “The year ahead for accounting: 2020 in numbers” | Accounting Today 05:30 – While recruitment and retention are big factors for big firms, the smaller firms are zeroing in on tech strategy 07:28 – It’s still taxing! 39 percent of firms still require employees to work every Saturday during tax season 09:29 – Small and mid-sized firms are still shying away from social, with just below 60 percent using platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook to bolster their visibility 11:15 – Correction from last week’s episode – The founder of CakeHR notes that they serve 60-plus countries, not just Australia and the UK, as we originally thought 13:21 – Is Sage banking on the lack of trust created by the QuickBooks Live offering? | Twitter 15:17 – Sometimes, it pays to pay more – Xero rolls out pricing changes, next  year, offering Hubdoc as part of the package | Twitter 19:24 – Practice Ignition fixes some payment-related headaches with a new client self-service payment retry option | Practice Ignition 20:29 – As Canopy names a new CEO, investors think there’s still something to believe in, offering $13M in additional funding | Accounting Today  23:10 – Moving target - Bill.com increased its price target to $183M for the upcoming IPO | Silicon Valley Business Journal 24:04 – What price celebrity keynotes? We hash out costs v. benefits | Accounting Today 27:30 – Want to boost your firm’s productivity? Here’s one way | Business Insider 29:08 – Some thought food to chew on from the Zapier Remote Work Report | Zapier 32:07 – Don’t stand so close to me! Why remote workers get more done | Doist  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! 😢 We do not have any 2020 travel plans as of yet. Check back early and often to see where we go next! 😁  Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsIntuit QuickBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickbooks Show Notes 00:57 – Meet Ariege!  02:44 – Fun fact: 500 new small businesses start up for every one new accounting professional entering the workforce 03:18 – How is Intuit helping small businesses succeed? Mainly through automation and a high level of quality 04:19 – Fear is not an option - with the obvious shortage of accountants, the only way to effectively help clients is with automation 05:38 – Ariege explains why the new QuickBooks feature, the Optimization Center, was created 07:37 – Intuit's pain, and solving for it - in entering the bookkeeping game - could ultimately be a gain for everyone 09:29 – As mentioned in our last episode, accountants are an unexpected market for the QuickBooks Live offering, according to Ted Callahan, Director of the QuickBooks Live Offering  11:00 – Check out Jade Simmons’ QuickBooks Connect 2019 presentation! | YouTube 15:02 – Ariege gives us the rundown on the Business Performance Overview feature 17:32 – According to futurist Michael McQueen, innovation isn’t slowing down. See his QBC presentation here | YouTube 17:53 – Change is gonna come - but Ariege doesn't have the details yet 19:27 – You heard it here first ... Sort of ... Ariege spills some new feature news!  21:33 –Start talking!Intuit's priority list is constructed around what users want and need   Connect with Ariege Ariege Misherghi, Global Accountant Segment Leader, Intuit Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariegem LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariege/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle         Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: Will Farnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell/status/1191506218424176640/photo/1

SponsorsIntuit QuickBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickbooks Show Notes 01:20 – Meet Ted!   02:59 – Ted talks about Intuit's impetus behind moving into the service game 03:28 – Confidence is key!  Most of the small businesses without an accountant or bookkeeper lack the confidence to reach out for help 04:42 – While QuickBooks Live and TurboTax Live share similar tech, their services are very different 06:04 – QuickBooks Live is only available, currently, in the U.S., and all Live bookkeepers reside in the U.S.  07:03 – Ted shares some of the requirements for becoming a QuickBooks Live bookkeeper 08:01 – The gentleman talk QBO Accountants Edition, and some of the new feature roll-outs, such as the Optimization Center 09:42 – Intuit sees a huge opportunity to capture those small businesses that are, so far, sans accountant 11:11 – What's the real scope of the QuickBooks Live offering?  13:42 – What differentiates the different price points in QuickBooks Live?  14:38 – Intuit is solving for both sides of the market - small biz and accounting professional 15:38 – A bit of discussion on the different ProAdvisor buckets and how QuickBooks Live will affect them 16:39 – What do you tell a ProAdvisor who loses a client to QuickBooks Live?  17:46 – Take a load off, Annie - QuickBooks Live plays a key role in the advisory vision - by transferring lesser-value work  to QB Live, so accountants and bookkeepers can focus on advising and other value-add services 18:28 – Intuit needs to establish clear guidelines around relationships to solve for the needs of the customers and accounting partners 19:43 – Is there a grand convergence of all the Intuit offerings on the horizon?  20:29 – Who's in charge of ensuring the delivery QuickBooks Live services meet's Intuit's WOW factor?   21:49 – What's next on the agenda, for Ted, and QuickBooks Live?  Connect with Ted Ted Callahan, Director, QuickBooks Live Offering, Intuit Twitter: https://twitter.com/asciv LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedcallahan/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle         Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: Will Farnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell/status/1191506218424176640/photo/1

SponsorsIntuit QuickBooks https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/quickbooks Show Notes 01:35 – Let's meet The Canadians!  (Well, three of them, anyway …)  03:41 – Canada's no longer last in the lunch line with the increasing focus on QuickBooks Online 04:50 – Scott and Brad pontificate on  the new QBO statement-importing feature 06:27 – How do Canadians approach cloud accounting, and all the innovation that comes along with it?  08:13 – Along with faster adoption of new tech, Canadian app development is on the rise, and people seem to share a common passion and excitement, without a lot of drama, on the socials.  10:42 – With the Canadian government’s investment in functional, high-speed internet, clients being eternally bound to their desktop programs is more the exception than the norm  12:00 – Brad talks benefits of going full cloud 14:43 – Scott talks about some of the work Intuit’s Canadian branch is doing to solve for Canada-specific issues, such as tax and payroll 16:30 – Winter is coming, or you'll be coming to Winter is you visit QuickBooks Connect Toronto. Grab a toque, or a touque, or a tuque?    18:24 – While Canadian accountants are excited about new industry developments, they also know a good thing when they use it, and tend to stay loyal to a narrow collection of accounting tools 19:36 – Brad sees a sort of ‘take it or leave it’ attitude when it comes to dealing with U.S. accounting software developers. Some listen; some don’t.  21:50 – Cheryl notes that conferences, such as QuickBooks Connect, and Scaling New Heights are a prime method for discussion, learning, and developing partnerships that will lead to future opportunities Connect with Scott, Cheryl, and Brad Scott Zandbergen, Principal Marketing Manager and Accounting Community Advocate at Intuit Twitter: https://twitter.com/szandbergen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/szandbergen/  Website: https://scottzandbergen.com/ Cheryl Manmohan, Senior Training & Education Program Manager at Intuit Twitter: https://twitter.com/cherylmanmohan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-manmohan-ab70754/?originalSubdomain=ca Brad Celmainis, CPA and President of Brad Celmainis Accounting Solutions Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradCelmainis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradcelmainis/ Website: https://bradcelmainis.com/ Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/getintuit/?source_id=622030231160596 Learn more about QuickBooks Connect Toronto here: https://can.quickbooksconnect.com/?cid=SOC_CA_QBC_-NON_INT-QBC-CA-Blog-SponsorProfile Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle         Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: Will Farnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell https://twitter.com/willfarnell/status/1191506218424176640/photo/1

Sponsors Bill.com https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Teampay https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/teampay Show Notes 01:08 – Meet Mariana! 01:46 – What's a lawyer doing at an accounting conference?  04:22 – Mariana takes us to school on HIPAA 06:38 – Why should accountants and bookkeepers care about HIPAA?  06:58 – There are three types of entities that fall under HIPAA protection - healthcare providers, plans, or clearinghouses 08:19 – Any accounting system that contains names and addresses of patients must comply with HIPAA Privacy and Security rules 10:09 – Which apps in a healthcare accounting ecosystem DO have to follow HIPAA rules?  12:20 – When dealing with collections for medical accounts, HIPAA rules get so complicated that it's best to consult with legal advisors to know exactly how to proceed 13:40 – Sage took a detailed approach to implementing HIPAA compliance in its 2018 product offerings | Sage Intacct  16:06 – There's no official HIPAA compliance certification, but there are vendors who will provide independent assessments of a firm's compliance level 17:47 – HIPAA is no joke. Violations carry significant civil and criminal penalties!  19:27 – Mariana shares a few facts about the California Consumer Privacy Act | Californians for Consumer Privacy  Connect with MarianaMariana Antcheva, Sage IntacctLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianaantcheva/ Episode Art Photo Credit: April Blankenship https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp/status/1187023281687130112/photo/2 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle         Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Bill.com https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Teampay https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/teampay Show Notes 02:09 – Meet Kelly!  03:05 – Kelly talks true crime | WGN Radio  07:21 – It takes a balance - you need the 'yes' people and the naysayers to keep you from making crappy decisions 08:36 – The first step to changing your firm's culture - you've gotta know you have a problem!  10:21 – Speaking of problems, we talk about the melee surrounding audit watchdog, PCAOB, and KPMG | WSJ  10:52 – We humans tend to take a one-dimensional viewpoint when it comes to fraud 12:53 – You can't rely on people's personal perceptions. You have to show them concrete examples of ethical lapses to paint a really clear picture 13:51 – How do we remove the incentives for unethical behavior? 16:02 – Ethics training needs to focus on real-life, practical scenarios that actually relate to the people involved 18:27 – When you’re talking about a company with hundreds of thousands of employees, ethical issues are critical! 20:54 – Financial relationships, in any profession, can create a perverse incentive to ‘look the other way’  23:36 – What your expense reports really say about you | WSJ 23:59 – Kelly’s required ethics and fraud reading/listening list includes the docuseries, “Dirty Money”, a podcast called The Dropout, and John Carreyrou’s book, “Bad Blood”  25:56 – Kelly gives us a brief synopsis of her film, “All The Queen’s Horses” | YouTube 29:04 – While she uses film as a teaching platform, Kelly has no plans to make more films.  Connect with KellyKelly Richmond Pope LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-richmond-pope-cpa-83689a5/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyrpope Kelly's TEDx Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_richmond_pope_how_whistle_blowers_shape_history/up-next%3E All the Queen's Horses - Website: https://www.allthequeenshorsesfilm.com/ All the Queen's Horses - YouTube: https://youtu.be/dpr2A3S3CNk Episode Art Photo Credit: April Blankenship https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp/status/1187023281687130112/photo/2 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake and David in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle         Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer! Show Notes 01:27 – Things to do in Tucson at 4:30 in the morning when your puppy has to go potty – listen to podcasts from former guests, like Scott Orn, of course!     02:41 – If you missed our discussion on the streaming wars, go here   03:24 – It’s not you, it’s me … Or is it? Gusto and Zenefits just don’t see eye to eye | Accounting Today 04:13 – What happens when the customer-first company puts the customer last?  06:07 – Ready, set, SOAPBOX ... The gentleman debate Gusto v. Zenefits 07:49 – Blake sides with Gusto - data security wins over convenience 10:04 – David finds this to be more of an ‘immature’ publicly-held negotiation about the private agreements betwixt the two companies, and the biggest loser is, of course, the customer 13:33 – Another review! Thank you!   15:43 – Anything you can do, Amazon can do better? | NYT  18:43 – Amazon is okay with losing a bit of money on one-day Prime shipping ... Small price to pay for crushing competition, right?  21:21 – What can accounting firms learn from Amazon's modus operandi?  Maybe more than you think!  24:21 – Is your fixed-fee model flopping? | AccountingWEB 29:04 – Making sweet macro music … | Digg.com 29:40 – Play that funky music, accounting boy ...  30:26 – Move over, Uber, bookkeeping is the hottest side hustle now! | Forbes 30:48 – Get these guys some L.A.-level tacos, or a whole steak ... Check out their fabulous merch!  33:18 – Hey, you! Get off of my cloud! A VC’s perspective of the future of cloud | LinkedIn 36:11 – Fight, focus, or flight - how to win in the "Intelligent Connected World."  40:08 – Piece of cake? Sage thinks so with its latest acquisition | Enterprise Times 42:32 – Some further insight on ‘coopetition’ from Matt Paff | LinkedIn  45:30 – Robinhood’s a little less merry – They’re no longer banking on a charter | PYMNTS.com   46:49 – Reading assignment for next week's show – “Can Silicon Valley remake the payday lending industry?” | NewStatesmanAmerica Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle         Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

Sponsors Bill.com https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Teampay https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/teampay Show Notes 01:10 – What does David Appel do, precisely?  02:15 – If accounting happens in Vegas, does it have to stay in Vegas?  03:28 – Repetition is key to creating job satisfaction, personal validation, and economic value for your clients 05:30 – It's not about billable hours and recurring revenue, it's about creating the most economic value for not only your clients, but as many people as possible 09:19 – David A. gives some examples of successful subscription-based models  11:15 – How do you know when you've outgrown your first accounting system?  13:37 – An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure when it comes to moving to a new accounting system 15:31 – When you provide value, using whatever it is you're selling, that thing tends to sell itself 16:28 – Find the value you can add by talking and LISTENING to your clients 19:01 – Focus on solving client problems, and billing models will fall into place  Connect with David!David Appel, Head of Software and SaaS Vertical, Sage Intacct LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidappelsf/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidappel Episode Art Photo Credit: April Blankenship https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp/status/1187023281687130112/photo/2 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle          Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Bill.com https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Teampay https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/teampay Show Notes 01:39 – Laura outlines her career path from school to VP of Finance 02:30 – Laura liked using the Sage Intacct product so much at a former company that she wanted to become part of Sage Intacct  04:25 – What's the difference between accounting and finance departments?  05:22 – Laura's excited to work on the tools that will help 'eliminate' the month-end close 06:15 – Laura talks about what CFO 3.0 means for her and her team 06:52 – You really have to open up your mind to new possibilities and see things from different angles in order to embrace the new technologies 07:57 – Those who get into accounting in order to get the bird's-eye view of a company are the ones likely to move into higher positions as they progress 08:41 – Wanna be a CFO? Don't be a tree. Move around, meet people, and learn new things, constantly 10:40 – Laura's passion and big focus centers around mentoring, and making sure employees feel like they're learning,  growing, and contributing 12:26 – Are employees an asset or an expense? Laura and Blake disagree | Harvard Business Review 13:21 – Laura talks about the gender gap in accounting, and what Sage is doing to turn that around 14:50 – We talk about why women-led businesses excel | CNBC  15:11 – Diversity is great, but you need to have the open, transparent culture to back it up, otherwise, you're going nowhere 15:45 – As former guest, Jina Etienne, stated, there's no diversity if you're not free to just be yourself, no matter what your ethnicity, or gender 16:23 – Laura's advice for women entering the accounting industry - be confident, know your strength, own your voice, and don't be afraid!  Connect with LauraLaura Wiler, VP of Finance & Business Operations, Sage IntacctLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurawiler/ Episode Art Photo Credit: April Blankenship https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp/status/1187023281687130112/photo/2 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle      Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

Sponsors Bill.com https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Teampay https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/teampay Show Notes 03:38 – Angelo defines 'family office'  04:19 – Definitely not small potatoes!  'Single' family offices are usually owned by those with wealth ranging from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars 06:21 – The ultra-high-net-worth crowd use a family office as a way to manage wealth, and mitigate financial risks 07:16 – An effective virtual family office utilizes outsourcing and the newest and most efficient technologies to seamlessly manage the family or individual's funds 08:51 – How do you measure success of a family office?  Clarify, communicate,  compare, and get two or three sets of eyeballs to check the work 12:26 – How exactly does one enter into the family-office arena as a career choice? Is it even possible?  13:52 – Breaking into the family office segment means getting to know the target (ultra-wealthy) audience, gaining some experience, and proving your worth 14:38 – At some point, the old dogs are going to have to learn some new tricks 15:36 – You really can't outsource creativity and leadership in the family office 16:50 – Apart from technology and automation, you need the soft skills - collaboration, globalization, and listening  17:22 – Angelo discusses some of the challenges of working for a family office 18:31 – Angelo talks about what inspired him to enter into the family office arena 20:29 – Check out Angelo’s book, “Effective Family Office: Best Practices and Beyond,” on Amazon!  He’s also got a podcast! You can find Effective Family Office Podcast on iTunes, for Apple users, or Stitcher, for the Android crowd!  Connect with AngeloAngelo Robles, CEO, Family Office Association Website: https://familyofficeassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelorobles/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/familyoffice  Episode Art Photo Credit: April Blankenship https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp/status/1187023281687130112/photo/2 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle      Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer! Show Notes 00:32 – See Brad. Be like Brad. When in doubt, buy TWO Cloud Accounting Podcast shirts!   01:52 – Same ol' sitch ... The new slew of tech banks don't seem to offer anything different than normal banks 02:36 – Who doesn’t need more flair? Chris Macksey shows you how to add some to your QBO Chart of Accounts!  03:21 – 😎 We've got reviews!   05:17 – Thanks to @sovereign_cloud, and his tweet about Episode 82, we made the CPA Alberta Mag! 06:30 – FreshBooks hit the international scene, opening offices in Amsterdam and Raleigh, NC | Accounting Today and CPA Practice Advisor 06:51 – Coming to (useless) terms – the MyPayrollHR fiasco continues as Pioneer Bank and  Michael Mann agree to settlement | Times Union  07:33 – Former Intuit man, Rich Preece, finds a new home at LegalZoom | Business Wire  08:21 – Fintech Unicorn Bill.com Files For $100M IPO | Crunchbase 09:20 – Some interesting factoids from Bill.com’s S-1 | SEC 10:56 – What’s the hold up with Big Tech companies becoming banks? | Fortune  13:02 – Sage Full Year 2019 – The numbers are in! | Sage 15:57 – Intuit numbers are in, too! | Intuit  19:31 – Soup to nuts, Bench partners with Taxfyle to offer a broader range of services to the smaller business set | Bench 22:26 – BlueVine raises $102.5M more for banking services that target small businesses | TechCrunch 25:18 – LeaseQuery’s Series-A round rakes in $40M | AMERICANINNO 26:19 – It pays to shop around? PayPal’s biggest acquisition to date -  Online Coupon Site Honey – carries a $4 billion price tag | Bloomberg Quint 28:45 – Tipalti Partners With AR Automation Firm YayPay | PYMNTS.com  30:37 – How APIs Drive Payroll-Accounting Connectivity | PYMNTS.com  33:42 – More troubles for Canopy Tax  37:57 – Wolters Kluwer Launches Client Collaboration Module | CPA Practice Advisor 38:17 – Marketing genius or epic fail? Scaling New Heights 2019 “Strategic Pivot” | Woodard.com 43:33 – Is Intuit really stealing work from bookkeepers? Almost 300 thought so … | AVAAZ.org 47:00 – Can California fix what ails it? | Accounting Today 48:43 – Food-delivery services, like DoorDash and Uber Eats, fail to collect taxes |  VOX Recode 51:09 – Recent survey reveals the biggest tech challenges facing CPA firms at the moment | CPA Trendlines  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in SeattleLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Bill.com https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/bill Teampay https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/teampay Show Notes 01:07 – Meet our guests!  01:48 – Aaron talks about what's on the horizon for Sage, including the launch of Intelligent GL | Sage  02:32 – Intelligent GL uses AI to provide continuous trust, and continuous insights that help customers make better business decisions 03:13 – Blasphemy!  How dare you try to take away our close ... Ha!  05:02 – Brendan shares how AutoEntry will work with Sage to make sure the data is in the right place at the right time 08:33 – Aaron talks about the importance of partnering with other software providers to create a centralized hub for their clients' financial activities 09:57 – Dan talks about the Sage People rollout in 2020 11:37 – You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it stop loving Excel  13:28 – After a certain point of growth, Excel's capabilities no longer scale 14:02 – Dan gives some detail on Sage's Visual Explorer  Connect with Our Guests Aaron Harris, CTO, Sage Website: https://www.sageintacct.com/leadership/aaron-harris LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-harris-7407b2/ Brendan Woods, Founder and CEO, AutoEntry Website: https://www.autoentry.com/about-us LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/woodsbrendan/ Dan Miller, VP of Product, Sage Intacct Website: https://www.sageintacct.com/leadership/dan-miller LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielgmiller/ Episode Art Photo Credit: April Blankenship https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp/status/1187023281687130112/photo/2 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Oh, and don't forget to come see our smiling faces on Instagram! Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle         Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsBill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/billTeampay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/teampayShow Notes 01:09 – Meet Alliah Mohamed, director of accounting and financial operations for DonorsChoose!  01:29 – Bright lights, big city, and one CAP listener in the live audience!   02:07 – How does DonorsChoose work?  03:22 – Because they work with such a mind-boggling number of funds, DonorsChoose uses Sage Intacct to help them track the money 04:51 – Before Intacct, DonorsChoose did things the old-fashioned way - manual entry 07:01 – Alliah attends Intacct Advantage to get inspiration, education, and connection with other users 07:56 – What's in the DonorsChoose tech stack?  09:08 – Why wait for a solution? Build your own!  10:10 – Lean, mean, not-for-profit machine - DonorsChoose is an innovative, tech-forward group of ... SIX people! Connect with AlliahAlliah Mohamed Director, Accounting & Financial Operations, DonorsChoose LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alliahmohamed/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/alliah_mohamed  DonorsChoose website: https://www.donorschoose.org Email: [email protected] Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in SeattleLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: April Blankenshiphttps://twitter.com/aprilblnknshphttps://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp/status/1187023281687130112/photo/2

SponsorsBill.com: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/billTeampay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/teampayShow Notes 01:18 – Meet Rob Reid, chairman of Sage Mid-Market Solutions Group 01:23 – Meet Kevin Cumley, director of the Sage Intacct Accountants Program 01:40 – What really is 'mid-market'?  04:34 – Doing cloud before cloud was a thing - Sage Intacct began as a cloud firm some 20 years back!  05:02 – Sage Intacct helps firms deliver outsourced accounting and financial services to their clients 06:44 – What separates Intacct from other players in the field?  08:17 – For small organizations, understanding cash takes priority over GAAP, until they need investors. Intacct offers insight from both perspectives 11:48 – Sage's Accountants Program offers extensive training and certifications to get them prepared to use the Intacct platform effectively 14:21 – It can't be that hard to satisfy accountants, can it ...?  16:57 – Innovative firms understand the importance of combining the technology with their accounting expertise 17:39 – Practice lines, such as tax and audit are on the decline, making outsourcing more attractive Connect with our guests Rob Reid, Chairman Mid-Market Solutions, Sage  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-reid-2b72896/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SageIntacctRob Kevin Cumley, Director, Accountants Program, Sage Intacct LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevincumley/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevinCumley Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in SeattleLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   Episode Art Photo Credit: April Blankenship https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp https://twitter.com/aprilblnknshp/status/1187023281687130112/photo/2

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer! Show Notes 02:47 – Building stronger relationships? You need the Father-Son Podcasting Microphone — SNL | YouTube  05:20 – Catch Blake’s first Jirav webinar - [Free CPE Webinar] Level Up Your Financial Outputs: How to Save Time, Add Value, and Delight Clients — CPA Academy | Jirav  06:33 – Another five-star review! Thank you!   07:20 – In case you missed it, check out Episode 129 to get the latest accounting news to come out of Quickbooks Connect 2019!  08:40 – Intuit’s acquisition of ChronoBooks offers enhanced productivity with QuickBooks Online Advanced | QuickBooks Blog  11:17 – Xero’s half year 2020 results & from Xerocon London, announcing Net Zero! | Xero Blog  13:42 – Pay with TransferWise: Xero’s bringing another way to pay and manage your bills | Xero Blog  17:26 – Xero teams up with GoCardless to launch an integration that helps combat late payments in the Americas | Xero Blog 20:40 – “Xero needs to Square up!” | Livewire 24:15 – “Where Will Square Be in 10 Years?” | The Motley Fool  26:06 – First Bank of Google? It all starts with offering consumer checking accounts | The Washington Post 29:50 – You wanna start a Revolut-ion? First, you need some people! | PYMNTS.com 30:02 – Payro to the rescue – if you can’t meet payroll, short term … | PYMNTS.com  30:16 – With this QuickBooks and Tide integration, you can clean up some tedious bookkeeping tasks | Bank Innovation 30:42 – Surprise! You’re Broke! | WIRED 34:39 – You need to get your personal financial s$&# together with Blake’s new favorite app! |YNAB 38:05 – I can’t get no satisfaction – why one in three millennial biz owners are not happy |Accountancy Daily 39:28 – To kill a tree, or not to kill a tree - firms are divided | CPA Trendlines 41:25 – “The Truth about QuickBooks™ Files” | LinkedIn 45:44 – Can you prove David Wrong, or prove Blake right? Let them know!  49:04 – Better late than never – 1Password rakes in $200M in Series-A funding | TechCrunch 50:10 – Former guest, Matt Paff on the “8 trends in the Accountant's Software Industry” | LinkedIn 51:21 – David recommends a lower-tech password solution – PasswordCard.org 51:59 – How does Disney+ relate to accounting? | CNET  58:34 – The coolest selfie ever?  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram!  Meet Blake in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in SeattleLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer! Show Notes 00:45 – Meet Valerie!  01:44 – Meet David!  02:09 – Live fast, cloud-account hard! David’s firm, ENVOLTA, has hit Hubdoc’s Top 50 North American Cloud Accountants and The Ottawa Business Journal’s Fastest-Growing Companies list multiple times! | Ottawa Business Journal 03:00 – Breaking news! The world does not stop when we attend accounting conferences!  03:47 – News from QuickBooks Connect! | Accounting Today 07:08 – Like a spell-checker, only for accounting processes - one new QB feature, Bookkeeping Review, helps you find, and correct errors, with customization options for each client 08:52 – Bookkeeping Review gives users almost real-time accounting, and eliminates a lot of year-end close headaches, especially around tax 10:26 – What makes QuickBooks's Business Performance Overview tool outperform similar tools from competitors?  12:39 – Benchmarking tools are splendid, but how do you know the data is solid?  15:35 – Using powerful review and benchmarking tools provides a solid foundation for effective advisory 17:29 – How do we build, a bigger, better Cadillac of accounting tools?  18:34 – Will too many apps spoil the tech stack? | Financial Times 21:44 – When FASB speaks, accounting apps, like LeaseQuery run with it! | Business Wire  23:14 – Bankifi is throwing down the Banking-as-a-Service gauntlet | Forbes 27:11 – Is another tax software company getting ready to bite the dust?  28:37 – The MyPayrollHR dominoes keep falling – Cachet ceases accepting ACH deposits for payroll | Cachet Financial Services 29:57 – Cachet’s decision leaves companies, like Vermont-based PayData, holding the bag | VTDigger  32:15 – CYA with insurance – the best way to protect yourself and your firm when you’re stuck in the tangled web of apps and services 33:02 – David DiNardo's parting wisdom: accounting and bookkeeping firms should go social! Not only is it good for marketing, but it's an excellent way to network and stay on top of what's going on!  Connect with David and Valerie David DiNardo:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-dinardo-mba-42344599/ Website: https://envolta.ca/ Valerie Heckman:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerieheckman/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vheckman Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person! December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in SeattleLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer! Show Notes 01:17 – Acuity - firm of the future today - operating almost completely with a remote workforce!  03:54 – Is your job on the automation chopping block? Find out, here  04:30 – Even with the gloom-doom reports, the demand for accountants is still going up | University of Oxford – Oxford Martin School  06:14 – Kenji notes that the fear of automation is driving curiosity and adaptation in the face of such huge changes 08:30 – Meet Sammy and Lisa! 08:59 – Sammy defines bookkeeping as a combination of traditional bookkeeping services,  some more  listening, and more advisory 09:37 – Lisa's definition of customer success is matching clients with the right tech, at the right time, so they can benefit from Acuity's full range of services 11:29 – Bank feeds are a constant source of frustration for accountants and clients alike 13:38 – Acuity's bookkeeping team uses a standard tech stack, including QBO and Xero, to ensure consistent service 16:53 – Accounting FOR food trucks FROM a 'food' truck - a new career move for your hosts?  17:42 – We ain’t afraid ’a no oversized accounting-tech ecosystem chart! | Accountex 18:29 – Lisa thinks that eventually, the mind-boggling array of accounting apps are going to consolidate into bigger, better tools.  19:01 – The Cloud Accounting Podcast - World-class recruiting tool! Listen, learn, and find excellent new hires!  20:17 – Meet Graham and Ann!  21:06 – Ann gives the rundown on Acuity's controller team functions 23:02 – Graham explains how Acuity's CFO group makes life easier for clients 23:52 – The bigger the data stack, the bigger the responsibility.  24:19 – When do you need CFO services?  27:01 – Graham shares some advice on getting into the advisory game 30:04 – What is community-adjusted EBITDA?  30:34 – Non-GAAP metrics can be used to get a clearer picture of a company's performance 31:06 – GAAP might not be fairly addressing human capital, but Acuity is by investing in its people 32:08 – Is accounting still relevant?  32:51 – When it comes to providing stellar service, data is king, even if it's non-financial 35:10 – The WeWork snafu is proof that the free market works 37:02 – Adapt or die? | TechRadar 37:59 – David says data is going to level the playing field and what really matters is people, culture, and company values  Connect with the Acuity Team Acuity: https://acuity.co/ Matthew May, Founder, VP Sales and Marketing LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thetechcpa/ Twitter: @thetechCPA Kenji Kuramoto, Founder & CEO LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenjikuramoto/ Twitter: @kenjikuramoto Lisa Gilreath, VP of Operations LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-gilreath-2ba506a/ Twitter: @lkgilreath Ann O'Dea, Controller Team LeadLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/mynetwork/invite-sent/ann-o-dea-a61263118/ Sammy Siddique, Cloud Accounting Team Lead LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammy-siddique-64446932/ Twitter: @sammy3042 Graham Wood, CFOLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamwoodjr/ Kai Moon, Senior Customer Success Advocate LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hikaimoon/ Twitter: @hikaimoon Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast  

SponsorsRight Networks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rncloudShow Notes 00:17 – Meet Cash Flow Mike!  00:36 – Cash flow is king - It's how businesses keep their doors open 01:26 – Mike teaches banks effective methods for communicating with small-biz owners 01:50 – Mike teaches from the standpoint of necessary advising, instead of trusted advising 03:41 – Want to add advisory to your practice? Learn how to tap into your experiences and tell that story 04:49 – Mike says it's imperative to start with the end in mind - and map out that advisor/client relationship  06:55 – Since everything you do impacts cash flow, you need to know the reason why  you're making every single transaction 09:01 – Run your firm like you're going to sell it - keep it show-ready every day 09:34 – Stupid cash flow tricks  12:01 – You don't need fancy tools and software, but you do need to track everything - what's coming in, what's going out, and the timing of it all 14:15 – When it comes to cash flow, looking ahead gives you time and options 14:35 – Practice what you preach. When it comes to advisory, if you believe in what you're selling, why aren't you doing it?  15:20 – What comes in should match what's going out 18:39 – A discussion on how having more month than money and oversized growth affects startups like WeWork | NYT  Connect with Mike Milan Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/mikemilan/ Website: https://www.elevatefinancialtraining.com/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsRight Networks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rncloudShow Notes00:40 – Welcome Jose and Tony!  01:13 – Tony explains the Latino Tax Professionals Association’s mission 02:37 – The fast-growing Latinx small-business market is largely underserved in the U.S. 04:59 – Uncle Sam wants you  -  even if you're an illegal immigrant - to pay your taxes 05:32 – There's a delicate balancing act of compliance with the IRS, or the government 06:31 – Jose tells undocumented clients that filing a return is an imperative step in becoming a citizen or getting authorization to work in the U.S. 07:15 – Tony explains how the mixed-status family can mix up your brain when trying to file that type of tax return 09:12 – Jose talks about the absolute necessity for education to prevent Latino small-owners from making huge mistakes with their finances and taxes 11:05 – Talking diversity, and the perceived, or real lack thereof in the accounting profession 12:48 –  Financial illiteracy may be what gets in the way of Latino entrepreneurs being able to grow their businesses | Stanford Graduate School of Business 14:32 – Jose says while most Latino business owners speak English and use English-language products, they prefer to consume educational content in Spanish 15:21 – Translating your educational content into other languages will pay off  in the long run 18:25 – Scaling New Heights started offering Spanish-speaking tracks in 2017  | Woodard.com 19:12 – To reach the Latinx market, try a less salesy, more genuine approach 20:12 – Tony explains how Contabi Alliance takes the mission of serving the underserved to the Latin American countries, providing resources and education for accountants and bookkeepers who don’t have access to the tools and technology available in the States 22:00 – Each country has its own particular accounting rules and regulations to navigate24:35 – There's a huge shortage of third-party apps that connect Latinx accounting software to the global players, such as Xero and Intuit25:25 – What kinds of opportunity exist for Latin American countries that want to expand into the U.S.? 26:54 – Jose may have the world’s longest social media profile! 28:39 – Latino Tax Fest – parties, pools, and education! Connect with our guests Jose Zavala LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jzavala03/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ztxadvisors Email: [email protected] More About the Xero Virtual Hour: https://www.xero.com/us/partner-programs/partners/xerohour/ Tony Martinez LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-martinez-a095613a/ Website: https://latinotaxpro.com/ Email: [email protected] Latino Tax Fest: https://latinotaxfest.com/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Show NotesHandles and Hashtags for ContestTwitter: @CloudAcctPodFacebook: @CloudAccountingPodcastLinkedIn: @CloudAccountingPodcastOfficial QuickBooks Connect hashtag: #QBConnectGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast   TranscriptHey there, Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners!Have you dreamed of being a guest on the Cloud Accounting Podcast? Are you going to QuickBooks Connect next week?If you answered YES to both these questions, you’ll want to turn up the volume so you don’t miss anything I’m about to say. [pause]We are running a contest so that one of our lucky listeners can co-host our news roundup episode that we record at QuickBooks Connect 2019.Here is how you can enter to win:-Between now and Wednesday, November 6th, 2019 at 12:00 pm Pacific time.-Tweet, post to Facebook or share on LinkedIn -Telling the world, WHY… YOU... want to be ...and ...should be... a co-host of the Cloud Accounting Podcast at QuickBooks Connect.Here’s the most important part:Be sure to properly tag the Cloud Accounting Podcast in your post… AND ...you must also use the hashtag #QBConnect. Hit the show notes if you are unsure of any handles or hashtags.We’ll announce the winner during the official QuickBooks Connect welcome reception on the evening of November 6th.Even though … the most Likes, Retweets, and Comments won’t guarantee that you’ll be the winner, it will most definitely keep your post at the top of those AI-based social algorithms.Good luck, and see you in a few days!P.S. If any of you try to have your automated BOTS game this contest, you’ll for sure be on the podcast, just not in the good way. smile face emoji

SponsorsRight Networks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rncloudShow Notes 00:13 – We managed to get three editors from the top competing accounting media properties together in one spot!  00:35 – We asked the panel  - what is top of mind in the accounting industry?  01:13 – For Accounting Today, Dan says tax and tech is at the top of readers' minds 02:00 – Dan reveals a bit about AccountingWEB's approach to sharing relevant accounting news 03:04 – Jess says tax law changes are what keep accountants employed 03:48 – Dan says hyper-focusing too much on one specific topic, like tax, means you're missing out on the bigger and more important accounting-industry picture 05:15 – Like it or not, Jess says advisory is in your future, 06:39 – Dan says accountants need to realize that they're much more comfortable with change than they believe 07:47 – Don't forget that small and mid-sized firm owners are entrepreneurs, combining that perceived conservatism with a huge amount of risk 08:43 – Jess says the constant barrage of "Do Advisory" advice started with vendors 10:53 – Seth notes that there's a dark tech and automated cloud looming over the billable hour  11:38 – The concept of killing the billable hour isn't a new one 13:42 – Turn and face the change - The gentleman talk about the transformation from paper to digital in accounting media 14:20 – If you want to stay on top, you've got to be willing to meet your clients where they are 15:53 – Seth talks about the art of fine-tuning the accounting content to stay connected to readers 17:08 – Who's gonna drive you home? The data is - in media, and the accounting industry 18:35 – The guys talk "A" words - automation and advisory 20:49 – As advisory services start to play a bigger role, the bigger firms are starting to be more selective about their client lists 22:32 – Dan's theory - AI and advisory are going to position the smaller accounting firms for bigger success 23:41 – Jess says there are three levels, when it comes to the evolution of accounting - Let's do it, Help Me do it, and Leave Me Alone! 26:11 – Seth's conclusion - Automation enables greater profitability  Connect with our guests Dan Hood, Editor-in-Chief of Accounting Today: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-hood-3494ab49/ Seth Fineberg, Managing Editor of AccountingWEB: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-fineberg-86aa8663/ Jess Scheer, Executive Editor of Accountex Network:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-scheer-43038610/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer! Show Notes 00:12 – Meet our guest, Ethan Rouen, Assistant Professor of Accounting at Harvard Business School 01:27 – The gentleman dissect Ethan’s article, “The Problem with Accounting for Employees as Costs Instead of Assets” 01:50 – Blake found a lot of similarities to Baruch Lev’s “The End of Accounting” in Ethan’s article | WSJ 02:30 – Using GAAP today is like fixing a Tesla with a Model T manual 04:12 – Why the lack of reporting human capital is a huge problem 05:32 – Will disclosures on human capital get political?  06:48 – Reporting human capital tells a more compelling story to investors 08:21 – Offering high-quality employee development programs is one way to ride out the economic storms | WSJ 10:28 – There needs to be a broader range of rules in GAAP for telling the stories of these companies 12:04 – The more things change, the more they stay the same, especially where GAAP is concerned 13:58 – Nap time for David? Ethan talks about Boeing’s use of program accounting | The CPA Journal 15:30 – David finally weighs in – Given the emotional climate of investing, what exactly is GAAP used for?  17:06 – Regardless of investors’ evaluation tactics, Ethan still thinks GAAP is relevant 19:10 – Is Ethan a social-media anomaly?  23:04 – More insightful Cloud Accounting Podcast content is on the way! Subscribe now, so you don’t miss out!   23:28 – Innovation is the theme of Sage Intacct Advantage 2019 | GlobeNewswire 24:36 – Finance 3.0, Intelligent GL (AI), product announcements, and more key takeaways from the conference 28:43 – Sage’s goal is to “eliminate the close …” stay tuned for more insight on this aspiration from Sage CTO Aaron Harris in a future interview 30:13 – Some hints about what will become of the AutoEntry acquisition?  32:50 – Mark your calendars! Intacct Advantage 2020 hits sunny Florida! 34:15 – Update on the QuickBooks Desktop Payroll discontinuation – So far, it’s only in the UK version! | Intuit QuickBooks 35:24 – Billtrust is the latest target for ransomware-ers | Krebs on Security 37:16 – Want Higher Profits? Hire a Female CEO, CFO | Korn Ferry 39:14 – The opposite of woke … E&Y instructs its female counterparts on the art of dressing and behaving appropriately? | The Huffington Post 40:44 – Nuke launches have gone digital … We feel so much safer now | Engadget Connect with Ethan RouenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-rouen-16a9551/Website: http://www.ethanrouen.com/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  October 29-30: AcuityCon in Atlanta November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsOnPay: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayOnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020! Visit the sponsor link, and use code "CAP3FREE" to take advantage of this offer! Show Notes  00:16 – Putting a face to fraud - Michael Mann finally appears, at least in pictorial form | Daily Mail UK 01:18 – Practicing for his big act? The Daily Mail article includes a video clip from what seems to be some form of corporate roleplaying/training. Enjoy.  03:02 – Come rain, sleet, snow, or fire alarm, some Big Four firms file returns no matter what!  03:44 – More automation from Square with Square Assistant for AI-powered scheduling and messaging | Square  04:12 – Square’s hitting the Books … The GL kind | Square 07:03 – Square - reinventing the accounting wheel one double entry at a time 08:04 – Is this all part of Square's plan to become a bank?  11:38 – Square deals meals - Square for Restaurants brings management tools to the table | Square 12:53 – Meals on wheels? Along with the management toolset, Square for Restaurants integrates with Caviar, their meal-delivery service 14:55 – Outside looking in? How do accountants and bookkeepers stay relevant in the face of the ever-increasing automation and DIY accounting tools?  16:39 – Who's really in charge? With Big Tech firms  controlling the software on your PC, how much control do you have left? | Yahoo! 20:13 – There is no such thing as free! Reckon cuts off customers until they buy new licenses | The Sydney Morning Herald 21:36 – QB Desktop Payroll gone come 2020 | Intuit QuickBooks 23:36 – Hubdoc Xeros in on better functionality with new permissions features | Xero Blog 24:33 – Can a Xero change its Stripe? Xero adds several new functions to its Stripe integration  25:39 – Bill.com's moving on up to the midmarket with their latest round of features | Finextra  28:00 – Veem and Zapier have joined forces to add even more functionality to Veem's payment service | Veem 31:57 – Need to learn how to use Zapier? Find a trainer, like Heather Satterly to help you out | Nerd Enterprises 32:06 – Gusto adds to their FreshBooks integration | FreshBooks 33:01 – No more slacking off, with new custom workflows in Slack | Slack Blog 35:06 – ScaleFactor unleashes a small-biz credit card | BusinessWire 36:08 – Small banks-tech company collabs aren't just a fad, but how much is too much when it comes to growth? | Bank Innovation 36:45 – Chime broke the bank, literally, when their app completely shut down | CNBC 38:14 – Well, actually, Galileo, the company powering Chime, was the true source of the outage  38:49 – Galileo didn't seem to have time to worry about the Chime outage. They were too busy touting their latest $77 million raise 41:16 – Leave your hubris at the door, please - these bank-tech firms might want to start focusing more on their 'users' and less on their egos 42:47 – Shirts, and stickers, and merch, oh my! Get your official and limited edition Cloud Accounting Podcast stuffs now!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  October 22-25: Sage Intacct Advantage in Las Vegas October 29-30: AcuityCon in Atlanta November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsRight Networks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rncloudShow Notes 00:35 – If you're moving to remote work, here are some key things to consider 01:35 – Let's get digital, digital ... When going remote, all your company's data ,  and processes need to be digitized 02:31 -- Having the right software and tools in place, along with digitized date ensures that you and your employees can work any place, any time 03:01 – As we discussed in Ep. 121, security is a crucial component of setting up your remote workforce  06:03 – Roman says most accountants favor Microsoft's collection of collaboration tools, especially for remote work 06:42 – Team chat or collab tools make it very easy to see who's available when 11:19 – Removing the guesswork - collaboration tools, such as Teams, keep all the information  from every conversation in one place, eliminating the wasted time of searching email threads for just one thing | Microsoft.com 12:46 – First things first - what's the first thing firm owners should consider about going remote?  13:32 – The key ingredient for a successful remote-work situation  is to use the right systems and tools for the situation!  13:41 – The best candidates for remote opportunities  are those with experience, and who need very little supervision 14:34 – It pays dividends to keep your top employees engaged, and happy, even if that means letting them go remote 16:25 – Letting employees work when and where they want means more productivity and less wasted time 18:09 – You can accomplish more, and still have those watercooler convos, all from the comfort of home  Connect with Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP, CGMA Website: https://www.rightnetworks.com/roman-kepczyk/ Right Networks Blog: https://www.rightnetworks.com/blog/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/romancitp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romankepczyk/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  October 22-25: Sage Intacct Advantage in Las Vegas October 29-30: AcuityCon in Atlanta November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch SubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyGoogle Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlayStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsRight Networks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rncloudShow Notes 01:39 – With the rise in ransomware rampages, it's more crucial than ever to protect your company's data  02:07 – Roman explains the Right Networks disk-to-disk-to-offsite backup process  03:14 – Don't get caught with your cloud down ... Just because your data is in the cloud, doesn't remove your responsibility to make regular backups here on earth  04:05 – You can't tune a phish - Training employees to recognize phishing emails is an important step in safeguarding company  data  05:31 – It's trickier to spot phishers on smartphones, since you can't see the full URL 07:27 – Stop being so predictable! Using the same password for all your websites is just an open invitation to hackers  11:12 – Roman suggests checking your online bank accounts daily, in the morning, especially if you travel and swipe cards frequently in numerous locations  12:27 – Target practice? With digital threats constantly changing and evolving, small businesses need experienced, well-trained IT security providers to help protect systems 15:46 – Roman shares some more details about services that provide phish-attack testing for employees, and the process Right Networks uses for its own people  Connect with Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP, CGMA Website: https://www.rightnetworks.com/roman-kepczyk Right Networks Blog: https://www.rightnetworks.com/blog/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/romancitp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romankepczyk/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  October 22-25: Sage Intacct Advantage in Las Vegas October 29-30: AcuityCon in Atlanta November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch SubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyGoogle Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlayStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsOnPay: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/onpayShow Notes 00:56 – How much pain has the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act caused? | WSJ 01:29 – Blake left his heart in San Francisco , with Jirav,  where he's now director of marketing 03:17 – Blake's excited to get back to his old stomping ground, helping educate CPAs, and small-biz accountants and bookkeepers 04:24 – Veem and Xero team up to offer a kinder, gentler, less-clunky invoicing system | CPA Practice Advisor 07:37 – While it's not the perfect AR/AP payment solution, David talks about some of the benefits of using a service like Checkbook.io 09:14 – Cruisin' on down the highway - QBO now offers mileage tracking | Insightful Accountant  09:57 – BQE Core is also offering mileage tracking | BQE  11:07 – David’s #1 prediction of 2019 comes true!  11:20 – Intuit and Visa are on the small-biz track, joining forces to offer instant deposits | Business Insider 12:16 – We’re not quite sure what we’re selling, but it’s in the TOS! | Intuit QuickBooks  12:25 – Thanks to Nina Casey for sending in this story, and offering her insights! 13:56 – Has Rich Preece left the Intuit building?  15:08 – Paro, a high-end accounting temp agency raises $10m in their latest round of funding | Accounting Today 17:58 – EasierAccounting.com, yet another new kid on the same ol’ AI-Accounting block? | Yahoo!  20:02 – Short story long, Expensify has launched “the world’s smartest corporate card! | CPA Practice Advisor 21:48 – Blake’s take on Expensify’s grassroots-y approach to marketing  25:50 – Brex teams up with Radius Bank to target those well-funded startups | PYMNTS.com 28:49 – Bank of America targets small business but misses the mark | Bank Innovation 31:02 – Mark your calendars!  September 18th is now Bill.com Day in Houston! | CPA Practice Advisor  31:42 – Robinhood tightens their tights for another shot at banking | Bank Innovation 32:54 – Is Intuit overtaking Xero in the UK race? | Scoop Independent News 34:41 – Revolut is on the fast track to becoming Europe’s MVP in the fintech space | City A.M. 36:34 – The MyPayrollHR fallout continues | Albany Business Review 38:38 – Pioneer Bank, Michael Mann’s bank of choice, seems to be at a loss for useful words | Times Union 39:53 – New York State Department of Financial Services starts to gather intel in the search for missing payroll regulations | WSJ 42:13 – Bigger isn’t always smarter – More on California’s fiscal project fiasco | Government Technology 46:45 – The One-Percent crowd pays less taxes than the rest of us | Washington Post 47:32 – The rich keep getting richer, and the poor keeping being cheaper to audit | ProPublica 50:33 – The kiddos are raking in the allowance, with little to no savings to show for it | AICPA 55:42 – It’s time for reviews! Thanks to all our excellent listeners!  57:12 – Should Blake compose and perform the new Cloud Accounting Podcast theme song on his cello? Let us know what you think!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  October 22-25: Sage Intacct Advantage in Las Vegas October 29-30: AcuityCon in Atlanta November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsRight Networks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rncloud Show Notes 00:48 – How can being a Bills fan ever be a bad choice?  01:40 – Fraudster Tip: If you're gonna steal the cash, stash it in your backyard!   02:36 – Dawn explains the geometry of fraud | ACFE  03:01 – The three steps leading to fraud - pressures, opportunity, and rationalization  04:55 – In the age of payroll automation, why do small-biz owners still insist on paying with paper checks?   05:26 – Time really is money, especially if your employees steal it  06:38 – Hook, line, and sinker, as a small-biz owner, you're fully liable for all tax obligations, regardless of whether you've been defrauded.   07:37 – Dawn says advisors are missing the mark when it comes to using the cloud and accounting apps  09:24 – Accountants and bookkeepers, assessing your clients' financial risk and providing suggestions for better internal controls should be a priority when it comes to adding value  12:48 – Table for two? Especially in smaller businesses, two or more employees make teamwork out of fraud  14:15 – The downside to all this super-efficient tech? It can make it super-easy to commit fraud  15:15 – Never take candy for your passwords!   21:29 – Why finding fraud is fun  23:05 – Forensic accounting - kicking ass and taking names is just part of the job description  25:46 – How to become a certified fraud examiner | ACFE  28:42 – Swearex 2019  Connect with Dawn LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnbrolin/ Website https://powerfulaccounting.com/ Twitter https://twitter.com/dawnbrolin Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Meet Blake and David in person!  October 22-25: Sage Intacct Advantage in Las Vegas October 29-30: AcuityCon in Atlanta November 5-8: QuickBooks Connect in San Jose November 5: Practice Ignition PreCon Party in San Jose November 6: VIPartners Party with Gusto, Routable & Jirav in San Jose December 9-11: Digital CPA Conference in Seattle Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities.TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsBQE Core - http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 01:01 – Jennifer is bringing more than debits and credits to her accounting courses at UT 01:50 – Aspiring cloud accountants, get yourselves acquainted with high-quality video-conferencing software, such as Zoom!  02:56 – New new reviews!  04:44 – News from beyond the Cloud Accounting Podcast Studios!  05:09 – Are smart speakers recording your every word? | Consumer Reports  07:15 – Have we sacrificed our privacy for the sake of technological convenience?  11:21 – Caroline’s article relates back to our Sock-puppet discussion 11:48 – Does connection equal increased creativity? | Knowledge 12:54 – It's the newness of the person, their new information and new perspectives that inspires creativity.  13:36 – A substantial piece of David's work over the past decade is due to meeting new people on social media, however, he has yet to find the best way to balance digital distractions and real-world productivity 14:51 – Despite the negative aspects of social, it has opened up a wealth of possibilities for people to share, create, serve, and advance their professions 15:54 – David continually boosts his creative powers by accepting every LinkedIn invitation that comes his way!  17:17 – Be smart about building your personal brand, in order to make the best connections possible  17:44 – David highly recommends reading The Cluetrain Manifesto, and the 95 Theses, to learn more about the human connection to marketing, and social media 18:30 – Wanna boost your career? Stop lurking, start talking!  20:41 – Miguel's articles focus on job searches and hiring practices, such as background checks, as they pertain to social media:                  - When your social media presence affects your ability to land a job | PR Newswire                 - Social-media screening is the new norm for employers | Business News Daily                 - Social doesn’t tell a candidate’s entire story | Workforce                 - How useful is social-media screening? | Backgroundchecks.com 22:26 – Saving face - If you wouldn't want the entire planet to see it, don't post it on social media, period.  23:51 – We're no longer able to lead separate work and personal lives anymore with the advent of social media. 27:33 – Think your private social channel is private forever? Think again, and then think about what you say there!  29:08 – Don't be afraid to talk about the things you do - hobbies, interests, activities - on social media. It gives potential employers a more well-rounded view of who you are and what you can do for them 30:01 – Accounting firms are looking for more than just accounting majors to build diversity within their firms | AccountingWEB  31:15 – Not to worry, though, up and coming accountants! As we discussed last week, there are still many accounting-related jobs available that offer top compensation and career opportunities!  32:36 – Are CPAs losing faith in the US economy? | AICPA 34:18 – Check out Sean Stein Smith's take on blockchain and accounting in episode 36]  35:05 – Cause for celebration? WeWork's failed IPO is proof that the free market system work |AIER  35:18 – Numbers don't really lie ... WeWork's S-1 filing | CNBC 36:35 – Since the trends are heading towards automation, aspiring accountants and bookkeepers should focus on the value-added services they can provide to clients 38:37 – Make learning the technology and the tools your side gig, if you want to get ahead of the game!  40:02 – Learn all the tech tools, not just accounting-related ... Calendars, social media automation, website design to build up basic skill levels employers are seeking 41:14 – Carpe Diem! It's never been easier to start your own accounting or bookkeeping business, with very little upfront expense!  42:14 – Get the itch for a niche ... There are countless opportunities for specializing in the accounting and bookkeeping realm 43:38 – Blake doesn't think regulation will hit the advisory specialty in the near future.  44:32 – When in Texas, don't bother calling yourself an accountant, unless you've got the CPA designation to prove it.   44:43 – In Cali, however, anything goes ... Anyone can call themselves an accountant, no degree required.  46:11 – Traditional accounting will stand the test of time, even though some may venture into more 'futuristic' areas. It's really a matter of personal choice 48:09 – No more snooze-fest - Accounting and bookkeeping can be as exciting and fun as you make it  Connect with Jennifer Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifergjohnson Twitter: https://twitter.com/JENJOHNSONCPA Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsBQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 01:44 – Another five-star review!  02:52 – Some familiar faces made CPA Practice Advisor's 2019 40 Under 40 list | CPA Practice Advisor 04:10 – AICPA held a not-so-time-zone-inclusive webinar on diversity and inclusion | Accounting Today 04:59 – David's Home Away from Podcast, AutoEntry,  just got acquired by Sage! | Sage 07:18 – Better late than never - Blake finally files is taxes!  10:15 – Fyre Festival - Accounting Version | Financial Post 11:17 – Testing, testing … Is this thing on? CPA Canada failed to test its test-taking software before unleashing it on test-takers | Going Concern 14:45 – Wanna play with numbers AND carry a gun? | Journal of Accountancy 14:56 – AICPA has released new standards for forensic accountants | AICPA  15:21 – Tipalti raises $76 million in a recent D funding round | CPA Practice Advisor 15:46 – Fundbox packs a bigger punch now with $176 million in Series-C funding |  17:23 – Speaking of Intuit, QuickBooks Online is now offering mileage tracking, and if adding some other performance-enhancing elements in its September round of updates | QuickBooks 19:31 – Not-so-thrifty glitch in TurboTax results in a $216 million tax bill for one probably very unsuspecting thrift-store employee | Forbes 21:53 – Out with the V, in with the X ... Microsoft ushers in a newer, shinier function for Excel | Microsoft  24:35 – Wells Fargo and Plaid's new data-sharing agreement gives customers even more data control | Bank Innovation 26:00 – BBVA wants to be a lover, not a fighter, using its Open Platform, and further innovation to help fintech startups | Bank Innovation  28:45 – Sharing the love, fintechs are pairing up with smaller banks to overcome the no-charter hurdle | L.A. Times 31:54 – It’s a numbers game – accounting-related positions are the best jobs to have in America! | MarketWatch  35:57 -  A position that allows you to learn and move upward leads to the highest amount of job satisfaction 37:57 – Tech is top priority … Really, it is! | Deloitte Controllership Digest  40:11 -- Make sure you come back next week for more important survey results, like the third-quarter AICPA Economic Outlook Survey!  40:36 – The moment you've been waiting for! More news and insight on the MyPayroll fiasco!  41:32 – Meet two of the frontline reporters in the MyPayrollHR situation - Chelsea Diana, and Michael Williams 47:44 – It's important to note that there is no indication that the employees of MyPayrollHR  knew what was going on.  49:16 – It's still not clear where all that money went, or if parties, like Cachet, who eventually covered the missing payroll, will be reimbursed 49:40 – Just how big of a tangled web did Michael Mann weave?  50:22 – At least three banks claim a combined loss of $36 million due to fraud, but did not name Mann, or MyPayrollHR in their disclosures 50:58 – This Michael actually laid eyes on that elusive Michael, and can confirm he is human, sort of ...  51:40 – The Big Chill - Mann's check-kiting antics resulted in frozen accounts at both Bank of America, and Pioneer Bank 52:55 – Mann, and MyPayrollHR's parent company, Valuewise, had their hands in a variety of business, ranging from staffing to healthcare, and beyond 57:22 – Though Mann has admitted to $70 million worth of fraud, it's up in the air what will happen next 59:27 – No matter Mann's motive for committing this fraud, the key takeaway for accountants and bookkeepers recommending payroll services to clients is to know exactly who you're dealing with!  Connect with Our Guests!Michael Williams Website: https://www.timesunion.com/author/michael-williams/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaeldamianw?lang=en Chelsea Diana Website: https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/bio/25841/Chelsea+Diana LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-diana/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlbBizChelsea Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorRight Networks: https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rncloud Show Notes 00:53 – Meet Dena Oberst, CEO of Gable Tax Group 01:45 – Meet Diane Yetter, president of Yetter Tax, and founder of the Sales Tax Institute 04:11 – Diane gives a brief overview of the South Dakota v. Wayfair decision  | AICPA   05:26 – According to South Dakota, a business’s physical presence is less important than its economic presence  06:50 – You gotta get up pretty early in the morning to go hang with the Supreme Court crowd!  08:37 – Most states, except Kansas, have adopted the $200k/200 transaction threshold | TaxJar  09:55 – If a company sells through Amazon, or other major marketplace platforms, there's nowhere to hide.   10:45 – To be registered, or not to be registered – that is a huge question right now  14:50 – States are attempting to ease the burden on smaller sellers through Marketplace Facilitation laws | Bill Track 50  17:10 – With the constant changes to the sales tax laws, which can vary state by state, it’s imperative to constantly monitor thresholds, and transaction counts 21:47 -- Who has to file? Who doesn't? Who knows? All states have yet to reach a consensus regarding the particulars of the new sales tax laws  25:38 – While it’s a mess right now, Diane believes things will start falling into place in the next five years.  26:21 – Business is definitely booming for sales-tax specialists, and firms, such as Gable Tax Group as CPAs scramble to help their clients meet these new and ever-changing sales tax requirements   28:39 – Diane doesn’t foresee any interference from the federal government, because it would only cost them more money to jump into the fray 32:06 – While the states are mostly self-policing the workings of the sales tax laws, there are some states that still want to forge their own seemingly senseless paths  33:46 – Economic nexus applies to all companies, not just sellers of physical goods  34:35 – Accountants and bookkeepers might want to exercise some caution with add-on products and bundling, as it can create additional confusion, and taxation  38:22 – With the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, states are on a mission to replace lost revenues 39:57 – As accounting and bookkeeping practices continue to expand services, education, and understanding of the sales tax laws is critical Connect with Our GuestsDena Oberst: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dena-oberst/  https://twitter.com/PasadenaDena https://twitter.com/gabletaxgroup  Diane Yetter:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianeyetter/ https://twitter.com/YetterTax https://twitter.com/SalesTaxInst SalesTaxInstitute.com/accountex2019 Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Rewind: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Show Notes 01:46 – Reminiscing with Will   03:03 – Will talks about life after YouTube and living life with Gusto!   04:12 – It's time for reviews!   06:37 – MyPayrollHR 101 - The nutshell version  07:31 – Catch up on our recent coverage in episodes 112 and 114  07:55 – Mum's the word, Mann | Albany Business Review  08:34 – It's always important to be proactive, especially AFTER committing fraud ...   09:03 – The fallout begins ... Two class action suits filed against Cachet | Albany Business Review 12:12 – The misgivings of MyPayrollHR may shine a bad light on the accountants and bookkeepers who recommended the company to their own clients  14:05 – Will explains how Gusto protects itself from payroll tampering 16:21 – According to Will, a payroll provider's level of transparency dictates the level (if any) of notifications whenever something changes in the system.   19:01 – Is this call for regulation of the payroll industry going to put a damper on innovation? | New York Post   22:01 – The MyPayrollHR debacle has exposed just how risky the ACH system really is   24:02 – WeWork - how something so right is going so wrong | Wall Street Journal   25:04 – A few flaws surfaced when WeWork went under the microscope    28:15 – WeWork's weak Wi-Fi woes | CNET 29:14 – Data security at WeWork isn't free. It'll cost you between $95 to $195 a month to keep your internet stuff to yourself!    30:35 – Guy Pearson’s Practice Ignition revs up with a $15 million raise and Stripe scores BIG with a $250 million round | TechCrunch   35:48 – Straight from Will's mouth - The Cloud Accounting Podcast - all the accounting and bookkeeping news you need to know!    38:53 – Stingy with your tips? POS terminals are tracking your tipping habits | NYT  41:46 – According to Toast's 2019 stats, tipping is not practiced by the majority of patrons at cafes, and fast casual restaurants   45:42 – Ride-share customers tip significantly less than their dining counterparts  47:40 – Can your firm's client-retention rate make or break selling the firm? | The Canadian Accountant   49:00 – Jump over to Episode 110 to learn more key factors for successfully selling your accounting or bookkeeping firm  49:35 – How small, rural firms possibly compete in the cloud accounting universe without reliable high-speed internet? | LinkedIn  50:22 – It'll be another decade before the FCC implements the fourth wave of broadband internet to some 36,000 'unserved' homes and businesses across 16 states | Business News Daily  Connect with Will Website: https://gusto.com/blog/author/will-lopez Twitter: @Zewillster LinkedIn: Will Lopez YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/advisorfitv Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorPodchaser: https://cloudacctpod.link/reviews Show Notes 01:41 – General Counsel Slavkin describes Cachet Financial Services as a sort of third-party vendor for payroll processing companies.   05:59 – Every ACH provider has their own patented process for payroll  06:45 – How MyPayrollHR’s owner, Michael Mann, did the deed, in technical detail   09:03 – Slavkin claims the  assorted employee banks are to blame for the whole payment reversal fiasco  10:32 – According to Slavkin, banks have 60 days to either accept or reject reversal files  11:29 – Cachet eventually decided to return all funds to the affected employees, using their own funds  12:10 – Though Cachet covered the payroll, some employees have yet to receive their funds back  13:32 – Slavkin notes that employee banks are waiving overdraft and other fees related to this incident  14:18 – NACHA’s statement re payroll-deposit reversals | Personnel Today   14:38 – Slavkin doesn't agree with NACHA's claim about reversing payroll deposits.   16:21 – Lesson learned: ABC - Always Be Cautious ... Before the MyPayrollHR event, Cachet never had controls in place to detect fraudulent activity from the client side. Now, after the fact, they do.   18:56 – According to Slavkin, Pioneer Bank is holding at least some of their money "in trust" ... They just have to find a way to get it.  23:18 – Timeline of the aftermath – from discovery through contacting FBI and more  24:38 – Wall Street Journal reports that Mann is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney and FBI ... | The Wall Street Journal   25:02 – Where in the world is Michael Mann? Either nobody knows, or they're not saying 26:30 – Blood and turnips - Slavkin was unable to accomplish much of anything when she contacted the FBI for help  31:50 – Pioneer Bank – another victim? | Times Union   33:30 – Was this a crime of desperation, or a crime of greed?  Connect with Cachet Financial ServicesThe Cachet Crisis Hotline number is 877-579-8557Connect with Our Guest, Wendy Slavkin, General Counsel for Cachet Financial Services http://slavkinlaw.com https://twitter.com/slavkinLaw Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorAccounting & Finance Show LA: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/accountingshowla Episode Notes  01:17 – The Cloud Accounting Podcast is gonna smoke Marijuana Daily in the iTunes charts, after this episode!  01:44 – A blunt history – how Bruce and Tom got started in the cannabis-accounting realm  02:50 – Bruce speaks to some of the challenges cannabis businesses face, when it comes to accounting  03:37 – The tables have turned when it comes to the types of clients served in a cannabis accounting firm  04:28 – How can accountants use cloud technology to help cannabis clients?   04:46 – Come hail or high water, Tom prefers hosted (cloud) solutions, such as QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Enterprise  to keep client data safe.   06:00 – One way to store your cannabis currency – PotCoin? | Vox    06:16 – Bruce explains some of the many layers involved with reporting for cannabis clients.    08:26 – Since every move you make, as a cannabis business, needs to be tracked, the most efficient way to do so is with specialized seed-to-sale or track-and-trace software  09:18 – How to get your Metrc on … | SoftwareConnect  11:10 – Is there a QuickBooks Cannabis Edition out there?    11:16 – A few of the front runners in the seed-to-sale software space:  Proteus 420, BioTrackTHC, and LeafLogix  12:38 – There are separate licensing requirements for each phase of the cannabis industry, from cultivation to distribution  13:19 – Cannabis taxation - harshing your accounting and bookkeeping mellow, from the municipal to the state level.   14:46 – The full operation - seed to sale - has the most tax benefit for local agencies in California.   15:33 – If you want to set up shop in L.A, the city's Department of Cannabis Regulation Pre-app instructions and zoning tool will give you some direction  16:02 – One retail roadblock could get in the way - LA DCR only has another 150 retail licenses to offer, all with a preference toward social equity ...   16:27 – Another huge downside in the LA cannabis market is fierce and seemingly unfettered, or at least unlicensed,  competition   17:07 – Is California's black-market cannabis winning the race?   17:32 – California takes a nearly 50-percent cut for assorted cannabis-related taxes, hanging cannabis businesses out to dry   19:10 – The CDTFA is more than happy to guide you through all the ways they'll take a hit off your revenues as a cannabis business owner    19:43 – Bruce breaks down the taxation and reporting process - from distribution to retail  21:06 – There's zero method to California's cannabis tax reporting madness, and no official guidance, either  22:22 – Cannabis users take note! If you're using for medicinal purposes, be sure to bring proof when you visit a retail cannabis store   25:23 – Accountants, do your cannabis clients a favor - learn, understand, and offer the tax piece, too! | Cannabis Industry Journal  26:14  -- Get some help - with the constant changes in the cannabis industry, with laws, regulations, taxes, and requirements, you need qualified, competent support for your cannabis accounting  28:32 – Cannabis accounting and bookkeeping skills are probably not as portable as other types.    30:14 – Who needs Starbucks, when there are pot brownies to be had? Connect with Our GuestsBruce Andersen, CPA: Websites - https://andersencpa.com/ and https://cannabiscpa.tax/  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-andersen-8788a59/ Thomas Andersen: Twitter - @TheOfficialTomA LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/tomandersencbd Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Rewind: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Show Notes 03:22 – MyPayrollHR's simplistic sayonara | Krebs on Security  05:40 – Some questions, some blame, a whole lotta wrath | SearchHRSoftware  07:28 – Governor Cuomo's statement | NYDFS  09:06 – Will the real Michael Mann please stand up? | TimesUnion  10:32 – a brief primer on how a payroll service processes a payroll  12:03 – Bait and switch ... MyPayrollHR redirected employer funds from the holding account to one of their internal accounts  16:02 – Really, Cachet? You're the ONLY victim?   17:05 – Apparently, Cachet needs bigger, louder, more neon-y warning signs when things are going awry with clients  19:21 – The FBI wants your intel, if you know anything about the MyPayrollHR situation.  20:58 – Breaking up isn’t hard to do when you do it with email, right?    23:17 – Payroll company using fraudulent means to report on fraudulent activities of another payroll company? Probably not the brightest bulb in the lamp ...  25:10 – Earlier this year, Key Bank was at the center of another payroll provider debacle | Albany Business Review  29:20 – Stop back next week for the latest intel on the ongoing MyPayrollHR melee!   29:37 – QuickBooks Live test-drives a new pricing tier based on the user's annual expenses | Firm of the Future  31:57 – Congratulations to Gusto for having cool workplace digs! | Inc.com   32:46 – More on Clio's astronomical $250 million raise, straight from the CEO's mouth | LawSites   33:19 – Visor, the tax-prep company we talked about in Episode 70, is still incognito   34:21 – Will California set precedent with AB-5 and shake up the gig economy? | CalMatters   37:43 – Has anyone bothered to ask Cali gig workers whether they WANT to become part-time employees vs contractors?   38:37 – David sees this legislation as just another part of the innovation lifecycle running its course  40:40 – Madeline Pratt serves up some thought food on the shelf life of influencers | Fearless in Training  41:25 – As David promised, an assortment of links from LinkedIn, and a sampling of leaderboard-y goodness? from AccountingWEB:                       https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6577777378490109952                     https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6577554625778581504                     https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6575309489593954304  42:43 – Are influencers operating in an echo chamber?   45:49 – Last, but definitely not least, we got some new reviews in!   46:45 – Hear Blake's best interpretation of a smooth voice ...   47:12 – We did make a list! Thanks to all our listeners, and reviewers for making it happen!    Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Rewind: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Show Notes 01:21 – Jet lag does cause memory loss ... | ScienceDaily 01:39 – Thanks to everyone who made our trip to Boston for Accountex a success!  03:18 – Just a little off the top … Hit up Xerocon Brisbane for a trim 04:22 – If you need some insight about pricing, like our listener, Danielbreez, check out the Soul of Enterprise podcast, or read Ron Baker's book on the subject 05:32 – Xero’s small-biz ecosystem just got a little bigger | Voxy 08:12 – Xero revs up the bank engine, partnering with BP on their Australian fuel card program | CIO 09:03 – Clio blows the roof off of VC raises with a $250 MILLION round | The Globe and Mail 10:39 – How long before the other industry practice-management SaaS providers get off the bench and follow Clio's lead? 11:57 – Clio’s biggest competition is pen and paper? | Clio 14:17 – Could this be David's new side hustle - PBFaaS - Psychic Business Forecasting as a Service?  14:51 – Speaking of additional services, Square's got a new one - the Square EIN Assistant | Square 16:53 – Wake-up call - SaaS providers are starting to fill gaps where accountants and bookkeepers fall short.  18:11 – Former guest, Sabrina Parsons of LivePlan, tackles yet another challenge - sitting on the board of directors for Oregon Pacific Bank | Insightful Accountant 18:44 – Blake and David are significantly less than whelmed with QuickBooks Desktop's new features for 2020 20:27 – SmartBooks introduces a new practice-management workflow tool - Blake-approved! | PYMNTS.com 22:35 – Ireland-based Surf Accounts catches a wave  (of BS?) into the U.S.  market | Insightful Accountant 23:43 – M&A is hot, hot, hot ... according to surveyed tax and accounting professionals | CPA Trendlines 24:46 – Is this a buyer's or seller's market? Check out Ep. 110 to hear some expert opinions!  25:28 – Payroll-advance apps, like Earnin, are starting to face regulatory scrutiny | PYMNTS.com 26:59 – Breaking News Alert! We've got early details on the mystery of the missing MyPayrollHR  company (and even more to come in the next episode!)  27:49 – “The whole place is going nuts!” Is this the payroll-processing version of Boiler Room?  29:24 – Governor Cuomo's statement re: MyPayrollHR | Albany Business Review 32:57 – Before we go, though, check THIS out!  The LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen phone! | Digital Trends 33:22 – Let us know if you've got some intel on the MyPayrollHR 'scandal', and also, whether you prefer one episode at a time, or want us to drop a bunch for your binge-listening enjoyment! Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorAccounting & Finance Show: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/accountingshowla  Show Notes 00:32 -- Greetings from sunny L.A. and the Accounting and Finance Show!   01:33 -- Podcasting - Blake's gift to the world!  01:49 -- Meet Shannon Hay, VP at Live Oak Bank  02:44 -- Meet Dr. Curtis Cochran,  President/CEO of Cochran Consulting  03:42 -- Why Cochran gives every new client a thorough exam   05:45 -- What are the key considerations for selling your accounting firm?   06:44 -- Are you worth less if you don't have your head, or your book of business in the cloud?   07:09 -- Shannon talks valuation and the many variables involved   09:27 -- Evaluating an accounting or bookkeeping firm's worth is an art, not a science  10:37 -- It's a numbers game. The gentlemen discuss multiples  11:55 -- Curtis argues that annual cash flow is a better determinant of value than gross revenue  13:26 -- Why sell? Shannon talks about the various reasons firm owners want out   15:59 -- One-stop shopping is not just for Amazon. Accounting and bookkeeping clients want more than just the basics  17:37 -- Want to start your own accounting firm? Odds are stacked in your favor, if you have the right combination of knowledge, tech, and exceptional customer service  18:25 -- Buyer's market or seller's market? Our guests have differing points of view  19:33 -- Shannon believes many boomer firm owners still haven't decided to take their leave yet  20:26 -- The young guns aren't buying up accounting  firms. A growing consensus of younger accountants thinks it's easier to just steal clients away  22:25 -- Don't wait til it's too late. Even if you didn't start your firm with the finish line in mind, now is the time to get that exit plan in place!   24:21 -- Buyers need to see the potential, not the past  27:01 -- If you are sans exit plan, you're not alone. A fair number of large and small companies don't have one either Connect with Our Panelists Dr. Curtis Cochran (President/CEO of Cochran Consulting): https://www.linkedin.com/in/ccochranconsulting/ Shannon Hay (Vice President, Accounting and Tax at Live Oak Bank): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-hay-1b6bb88/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors BQE Core: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Rewind: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Show Notes 01:25 – Why enjoy a nice relaxing Labor Day weekend, when you can go camping instead? 03:30 – Why are sock puppets writing accounting articles?  05:23 -- Blake talks about how to suss out sock puppets on LinkedIn, and teaches us how to do a Google Image Search 08:35 -- Time to clean house on your LinkedIn profile? | LinkedIn 12:30 -- Something’s rotten in the state of accounting content | Leary Theory on Revue 13:13 -- According to a NY Times article, China is using LinkedIn for less altruistic purposes | New York Times   14:06 -- Why do human work, when you can pretend to be a robot? | WSJ 16:45 -- Walmart one-ups UPS and sends their accounting jobs, some 600 of them, to India | Breitbart  18:51 -- Get your Sage accounting advice Down Under -  Intacct opens in Australia | Accounting Today 20:04 -- The subscription economy grows again – Chargebee raise $14M in Series D round | Chargebee 20:30 -- AvidXchange is cozying up to banks with their acquisition of BankTEL | Verdict  21:43 -- Going with the flow, Tesorio (think “Mint for Business”) raises $10M in a Series A round | TechCrunch 23:46 -- Intuit’s TSheets is losing the Race to Zero with increased user fees later this month | TSheets 26:32 -- Might be time to think outside the Box … | WSJ 29:18 -- Listeners – Are you using cloud storage, specifically Box, or Dropbox? Inquiring hosts want to know!   30:57 --  Vanguard Active Funds Struggle to Beat the Market | Money 33:32 -- What to do when your cloud breaks | Journal of Accountancy 35:52 -- ABC – Always Backup your Cloud! Just because it’s in the cloud, doesn’t necessarily mean your data is backed up!   36:40 -- Not even your teeth are safe from ransomware attacks! | Krebs on Security  37:55 -- Is your cyber insurance making you vulnerable to ransomware attacks? | ProPublica 39:18 -- A deeper dive into the ransomware/insurance connection | ProPublica  40:01 --  It’s not what you do, it’s why you do it | CPA Trendlines 43:43 -- Survey says: so long soft skills, bring on the tech! |  Accounting Today 45:51 -- News of the Weird: Liberty Tax, Sears Hometown, and Vitamin Shoppe make strange bedfellows!  48:43 -- Sock-puppet-free, REAL awesome reviews!  51:56 -- Blake and David are Boston-bound for Accountex 2019!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorsBQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/coreSign up for Inclusion Without Assimilation, an event for for finance, accounting, and fintech, in Boston, on Friday, September 6 from 9 AM to 11:30 AM EDT at the WeWork at 501 Boylston Street.Show Notes 00:22 – Can you charge premium fees if you call yourself a bookkeeper?  01:11 – What are the odds that David will escape federal grand jury duty and get to attend Accountex 2019?  02:56 – Meghan shares the inspiration behind the  Inclusion Without Assimilation - Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion within the Accounting, Finance and Fintech world event, featuring some of The Cloud Accounting Podcast’s former guests – Jina Etienne, and Nayo Carter-Gray 07:57 – The reviews are in! David and Blake run down some more reviews of the show from iTunes and Podchaser 10:37 – Intuit’s ecosystem, and revenue continue to grow, according to their latest earnings report | Intuit 13:20 – Well, they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery .. QuickBooks’ latest addition, employee benefits options, looks a lot like Gusto’s product offering | Intuit QuickBooks  15:07 – The Xero-OnPay partnership - in search of a bountiful harvest from the ag industry | Xero Blog 15:32 – In light of Expensify’s recent CPE-credit offering, Blake explains why this might be a no-brainer when it comes to increasing engagement | Business Wire 18:07 – Cash – more than $6 billion of it - is still king in some of Uber’s global locations | MarketWatch 21:31 – Strategic move or smokescreen? UPS eliminates 60+ accounting jobs in Texas | The Dallas Morning News 24:13 – Tax preparers who don’t raise their rates are leaving a load of money on the table | Accounting Today 26:15 --  Meghan talks about changing the scope of services along with raising rates, and why bookkeepers are typically the first to try out new strategies, like perpetual accounting  | CPA Practice Advisor 27:55 – 34.3 billion reasons the IRS needs a bigger budget | Indiana University  29:07 -- Why Matt Paff (another former CAP guest) is showing MYOB the door | LinkedIn 30:53 – In the aftermath of last week’s WeWork discussion, a listener, Amy Walker, CPA, shared how she’s witnessed coworking spaces, like WeWork, evolve into more of an enterprise solution 32:55 – A Work-from-Anywhere strategy benefits both companies and their employees | Harvard Business Review 34:43 – Can help desk software help accounting firms help their customers? | Future Firm 37:19 If you’re not into more software, Blake, David, and Meghan share some other strategies for tackling customer service 39:00 – Bookkeepers, who’s really your client? Why there’s more value-add when books are done for the business, not just the tax return | AccountingWEB Connect with Meghan Blair-ValeroTwitter: https://twitter.com/FoggedInbooksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-blair-valero-6825b11b/Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors  Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/lpbootcamp  Show NotesWe asked the question - What is Advisory? See the responses below in the transcript! Connect with Some Respondents! Melissa Mullett - Veem | LinkedIn Patti Scharf - Catching Clouds | Website Wayne Schmidt - TOA Global | Twitter Brooks Wheatley - System Six Bookkeeping | Website Nury Saenz - H&R Block Franchise Owner | LinkedIn Aaron Berson - VRTL | LinkedIn Elliott Brown - OnPay | LinkedIn Christine Walsh - Walsh Accounting Solutions, LLC  | LinkedIn Liz Farr - Farr Communications | LinkedIn Andy Burner - Xero | LinkedIn Stephanie Holt - Cloud Accounting & Consulting, Inc | LinkedIn Scott Scharf - Catch Clouds | Website Chris Rogers - BookWerks | Website Gonzalo Alvarez de Toledo - Contabi Alliance | Website Jay Kimelman - The Digital CPA | Website  Joel Lacayo - ATAX | LinkedIn Matt Donaldson - Rippling | LinkedIn Guy Pearson - Practice Ignition | Twitter | Website | LinkedIn Brooke Roberts - ProfitSee | Website | LinkedIn Jose Zavala - ZTX Advisors | Website | LinkedIn Thomas Casey - Xero | LinkedIn  Sasha Hryciuk - Loft47 | Website | LinkedIn Tracy Simmons - Loft47 | LinkedIn Dan Shively - Spotlight Reporting | Website | LinkedIn Dan Young - Xero | LinkedIn Kelly Bistriceanu - CollBox | LinkedIn Jeff Phillips - Accountingfly | LinkedIn Jason Staats - Brenner, LLP | Website | LinkedIn Brian Hershman - Buck Stops Here Accounting | Website | LinkedIn Ranica Arrowsmith - Accounting Today | Website | Twitter Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors  LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/lpbootcamp  Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal  Show Notes 00:57 – Meet one of the Two Jamies - Jamie McDonald, Executive GM, Product, Accounting and Global Services at Xero 01:44 – Jamie M talks career, and his new promotion 02:45 – What’s ahead for Hubdoc? Jamie M discusses the acquisition, some of Hubdoc’s newest time-saving features, and plans for building a more powerful platform  05:10 – Jamie M talks about Hubdoc’s global positioning and how working across multiple time zones is maybe his least favorite part of his job  05:57 – Touching on the Xero-Stripe integration – one more way to save time and eliminate headaches 07:31 – Keys to being successfully acquired – show up everywhere, listen, really listen, do lots of stuff that adds value, repeat  10:14 – The other Jamie, Hubdoc Co-Founder and Co-CEO, arrives!  11:00 – Has fetching docs (Hubdoc’s forte) become a new pain point for accountants and bookkeepers? 13:15 – Do we really want to live in a world without bank feeds? Why said feeds and fetching soar above the manual-entry alternative 16:15 – Jamie M talks about the potential for new business with the plethora of US banks and how Hubdoc is focusing on building an innovative, powerful, and reliable API that targets the accounting, bookkeeping community  17:58 – Jamie S pontificates on how the new Wow moment – machine learning – is helping offset some of Hubdoc’s challenges with fetching  19:14 – Here’s to another 10 years (and more) of success!  Connect with Jamie McDonaldLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiemcdonald/Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamiemcdonaldConnect with Jamie ShulmanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamieshulman/Twitter: https://twitter.com/JamieShulmanGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors BQE CORE - http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core  Rewind.io - http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Show Notes 01:25 – Happy Birthday, Blake!  03:26 – David takes QuickBooks Online Accountant for a spin the real world 05:30 – The new titanium-flavored Apple Card – all hype, no substance? | ZDNet  07:45 – A few of QBOA’s underperforming features - the Accountants Apps Program and Slack -  are getting the boot as Intuit keeps searching for a more perfect integration 12:04 – Xero’s Marketplace gets a new look, and some shiny new toys! | Digital First*Correction: Jonathan Misfud is the author of this Digital First article. Blake mistakenly credited Sholto Macpherson. Apologies for the mix-up!  14:03 – Is Square biting off more than they’ll eventually be able to chew?  Square is taking a bite out of the hassle of managing a multitude of third-party food-delivery orders with their new orders platform | Square  With constant development of new tools, APIs, and features, Square aims to be the middleman between everything from orders to accounting systems.  18:18 – Meet the winners of CPA Practice Advisor’s Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Awards, which includes a win for BQE Software – one of our sponsors. If you missed it earlier this year, check out our interview with CEO Shafat Qazi, and an excellent demo of BQE’s award-winning Core Intelligence AI. 24:05 – No magic here, just smoke and mirrors – yet another AI startup, Engineer.ai, is less than straightforward about human v. AI workload | The Verge 27:14 – What’s behind the allure of hiring non-accounting grads at CPA firms? Expansion of services, requiring more skill-diversified staffs, or the declining quality of a formal accounting education? | Journal of Accountancy 30:29 – The high cost of being an ethical, and skilled auditor – an eight-percent reduction in fees? | Accounting Today  35:14 – “We” is getting people Worked up over their IPO, some wonky financials, and their standard operating procedure | LinkedIn Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors BQE CORE - http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core  REWIND.io - http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind  Show Notes 01:38 – Welcome Ben Wann, CMA, CPA, and MBA to the show! 02:39 – Notable industry departures: Matt Rissell exits TSheets amidst some corporate remodeling | BoiseDev Jennifer Warawa parts ways with Sage and the accounting industry | Accounting Today Blake Oliver departs FloQast | LinkedIn 07:46 – Seriously, you are not a tree. Move around! How career expectations have shifted from taking root in one job for decades to seeking new opportunities on the regular 11:08 – VC fundraising activity: FreshBooks raises "most significant investment so far" from JPMorgan Chase | BetaKit ScaleFactor continues to rake in some serious VC coin | Crunchbase 21:05 – Ben reads us a story: “Dear AICPA! I Wrote Your Concession Letter” and explains why he is bullish on the CMA versus the CPA after obtaining both 28:44 – Speaking of designations, where have all the CPA candidates gone? | CPA.com  33:53 – According to a June ADP survey, 25 percent of accounting professionals surveyed said they would not recommend young accountants get a CPA license, or seek some other credential or advanced degree 35:50 – Ben talks about cheese, business process improvement, finance business partnering, and how new technology drives him to educate and help people navigate the constantly shifting accounting landscape 39:00 – Yet another way to Crunch some numbers with the help of freelancers | SmallBusiness.co.uk  42:23 – Something’s phishy … More updates on the iNSYNQ ransomware snafu | Krebs on Security 47:41 – Armanino goes full crypto – first with a range of blockchain services, and now accepting payment via all forms of cryptocurrency | Armanino, LLP  Connect with Ben Website: The Numbers Guys Twitter: @BenWann_CMA LinkedIn: Ben Wann, CMA, MBA, CPA Udemy: Ben Wann | Process Improvement Specialist-Accounting/Finance YouTube: Ben Wann Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus. Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorLivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/lpbootcamp Show Notes  00:31 – A personal word of thanks to our sponsors  01:00 – Sabrina and Kathy define advisory from their perspective   03:05 – Finding the why - Asking the right questions to help build a strong advisory service  07:01 – Another model of combining bookkeeping and advisory - former guest, Kenji Kuramoto  10:22 – Worth repeating: Bookkeeping is not what creates value in the mind of the business owner   11:37 – Adapt or die ... Stop fighting AI and get creative   13:29 – Sometimes Kool-Aid is good. Sabrina breaks down the myth that strategic planning is not a small-business imperative 15:14 – Want to take your client-advisory skills to the next level? The LivePlan Client Advisory Services Boot Camp is just what you need!   16:41 – For small businesses that don't have the budget for CFO-level help, there are endless opportunities for accountants skilled in strategic planning and advisory  19:10 – When you've got the 'who, what, where, and why,' LivePlan gives you the 'how'   19:53 – Kathy shares the inspiration behind LivePlan and describes some key features  22:08 – LivePlan is launching a new QuickBooks Desktop Beta. If you're interested in taking part, visit LivePlan.com/strategicadvisors to learn more 25:16 – LivePlan offers tools that remove the complications and make it easy for small business owners to work alongside their accountants  27:15 – Why Palo Alto transformed from desktop to cloud, and how they found the method to their madness within their own method - LivePlan   31:53 – How does Palo Alto Software stay profitable, and continue to reinvest in its own growth? Strategic planning   34:07 – Sabrina give a brief glimpse into her side gig - advocating for working moms and working families and how it took her to the White House more than once Connect with Sabrina and Kathy  Email: [email protected] Website: LivePlan.com Twitter - LivePlan: @LivePlanSA Twitter - Sabrina: @mommyceo LinkedIn - Sabrina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrinaparsons Twitter - Kathy: @KathyGregory1 LinkedIn - Kathy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-gregory-821525112/ Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors BQE CORE: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show Notes 00:08 – Blake and David talk politics for a brief moment in time ...  00:47 – While Andrew Yang has a touch of bot-phobia, he's the only 2020 presidential candidate talking AI in any meaningful way. 01:24 – Yang's take on "reality TV" style elections |The Hill 02:04 – What it takes to hit the debate stage | NYTimes 04:34 – The ransomware wars go mainstream, when the latest attack on QuickBooks hits "action" news channels, like News 6 in Orlando | ClickOrlando.com 06:49 – Hackers are buying kits designed to specifically target QuickBooks Desktop data files | Healthcare Info Security 07:30 – Ransomware rebuilds - new business opportunity for accountants?  09:10 – How many accounting firms suffer ransomware attacks and stay silent about it to save face?  11:37 – Backing up the backups of your backups, and then backing those up on a regular basis is one way to mitigate ransomware damage 12:47 – LinkedIn adds some new marketing tools to help small accounting businesses boost their visibility on the platform business | Accounting Today 14:47 – Ain't nobody got time for updating multiple social sites when you're trying to run and grow your accounting business. David challenges app developers to create an app that's up to the social-media management task 16:49 – Intuit has added a new role in the TurboTax Live arena - tax associate - to assist credentialed agents with a variety of tax-related tasks |Intuit ProConnect 18:18 – QuickBooks Live finally has a landing page all its own, and they're celebrating by offering a free 30-minute consultation! | Intuit QuickBooks 19:13 – What exactly is QuickBooks Live? Short answer: Uber for bookkeeping 20:48 – Intuit provides an actual demo of the QuickBooks Live service in their new add, narrated by Danny DeVito 22:30 – Blake Oliver - Voiceover talent for hire! 23:56 – Does your firm utilize collab tools that include instant messaging? | CPA Trendlines 26:15 – Google Sheets ups its game with some new tools - Slicers, Scorecard Charts, and themes - to create more effective data visualization | Android Police 28:10 – The Federal Reserve wants to create its own instant-payments system, much to the chagrin of the Big Banks | Politico 29:31 – Open call to Elizabeth Warren - Make an appearance on The Cloud Accounting Podcast!  30:38 – Square doubles down on its ecosystem plays | Bank Innovation  32:30 – More talk on Andrew Yang’s automation/disruption platform and why the concept of universal basic income could be beneficial  33:40 – You say you want a revolution? In June 2019, thousands of LA dockworkers marched against the rise of the robots | CNN Business 34:58 – According to a Pew Research Survey, 85 percent of Americans support policies for robot restriction 35:38 – It’s gonna get far worse, before it gets better. Blake talks about history repeating itself, and how the future may not be so bright for millions of workers in industries embracing automation 37:59 – With a reported 40 to 50 percent of accounting work that can be automated, accountants and bookkeepers sit at the top of the list of those who could be replaced by machine counterparts 41:11 – As automation and constant change becomes the norm, how do we tell our kids what to be when they grow up, when the jobs of today may not even exist by the time they enter the workforce? Perhaps investing in education and lifelong learning is the key 43:05 – What do you really think? Give us your issues, your ideas, your suggestions, and even your complaints!  Get in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.  Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors  Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Shownotes 02:25 – Shawn explains the difference between a linear accountant and an exponential accountant 04:24 – Get stuff done! Embracing the gig economy with a Fiverr experiment 05:36 – Shawn shares some career background - from CPA to disruption strategist 07:37 – Accountants currently have a 94-percent chance of being automated  10:15 – Winter is coming! If your firm doesn’t get with the cloud, you may get left out in the cold 11:18 – According to Hinge Marketing, in accounting, 25 percent of firms are eating all the growth (https://hingemarketing.com/library/article/2018-high-growth-study-accounting-financial-services-edition-executive-summary) 13:45 – According to Shawn, the accounting firms that chase relevance and stay on the leading edge will win the race 14:26 – Blake and Shawn talk about how Xero is breathing some rock-star-level life into the accounting industry 16:31 – If accounting is on the cutting edge of disruption, why are so many firms still using Excel as their primary record-keeping system?   19:12 – How Intuit leveraged disruption to increase marketshare 21:16 – The Xero-Stripe Partnership (https://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2019/xero-stripe-team-small-biz-payments/) 24:10 – The more you build out your ecosystem, through integrations and partnerships, the more value you bring to your clients 27:12 – Ball's in your court ... Are you brave enough to face an accounting world without billable hours?  30:03 – If you want to change the trajectory of your firm and move it towards the cloud, try taking a risk 32:40 – How can accounting bring its sexy back?   34:11 – Shawn shares some secrets to becoming a great storyteller and public speaker Connect with Shawn Website: https://www.shawnkanungo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnkanungo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawnkanungo Twitter: https://twitter.com/shawnkanungo Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors BQE CORE - http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core  Rewind.io - http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/rewind Show Notes 02:23 – Blake and David recap the ongoing iNSYNQ ransomware debacle 03:07 – Official iNSYNQ ransomware update (https://www.insynq.com/support/#status) 04:00 – iNSYNQ feedback from unhappy Tweeters  05:12 – Homeland Security's October 2018 warning about possible ransomware attacks (https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-news/dhs-warning-msps-csps/)  06:18 – Tweeting with iNSYNQ CEO Elliot Luchansky on 7/23 before he backed out of the interview (https://twitter.com/BlakeTOliver/status/1153550898435485696?s=20) 08:21 – Get a clue - You can't control the conversation 08:59 – Should Intuit do more to protect customer data? (http://www.intuithostingprogram.com/authorized_hosts.php)  11:01 – From the Intuit Hosting Program FAQs - "The Commercial and Standard Hosts who participate in the program are solely responsible for the security, privacy, availability and backup of QuickBooks data files and the software that they host, in accordance with their end user hosting service agreements" (http://www.intuithostingprogram.com/faqs.php) 12:40 – Meanwhile, on Apps.com, out of 650 apps, only one has been breached 13:36 – Wake-up call to hosting providers (https://www.channele2e.com/news/msp-judgment-day/)  14:14 – Blake's take on the iNSYNQ Situation 15:28 – Jack Newton on the "unholy combination" of cloud and on-prem technologies - (https://twitter.com/jack_newton/status/1154368009906970625) 16:51 – Slightly ironic? Five Ways to Avoid a Ransomware Attack (https://www.insynq.com/blog/5-ways-to-avoid-a-ransomware-attack/) 17:27 – Rachel sheds light on some of Sage's cloud and desktop hosting elements 22:30 – How "Six Ways How Cloud Computing Improves Accounting Practices" confuses the issue of  cloud v. desktop  (https://www.hostreview.com/blog/190723-6-ways-how-cloud-computing-improves-accounting-practices) 24:56 – Rachel talks about MindBridge, and the benefits of using AI for audits 28:15 – Part of MindBridge's successful marketing campaign (https://www.mindbridge.ai/university-alliance-alumni/) 32:44 – According to Michael Izza, ICAEW Chief Executive, the auditing profession needs to "be prepared to think and act differently" (https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/news/pivot-magazine/2018-08-28-michael-izza-interview) 34:04 – Words of wisdom for auditors (https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/news/pivot-magazine/2019-02-26-mindbridge-ai-auditing) 35:35 – Where IS the best place to find top-level accounting talent? (https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/where-should-you-be-looking-for-top-accounting-talent) 37:36 – The IRS issues some 10,000 gentle reminders about cryptocurrency filing obligations (https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2019/jul/virtual-currency-irs-filing-201921691.html) 38:30 – How to pay your $3 million IRS bill in cash (https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/pot-company-ceo-tax-bill-cash) 40:19 – Expensify takes home some bling for its 2019 Super Bowl 2 Chainz video (https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/expensify-wins-big-in-cannes-for-2-chainz-video) 43:08 – Using Microsoft Excel’s Power Query might leave you vulnerable to malware attacks (https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-excel-power-query-feature-can-be-abused-for-malware-distribution/) 44:16 – SMB lender OnDeck wants to become a bank (https://bankinnovation.net/allposts/operations/comp-reg/smb-lender-ondeck-actively-pursuing-bank-charter/) 45:26 – Lendio, another SMB player, acquires Billy, a cloud-accounting app, rebranding it as Sunrise, perhaps offering a ‘light’ alternative to QBO and Xero (https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/07/sunrise-bookkeeping-app.html) 47:37 – California wants to increase truth-in-lending protections for small business borrowers (https://www.pymnts.com/loans/2019/california-proposed-business-lending-rules-draw-support/) 49:30 – 59 percent of larger firms still haven’t tackled payment automation (https://www.pymnts.com/news/payments-innovation/2019/mastercard-on-tackling-ap-automation-last-mile/) 51:24 – Gusto’s Series-D round raises $200 million for East Coast expansion and continued development on its Flexible Pay feature (https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/24/smb-payroll-startup-gusto-raises-200m-series-d-plans-rd-expansion-to-nyc/) Connect with Rachel Rachel Fisch on Twitter: @FischBooks  LinkedIn: Rachel Fisch, CPB Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan  HalonTax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal Show Notes 00:56 – Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast 01:06 – David's at Scaling New Heights 01:38 – Mayumi talks about life before CPA MOMS® 03:13 – Why CPA MOMS® wants to be the “eHarmony” of the accounting world 05:45 – How CPA MOMS® helps its mompreneurs – the CPA Moms – provide top-level service to entrepreneurs 08:25 – Why CPA MOMS® is the perfect fit for military spouses and other remote or virtual service providers 09:44 – Thanks to our sponsor, Halon Tax, you can provide a little peace of mind to your small business clients!  11:11 – How gender, and location affect pricing for CPA services.  12:42 – Mayumi explains why accountants and bookkeepers are becoming the bookends of technology.  15:15 – What is Society 5.0 and how will it make our lives better?  16:52 – Comparing Society 5.0 and the Information Age – which one wins?  18:38 – When will we see CPA DADS?  19:39 – Visit the CPA MOMS® to learn more about the company, find a wealth of resources, and discover your CPA pathway Connect with Mayumi @MayumiYoung on Twitter https://twitter.com/MayumiYoung Mayumi Young, CPA https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayumiyoung/ Connect with CPA MOMS® CPA MOMS® Website https://cpa-moms.com/ CPA MOMS® on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cpamoms CPA MOMS® on Twitter https://twitter.com/cpamoms Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

This episode was recorded live at the Accounting & Finance Show LA at the Los Angeles Convention Center on July 24, 2019.SponsorAccounting & Finance Show LA: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/accountingshowla Show Notes  02:31 — QuickBooks Cloud Hosting Firm iNSYNQ Hit in Ransomware Attack — Krebs on Security (https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/07/quickbooks-cloud-hosting-firm-insynq-hit-in-ransomware-attack/) 09:50 — Trump’s Tax Law Threatened TurboTax’s Profits. So the Company Started Charging the Disabled, the Unemployed and Students. — ProPublica (https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-tax-law-threatened-turbotax-profits-started-charging-disabled-unemployed-and-students) 13:42 — SURVEY: 60% of Firms Employ Remote Access Tools (https://cpatrendlines.com/2019/07/14/survey-60-of-firms-employ-remote-access-tools/) 16:22 — About Marie Phillips, CPA (https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillipsmarie/) 19:28 — Here's where you can have a 4-day work week. Is this the next big thing? (https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/17/jobs-4-day-work-week-next-bif-thing/1748695001/) 24:58 — The problem(s) with timesheets 32:00 — About Jennie Taber, CPA: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennie-taber-cpa-778408120/) Connect with Marie  Marie Phillips, CPA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillipsmarie/ Gursey | Schneider LLP: https://www.gursey.com/ Connect with Jennie  Jennie Taber, CPA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennie-taber-cpa-778408120/ Armanino LLP: https://www.armaninollp.com/ Get in Touch Thanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax Show Notes 1:20 - Ben’s view of advisory and where it fits in with compliance 4:36 - What is Ben’s biggest challenge in his role as VP of Business Growth in the Americas? 5:53 - The importance of book-to-tax workflow 8:23 - Ben’s background (how he got to be where he’s at) 10:28 - The problem with going too far into the future with sessions at conferences (thought leaders are scaring firms about blockchain when hardly anybody is using it yet) 12:38 - The biggest barrier to innovation for large accounting firms in the United States 15:10 - What if accountants just focused on their processes? Connect with Ben LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-richmond-ca-b8794220/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/benrichmond1  Email: [email protected]  LinksDeloitte's 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: (https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/2019-global-blockchain-survey/DI_2019-global-blockchain-survey.pdf)Subscribe  Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.

Sponsors FloQast:  http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/floqast AutoEntry: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/autoentry Show Notes 00:53 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 00:57 - Amazon’s Latest Experiment: Retraining Its Work Force | NYTimes (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/technology/amazon-workers-retraining-automation.html) 05:23 - The end of the war for talent? | Accounting Today (https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/the-end-of-the-war-for-accounting-talent) 08:39 - Companies use this creative trick keep wages stagnant, even in a strong economy | MarketWatch (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-theory-could-help-explain-why-wages-arent-rising-faster-2018-08-06) 12:00 - Microsoft Teams reaches 13 million daily active users, introduces 4 new ways for teams to work better together | Microsoft (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/07/11/microsoft-teams-reaches-13-million-daily-active-users-introduces-4-new-ways-for-teams-to-work-better-together/) 14:32 - We talked to 10 Robinhood insiders about how the $6 billion trading app botched a launch so badly Congress got involved | Business Insider (https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-millennial-trading-app-ignored-rules-checking-and-savings-2019-7) 17:47 - Bill.com Doubles Currencies and Countries for No-Fee International Payments | Insightful Accountant (https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/vendor-news/bill-com-doubles-currencies-and-countries-for-no-fee-interna/) 19:20 - MindBridge Ai gets $11M in new funding to accelerate AI development | Accounting Today (https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/mindbridge-ai-gets-11m-in-new-funding-to-accelerate-ai-development) 20:21 - Kabbage secures $200M to fuel its AI-based loans platform for small businesses | TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/02/kabbage-secures-200m-to-fuel-its-ai-based-loans-platform-for-small-businesses/) 22:04 - CPAs see risks in complex financial instruments and derivatives | Accounting Today (https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/cpas-see-risks-in-complex-financial-instruments-and-derivatives) 26:13 - Monopoly Goes Cashless, Games Gain Popularity | PYMNTS.com (https://www.pymnts.com/innovation/2019/monopoly-goes-cashless-board-games-gain-popularity/) 28:39 - myGov website goes down affecting tax return services | Twitter (https://twitter.com/i/events/1149484643801939970) 30:47 - Follow @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLearn on Twitter 31:32 - Meet us in person at the Accounting & Finance Show LA (https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/accounting-finance-show-la/index.stm) Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Show Notes Coming soon! Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors FloQast: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/floqast AutoEntry: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/autoentry Show Notes 00:53 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 04:34 - A California law now means chatbots have to disclose they’re not human | Quart 07:21 - 73% Think It's OK to Text Clients After Business Hours | SmallBizTrends 10:28 - Layoff Watch ’19: Walmart Accountants and Finance Workers In Charlotte, NC | Going Concern 14:58 - MYOB glitch sees 220 payment summaries sent in error | Accountants Daily 17:41 - Deloitte flash poll: "What is your organization’s biggest challenge associated with controllership transformation?" 21:43 - Fifty Years, Little Progress for Black Accountants | Bloomberg Tax 23:47 - Proposal would enable adaptive-learning CPE self-study for CPAs | Journal of Accountancy 29:25 - Subscribe to show notes via email Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorFloQast: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/floqast Show NotesComing Soon! Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorFloQast: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/floqastShow Notes 00:53 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast 01:16 - We're at AICPA ENGAGE 2019 02:09 - What are the top threats facing the accounting profession? 04:53 - If I'm not doing audit, why would I go to the trouble of being a CPA firm these days? 06:07 - What's going on with the CPA in Canada 09:22 - Over the last 8 years, CPA hires have increased 4% but non-CPA hires have increased 10% 12:03 - What's with this Canadian firm getting sued by the SEC? 15:04 - Tom Maxwell on Twitter: "Do you text with your clients?" 20:15 - What do you see as the best opportunities for CPAs as robots take over lower level tasks? 30:13 - Follow @fischbooks, @byron_cpa, and @LizzyNorMa on Twitter Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Show Notes 00:53 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 01:27 - What are you looking forward to the most at Scaling New Heights? 02:40 - How is the balance between desktop and cloud at the conference? 04:05 - What do you think about the Right Networks QB Desktop "Always On" announcement? 06:23 - Why not just shift to full cloud accounting? 07:53 - Any other SNH highlights? 08:32 - What's next for the Desktop Accounting Podcast? 09:04 - Follow the Desktop Accounting Podcast on Twitter Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorElefant: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/elefant Show NotesComing Soon! Connect with Nayo Carter-GrayFollow Nayo Carter-Gray and 1st Step Accounting on Instagram. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors FloQast: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/floqast AutoEntry: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/autoentry Show Notes 00:58 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 01:45 - We got more reviews! Click here to leave a review on iTunes. 07:23 - Scaling New Heights 2020 will be in St. Louis 08:00 - Xero is launching apps.xero.com as the new Xero Marketplace 08:56 - Make the move from ‘trusted’ to ‘transformative’ | Accounting Today 10:59 - QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping update: Interested in becoming a QuickBooks Live Bookkeeper? | Firm of the Future 12:21 - The recruiting site for QuickBooks Live bookkeepers is now live 16:24 - Enterprise-Technology Companies Trigger Investor Zeal | WSJ 19:41 - Facebook’s Libra is live: What CPAs should consider about the new cryptocurrency | Accounting Today 25:49 - SURVEY: Nearly Half of Firms Use Videoconferencing | CPA Trendlines 28:08 - Top Video-Conferencing Tools: GoToMeeting, Skype [SURVEY] | CPA Trendlines 30:15 - 10 tech stories you may have missed: Faster WiFi is coming | Accounting Today 34:36 - OneDrive Personal Vault brings added security to your most important files and OneDrive gets additional storage options | Microsoft 36:19 - Warning Issued For Millions Of Microsoft Windows 10 Users | Forbes 38:12 - #144 Dark Pattern | Reply All 39:18 - Episode 922: The Cost Of Getting Your Money Back | Planet Money 41:36 - IMA celebrates 100th year | Accounting Today 43:01 - The state of bookkeeping in 2019 | Accounting Today 47:15 - Finding and Hiring Quality Staff a Top Challenge in 2019 | CPA Practice Advisor 50:39 - San Francisco company to bring division HQ, 450 jobs to Nashville | bizjournals.com 51:28 - Fresh off a $2.65B valuation, Plaid co-founder William Hockey is leaving | TechCrunch 52:29 - Skubana raises $5.4M for its e-commerce operations software | TechCrunch 53:55 - Thomson Reuters to Acquire Audit Company Confirmation | CPA Practice Advisor 54:51 - Fluidly wins £5M in RBS competition funding to unlock AI for SMEs | Fluidly 56:09 - Acumatica acquired by global private equity firm in bid to take on Oracle, Microsoft and other business software giants | Geekwire 56:28 - FreshBooks Adds Retainers to Help Service-Based Businesses Collect Recurring Revenue | PR News Wire Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Show Notes 00:53 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 01:49 - What made you want to join Xero? 02:38 - Tony's background in software 02:55 - How do you respond to the observation that another non-American is taking over for Xero Americas? 03:31 - You think you have a long commute? Try Sydney to Denver! 03:52 - Is Xero done with San Francisco? 04:32 - How are you planning to crack open the US market? 06:51 - "Platform companies win; product companies get bought or go away." 08:44 - Where does Xero fit in when it comes to the new world of software plus a service? 10:54 - What's the rationale behind the Xero PwC partnership? 13:08 - What's going to be the impact on small accountants and bookkeepers who can't write code? 14:32 - Any big plans for 2019, 2020? 15:58 - How to connect with Tony and learn more about Xero Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Show NotesComing Soon! Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Show Notes 00:58 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 01:40 - David observes folks are starting to get upset with “fetching” because it’s becoming an uncontrolled process … “it’s easier to build a stable process to get paper bank statements then manually scan them” 04:25 - Blake fills in David on Day 1 of Xerocon 06:18 - Xero announces smarter tools to help accountants and bookkeepers manage their digital practice — Including Tax Mapper, which removes the workarounds at tax time 08:45 - Global Software Leaders Xero and Stripe Join Forces to Bring Seamless Payments to Millions of Small Businesses — The first two innovations announced today that are being developed under the new partnership include: 1) A new Stripe feed, designed to bring comprehensive transaction data for all Stripe payments into Xero for easy reconciliation and greater insights, whether a small business invoices from the Xero platform or an ecommerce site, and 2) Auto pay, allowing small businesses to set up and receive recurring payments for repeat billing customers directly through Xero 17:05 - PwC and Xero Extend Global Collaboration to Help Small Business Succeed Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Sponsors Halon Tax: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/halontax TOA Global: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/toaglobal LivePlan: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/liveplan Show Notes 00:58 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 02:08 - Woodard Network is rebranded to Woodard Alliance 02:55 - Right Networks turns QuickBooks Desktop to 'Always On' | Accounting Today 06:45 - David's observation at SNH19: The vast majority of accountants/bookkeepers are turning away business 08:18 - David's observation at SNH19: Many ProAdvisors have not yet heard about QuickBooks Live 09:24 - QBO keynote highlights: Bank statements will now download into QBO along with transactions from bank feeds 10:23 - QBO keynote highlights: QBOA will show an alert inside of QBOA when a SmallBiz reaches out to you on the Find a ProAdvisor website 11:17 - QBO keynote highlights: QBOA is adding KPIs, dashboards, and industry comparisons... to help folks do advisory work Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorXero: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/joinxero Show Notes 3:36 — AICPA to Oversee New Internet Domain for CPAs | AICPA 7:36 — Given the change in the profession, what's the value of the CPA license in 2019 and beyond? 8:42 — A listener asks if the CPA is worth it. Blake responds. 11:36 — CPA numbers have stagnated according to NASBA data 12:56 — How much is the CPA Exam worth in 2019? | Accounting Today — The CPA Exam, it seems, is not seen as a necessity by a significant percentage of young professionals. A roundtable hosted by CPA Exam prep course company Surgent, "Is the CPA License Losing Its Luster?" explored this question earlier this month. 16:12 — Trust begets opportunity for accountants in assurance | Accounting Today — Susan Coffey, executive vice president of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, says that analytics have the capacity to one day eliminate the need for human-verified audits. 19:44 — NASBA and AICPA seek input on evolving licensure model | Journal of Accountancy — The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and the AICPA are seeking feedback from the profession and its stakeholders as they consider ways to evolve the model for initial CPA licensure to support a growing need for new skills amid rapid technological advancement. Provide your feedback at evolutionofcpa.org. 25:46 — Over the last 8 years CPA firm hires have increased over 4% but non-CPA firm hires have increased over 10% | Twitter 26:51 — Tax law changes join staffing as a top issue for CPA firms | Journal of Accountancy — “Finding qualified staff” is the top concern of every firm with two or more professionals — the same result as in the 2017 survey. 29:07 — H&R Block to acquire Wave Financial for $405M | Accounting Today — The acquisition is expected to expand H&R Block’s presence in the small business market. The Kansas City, Missouri-based tax prep giant is mostly known for its tax services and technology, but it has periodically made moves to provide accounting and bookkeeping services as well. 41:17 — Xero appoints Hubdoc co-founder Jamie McDonald to lead Accounting and Global Services | Insightful Accountant — McDonald’s expanded role will see him lead the continued improvement of Xero’s core accounting products for small businesses, including Xero Mobile. Tune in for our upcoming Xerocon interview with Jamie! Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorBQE Software: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/core Show NotesClick here to download the slides from the Facebook Live event. 00:58 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 02:04 - Background on Shafat Qazi and BQE Software 13:11 - Background on BQE Core 25:25 - Live demo of BQE Core 34:31 - Demo of BQE Business Intelligence 44:23 - Demo of Core Intelligence 56:21 - Visit BQE and see Core Intelligence in action at Booth 64 at Scaling New Heights 57:48 - Learn more about BQE Core at bqe.com Connect with ShafatTwitter: https://twitter.com/ShafatGet in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorFloQast: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/floqast Show NotesThis episode is sponsored by FloQast. Closing the books is a manual, error-prone, and time-consuming process. There has to be a better way than Outlook emails, Excel checklists, and endless status update meetings. FloQast was built by accountants for accountants to help them close faster and more accurately. The bottom line: Teams relying on FloQast on average close three days faster. Learn more. 01:56 - What's the value of the CPA these days? 17:46 - H&R Block to acquire Canadian fintech startup Wave | ZDNet 21:52 - QuickBooks Live and the rise of remote work in accounting 27:46 - 3 Reasons Why EY's Free Software Release is Super Smart | FutureFirm.co 31:43 - Subscribe to Ryan's email newsletter "Future Firm" 32:16 - Megan shares what she’s up to at Yaeger CPA Review, including their new Instructor Hotline 34:41 - How to connect with Ryan and Megan on social media Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorElefant: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/elefant Show Notes 00:24 - About Clint's firm Smart Business Concepts 01:50 - What's your tech stack? 04:16 - On premises versus cloud for manufacturing 05:45 - What were you doing before owning your own firm? 06:20 - Do your employees work remotely? 07:35 - Clint is hiring! 08:23 - What was your big takeaway from last year's Accounting Salon? 10:53 - What is something our listeners can only learn from Clint? 11:19 - What does "advisory" mean to you? 13:31 - Follow Clint on Twitter @clintbowers25 Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorCPA.com: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/cpa Show Notes 00:16 - Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast! 01:02 - Correction: Gappify is true automation (not fake bots) 03:09 - Jotham's background in the Big Four and then SOX compliance consulting 04:06 - What is Gappify Alan and what does it do? 07:13 - How does Alan work behind the scenes? 11:00 - The value proposition of Gappify for a midsize company 13:16 - About Gappify, including their participation in the AICPA startup accelerator 16:48 - Live demo of Gappify Alan 24:07 - Who is a good fit for Gappify as a customer? 25:29 - What does Gappify cost? 26:14 - Do you find challenges with customization? 28:41 - Are you still building a bot to pass the CPA exam? 32:36 - Do you think companies will stop customizing so much? 36:16 - How to get in touch with Jotham Ty and learn about Gappify (https://www.gappify.com/) Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorXero: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/joinxero Show Notes 00:34 -- Welcome to the Cloud Accounting Podcast, and our guest, Lorilyn Wilson, CPA! 02:29 -- We got another review! Click here to leave a review on iTunes. 03:25 -- Canopy releases professional tax prep software | Accounting Today — Practice management software developer Canopy announced general availability Tuesday of Tax Prep, its professional tax preparation software. 08:10 -- Poll: What Percentage of your Firm’s Revenue Comes From Advisory Services? | Tax Pro Center | Intuit ProConnect 10:37 -- @TheBig4Accountant: "I still have no idea what advisory does" | Twitter 😂 13:54 -- Lawmakers expected to offer new version of IRS bill without 'Free File' provision | TheHill — The Free File program was stripped from the legislation moving through Congress, putting the future of the Free File program in doubt. 14:52 -- Changes coming to tax transcript availability | Journal of Accountancy — The IRS said Tuesday that on June 28 it will stop faxing tax transcripts to taxpayers, tax professionals, and third parties to protect against identity theft. 16:09 -- The Worst-Kept Secret About QuickBooks Online | Forbes — David says that Gene Marks nailed the key point about cloud accounting price increases way back in 2015. 19:47 -- Hey CPA Exam Candidates, Y'all Ready For Continuous Testing? It's Coming | Going Concern — According to the revised rule, when system changes have eliminated the need for test window limitations “a Candidate can retake a Test Section once their grade for any previous attempt of the same Test Section has been released.” 22:20 -- Georges raises $11.2 million for its accounting automation tool | TechCrunch — On the latest app that has raised VC money to automate accountants out of a job: “It’s not perfect so you still have to manually categorize some transactions. But it’s still much faster than entering each transaction in an accounting application. Once everything is tagged properly, Georges generates paperwork and sends it to tax authorities.” 25:41 -- Here’s what creatives think of the new Mac Pro | The Verge — What do you think of the “Cheese Grater”? 27:03 -- Updates to the App Store Review Guidelines | Apple Developer — Apple buried a new requirement that all apps on the app store use a “sign in with Apple ID” option in the future. Does this mean we’ll see an Apple ID sign in option in the QuickBooks and Xero iOS apps? 29:32 -- In a rare advisory, NSA urges users to patch BlueKeep flaw | TechCrunch — If you’re running Windows 7 or earlier, patch your computers ASAP! 31:50 -- ATAX Franchise and Loyalty Brands Join Forces to Expand Nationwide and to Serve the $2.13 Trillion US Latino Market | PR News Wire — There’s a reason ATAX is growing so quickly: “In the last decade, U.S. Latinos launched 86% of all new businesses in the U.S.” 34:06 -- @LorilynWilson: “Bookkeeping Firms: Do you allow your client to dictate the accounting software?” | Twitter — According to a totally non-scientific poll on Twitter, the majority of respondents don’t allow their clients to dictate what accounting software to use. 37:28 -- Thanks for joining us, Lorilyn! Follow Lorilyn Wilson on Twitter. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorElefant: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/elefant Show Notes 00:48 - Why start your own accounting conference? 01:47 - What is an "Accounting Salon"? 02:47 - What makes the Accounting Salon different 04:08 - Agenda for 2019 06:04 - How to nominate yourself (or another) to be invited next year 07:01 - Thank you to this year's sponsors! 07:38 - Visit AccountingSalon.com for more information Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorXero: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/joinxero Show Notes 02:34 -- Blake crunches the numbers and figures that if Intuit meets its publicly stated goals, QuickBooks Live will likely be a $60 million per year accounting firm by 2020, putting it at 73 on Accounting Today’s Top 100 Accounting Firms list.  06:56 -- Sholto Macpherson asks, is QuickBooks Live a "Watershed moment or BAU?" — Twitter 10:02 -- Google’s Duplex Uses A.I. to Mimic Humans (Sometimes) — The New York Times — Google admitted that it’s AI still needs human help, but you’ve got to listen to a recording of a call from Google Duplex (a bot) to a restaurant to book a dinner reservation. 17:13 -- Roger, the accounting automation tool, raises $7.35M Series A — TechCrunch (Guess who is one of the investors? Dan Wernikoff, the former GM of QuickBooks and TurboTax.) 20:02 -- Firms lose cloud access after Cetrom systems breach — Journal of Accountancy — Centrom, a provider of cloud hosting to CPA firms, fell victim to an attack using similar malware to the one that caused the CCH outage. 21:23 -- In Baltimore and Beyond, a Stolen N.S.A. Tool Wreaks Havoc — The New York Times — The New York Times details how a leaked N.S.A. hacking tool might be responsible for the recent malware attacks on CCH, Centrom (a provider of cloud hosting to CPA firms) and the City of Baltimore. 25:53 -- Social engineering: Password in exchange for chocolate — ScienceDaily — A disturbing percentage of people will give out their password to strangers in exchange for little value. 29:38 -- Hands On: The Twin-Screen Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Is a Laptop From the 2020s — PC Magazine — With two built-in screens, David predicts this laptop could be the ideal computer for accountants and bookkeepers on the go. 32:04 -- When You Raise Prices More Than a Smidge ... They At Least Look At Another Vendor — SaaStr — The author cautions software companies that rase prices to dramatically. Meanwhile, David was hit by a 100%+ price increase on his QuickBooks subscription! Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? We have some open sponsorship dates available for the summer season. We also have some “conference special” sponsorship opportunities available, for example, the week of June 16 we’ll be doing 4 daily “conference crossover” episodes covering Scaling New Heights and Xerocon. For details and pricing, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorElefant: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/elefant Show Notes 00:46 - Why Acuity is starting to offer tax services after being a solely advisory and bookkeeping firm for many years 02:07 - Kenji shares the background on his firm Acuity 04:56 - Acuity takes a B2B software startup approach to sales, unusual for an accounting firm 07:01 - Kenji shares why they don't call their bookkeepers "bookkeepers" 08:50 - How Acuity builds out their CAS technology stack and lessons learned along the way 11:39 - Watch Kenji and Matt's YouTube show, Drink While You Think 14:50 - Follow Kenji Kuramoto on Twitter Get in Touch Thanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Thank you to this week’s sponsor!This episode of the Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Xero. Did you miss the Xero Roadshow when it came to your city? You can still attend a Xero Roadshow Online! You’ll learn how your practice can benefit from the full power of the Xero Platform and earn CPE credit. Register here.Show Notes 03:06 -- High schoolers get certified in QuickBooks... Desktop? Noooo! | Twitter 04:24 -- Glendale man admits to embezzling $2.8-million and filing fake tax returns | CPA Practice Advisor 08:17 -- TurboTax Uses A “Military Discount” to Trick Troops Into Paying to File Their Taxes | ProPublica 09:56 -- Senator Warren Leads Colleagues Questioning Intuit's Deceptive Practices That Led Low- and Middle-Income Taxpayers to Pay Unnecessary Fees | Elizabeth Warren 11:53 -- Intuit Corp (INTU) Q3 2019 Earnings Call Transcript | The Motley Fool 17:32 -- Update on QuickBooks Live with Intuit's Rich Preece | QBO Show 24:32 -- Investor Briefing: Full year results to 31 March 2019 | Xero 26:53 -- Quarterly Report | Intuit 28:32 -- Xero's CEO says it still has a cautious future in the US | Scoop News 32:56 -- Public Statement - Network and Service Interruptions | Wolters Kluwer (34:54) Hackers have been holding the city of Baltimore’s computers hostage for 2 weeks | Vox 36:13 -- Atlanta Spent $2.6M to recover from a $52,000 ransomware scare | WIRED 38:49 -- SURVEY: 59% Deliver Invoices on Paper | CPA Trendlines 40:22 -- Making Change | Payments, Perspectives and Politics | Square  42:27 -- Zero percent of respondents to an online survey are actively researching or currently implementing blockchain in controllership | Deloitte Controllership Digest 44:58 -- $461,646 in Pay for One Worker: M.T.A. Overtime Scrutinized by Prosecutors | NYTimes 49:45 -- Bill.com launches AI platform for automated payments processing | Venture Beat 52:18 -- Introducing Plaid Direct | Plaid 53:23 -- TransferWise: Europe's Most Valuable FinTech | PYMNTS 53:42 -- Shopify quietly acquired Handshake, an e-commerce platform for B2B wholesale purchasing | TechCrunch Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes.Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? We have some open sponsorship dates available for the summer season: June 21 through October 4 Then again starting January 10, 2020 We also have some “conference special” sponsorship opportunities available, for example, the week of June 16 we’ll be doing 4 daily “conference crossover” episodes covering Scaling New Heights and Xerocon. For more information, check out the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorXero: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/joinxero Show Notes 03:11 - Thanks for the reviews! Click here to leave a review on iTunes and we'll read it on the air. 05:44 - Elon Musk tells Tesla employees he'll review all of company’s expenses in new cost-cutting plan | FOX Business 07:20 - IRS statement and instructions regarding recent software outage | Internal Revenue Service 09:07 - QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping Update: May 2019 | Firm of the Future 15:29 - Intuit CEO in Internal Video: Hiding Free TurboTax Was In “Best Interest of Taxpayers” | ProPublica 19:18 - Audio of a phone call with a TurboTax customer support agent who repeatedly cites false information | Twitter 26:12 - Intuit grows more defensive | Accounting Today 26:47 - Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP : Announces the Filing of a Consumer Class Action Lawsuit Against Intuit Inc., Maker of TurboTax, for Improperly Charging Fees 28:09 - Subscribers boost gives accounting software giant Sage profit spike of 16% 29:30 - Drury family stake in Xero soars to $1.1b after Xero moves into profit | Stuff.co.nz 31:09 - Sage's Nancy Harris: "We do not intend to push our customers to the cloud" | Twitter 32:42 - Xero announces Tony Ward as new President of the Americas | Twitter 33:31 - Matt Paff on the appointment of Tony Ward as President of the Americas | Twitter 34:56 - Sage Research Reveals that 90% of Accountants Worldwide Believe There Has Been a Cultural Shift in the Accountancy Profession | AP News 41:05 - Warren Buffett decries accounting rule change that has made a mess of Berkshire's earnings | Yahoo Finance 45:06 - Developing your own specialized niche practice | Journal of Accountancy Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

This episode is sponsored by Xero. Xero Roadshow is coming to a city near you. Expand your knowledge and keep up with all things Xero.Show Notes 01:41 - Nicolas Cage Ponies Up $6.25 Million to Pay Back Taxes—But How Much Does He Still Owe? | E Online 03:14 - Wolters Kluwer takes services offline after malware attack | Journal of Accountancy 07:21 - What’s Behind the Wolters Kluwer Tax Outage? | Krebs on Security 12:20 - Read updates by Wolters Kluwer regarding the outage on their Facebook page (and comments expressing customer outrage) 17:00 - Surge of MegaCortex ransomware attacks detected | ZDNet 17:49 - A malware attack against accounting software giant Wolters Kluwer is causing a 'quiet panic' at accounting firms | CNBC 19:17 - A "Firm of the Future" finalist loses a client to QuickBooks Live | Twitter 21:52 - Vermont House Backs 'Cloud Tax' to Fund Clean Water Programs | Seven Days 27:05 - ADP and Intuit Partner to Enhance Cross-Platform Integration with QuickBooks Online | CPA Practice Advisor 31:21 - Los Angeles city attorney sues H&R Block and maker of TurboTax for allegedly misleading low-income taxpayers | NBC News 36:04 - Are all-white-male panels hindering diversity in accountancy? | AccountingWEB — Also see the original panel that started the discussion and the thread with Paul Meissner on Twitter. 37:40 - How New Accounting Grads Can Tune Up Their Diversity BS Detectors | Going Concern 42:57 - Everyone’s Income Taxes Should Be Public | New York Times 47:59 - Subscribe to Cloud Accounting Podcast show notes 49:16 - Don't miss the Desktop Accounting Podcast! | PodBean Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorXero: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/joinxero Show Notes 01:43 -- It looks like Intuit and H&R Block have been employing some super-shady marketing tactics for years to charge people who should otherwise have qualified to file their taxes for free. Here’s everything you need to know about the ProPublica “Free File” investigation. For more, be sure to read “Here's How TurboTax Just Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes,” and "TurboTax Deliberately Hid Its Free File Page from Search Engines”. You can get background on the 16-year-old IRS Free File Alliance on the IRS website. Check out the official TurboTax response here and read the text of Intuit’s agreement with the IRS to understand why this matters. 07:22 -- It gets worse — former Intuit and H&R Block employees detail how both companies worked to prevent low-income taxpayers from utilizing the Free File program, despite their commitment to the IRS to promote their truly free offerings. Now the scandal has entered the Presidential campaign — Elizabeth Warren called for agencies to investigate the matter. With the political fallout, the fate of the Taxpayer First Act, which would have enshrined the Free File Alliance permanently into law, is now in question. 15:21 -- To contain the damage, Intuit has started buying up a number of negative or offensive domain names containing their trademarks. Meanwhile, at least one TurboTax customer service agent called the whole thing “fake news.” 18:39 -- Rich Preece of Intuit joins Friday Night Live on Facebook to talk the future of the QuickBooks Live with Bookkeeping test, including a go-live date in June. Meanwhile, Intuit is raising prices for QuickBooks (again). 25:56 -- Divvy, which has set out to revolutionize expense management (for free), just raised $200 million in a Series C round. Listen to find out what they plan to do with that money. 29:45 -- Over in the alternative lending space, OnDeck’s charge-offs are rising. 31:33 -- Sholto MacPherson details how NetSuite’s new analytics tool shows how ERPs can win versus ecosystems when it comes to reporting. 34:46 -- Here’s some practical advice on SaaS marketing. 35:58 -- Learn why Amazon bet (almost) a billion dollars on certainty. 37:10 -- Helm asks, “What the Heck is an Advisor?” 38:30-- Here’s why accidents like the Notre-Dame fire happen. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

SponsorXero: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/joinxero Show Notes 01:21 -- We got some more reviews! Leave us a review on iTunes and we’ll read it on the air. 02:33 -- Scroll to the comments of this review on The College Investor for some pretty scathing reviews of Visor, the $99 tax prep service we covered in the last episode of the Cloud Accounting Podcast (they did not have a good busy season). 03:15 -- Ryan Lazanis says that the only way traditional accounting firms can compete with accounting startups like Visor, Pilot, Bench, and Botkeeper is personalized service.  05:30 -- According to a stat published in the Journal of Accountancy, only 60-70% of small firms (under $1 million in revenue) accept credit cards as a form of payment. 06:31 -- Here’s a story about a CPA who has partnered with other professionals to act as the single point of contact for all his client’s financial needs. It's a great example of how accountants can create plenty of value beyond compliance, which will become increasingly automated over the next decade. 09:31 -- Henry Bloch, the ‘H’ in H&R Block, died at 96. 11:44 -- Intuit appears to be marketing QuickBooks Live to clients of ProAdvisors. 19:24 -- Here’s why there won't be an Uber for Bookkeeping — at least that’s what Blake thought three years ago. Has QuickBooks Live changed that? 21:49 -- Jordyn Dahl, News Editor at LinkedIn, posted about the QuickBooks Advanced Rate Limits. The quantity of comments suggests this is a big deal. 22:32 -- Businesses that invoice via QuickBooks Payments can receive next-day funding for both credit card and ACH transactions. It’s only available to QuickBooks Online and GoPayment customers for now. It costs 1% (max $10) per transaction. Next day is also available for credit cards, with no additional fee. 25:19 -- Intuit sees uptick in TurboTax sales this year. Intuit reported a 5 percent increase in TurboTax units sold this tax season compared to last year, thanks to a 7 percent increase in TurboTax Online sales. Intuit CFO Michelle Clatterback said the company’s consumer group now expects full-year fiscal 2019 revenue growth to be about 10 percent, at the high end of its previous guidance range of 9 to 10 percent. It will be reporting its quarterly earnings on May 23. 26:33 -- Here are the top 10 cities for accountants. A study by AdvisorSmith analyzed 399 small, midsized and large cities across the country based on accounting salary and job availability statistics from the Bureau of Labor, and on the local cost of living from Sperling’s BestPlaces. 28:04 -- The Desktop Accounting Podcast is headed your way soon! 28:55 -- Here are three ways to charge $25K to your customers, courtesy of Greg Kyte. 32:15 -- Listen to “I’m not a Robot” on Planet Money to learn how scammers are paying humans to defeat CAPTCHA. 33:28 -- Slack is bridging email to chat, improving calendar integration and search. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes.

SponsorXerocon: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/xerocon Show Notes 00:52 -- Welcome to our first guest co-host, Rachel Fisch! 01:36 -- We got another review! Leave us a review and we’ll read it on the air. 02:32 -- Visor, the $99 app-based online tax service, did NOT have a great busy season. David’s got all the sordid details in a detailed LinkedIn article. 20:16 -- …and after all that, David didn’t even get to chat with Claudell :( 23:30 -- Zoom raises IPO price and could begin trading with a $9B valuation 27:16 -- Online tax filing on the rise, retail on the decline, data finds 30:03 -- Pilot, the AI accounting service, raises $40M 35:26 -- Eide Bailly is acquiring a data analytics service 37:41 -- IRS releases 6-year plan to modernize aging computer systems 40:14 -- Is the CPA license losing its lustre? (upcoming free virtual roundtable) 45:37 -- Educating the next generation of leaders Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes.

SponsorXerocon: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/xerocon Show Notes 00:53 -- Thanks for the reviews! Give us a review on iTunes and we’ll read it on the air. 01:51 -- The house passed a bill permanently banning the IRS from creating its own free online tax preparation software. Here’s the coverage in Huffington Post, Business Insider, and ProPublica. For the history on IRS-assisted tax prep and the arguments for and against, listen to Planet Money #760: Tax Hero. 08:43 -- As cashless stores grow, so does the backlash — this time in Miami. 12:44 -- Can you believe that educators are still teaching people how to use Quicken for business accounting? Here’s a keeper: “Using Quicken for farm and ranch accounting” 14:46 -- Xero's out with a new look for their invoicing feature, which now includes auto save and a nifty application of artificial intelligence for coding transactions 16:24 -- Canopy released their new mobile app. 17:38 -- TaxJar now integrates with NetSuite via SuiteTax, demonstrating their move upmarket in the wake of the SCOTUS Wayfair decision. 18:31 -- Thanks to Caleb Jenkins for posting a screenshot of the beta “Receipts” feature in QuickBooks on Twitter. Take a look here. 20:20 -- Here’s an update on the QuickBooks Online Advanced free upgrade period. Also, Blake has a hack so you can avoid ever paying for more than 250 accounts or 40 classes/locations. 27:19 -- How many CPA firms permit flexible and remote work? Find out as Blake details stats from the 2018 Anytime, Anywhere Work Survey by ConvergenceCoaching. 29:49 -- A 2-year Stanford study found that people are significantly more productive when working from home. Watch the TED Talk or read the article. 33:59 -- People have a reason to be paranoid when it comes to smart speakers. It turns out Amazon workers are listening to what you tell Alexa. 37:26 -- In China, the Communist Party under Xi Jinping is asserting ever greater ideological control over the population — this time with the help of an app. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes.

SponsorXerocon: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/xerocon Show Notes 03:32 -- We got another review! If you like what you hear, do us a favor and leave a review on iTunes. 04:00 -- Intuit is creating 200 to 500 jobs at a new “prosperity center” in the small city of Bluefield, West Virginia. 06:16 -- A new study says the top benefit employees want is unlimited paid time off (PTO), putting that benefit ahead of wellness plans, phased retirement programs, paid sabbaticals, and free or subsidized on-site services. 08:13 -- So given that employees want unlimited PTO, how many CPA firms offer this benefit? According to a 2018 survey, about half of major firms (75+ CPAs) have stopped tracking vacation time. For firms with fewer than 75 CPAs, fewer than 1 in 5 offer unlimited PTO. 11:06 -- Here’s what accountants and bookkeepers can learn from taxi companies evolving to compete with Uber (as the profession will likely have to evolve to compete with integrated software + services competitors such as QuickBooks Live). For one thing, the taxi companies finally have apps. 16:50 -- CryptoTrader.Tax now integrates with TurboTax. The software combo will automatically crunch the consumers' capital gains and losses numbers and generate the necessary tax documents including the IRS form 8949. 18:25 -- David recommends every cloud firm owner read Ryan Lazanis’ article “Cloud Accounting Security for Your Firm” — a good follow on to Cathy Iconis’ blog about how to go about creating a virtual bookkeeping company. 19:21 -- This past week at SuiteWorld, NetSuite announced a new, free benchmarking and research service for NetSuite customers called Brainyard. The company says it will eventually leverage twenty years of  anonymized NetSuite user data to provide benchmarking. 24:51 -- Over the past 14 years, California has spent close to $1B on an accounting system that still doesn't work. Let that sink in for a moment. 28:56 -- Californians might feel better knowing that Canada’s homegrown payroll system cost about the same amount and still doesn’t work, either.  30:07 -- Blake shares details about FloQast’s new product, FloQast Matching, an AI-powered automated matching engine for high volume account reconciliations. 35:44 -- This guy is why accountants on Twitch totally needs to be a thing. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes.

SponsorXero: http://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/joinxero Show Notes 00:52 -- We got some more iTunes reviews! Leave us a review and we might read it on the air. 02:09 -- New usage rules for Intuit's popular accounting software could mean some customers will need to move to a pricier plan. And some entrepreneurs say it's one tweak too many. 06:26 -- The next "QuickBooks With Live Bookkeeping" test is up and running. Say bye bye to Claudell... and meet David! He's a "bookkeeper 17 years." The price has now doubled from $200 to $400/month. What's included in the new test of QuickBooks Live? Listen to find out. 15:50 -- Cathy Iconis lays out the basics of what you need to do to start your own virtual bookkeeping business. It’s a lot! 18:59 -- Companies that use Box.com as a cloud-based file hosting and sharing system might be accidentally exposing internal files, sensitive documents, or proprietary technology. 21:30 -- Here’s a how a scammer used phishing emails to steal over $100 million from Google and Facebook. 25:32 -- Zapier tested options for screen recording software ranging from minimalistic three-button windows to complex apps overflowing with tools, priced from free all the way up to several hundreds of dollars. 30:34 -- No matter what anyone tells you, we’re not ready for the massive societal upheavals on the way thank to artificial intelligence. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page!Subscribe  Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Show Notes 00:08 -- We got more reviews. Thank you! Give us a review on iTunes and we’ll read it on one of our weekly shows. 01:43 -- A survey revealed that you’ll get the best results from a blog post if you spend six hours working on it. 03:57 -- QuickBooks Live is now official — details on Intuit’s official Firm of the Future blog include the fact that Intuit has already hired 10 Boise-based ProAdvisors as part of the QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping team.  09:07 -- A survey by the IMA suggests that the gender pay gap is closing for management accountants. 10:57 -- A 2018 survey shows that mandatory busy season Saturdays are on the decline at CPA firms, but a shocking number still require their staff to work weekends.  12:11 -- Meanwhile, 8 percent of CPA firms will hire “anyone who is breathing,” according to a survey of AICPA Engage 2018 attendees. Could there be a correlation? 13:21 -- If you want to have a better busy season experience, stop pointing the finger at clients and start asking your team how you can facilitate a better process that makes it easy for clients to get you what you need. 16:59 -- The cashless debate continues! LA Eater asks, “Restaurants Are Going Cashless. Is It Always Best for Business?” Meanwhile, Philadelphia has already banned cashless stores, citing discrimination, and San Francisco is mulling its own ban. Gene Marks says you’re crazy if you reject any form of payment. 22:09 -- Facebook admitted that it stored hundreds of millions of user passwords in plain text for years, potentially enabling thousands of its employees to access them. 26:34 -- Here’s a rundown of upcoming accounting and bookkeeping training shows and conferences in 2019, plus all the ones David and Blake will be attending. 28:51 -- When you’re booking your accommodations this upcoming conference season, consider the Rodeway Inn. They’ve got the best hotel WiFi, according to research. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page!

Show Notes 00:08 -- We got some reviews! Please do us a favor and give us a review on iTunes. 02:08 -- Might tax season be extended to make up for the partial Federal government shutdown? Two house Democrats have introduced a bill to extend the tax-filing deadline by 5 weeks. 03:51 -- Now you can track your team’s labor costs in QuickBooks Projects. 05:08 -- New limits in QuickBooks Online are causing some angst for ProAdvisors. Research from APQC suggests that Intuit set the limit on accounts in the Chart of Accounts too low. Also, the messaging by Intuit as to why they implemented limits seems rather disingenuous.  11:54 -- The State of Louisiana accidentally double refunded about 66,000 taxpayers, resulting in about $26 million in overpayments the state is working to claw back.  14:25 -- Speaking of problems caused by software, those Boeing 737s might be crashing due to a delayed software update. 17:05 -- Why is Blake so concerned about Botkeeper and the failure of many tech startups serving the accounting profession to disclose the offshoring of client data? Because as a listener pointed out, the Internal Revenue Code forbids disclosure of tax return information, which could include bookkeeping data, to anyone outside the firm without express written consent. There are even potential criminal penalties.  22:51 -- Is Gappify another Botkeeper? The firm claims to have built an AI bot called “Alan,” but it looks like they’ve got accountants in Manila doing the same work. 25:34 -- According to a survey from London venture capital firm MMC, 40 percent of European startups that are classified as AI companies don’t actually use artificial intelligence in a way that is “material” to their businesses. 29:02 -- Canopy, the tax practice management software developer, laid off nearly half its staff, despite just a few months ago expanding into a huge new headquarters while saying it planned to double in size. Here’s the post by the CEO and founder, Kurt Avarell, on LinkedIn. 32:13 -- David recommends anyone following the Canopy story read The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz. 33:50 -- A fun and enlightening conversation ensued on Twitter after Accounting Today published an article called “Why is your firm worth less than you think?” that makes no mention of technology. "Partners at CPA firms are often surprised to find out that the recommended value for their owner’s interest is less than their notions of what the practice would be worth in a sale." Here's why a firm may be worth less than you think. https://t.co/NS5Ld3V1pT— Accounting Today (@AccountingToday)  Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page!

Show Notes 00:10 -- Top 50 Women In Accounting 2018 — Practice Ignition — The winners ranked among the highest on an “anonymised scoring system which took into account the communication of professional and community achievements.” Check out Madeline Pratt’s Facebook Live panel discussion with nine of the winners which is also available on the Finding Fearless podcast. 02:48 -- Intuit Expert Connections — Intuit ProConnect — Thanks to one of our listeners for sending over a link to this “still in concept phase” offering for tax professionals. The idea, according to Intuit, is to help you “easily find and hire Intuit-screened accounting professionals to support your practice with temporary or in-season help.” 07:43 -- Report Suggests Congress And IRS Should Give Taxpayers More Time To File In 2019 — Forbes — It’s not your imagination: It really is a different kind of tax season. It’s so different that the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) is calling on Congress to extend the tax filing season. 10:12 -- Metric of the Month: Number of Accounts in the Chart of Accounts — CFO — While there is no precisely right or wrong answer in terms of how many accounts an organization should have in its COA, this metric provides some guidelines. 15:42 -- Facebook’s Workplace reaches 2M paid users, targets SMBs — ComputerWorld — Workplace by Facebook, the company's enterprise-focused collaboration offering, has seen strong growth since its launch in 2016. Will we see more accounting firms adopt the corporate internal social network in 2019? 20:06 -- Remote control? Over half of accountants say they can ‘work smarter’ from home — Xero Blog — 53% of respondents to a South African survey claimed they could perform their duties more effectively if they were allowed to do so from beyond the office — but 75% are based in the office and only 13% work from home. 22:01 -- Nationwide, BlueVine partner on small business lending — Fox Business — Nationwide has partnered with BlueVine to bring small business lending to its customers.  23:20 -- Funding Circle Reveals Plans For Canada Launch — PYMTS — The company issued a press release Thursday (March 7) announcing it will add Canada to the list of jurisdictions in which it operates, which currently include the U.S., U.K., Germany and the Netherlands. 23:42 -- PayPal Hits £1B UK SMB Lending Milestone — PYMTS — The company said in a statement that the total amount of funding advanced to firms was up 60 percent, reaching that £1 billion tally in 2018, and that more than 37,000 businesses have tapped into its working capital offerings, which debuted five years ago.  24:02 -- Square Capital head: We are leveraging data to extend credit to small businesses that lack access to traditional loans — CNBC — Jim Cramer sits down with Jackie Reses, the head of Square Inc.'s Square Capital, to discuss how the lending arm is helping businesses that have trouble getting traditional loans. 27:18 -- When You Should Hire a CPA or Tax Pro — The Wirecutter — The New York Times owned publication says, “Working with a tax preparer who takes advantage of tools such as cloud accounting and apps that allow you to securely send documents and electronically review and sign your return can save time and trips to their office.” You read that right — cloud accounting gets a mention in a consumer oriented review site! 31:30 -- Certify Merges With Chrome River In $1B Deal — PYMNTS — Under the terms of the deal, K1 Investment Management will own a majority stake in the combined business.  33:22 -- Wave acquires Canadian SME account provider Every — Fintech Futures — Software firm Wave has acquired Every, a Toronto-based fintech that provides business accounts and debit cards to SMEs. 34:02 -- Why FLEETCOR Bought Nvoicepay — PYMNTS — The Nvoicepay acquisition means FLEETCOR will expand its existing card payment processing capabilities to include automated accounts payable transactions for a range of payment methods, with a broader focus on modernizing the AP process overall. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page!

Show NotesIn this episode, Blake and David discuss:Intuit catches 'credential stuffing' attack on TurboTax account — Accounting Today — The software provider recently alerted Vermont that a cybercriminal had gained access to a state resident's account. How did they do it? Because the customer had used the same password on another site that got hacked. The lesson: Use a different password on every site! How do you do that? With a password manager.Intuit Inc. (INTU) CEO Sasan Goodarzi on Q2 2019 Results - Earnings Call Transcript — Seeking Alpha — Can you believe it? A question about QuickBooks Live made it into the latest Intuit earnings call! The analyst from RBC must have seen the conversation online about what QuickBooks Live means for ProAdvisors. We’re proud to have broken the story on the Cloud Accounting Podcast, and good job everyone in making sure that this “test” didn’t fly under the radar. In short, Sasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit, likes what he sees from the test. That doesn’t surprise us considering he and his predecessor were both bullish on TurboTax Live, a very similar service.David also highlights the following quote from Goodarzi earlier in the call:This strategy is a continuation of Intuit's 10-year transformation led by Brad from a North American desktop company to a global cloud company. As we advance our strategy, we're taking steps towards becoming an AI-driven expert platform. Let me unpack what I mean by an AI-driven expert platform. It's a platform where we and others solve the most pressing customer problems and deliver awesome experiences. It's about significantly accelerating our application of Artificial Intelligence, which progressively learns from the large datasets across the platform, and delivers the benefits customers seek with speed, and it's about solving the largest problem customer's face, confidence, by connecting them with experts on our platform.What ProAdvisors are Saying about QuickBooks Live — Insightful Accountant — Here’s the feedback from the wider ProAdvisors community based on three online “town halls” hosted by Joe Woodard with official Intuit participation. One stat in particular that caught our attention — 51% of attendees saw QuickBooks Live has having a negative future impact on Intuit’s relationship with the accounting profession, while only 30% saw a positive impact.Interestingly, the Intuit representative said he regretted not communicating Intuit’s test to accounting professionals. However, that contradicts what we’ve told by a ProAdvisor that Intuit held a secret webinar for 75+ top ProAdvisors informing them about QuickBooks Live in late January. These ProAdvisors were unable to speak publicly because they were under NDA, which may explain the unusual silence from some in the community who would typically be all over such a story.Whatever you think about the whole incident, David highly recommends everyone read The Cluetrain Manifesto, available online for free. What Intuit ProAdvisors can learn about QuickBooks LIVE from the GoDaddy Pro launch — Medium — Ned Dwyer sees significant parallels between the test of QuickBooks Live and the “Do It With Me” program he helped to create at GoDaddy for customers who needed assistance creating their own websites.JPMorgan's Dimon: Square innovated where we should have — American Banker — The CEO of the nation's biggest bank gave the fintech props for revolutionizing payments and then building off its success to provide a whole range of services to small-business clients.Air On The Side Of Real Time With Abacus Corporate Travel Booking — Abacus Blog — Abacus Travel combines seamless travel booking with the power of real time expense reporting.Are Job Switchers Earning More? — Korn Ferry — Even in this record-low unemployment market, companies have been keeping salaries in check. But new government figures suggest that those who jump ship are starting to get around that.Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page!

Show NotesThis episode is sponsored by Veem, the easiest way to send money internationally. Sign up today and earn 10,000 VeemBack points on your first transaction.**Restrictions apply. Visit the Veem website for details.This bonus episode of the Cloud Accounting Podcast features an extended interview with Enrico Palmerino, CEO of Botkeeper, and his technical director Justin DoBosh. The interview was recorded via Facebook Live on Friday, March 1. It was organized by Cloud Accounting Podcast co-host David Leary to address outstanding questions from our previous coverage of Botkeeper on this podcast as well as an article Blake Oliver published entitled “It’s not a bot — the truth about Botkeeper, the Google-funded, AI-powered “bookkeeper replacement.” We sent Botkeeper a list of questions in advance and also asked them to make a demonstration of the artificial intelligence in action. At the beginning of the interview there is a brief demonstration of a  Botkeeper “bot" that codes transactions in the QuickBooks Online general ledger. If you would like to see as well as hear the demo, watch the Facebook Live recording here.  Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page! 

Show NotesThis episode is sponsored by Veem, the easiest way to send money internationally. Sign up today and earn 10,000 VeemBack points on your first transaction.**Restrictions apply. Visit the Veem website for details.Recap of Botkeeper coverage and fallout, new questions, and the ethics of disclosing offshoring(00:53) In the previous episode, Blake and David discussed an email from Botkeeper CEO Enrico Palmerino to the firm’s accountant & CPA partners. In the email, Enrico revealed that Botkeeper, which Enrico has claimed is an artificial intelligence powered “full bookkeeper replacement… a robo-bookkeeper," also employs offshore accountants in the Philippines. Blake’s subsequent public questioning on Twitter led to legal threats by Enrico against Blake and his employer. Enrico has now agreed to join Blake and David for a public Facebook Live session on Friday, March 1 at 2 pm Pacific — Like our Facebook Page to get notified when we go live to try and figure out what’s going on at Botkeeper once and for all. (04:09) Blake digs into the Botkeeper website, press coverage about the firm, the CEO’s public statements, and review sites to try and figure out what exactly Botkeeper claims to be, how well it discloses the offshoring operation in the Philippines (hardly at all, apparently) and how Botkeeper’s representations of itself publicly differs from information provided by Botkeeper partners as well as Enrico's own words in an interview with Blake on Monday, February 18. (13:22) A Botkeeper CPA partner provided what they claim is a screenshot of a Botkeeper agreement that states client data will be processed in the United States. The CPA also says that no mention was made of a Botkeeper Philippines offshore operation during the sales process. (15:18) Why does this matter? Because the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct requires that any member (CPA) must obtain "reasonable assurance that third-party service providers have appropriate procedures in place to prevent the unauthorized release of confidential information to others,” and they may not able to do this if Botkeeper is not forthright about its offshoring of data and/or labor. Avalara Acquires Artificial Intelligence Technology and Expertise from Indix(18:39) Avalara announced it has acquired Indix’s AI technology and expertise, with comprehensive product descriptions for more than 1 billion products sold and shipped worldwide. Avalara intends to use the Indix AI to maintain and expand its already massive tax content database, which includes international product codes and classifications; taxability rules; exemption conditions; tax holidays; jurisdictions; boundaries; tax rates; thresholds and registration, compliance, and return preparation and filing requirements. Intuit Second Quarter Revenue Increased 12 Percent Led by a 38 Percent Rise in Small Business Online Ecosystem Revenue(19:41) David share’s Intuit’s latest earnings report, which shows very strong growth in the Small Business and Self-Employed Group led by their Online Ecosystem. Matt Paff pointed out that Desktop revenue is still growing, which David suspects may be due to a shift to the subscription model for these uses. Sasan Goodarzi highlighted on Twitter how Intuit is focused on “building an AI driven expert platform." New limits on users, accounts, classes, and locations in QuickBooks OnlineWhen were these rolled out? First I've seen on a client. @IntuitAccts Did these limits used to exist and just weren't as explicitly stated? pic.twitter.com/sag1poRabn— Lorilyn A Crum (@LorilynCrum) February 21, 2019(23:07) Some ProAdvisors are surprised by usage limits that have been rolling out since the announcement of QuickBooks Advanced. Lorilyn Crum shared a screenshot showing new limits on billable users, chart of accounts, and classes and locations. Users who exceed these limits will have to upgrade to QuickBooks Advanced, which is priced at $150/month. Perhaps Intuit’s earnings are up also because they’re squeezing more money out of existing customers? Tide Launches Omnichannel, On-Demand Laundry Service(27:48) Tide is introducing Tide Cleaners, an on-demand dry cleaning and laundry service, at 1,000 locations across the country. David thinks this is really similar to Intuit’s shift from a developer of software to a platform for accounting services with QuickBooks Live. For more on QuickBooks Live, listen to Episode 59.Continuing Coverage of QuickBooks Live(29:43) Patti Scharf, CPA and co-founder of Catching Clouds, shares her thoughts on QuickBooks Live.Etsy Payment Error Creates Banking and Havoc for Sellers(33:05) Online marketplace Etsy suffered a payment error that resulted in large amounts of money being withdrawn from sellers' bank accounts and charged to their credit cards. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page!

 Show NotesThis episode is sponsored by Veem, the easiest way to send money internationally. Sign up today and earn 10,000 VeemBack points on your first transaction.**Restrictions apply. Visit the Veem website for details.Is Botkeeper singing a different tune? In November 2018, Botkeeper raised $18 million from Greycroft and Gradient Ventures to use AI and machine learning to automate bookkeeping. Following the VC round, founder and CEO Enrico Palmerino told Accounting Today in December 2018 that Botkeeper is “a full bookkeeper replacement; it’s a robo-bookkeeper.”Yet according to an email forwarded by a Botkeeper accountant partner (who uses the service on behalf of clients), Botkeeper may not be quite as robotic as it claims. Listen in to the latest episode for all the details.Follow up on QuickBooks LiveXero’s commitment to bookkeepers — Xero.com — Keri Gohman, President of Xero Americas, says “At Xero, our choice is clear: technology can only succeed when it improves human relationships. We believe people innovate – technology doesn't.”Intuit is exploring bookkeeping, and it’s not a bad thing — Accounting Today — Cathy Iconis says, “I think there is another view that people are ignoring - QuickBooks will actually increase the market for bookkeepers. Yes, we will have to compete and differentiate ourselves from QuickBooks, but I wouldn’t mind a few more million small businesses to fight over.”How you respond to Intuit's "live bookkeeping" shows where your firm is going — LinkedIn — Karen Reyburn says “You're now being pushed to be really, really clear about how you're different… This will push you to focus on the clients, and what they actually need.”My Thoughts On Intuit's Live Bookkeeping Offer — Mark Wickersham — Mark Wickerham says, “My view on Intuit’s new test is that it hasn’t changed anything for those in the profession who are forward-thinking and willing to change. Machine learning and artificial intelligence is getting better. We already know that. We knew we needed to change our services because of the technological advances in our profession. Intuit’s experiment has just given us more immediacy to alter our service.”Lorilyn A Crum on Twitter — Lorilyn Crum says, “The term bookkeeper needs to go away... instead rebrand as an accounting technician or accounting operations."Bookkeepers: Is the Death Knell upon us in 2019? — Melanie Power — Mel Power says, ““With the introduction of cloud accounting, and further technology advancements around artificial intelligence and machine learning within the accounting vendor and ecosystem... the labour intensive process is reduced to almost zero. The truth of the matter is, there is NO value for highly skilled bookkeepers in doing data entry work when we have all of the tools available to do the job FOR us.”IRS internal controls around refunds are a jokeTampa man reported income of $18,497; IRS sent him a refund check for $980,000 — CNBC — By now, you may know that withholding a lot of income for taxes will result in an eventual refund. However, a Florida man pushed the envelope and claimed that he paid the taxman $1 million in taxes on less than $20,000 in wages.That’s one expensive accounting textbookRare medieval accountancy book expected to sell for $1.5m — Financial Times — Christie’s will auction Luca Pacioli’s Summa de Arithmetica, a compendium of everything known at the time about mathematics, but also a practical, how-to guide to succeeding in business that is the first written record of the system of double entry accounting.Blockchain to speed up international transfers at JP MorganJP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency to transform payments business — CNBC — Engineers at the lender have created the "JPM Coin," a digital token that will be used to instantly settle transactions in its wholesale payments business.Bill.com + AMEX — How it worksFinally, thanks to Stephen Brown for pointing us in the right direction when it comes to the new American Express Vendor Pay by Bill.com. This is a service on the American Express website available to American Express Business and Corporate Card® Members only. Customers will be able to pay vendors via virtual cards for free. ACH and check services also will be available for a per transaction fee.Down Under newsReckon Shifts Strategy In MYOB, Xero Rivalry — PYMNTS — Reckon has reportedly decided to pull out of the market of accounting software marketed directly to small businesses. Instead, the company is working with the Institute of Public Accountants to white label its solution.Thanks for listening! Do us a favor and do any of the following: Leave a rating and review on iTunes Leave a rating and review on Stitcher Leave a recommendation on Facebook Get in TouchLet us know what you think — follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page!Listen Apple Podcasts Google Play Stitcher Spotify PocketCasts Overcast Player.fm

Show NotesThis episode is sponsored by Veem, the easiest way to send money internationally. Sign up today and earn 10,000 VeemBack points on your first* transaction.*Restrictions apply. Visit the Veem website for details. Offer limited to one reward per account. Offer only applies to international payments, and only on standard exchange rates. USD to USD cross border payments are excluded. Qualifying payments must be $1000 USD or more. VeemBack Points will be added to qualifying accounts by April 19th, 2019. Terms and conditions subject to change at Veem’s discretion. Offer only good for US customers who have never sent a payment. This offer can not be combined with other offers. Offer Valid thru April 1st, 2019 23:59 PST.Bookkeeping is Dead: How Intuit Will Kill It for Good — Blake Oliver — Hot on the heels of TurboTax Live, Intuit is building an on-demand bookkeeping service called “QuickBooks Live" that will connect business owners directly with bookkeepers via video chat and screen sharing technology integrated directly into the QuickBooks application. Intuit is testing potential bookkeeping — AltAccountant Podcast — With Intuit/QuickBooks (and other software companies) testing the demand for bookkeeping services built-in the subscription.... some interesting questions to think about. What if the need for manual bookkeeping was replaced by software company? What would your business look like if you had to provide valuable services and “bookkeeping” as we know it ceased to exist? Is Intuit® Building the 'H&R Block®' of Bookkeeping? — Insightful Accountant — Joe Woodard provides his personal perspective and recommendations for bookkeepers on the QBO-Attached Bookkeeping Service Intuit is considering offering its users. inDinero Acquires mAccounting in Move to Transform the Outsourced Accounting Industry — PRWeb — inDinero, leading accounting and tax software for growth businesses, acquired outsourced accounting and tax firm mAccounting to fuel their next phase of growth. FreshBooks matures accounting offering — Enterprise Times — FreshBooks has started the year with several update, including the introduction of double entry accounting and bank reconciliation. KPMG shutters small business accounting unit — AccountingWEB — KPMG has confirmed that it will close its small business accounting venture after just five years in the market. American Express and Bill.com Introduce Vendor Pay — Bill.com — American Express and Bill.com announced a strategic partnership with a new offering: American Express “Vendor Pay” by Bill.com. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page! Subscribe Apple Podcasts Google Play Stitcher Spotify PocketCasts Overcast Player.fm

Show NotesA new bank feeds process – simpler, faster, and more secure — Xero Blog — Now, to connect a new bank feed you can download a pre-populated application form in Xero with information about your organisation and bank account details. Simply sign and date the form, scan and upload it back into Xero and they'll take care of the rest. Dropbox Buys HelloSign To Improve Document Workflow — PYMNTS — Dropbox, the cloud storage company, announced Monday (Jan. 28) that it has acquired HelloSign, an easy-to-use eSignature and document workflow platform.DaySmart Software Acquires PupKeep — BusinessWire — DaySmart Software, the leading provider of business management software supporting small business growth, today announced it acquired PupKeep, a pet services cloud software company. The acquisition will allow DaySmart to expand its pet services offerings to incorporate daycare, boarding, kenneling and training into its existing grooming salon and mobile pet grooming software. Stripe Raises $100M On A $22.5B Valuation — PYMNTS — Stripe has raised $100 million in venture capital funding from Tiger Global Management, boosting the digital payment company's valuation to $22.5 billion. Small-business banking is about to get a whole lot better — American Banker — Big data and artificial intelligence will allow banks to do more for small businesses, former SBA head Karen Mills argues. This Time Humans Triumph Over Robots As They Take Back Hotel Jobs — NPR — A Japanese hotel that became known as the "world's first robot hotel" three years ago is powering off many of its robots. It turns out that guests prefer humans to handle their requests. The ‘Hybrid’ Skills That Tomorrow’s Jobs Will Require — WSJ — Jobs that tap both technical and creative thinking will be likely to pay well—and resist automation Don’t Worry About Absenteeism: Leadership Expert — CFO — "Presenteeism," or not being engaged on the job, is a far more costly problem for employers than absenteeism. Subscribe Apple Podcasts Google Play Stitcher Spotify PocketCasts Overcast Player.fm

Show NotesAccording to a new pricing page on the QuickBooks website, Intuit is now offering QuickBooks software plus access to “real bookkeepers to help you manage your business” for between $210 and $350 per month.  Now QuickBooks customers can “Get valuable insights from unlimited one-on-one conversations with an experienced bookkeeper that knows your business.” How does it work? "A QuickBooks Bookkeeper sets up your books via live video chat and is available for you all year long.”  Blake and David discuss this breaking news and the implications for accountants, bookkeepers, and QuickBooks ProAdvisors, who are understandably concerned. In a response, Intuit has shared a feedback form for those in the community to share their thoughts. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Let us know what you think on Twitter. Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Also, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page! Subscribe Apple Podcasts Google Play Stitcher Spotify PocketCasts Overcast Player.fm

Show Notes@davidleary @BlakeTOliver another case for unlimited PTO: female retention. I use 1/3 of my PTO on vacation, 1/3 on my sick kids 😷, 1/3 I hoard so I have paid maternity leave. Women have different PTO needs then men, when can we recognize that and come up with a solution?— Kelly Mann (@TheCPAMann) January 24, 2019Why we are calling for the definition of the word ‘accountant’ to be changed — Xero — Xero is calling for The Oxford English Dictionary to "change its out of date definition of the word ‘accountant’ to something that truly reflects what it means to be an accountant in 2019." Expensify This — Expensify — You have to see it to believe it. Expensify is out with a rap video about expense reports in advance of their big Super Bowl ad. Apparently EY’s ‘Program Mercury’ Is Hot Garbage and Some Folks Are Understandably Upset About It — Going Concern — Critics of EY technology have expressed concern that their submitted expenses aren't being paid, and blame EY's Program Mercury. Square's Newest Product Is Genius — Motley Fool — The Square Card, a free business debit Mastercard for Square merchants, gives its users access to funds as soon as they make a sale through their Square card reader. Intuit donates $2 million to U.S. Federal workers — Enterprise Times — As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program, Intuit has announced the donation of $2 million to food banks supporting federal workers in the US. Fishbowl Adds Marijuana Tracking and Inventory Management — CPA Practice Advisor — Fishbowl now meets the tracking and inventory management needs of people and companies authorized to provide legal cannabis services and products among the increasing number of states who have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use. Avalara acquires alcohol compliance services provider — Accounting Today — Avalara has acquired the operational assets of Compli, which provides compliance services, technology, and software to producers, distributors, and importers of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Sage sells U.S. Payroll Solutions arm — Accounting Today — Sage, a U.K.-based provider of enterprise resource planning software, has sold its U.S.-based payroll outsourcing business for $100 million. The buyer is workforce management software maker iSolved, a portfolio company of tech-focused private equity firm Accel-KKR. Transforming the Government Shutdown into New Tax Business — Insightful Accountant — Is this year’s government shutdown one big hassle or one big opportunity? Well, probably a little of both. Find out how to turn it into an advantage for your tax firm. Keeping the CMA Relevant — Strategic Finance Magazine — The IMA says that, given the changing nature of the profession, the CMA exam should cover data analytics in more depth and also cover the digitization of the finance value chain. Why CPA Candidate Numbers Have Decreased: Part 2 — AccountingWEB — Stephanie Ng continues to explore decreasing CPA candidate numbers. The Big Tech Canary In The Faster Payments Coal Mine — PYMNTS — Karen Webster said the canary in the coalmine isn't about making payments move faster so much as sidestepping the "legacy incumbents" FIN says stand in the way. Metric of the Month: Finance FTEs Per $1B in Revenue — CFO — More finance organizations are finding that it’s better to have a smaller, highly strategic team than an army of workers focused on transactional activity. Get in TouchThanks for listening! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, do us a favor and write a review on iTunes. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Google Play: http://cloudacctpod.link/GooglePlay Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast

Show NotesFemales underrepresented at the AICPA Annual Executive Roundtable — Twitter — Dan Hood, editor of Accounting Today, shares Barry Melancon’s complaint that only 22 percent of accounting firm partners are women — and that we need to do better. Meanwhile, only 5 to 10 percent of attendees at the roundtable were women this year. Super Bowl LII Will Feature An Ad About Expense Reports — AdAge — The Super Bowl marks Expensify's first ever TV ad. Tax season could still be ‘ugly’ as 57% of IRS workers to return — Accounting Today — The agency is rushing to update its systems following the biggest change to the tax code in three decades — while a government shutdown has kept seven in eight IRS employees away from work for the past 25 days. The New $99 Tax Service for the Masses — CPA Trendlines — A new startup called Visor has just raised $9 million in financing to build a tax service for the masses. ScaleFactor Adds $30M from Bessemer to Boost Accounting Software — Xconomy — ScaleFactor is adding a $30 million round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners to make new hires and add more features to its software BeachFleischman and GMLCPA create completely virtual firm — Accounting Today — BeachFleischman PC and GMLCPA PLLC have teamed up to create a virtual firm, MOD Ventures, that will service both firms’ outsourced accounting services clients going forward. Nurses Again Outpace Other Professions for Honesty, Ethics — Gallup — Accountants come in below police officers but above funeral directors on Gallup’s annual ranking of how Americans perceive the honesty and ethical standards of professionals. Google raises prices on its competitor to Microsoft Office for the first time in a decade — CNBC — Google is raising prices 20 percent for the basic and business versions of its G Suite productivity apps, like Gmail and Docs, for the first time ever. The price increase comes only months after former Oracle executive Thomas Kurian takes the helm. The price of the enterprise edition is not increasing. Will Farnell announces 6 hour workday and unlimited PTO for his firm — LinkedIn — Will Farnell, Founder & Director at Farnell Clarke Limited in the UK, announced on LinkedIn that his firm is moving to a six hour workday and unlimited PTO and remote work. Bank Of America’s Zelle P2P Transactions Increased 97 Pct In Q4 — PYMNTS — Zelle P2P payments increased 97 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, Bank of America said Wednesday (Jan. 16), signaling the latest burst of growth for that payment method. During that quarter, consumers made 52 million payments worth $14 billion via Zelle. Evolving tech could mean evolving the CPA license — AICPA Blog — Last year, NASBA and the AICPA launched the CPA Evolution initiative to explore ways to evolve CPA licensure to integrate technological and analytical expertise. Susan Coffey welcomes your feedback at  [email protected].  Finally, to make sure you don’t miss any news, like our Facebook page!Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesAccounting salaries remain high in 2019 — Accounting Today — Accounting professionals in the public accounting space should feel good entering the New Year, as average salaries have once again increased due to stiff hiring competition among firms. KPMG IT Advisory Associate Looking for Love on ‘The Bachelor’ — Going Concern — Onyeka Ehie will be trying to make the House of Klynveld proud as she tries to woo the heart of Colton Underwood in the new season of "The Bachelor." Plaid Buys Quovo To Help Developers Build Data-Driven Apps — PYMNTS — Plaid, the FinTech company that enables developers to create financial services applications, announced Tuesday (Jan. 8) that it has acquired Quovo to make it easier for developers to create products that include investment data. TaxJar gets $60 million for software that automates ecommerce sales tax calculations — Venture Beat — TaxJar, a subscription software company that helps businesses automate their sales tax calculations and filing, today announced that it has raised a $60 million round of growth equity capital from Insight Venture Partners. Why the Virtual Office Doesn't Work for CPAs — AccountingWEB — Working remotely is more popular than ever, but here's why Craig Smalley EA says it just doesn't work for accountants. Where Did Americans Move in 2018? — Tax Foundation — The 2018 National Movers Study shows Vermont, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona as the states with the most inbound migration. Meanwhile, outbound migration was highest in New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, New York, and Kansas. New Online Credit Card Payment System for License Renewal — California Board of Accountancy — The California Board of Accountancy is now accepting online credit card payments for license renewals. Your Cash Is No Good Here. Literally. — WSJ — As more retailers—including Drybar and Sweetgreen—ban paper money, it’s making things awkward for customers without plastic. Finally, to make sure you don’t miss any Cloud Accounting Podcast news, please like our Facebook page!Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesE-Verify AND E-Verify SERVICES ARE UNAVAILABLE — e-verify.gov — E-Verify and E-Verify services are currently unavailable due to a lapse in government appropriations. What the federal shutdown could mean for tax season — CNBC — Accountants are worrying about the prospect of an extended federal shutdown as tax season approaches. That means there's a possibility that tax refunds may be delayed and it could be difficult to get your questions answered by the IRS. What you should know. @IRSnews — Twitter — Whoever manages the Twitter account for the IRS appears to have been furloughed during the federal government shutdown. Why Perks No Longer Cut It for Workers - WSJ — The most successful companies give employees a sense of belonging. Indicators Of The Year: Opioids — Planet Money — Life expectancy in the U.S. is down for the second year in a row. One main reason: opioid abuse. But increasingly, companies are stepping up to address the problem, offering treatment plans to workers and supporting employees through treatment. Indicators Of The Year: #MeToo — Planet Money — The #MeToo movement transformed the experience of women in the workplace. The strong job market helped some women feel secure enough to speak up, but for others it still doesn't feel safe.  Getting Ready for Making Tax Digital (MTD) with Cloud Accounting Software — Business Partner Magazine — Despite the deadlines and fines being highly publicised, approximately 750,000 people missed the deadline in 2018. 2019: The Year Of Instant Payments — PYMNTS — The year 2018 saw a rise in instant payments and disbursements among workers, particularly in the gig economy, indicating the trend will only increase in 2019. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show Notes2019 Hiring and Compensation Trends for Accounting Firms — CPA Practice Advisor — Check out these six trends hiring managers in public accounting need to know, as identified by research for the 2019 Robert Half Salary Guide for Accounting and Finance Professionals. 35 years ago, Isaac Asimov was asked by the Star to predict the world of 2019. Here is what he wrote — The Star — The famed science fiction writer was wrong about a world government, but pretty close on robots. On computers, though ... The year ahead for accounting: 2019 in numbers — Accounting Today — Accountants share their expectations and plans for the next 12 months, with data from Accounting Today's annual survey. Top 10 Accounting Marketing Trends for 2019 — AccountingWEB — Here are the top 10 accounting marketing trends for 2019 according to Dawn Wagenaar of Ingenuity Marketing Group. Mindbody to be Sold to Vista Equity for $1.9B — CFO — The deal adds Mindbody's business management software products for fitness and yoga studios to Vista's portfolio. Senators Prod Regulators on Fintech Oversight — CFO — A bipartisan letter follows attempts by Robinhood to rebrand a cash management service. What’s New in QBO: December 2018 — QuickBooks Blog — New in QBO: 1) Next-day credit card deposits in QuickBooks Payments, 2) Auto-collected contractor W-9s, and 3) Automate routine tasks in QuickBooks Online. Millennials and Gen Z Driving Major Shifts in Customer Expectations According to a New Study Commissioned by Zendesk — BusinessWire — Among the top takeaways: "According to this study, 67 percent of U.S. respondents have used live chat, social media, or texting for customer service. Among Gen Z and Millennials, 46 percent and 47 percent respectively have used social media to communicate with customer service in the past year -- compared to only 7 percent of Baby Boomers and 26 percent of Gen X. More than a third (36 percent) of Gen Z consumers prefer social media for simple inquiries compared to only 5 percent of Baby Boomers." The 30 Fastest Growing Business Apps in 2018 — Zapier — Chatbots were everywhere in 2017—only to fall off the zeitgeist in 2018. But they’re far from gone. ManyChat, this year’s fastest growing app on Zapier, found the sweet spot for chatbots, driving continued growth after being their fastest growing new app in 2017. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesKPMG to fine staff £100 for late time sheets — The Guardian — The accounting company said it would impose the penalties if staff were late to file their time sheets, which record how long employees spend on tasks. British politician pledges to break up 'cartel' of big four accounting firms in radical overhaul — Business Insider — Leader of the Labour Party, John McDonnell, told the Financial Times that the big four firms which include EY, KPMG, Deloitte and PwC form a "cartel" that needs to be addressed. KPMG partners receive bumper payouts despite Carillion fallout — The Guardian — KPMG, the auditing firm that gave Carillion a clean bill of health, has reported a leap in profits that will result in the average pay of its 635 partners soaring from £519,000 to more than £600,000 each. Is There Really Such A Thing As An Independent Audit? — Forbes — FloQast CEO and former Big Four auditor Mike Whitmire examines some of key issues impeding auditor independence in the profession and suggests significant changes that could dramatically improve audit quality. Square Revives Request to Start a Bank — Wall Street Journal — The new unit, to be capitalized with $56 million, would primarily offer loans, deposit accounts and prepaid cards to small businesses Real-Time Payments Gathering Steam For Workers — PYMNTS — Earnin – which facilitates real-time payroll payments – announced Dec. 20 that it has raised $125 million in equity financing. The Earnin app allows people to be paid “the minute they leave work,” and claims to serve employees working for 50,000 employers from all 50 states. Flux raises $7.5M Series A to bring its digital receipts platform to more banks and merchants — TechCrunch — Flux bridges the gap between the itemised receipt data captured by a merchant’s point-of-sale (POS) system and what little information typically shows up on your bank statement or mobile banking app. The Case for the 6-Hour Workday — Harvard Business Review — The key takeaway: "Organizations are spending big money on digital transformation, but they could reap an immediate, and far more cost-effective transformational benefit just by changing the way they work, instead of what they use to work." Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesDavid Leary on Twitter: "Sometimes I feel like the entire accounting and bookkeeping industry is getting flooded by "social media influencers” that have no real legs to stand on…" Joe Woodard on Twitter: "We thank @Xero for their sponsorship of Scaling New Heights Online…”Right Networks Eyes SMB App Connectivity With Propelware Acquisition — PYMNTS — Small business (SMB) cloud accounting firm Right Networks has announced the acquisition of Propelware in an effort to connect its accounting technology to other areas of the enterprise. Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation — TechCrunch — The company is today announcing a $250 million Series C investment led by famed venture capitalist and the author of the Internet Trends reportMary Meeker, who will join its board of directors as part of the deal. The funds were raised at a valuation of $2.65 billion, according to sources close to the company. Intuit relaunches ProAdvisor program — Enterprise Times — Intuit has announced that it has launched a redesigned ProAdvisor program in the US, Canada and Australia.  [Newsletter] What we’ve been working on all year — Expensify Blog — Expensify has just launched new plans for individuals at $5 per month. Upcoming Accounting Firm Trends into 2022 — Ryan Lazanis — Ryan breaks down key points from the The World Economic Forum's 2018 “Future of Jobs Report” and writes up four takeaways for accountants. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesKPMG Moves into Small Business Tax and Accounting Services with Spark — Accounting Today — Big 4 accounting and business consulting firm KPMG LLP, is making a play for the small business tax and accounting services market with the launch of a new online system called KPMG Spark. The service is the result of the acquisition by KPMG of the cloud bookkeeping system then known as Bookly. Deloitte Joins Forces with Legacy Advantage to Grow Services in Western Canada — Legacy Advantage — Deloitte is acquiring specialized cloud-based bookkeeping firm, Legacy Advantage Chartered Professional Accountants Ltd. to grow bookkeeping, accounting and advisory offerings in Western Canada. Founded in 2015 and joining the ctrl by Deloitte practice, Legacy Advantage focuses bookkeeping and accounting services on not-for-profit organizations and private companies of various sizes. QuickBooks introduces 'Backing You,' starring Danny DeVito — Accounting Today — Intuit QuickBooks’ Backing You campaign, now in its second year, has named Danny DeVito a partner for its latest videos. The initiative is aimed at helping self-employed, small business and mid-market enterprise customers succeed. Universal income vs. the robots: Meet the presidential candidate fighting automation — MIT Technology Review — Andrew Yang announced he is vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination back in February. His mission? Preparing America for automation. 140,300 new accounting and auditing jobs predicted by 2026 — Accounting Today — Approximately 140,300 new jobs for accountants and auditors are expected to be created by the year 2026, according to a new forecast. Digital Divide Is Wider Than We Think, Study Says — New York Times — New research from Microsoft says that far fewer people have broadband internet access than government statistics have shown. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesCloud ERP: The Time Has Come - CFO Magazine - Low up-front costs, hands-off maintenance, and automatic updates make cloud systems deserving of a serious lookWhy Blockchain May Never Benefit Corporations (Podcast) - Bloomberg - The Odd Lots podcast chats with Angus Champion de Crespigny, who formerly advised companies on how to use blockchain technology, but who now believes that ultimately it won’t get them anywhere. He explains the limitations of the technology, and where he sees actual opportunities. Where Top US Banks Are Betting On Fintech - CB Insights - US banks are placing strategic bets across lending, payments, capital markets, data analytics, and blockchain. T-Mobile is launching mobile banking solution 'T-Mobile Money’ - Engadget - The pilot program offers four percent APY on up to $3,000. You’re Too Important for Multi-Factor Authentication - Network Alliance - Meetings, calls, contracts, emails…your day is chaotic from the first moment you check your phone in the morning until that last bedtime email scan under the sheets! You’re Captain Efficiency. Every second of your day is planned. When you’re this busy, you can’t possibly waste 10 seconds on multi-factor authentication, right? Quit dreaming. America needs more accountants in Congress - The Hill - Lawyers make up exactly 40 percent of the newly elected 116th Congress, while the American Bar Association reports that attorneys make up only 0.4 percent of the U.S. population. Have the Big Four lost their advantage? - Accounting Today - New research finds that national and regional firms are catching up to the New York giants in terms of technology adoption and deployment in audits. 70% of people globally work remotely at least once a week, study says - CNBC - IWG CEO Mark Dixon said established corporates were leading the charge into remote working, to boost productivity and job satisfaction.Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesIntuit Reports First Quarter Revenue Increased 12 Percent Led by 42 Percent Growth in Small Business Online Ecosystem Revenue — Intuit Investor Relations — The company announced financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2019, which ended Oct. 31. QBConnect 2018 - the review no-one else will write — Matt Paff on LinkedIn — Intuit’s theme for QuickBooks Connect was “Anything is Possible” but Matt thinks it should have been “Legacy.” Blink and it’s a Bank: Intuit Blurs Boundaries of Accounting Software — Digital First — Sholto Macpherson highlights Intuit’s not-so-secret plan to disrupt traditional lending with its new releases announced at QuickBooks Connect. 38 Percent of Employees Don’t Want Management Dictating the Tech They Use for Work — SmallBizTrends — According to a new report from NexPlane, 38% of employees don’t want management dictating the tech they use for work. And more than half have pushed back on IT or management when they tried to dictate the technology they use. Will Waiting For Pay Day Soon Be A Thing Of The Past? — PYMNTS — According to a CareerBuilder report, 75 percent of consumers reported living paycheck to paycheck in 2017. That’s why an increasing number of firms embracing instant payments as an option for workers, and as a tool to both recruit and retain employees. The Best Day For Payday — NPR — Most Americans get paid biweekly. One of The Indicator's listeners wanted to know why. So they looked into it. 2018 High Growth Study - Hinge Marketing - Check out this survey of over 1,000 professional services firms from across the globe.  Blockchain Promise to Revolutionize Accounting Hits Reality Wall — Bloomberg Tax — Blockchain a year ago seemed poised to revolutionize accounting. Now, it doesn’t quite seem so hot. A leaky database of SMS text messages exposed password resets and two-factor codes — Tech Crunch — A security lapse has exposed a massive database containing tens of millions of text messages, including password reset links, two-factor codes, shipping notifications and more. Microsoft details the causes of its recent multi-factor authentication meltdown — ZDNet — Microsoft has posted a root cause analysis of the multifactor authentication issue which hit a number of its customers worldwide last week. Here's what happened. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesVIDEO: Blake chats with Amy Vetter at the AICPA Controllers Conference — LinkedIn — I caught up at the FloQast booth with award-winning executive, author, and keynote speaker Amy Vetter at the AICPA Controller's Conference to chat about how modern accounting departments are refocusing to become proactive service centers as opposed to reactive cost centers.Xero’s half year 2019 financial & operating results — Xero Blog — Xero is up to 1.6 million subscribers, with 380,000 added in the past year. Revenue is up 37%. Annualized monthly recurring revenue increased by 40% to $589.1 million.  Xero increases dominance of cloud accounting with 37 per cent growth — Canberra Times — Xero has 981,000 subscribers in Australia and is growing quickly in the United Kingdom, where it increased subscribers by 40 per cent to 355,000. Its growth has been slower in North America, where it has 178,000 subscribers but CEO Steve Vamos said it was "relatively early days" in that market. Xero to spend NZ$10m on Instafile purchase — ZDNet — Instafile is a cloud-based accounts preparation and tax filing solution that connects UK accountants, bookkeepers, and small businesses to UK compliance bodies. We’re accelerating our UK banking connections with five brand new fintech integrations — Xero Blog — Here are five brand new Xero integrations with leading UK fintechs: Tide, Starling, TransferWise, Revolut and Soldo, all of which were made possible by Xero's new Bank Feeds API. 10 new ways Xero will transform how small businesses, their employees and accountants work together — Xero Blog — A roundup of all the new features announced at Xerocon London. Gusto — Simple time tracking — Gusto — Gusto’s new, simple time tracking syncs perfectly with payroll. Review and approve hours with one click, then run payroll as usual. How Small Businesses Ride Their Payment Rails — PYMNTS — NACHA released new statistics late last week on the growth of ACH transaction volume in the U.S. According to the firm, B2B transactions were a key driver of ACH transaction growth in the third quarter of the year, leading NACHA Chief Operating Officer Jane Larimer to describe the ACH Network as “thriving.” Tempted to Expense that Strip Club as a Business Dinner? AI Is Watching — Bloomberg — AppZen, an 18-month-old AI accounting startup, has already signed up several big companies, including Amazon.com Inc., International Business Machine Corp., Salesforce.com Inc., and Comcast Corp. and claims to have saved its clients $40 million in fraudulent expenses. Four In 10 Road Warriors Use Corporate Cards For Personal Items — PYMNTS — Carlson Wagonlit Travel has debuted a study that shows that as many as 46 percent of American and European business travelers have said they used company cards to make personal transactions. In the Asia-Pacific region, that tally stands at about 38 percent. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesAccounting firms challenged in adapting to technology changes — Accounting Today — Only 25 percent of accounting firms feel extremely confident about their ability to keep pace in the current environment of technology changes, according to a report Accountants in small and midsized practices embracing more technology, but feeling pressures — Accounting Today — Accountants who work in small and midsized practices are using more technology to serve their clients better, as well as attract and retain top talent, but are feeling pressures to lower fees and differentiate themselves from competitors, according to a new survey by the International Federation of Accountants. Intuit's incoming CEO: 'We have a huge opportunity to win the mid market’ — Silicon Valley Business Journal — Intuit's incoming chief tells the Business Journal why it thinks it can win the mid market as its aggressive plans to do so. Sage Group Elevates CFO Steve Hare to CEO — CFO — The U.K. software firm had launched an external search for a new CEO but was impressed with Hare's performance as interim COO. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesSage Intacct delivers quadruple win for Finance teams — Enterprise Times — Sage Intacct announced new features at its annual conference, including Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning, an Interactive Custom Report Writer, and General Ledger Allocations. David Leary joins AutoEntry — Intuitive Accountant — David Leary has joined AutoEntry and will be serving as their principal technology evangelist moving forward.Are you getting paid what you are worth? Results of the 2018 Intuit Average Billing Rate Survey — Long for Success — Notable results include the finding that hourly billing has decreased 35% and value pricing has increased 56% since 2016. New this year is an interactive tool that allows you to drill down into the results for insights.The CPA’s First-Round Pick: Attracting and Retaining the Next Generation of Accountants — Accountex Report — As fear of a talent shortage looms, employing the right people with the right mix of skills and providing a culture that allows them to thrive will be the key to the success of any accounting firm. Here are three key steps that accounting firms can take to attract and retain the industry’s top talent. The Dark Side of Accounting Expertise — CFO — For top executives, managerial experience at an auditing firm is not necessarily a virtue, especially among those who are highly paid, a study finds. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

 Show NotesJoin Blake and David at the Practice Ignition QBC Precon Party! — It’s November 4th (the night before QuickBooks Connect) Register here: https://landing.practiceignition.com/qbc-preconFrom the mail bag: Heather Smith shares that Australia is introducing PAYID, an ID that allows people to direct payments independent of what bank you use. Should give Australians an amazing freedom to more easily change banks! Worldpay Finds Contactless Payments Surpass Chip, Pin Card Purchases — PYMNTS.com PayPal Posts 25 Pct Jump In Payments Volume — PYMNTS.comThe Case for a 4-Day Work Week — CPA Practice Advisor — “Nearly half (45 percent) of full-time workers say it should take less than five hours each day to do their job if they worked uninterrupted.” That’s from a survey of nearly 3,000 employees across eight countries conducted by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated.Microsoft Debuts Expense Management App — PYMNTS.com Email Scammers Still Tripping Up Finance Personnel — CFO.com12 signs that your firm is outdated — Journal of Accountancy13 Important Questions to Ask Before You Sign Up With a SaaS Provider — Small Biz TechnologySubscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show Notes53% of accountants’ clients ready for Making Tax Digital launch — Accountancy Daily — Significant numbers of accountants’ clients are still struggling to prepare for the advent of Making Tax Digital for VAT, which is now only six months away, according to the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) Outsource Everything but Accounting, Quality Control and Sales — Entrepreneur — Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey argue that "It’s almost impossible to get... critical numbers in a timely manner from an outsourced accountant.” Sounds like an opportunity! `Warns of Hackers Using Remote Desktop Protocol, Is Your Business at Risk? — SmallBiz Trends — According to the FBI, use of Remote Desktop Protocol as an attack vector has increased, and intrusions are difficult to detect.  6 Things Your Remote Accountant Policy Should Include (But Probably Doesn’t) — AccountingFly  — Here are six excellent items to include in your policy about working with remote staff. — Also check out this related story on the legal liability of freelance remote accountants.Outsourced CFO Engagements: A Risk/Reward Perspective for CPA Firms — CPA Practice Advisor — Outsourced CFO work is a lucrative practice area, but firms must be sure to assess the risk of these client engagements.  Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play 

Scott runs Operations at Kruze Consulting, a fast growing Startup CFO Consulting firm that works with over 160 startup clients. Kruze is based in San Francisco with clients in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York. In addition to his Operations responsibilities, Scott runs the Venture Debt Consulting practice at Kruze. In his spare time, Scott publishes the Founders & Friends Podcast, which interviews Startup CEO's, Investors and Other Service Providers in the Startup Ecosystem. Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.  Show Notes(2:05) Learn how Scott made the move from investment banking and venture debt, to accounting & finance for startups.  (5:23) Scott shares what makes his firm, Kruze Consulting, a leader among providers of outsourced accounting services. We also discuss the importance of standardizing processes so that you can move away from being just another “high hourly rate” expert and build a business that can scale. (11:05) Venture Debt Fetch, Kruze Consulting’s new automation-assisted tool to analyze term sheets and connect startups to the best banks and lending funds, is a great example. Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Blake and David reconnect to talk about what's new in the worlds of QuickBooks and NetSuite. Intuit is discontinuing their QuickBooks Desktop Advanced ProAdvisor Certification — could this be the beginning of the end for desktop? Meanwhile, NetSuite is soaring according to the latest Oracle quarterly results. NetSuite also announced their new "Banking as a Service" or "BaaS" offering, which will allow banks to connect directly to NetSuite's ERP to process payments and reconcile transactions, just to start. Also, blockchain is no longer a much-hyped theory. Walmart will require all its suppliers of leafy greens to use IBM's blockchain to track its supply chain starting in 2019.For this and more, listen to Episode 38! Show NotesIntuit Discontinues QuickBooks Desktop Advanced ProAdvisor Certification — Insightful Accountant — Intuit has just announced the discontinuation of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Desktop Advanced Certification effective December 31, 2018.  They cited a 'declining number of certifications' over the last several years as the basis for this decision.QuickBooks Online Advanced - September Update — Firm of the Future — QuickBooks® Online Advanced is a new offering for customers who are outgrowing QuickBooks Online Plus. It includes up to 25 simultaneous users with full access, a dedicated customer success manager, priority technical support, and free online training. NetSuite soars in Oracle results — Enterprise Times — Mark Hurd says, "NetSuite ERP had a spectacular quarter.” He added that revenues were up 26% and bookings up 40%, 39% in the quarter. He also added that the growth followed a huge fourth quarter where bookings growth for NetSuite had been 70%." Customers Achieve Efficiency and Cost Savings with NetSuite Banking as a Service — NetSuite Blog — The recently released Oracle NetSuite Banking as a Service (BaaS) Program strengthens bank-to-customer relationships in a digital transformation where banking services are delivered within the ERP system. The US Census Bureau says there are 32m small businesses. They're wrong — The Guardian — According to Gene Marks, only a third of these reported ‘businesses’ have actual employees – the rest just report extra income on their tax returns. Maybe in 2018, Every SaaS Contract Should Have An Automatic Out Clause — SaaStr — Jason Lemkin argues that SaaS companies should stop selling annual contracts, make onboarding and buying as simple as possible, and let customers cancel whenever they want.  Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain — Wall Street Journal — Walmart Inc., in a letter to be issued Monday to suppliers, will require its direct suppliers of lettuce, spinach and other greens to join its food-tracking blockchain by Jan. 31. The retailer also will mandate that farmers, logistics firms and business partners of these suppliers join the blockchain by Sept. 30, 2019. The AICPA’s Twitter Totally Got Hacked by Bitcoin Scammers — Going Concern — The AICPA Twitter account was recently hijacked by someone masquerading as Coinbase. The hackers then used the @AICPA account to tweet out cryptocurrency scams.   Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Learn more about intheBlk software at http://www.intheblksoftware.com.  Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Connect with Sean on LinkedIn and Twitter.Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show NotesNew Bank Feeds using Tokens — Insightful Accountant — This overhaul provides a faster and more reliable method for connecting with your bank so that your account transactions stay up to date with fewer sync errors. Initially, three banks agreed to participate in the new connection type; Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. China Tariffs Threaten Cloud Costs — Wall Street Journal — The Trump administration’s proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods includes levies of up to 25% on routers, switches and servers that will raise prices for cloud services in the U.S. According to this Wall Street Journal article, a 10% levy on these imports would slow U.S. economic output by $163 billion over the next 10 years, while a 25% levy would slow output by $332 billion. Tired of Excel hell during planning cycle? Sage Intacct reveals acquisition — Enterprise Times — Sage has announced the release of its own budgeting and planning application for small to midsize businesses. Budgeta is now rebranded Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning. AI And Machine Learning Could Empower Your Accounting Career Path — Forbes — Levi Morehouse of Ceterus says that accountants "can either become communicators of critical business data and information, empowered to advise key stakeholders on business initiatives based on keen insight; or they can become experts in redesigning traditional industry processes to be more efficient by leveraging modern technology.” Leadership and Life Lessons from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — Wall Street Journal — Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos tries never to schedule a meeting before 10 a.m. and likes to make a small number of high-quality decisions daily. PwC's Digital Accelerators program looks to future-proof staff — Accounting Today — In a constantly changing business environment, the Big Four firm is doubling down on education to prepare its employees. Focus on Billable Hours Drives Millennials Away — CPA Practice Advisor — The point of this article isn’t the age old question of billable hours vs. value pricing. The focus today is the value our people provide to our firms and how we measure that value in a way that doesn’t drive them away. She Didn’t Win Miss America, But Miss Missouri’s Appearance Was a Win for Accountants Everywhere — Going Concern — Miss Missouri, Katelyn Lewis, is a senior at Missouri Baptist University, receiving a BS in Accounting. Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Stephen Kelly ousted as Sage CEO after dismal results and faltering transformation — Diginomica Why Technology Won't Hurt Client Relationships — AccountingWeb Kevin Garnett Sues Accountant Over $77 Million Lost To Wealth Manager — CBS Boston Xero expands machine learning features for small businesses — ZDNet The Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting — Accounting Today How Blockchain Is Disrupting Enterprise Finance And Accounting Departments — CMSWire The Accountant Unemployment Rate Remains Low in Q2 — Robert Half Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show Notes Buy Xero for Dummies on Amazon Watch Heather Smith’s popular YouTube channel Listen to the Cloud Stories podcast Subscribe to Heather Smith's email newsletter Subscribe Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: CPA Practice Advisor Announces the "40 Under 40" and "20 Under 40" for 2018 — CPA Practice Advisor Accounting Partners are just Franchisees — Medium The Story of a Remote CPA in Indonesia with No Internet Connection — Ryan Lazanis’ Blog FASB simplifies accounting for cloud computing service costs — Journal of Accountancy Bitcoin Accepted [Everyw]here: Square Wins Patent for Cryptocurrency Payment Network - CNN Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Show Notes Learn more about Practice Ignition and connect with Guy Pearson on LinkedIn. Visit his accounting firm Interactive Accounting. Read The Global Talent Crunch report by Korn Ferry to learn how global talent shortages will constrict growth for organizations and economies in the future of work. Buy The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz on Amazon. Subscribe: Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Intuit CEO Brad Smith to Step Down — WSJ Brad Smith will step down as Intuit CEO at end of year — CNBC Sage Group shares plummet as Deutsche Bank downgrades software firm to 'sell' — Proactive Investors Thomson Reuters debuts cloud accounting app for small businesses — Accounting Today The one ASX company Bronte Capital thinks could be a $100b global tech giant — Australian Financial Review Best Practices for the Month-End Close: Interactive Panel Discussion with Accounting Leaders — FloQast Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Meet the 15-year-old who's the Microsoft Excel world champion (which is a real thing) — CNN Minding the expectation gap in a CAS engagement — Journal of Accountancy Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode Xero acquires Hubdoc — Accounting Today Welcoming Hubdoc to the Xero family — Xero Blog Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Learn more about Geni and what she’s up to at evenanerd.com and mentorplus.com (an organization that teaches accountants how to be better consultants to their clients).  Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode GAO: U2F Security Keys Could Protect Taxpayers — Tom's Hardware Gusto raises $140 million to go after small business payroll and benefits with more gusto — TechCrunch Xero acquires Hubdoc — Accounting Today Stampli raises $6.7M in Series A funding to streamline invoice management — TechCrunch Balancing “We” and “Me”: The Best Collaborative Spaces Also Support Solitude — Harvard Business Review Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: NetSuite Outage Idles Finance Departments — CFO Google: Security Keys Neutralized Employee Phishing — Krebs on Security Human Resources Firm ComplyRight Breached — Krebs on Security Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: What is the cloud? Inside a secret Microsoft site that’s securing your data — Today Accounting software biz Intuit flogging bit barn to throw its lot in with AWS — The Register Bringing full-service payroll to customers in all 50 states — Xero Blog Certify acquires Abacus — Accounting Today Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode:Hey Mid-Market, Xero and Intuit are coming! — Digital FirstSubscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Hey Mid-Market, Xero and Intuit are coming! - Digital First Labor Costs Will Skyrocket Over the Next Decade - CFO.com Global Business Payment Is Becoming Much Easier - Bill.com Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Here's How The New Postcard-Sized 1040 Differs From Your Current Tax Return The New Tax Form Is Postcard-Size, but More Complicated Than Ever California Unanimously Passes Historic Privacy Bill California Passes Groundbreaking Consumer Data Privacy Law With Fines for Violations Analysis: The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play

Questions asked in this episode:  Does the decision affect sales of services online across state borders in addition to goods? Are there any strategies businesses can use to avoid sales or quantity thresholds for collecting sales tax? Will we see an increase in states taxing services? What process or technology should we look at for tracking sales by jurisdiction? Is it even worth it to comply? Will Amazon help out Amazon Marketplace sellers by doing more to track and collect sales tax? Are there any benefits to this decision for businesses? Stories in this episode: South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. — Wikipedia — Check out the Wikipedia article on the SCOTUS decision for an overview of the case or to catch up on the news. Overstock.com Expanding Physical, Digital Presence Following U.S. Supreme Court Ruling — Overstock.com — Overstock.com issued a press release stating that the company plans to expand "its physical and digital operations, including supply chain, marketing, and recruiting, into states in which tax nexus concerns previously prevented the company from having a direct presence." Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Last week’s IPO, Avalara, is today’s big winner in internet tax rally — Accounting Today — Shares in the sales tax management firm rose as much as 32 percent after Wednesday’s ruling, extending gains to more than double since its public debut last week.  Supreme Court rules that internet businesses must collect all state and local sales taxes — Los Angeles Times — Check out this article for a chart showing states that will benefit most from the Supreme Court decision, including California, Texas, New York, and Florida Why Amazon is the winner of the Supreme Court sales tax ruling — CNBC — The Supreme Court overturned a ruling from 1992 that allowed online retailers to skirt sales tax collection responsibilities if they didn't have a physical presence in the state. But Amazon stands to benefit from the ruling, experts say. Amazon already collects sales tax on the products it sells directly, and the ruling doesn't make clear how third-party sales should be taxed. Steve Forbes: Internet sales tax would be fatal for small businesses — Fox News — Steve Forbes argued before the ruling that extending sales tax collection requirements to out of state, online retailers will have a dramatic, ugly impact on small businesses and entrepreneurs. The Land Of Duty Free — Planet Money — The Planet Money team follows the surprising origin of duty free stores, and try to answer the question: Are they really saving you any money? A machine has figured out Rubik’s Cube all by itself — MIT Technology Review — Unlike chess moves, changes to a Rubik’s Cube are hard to evaluate, which is why deep-learning machines haven’t been able to solve the puzzle on their own. Until now. Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: IRS budgets $291M on technology for tax reform — Accounting Today — The Internal Revenue Service plans to spend close to $300 million to implement the new tax law, including approximately $20 million for an estimated 450 new forms, instructions and publications. Cloud Technology Advances the Accounting Profession: A Survey of Accounting and Finance Professionals — FloQast — 85% of accounting organizations face challenges hiring and retaining their talent. What are more than half of all organizations surveyed doing to address this hindrance? They are adopting modern technology to enable staff to be more efficient. Billable Hour ‘Makes No Sense’ in an AI World — Big Law Business — Panelists see a future where lawyer’s failure to use AI will be ethical lapse, malpractice liability Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Aprio to acquire HPC — Accounting Today — Aprio LLP, a Top 100 Firm, has signed an agreement to acquire HPC, a cloud-based accounting firm that services its clients online. Top 10 Accounting Firm IT Survey Surprises — CPA Practice Advisor — An IT survey reports that more than half of midsize and large accounting firms (51%) have outsourced their entire IT infrastructure to the cloud. This is a noticeable increase from 2016, when only 23% had made the jump. Vermont will pay people $10,000 to move there and work remotely — CNN Money — There’s a new law in Vermont that will pay new residents who work remotely for out-of-state companies up to $10,000. Gusto Launches Modern Directory of Accountants — CPA Practice Advisor — Gusto, the payroll, benefits and HR technology company, has launched a new partner directory of accounting firms that provide such services. Spotlight Reporting announces new wealth management partnership — Spotlight Reporting Blog — Spotlight Reporting has announced that wealth data software solution, myprosperity, is their newest integration and strategic partner. The partnership will “allow accountants and advisors to report on and advise on both business data and personal or family wealth in the powerful Spotlight Reporting tool-set.” QBO Payroll Done Right: Contractor Direct Deposit — QuickBooks Blog — In addition to helping businesses with employees run payroll more efficiently, QuickBooks payroll now supports businesses that want to pay independent contractors. New Feature: Proposal Reminders — Practice Ignition — With proposal reminders you now have the option to set a practice wide cadence for following up and re-sending proposals - automatically! Once you’ve set your cadence, Practice Ignition will take care of the rest. Slack and ADP: Looking up pay stubs and booking time off just got a lot easier — Slack Blog — Now with the new ADP Virtual Assistant app, you can get that information sent to you where you’re already working — in Slack. There’s no need to switch tabs, switch tools, or switch contexts, everything you need can be conjured up by typing “help” or using simple slash commands. Making payroll a breeze with Xero + Paychex — Xero Blog — Thanks to a new integration with Paychex General Ledger Service (GLS) you can quickly and easily connect to your Xero account, post payroll entries to your general ledger in just seconds and save time and reduce errors. Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode:The Indicator - Time Bandits [Podcast] - Take a listen to Planet Money’s new daily podcast. This episode features time tracking software and how some employers’ policies are potentially causing “wage theft” by shorting employees on their paid breaks and rounding down to the quarter hour increment.Business Insider - Slack's latest product update proves that vendor lock-in is over, but you may never want to leave Slack again - A new feature in Slack allows developers to build integrations where users can interact with other applications from directly inside Slack. For instance, now you can like, comment, and act on Asana notifications from Slack without having to leave the app.Intuit - Intuit Third Quarter Revenue Growth Tops 15 Percent; Company Raises Full-Year Guidance - Intuit finished the quarter with over 3.2 million QuickBooks Online subscribers, up 45 percent.Business Insider - Millennials trust Amazon and PayPal over banks when it comes to personal data - A survey of 2,000 Brits found a majority of 18-24-year-olds trust Amazon and PayPal ahead of banks when it comes to protecting their personal data.ZDNet - What is GDPR? Everything you need to know about the new general data protection regulations - General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is coming. Here's what it means, how it'll impact individuals and businesses - and how to prepare for it.Gizmodo - 50,000 Las Vegas Workers Are Ready to Go on Strike Over Fears of Robots Taking Their Jobs - More than 50,000 union workers in Las Vegas are set to go on strike if new contracts are not settled by June 1, and at the top of the list of concerns for the Culinary and Bartenders Unions is protection against robot replacements.The Guardian - The financial scandal no one is talking about - Accountancy used to be boring – and safe. But today it’s neither. Have the ‘big four’ firms become too cosy with the system they’re supposed to be keeping in check?Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

AutoEntry began life as OCREX, a tool for extracting transactions from paper bank statements. Not long after, the company expanded to extracting information from other types of documents, including receipts, purchase orders, and invoices.One thing that makes AutoEntry different than other document processing solutions is that it can extract full line item detail from documents, making it very powerful for businesses that need to get granularity out of their bills. The pricing is also different than other solutions — AutoEntry charges per document, not per client or company. Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Microsoft, Commonwealth Bank, KPMG partner for Wiise joint venture — ZDNet Wiise Guys: KPMG Teams Up with CBA Bank to Sell Microsoft Accounting Software — Digital First PayPal confirms that it is buying payments startup iZettle for $2.2B in an all-cash deal — TechCrunch Become EXCEL-lent: Excel Tips & Tricks for Accountants — FloQast Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Mentioned in this episode: Buffett’s Berkshire Braces for ‘Wild’ Swings From New Accounting — Bloomberg Net Worth Composition By Levels Of Wealth: Build A Business Already — Financial Samurai The Wealthy Are Hoarding $10 Billion of Bitcoin in Bunkers — Bloomberg Episode 823: Planet Monet — Planet Money Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories mentioned in this episode:  The IRS really needs a new computer system — Accounting Today What Accountants On NetSuite Need To Know From SuiteWorld 2018 — FloQast Blog When Identity Thieves Hack Your Accountant — Krebs on Security A Robot Does the Impossible: Assembling an IKEA Chair Without Having a Meltdown — WIRED Subscribe:  Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Tom is a CPA. He is also the founder and managing director of mAccounting, an Indianapolis based CPA firm specializing in outsourced accounting, tax, and CFO services to small and mid-sized companies. In 2015, mAccounting was recognized as one of the most progressive accounting firms in the nation when it was selected as an Intuit “Firm of the Future”. Prior to launching mAccounting, Tom spent 14 years in the technology industry as a CFO and controller. He’s also a self-professed Excel geek!Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Discussed in this episode:Job disruption is quickly coming to accounting, tooSubscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

In this episode: PwC and Northern Trust launch blockchain audit KPMG offers IBM Watson-enabled accounting tools No Coffee Breaks Needed: Companies Add Software Robots to Workforce The Evolution of the One Firm Client Practice Why Artificial Intelligence is the Future of Accounting Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Discussed in this episode: The four drivers of workaholism, and how it doesn't make for more productive employees Why meetings are toxic (according to the makers of Basecamp) How payroll and HR provider Gusto hired more women engineers How to be part of the team, even when working remotely Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: How an accounting firm in Australia successfully moved to a 5-hour workday — Xero Blog A new survey that shows most Americans see automation is coming, but don't think it will affect them in their own lifetimes — Wall Street Journal Bitcoin traders who have no idea they owe a lot of tax, and how the IRS is making things difficult by not being clear — MarketWatch Intel has developed new smart glasses that don't make you look like a dork (anymore than you already do), and how that may impact accounting — YouTube Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week? Tax Incentive Puts More Robots on Factory Floors Sage looks to the future A scary new era of Slack accountants Why Excel Is Not The Enemy Of Accountants Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Kodak shares have more than tripled since company announced its new cryptocurrency 'KodakCoin'' 5 Predictions for Accounting in 2018 Intuit acquires time-tracking service TSheets for $340M It’s time for recurring meetings to end How a simple tech upgrade at the IRS could transform the economy Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode: Blockchain: An opportunity for accountants? Or a threat? My Look at QuickBooks Connect 2017 Accountants Gear Up For AI Disruption 50% of Businesses Still Use Paper Checks - But They Won't for Long The Economic and Strategic Benefits of Cloud Computing Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play

Stories in this episode:  Deloitte Gets Hacked: What We Know So Far Working Remotely: Zoomtopia 2017 The Great Debate THE UNTOLD STORY: How Xero took a band name and changed accounting for a million companies 4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Bother Moving Data to a New Accounting File Bill.com secures $100M from JPMorgan Chase, Temasek, and others to eliminate paper from business payments Subscribe: Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play