All Aussie Accounting Adventures - Tech Edition
All Aussie Accounting Adventures - Tech Edition
Getting Buy-In for New Tech
Ready to embark on a tech-venture like no other? In this episode, co-captains Amy and AJack are here to help you navigate the wild world of new technology adoption in your business—and trust us, they’ve got the treasure map!
They dive straight into the adventure of tech implementation. Ever feel like pitching new tech is like convincing your team to search for hidden treasure? Well, buckle up, because Amy and AJack are revealing the real jackpot: getting enthusiastic buy-in from decision-makers by showing how tech can solve your biz biggest mysteries—whether it’s client challenges or internal puzzles.
But the journey doesn’t end once you score the green light. They’ll guide you through the tricky trails of tech adoption—leaping over unnecessary hurdles, navigating workflow hacks, and mastering the delicate art of communicating value. Amy and AJack will teach you how to dodge the dreaded “But we’ve always done it this way!” resistance (we’re looking at you, spreadsheet-loving accountants).
Along the way, our dynamic duo will share personal stories, battle scars, and best practices for involving decision-makers early, optimising workflows, and getting your team to embrace new tech with open arms (or at least not crossed arms!).
So, grab your adventure gear and join Amy and Jack on this thrilling expedition.
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MUSIC
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PRODUCTION
David Easton (@davidjeasty) | Insta...
Hi Amy, hey Jack.
Speaker 2:How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm pretty damn good. How are you feeling?
Speaker 2:I'm sore. I'm so sore I mean I have no idea when this is going to come out to people.
Speaker 1:Running man.
Speaker 2:Well, I was walking for half a just run a marathon on the weekend for anyone who's wondering why I'm so sore and I thought I was a good runner and I thought I'd prepared myself. But hey, I didn't Right. It turns out Right. It was a struggle.
Speaker 1:You know what, though, hats off to you for even doing that, because I couldn't think of anything personally worse for me. But to all of those runners out there, I know we have a lot in our community. Well played to all of you.
Speaker 2:It's such an accounting sport, right, it costs nothing, do it whenever you want, like it's the most. I don't know money well spent running, I think.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, because it doesn't cost you anything. Anyway, let's move on. Let's move on so.
Speaker 2:How do you get buy-in from someone who wants to run a marathon? I mean, it's a great question, but we're not talking about getting buy-in for marathons.
Speaker 1:Today we're getting buy-in for new tech. Yes, that is a beautiful segue, jack. Well played you. So you know you've found a new app that you want to implement in the business, but you know one or many people in the business are making it challenging for you. So how do you go about that? That's what we're talking about today. How do you actually get the buy-in to get you know for new tech to be implemented in your practice?
Speaker 2:And also if they haven't yet, if you haven't even presented something to someone yet, so you don't know that they're going to have a problem with it. But nevertheless, there's still probably a good way of approaching a new idea versus a maybe not so good approach yeah, definitely all right.
Speaker 1:So I guess the first way where we start with this one is, like, how to present to the decision makers. But I think I think, before you even get to that point, is, first you need to understand the why. Like if you found something that you think is going to be amazing, why do you think that it's going to be amazing? What benefits is it going to bring? Like, what problem is this app or piece of tech actually going to solve for? Not just you personally, because you need to think that this is not just about you. This is not just about you. This is for the greater good of your business internally, for your team, and it should also have, you know, a knock on effect and impact to your clients. So it's either going to be client related or it's going to be team related. So you need to think about what problem you're solving and you know, like understand the why. To begin with.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think there's also a I mean, we're going to get into this, I know around how to you know what to present to a decision maker or to the team or whatever else. I think there's also like a. Really there's probably nuance around how far do you go before you present something to someone, because you know you don't want to spend three months building up this huge booklet of research and reasons why and whatever else, just to find out that it's not going to be something people buy into.
Speaker 2:So you know, but there's also not not coming well prepared enough. That then kind of falls flat and people don't have anything to get excited about. So yeah. I'd be kind of keen to understand how you go about.
Speaker 1:Well, you need to get others, you need to sanity check your idea with others, right? So normally, an idea of why so this is usually formed from a pain point. Typically speaking, the reason why somebody is searching for a new app is because there's been a pain point identified. Whether that is because you're trying to solve a problem on behalf of a client, or whether that's because you're trying to solve a problem on behalf of a pain point internally within the team, that's typically why a new piece of software might come about, that you might, or you might, start researching it because there's a problem, plain and simple. Um, we don't typically try and find solutions to things, uh, that are perfect. That's true. We don't.
Speaker 2:That's why I haven't gone looking for a new podcast partner.
Speaker 1:Hey, good going. Yeah, smooth, that's well played, well played. So yeah, get some buy-in from the team as well. But you would have identified that there's a problem in place. So that's step one identify what the problem is. Step two sanity check the idea, like if you have a chat with your fellow colleagues, have a chat with you know partners, managers, that kind of stuff. Tell them what the problem is to begin with and what you're sort of thinking.
Speaker 1:One thing that I will say as a bit of feedback for from a employee or team member to a business owner is business owners love it when you have team members that come to you with hey, I've got this problem, but this is what I'm thinking is the solution. Don't know if it is, but can I have a bit of bandwidth to possibly go and investigate that? If you come to us and just say I've got this problem all the time, it kind of gets a little frustrating and annoying. So be a problem solver. So don't just come to us with a problem. Actually, come to us with a problem, with a suggested solution that you might want to investigate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you don't want it solved? Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1:I don't need it. I don't necessarily need it solved. Look if you've got the solution, brilliant. But I do want you to at least start thinking that you might try and have a solution. That would be something as well, and I guess part of that is not.
Speaker 2:Most solutions cost something. So if you've just come back, hey, amy, I solved this problem and I just put us down for three thousand dollars a month for this new software because it's going to solve the problem, oh great great, I'm not going to be that excited by that okay, cool. So now we're getting to the crux of this cost benefit yes, definitely.
Speaker 1:So that's thing right. So what benefits will that actually bring? So you've gone through the process you might have. Actually, you know, you've identified the problem. You've now tried to find a few solutions and you've narrowed it down to maybe one or two, and if you found the one that you definitely think is the right solution, it will be a you know like what is. Yeah, what benefits will it actually bring? Make sure you analyze the features as well and the crossover of features in the current apps that you're already using, and why the features of this new app might be better, or why the features of an app will be better than your current manual process.
Speaker 1:Whichever you, you know, because it might be, there's an app that's solving, you know, a manual process. For example, right, as you mentioned, cost analysis. How much does it cost? And with that I mean you're all accountants out there ROI what's the return on the investment? And that's in terms of not just dollars but also time and efficiency savings. Sometimes that's really hard to work out, but speak to the app vendors. They should have some information around that one.
Speaker 2:And I think there's I mean, roi has the word investment in it versus cost analysis has cost and I think, just the mindset piece here around considering this as an investment. If you're trying to improve a process, there might be an upfront cost to it, but then you get dividends over time back. So I do think this is partly mindset, partly a mindset thing, but also as a decision maker. So I know we're kind of talking between both people who might be listening to this as someone who wants to implement the change and someone who's listening to this saying I keep getting people present me these new apps. I don't know what to do about it, but they're closer potentially to the workflow and the process than you are.
Speaker 2:So I think there's definitely an element of challenge there for any decision makers who are reading this paper or this idea or whatever it is that's been handed to them, to say, hey, we've got this problem, here's a potential solution, this is what the cost is, this is what the potential time saving is, and then believing that because you're not actually the one doing it, and thinking, oh, it's really taking that long to do those things. I'm sure we could just do it a little bit faster. Whatever, leave it with me. You know, I don't know how you get. How do you get that across or through? You know, as someone who's doing it every day and saying this could be better, but maybe the person who's making the decision isn't as aware.
Speaker 1:I don't know yeah, um, the first thing that I would say is because I've literally experienced this recently internally with us at Clarity Street is don't make assumptions. So if you're constantly going to your boss saying, hey, this is taking a long time and they're going, but why Don't make the assumption that they actually know what you're doing? I know that that might sound really random. I'm going to go a little bit deeper. We know, conceptually and broadly, exactly what you're doing. Of course we do that's. You know, we've done it. But the exact steps that you take, the exact buttons that you click on, the exact process that you do and follow. We probably don't know the intricacies of that because we're not doing it every day like you guys are anymore. So, helping us, maybe actually booking some time, maybe actually saying can I just actually show you what I do with this Next time I do this, can I show you? That is thank you. Yes, I would love to be shown how to do that. But don't just assume that I actually know exactly what is going on, because we don't always know, plain and simple. And vice versa.
Speaker 1:I need to not assume that what they're doing is you know, like, if I'm sitting there going, why is that taking so long? Surely it can't be taking that long. You know I need to also be able to turn around and go. Can you please show me exactly what you're doing? It's not that I think that you're being inefficient or it's not that I think that you know you're not good at what you're doing. I just need to understand because in my mind I feel like it should be taking x amount of time. But there's potentially some reasons that I'm not understanding and I'd love for you to show me exactly what you're doing to see if we. Can you know if there is any opportunity to enhance this or make it more efficient, or if we need to start charging for this service because it really does take this long. That's the other thing.
Speaker 2:So that's a good idea, yeah, absolutely Sitting down and kind of going through it, because, yeah, as you said, when you're a business owner general, you have done this at some point in time, but things have probably evolved A hundred percent. The way things are done has probably changed, and maybe there's new steps or there's slower parts or there's yeah, yeah. I think that's a really good, really good takeaway as part of this. If you're a decision maker and you're looking at something, thinking, gosh, I don't know why we would need this. I don't think it takes this long. Yep, if someone's saying it's taking a long time, and then either there's still a problem here one is either let's sit down with them and let me show you how I used to do this faster.
Speaker 2:Then we don't need a new piece of tech or a new solution, but I can still help solve a problem. Or I'm going to learn something which is, wow, this is actually harder than I thought or harder than I remember. Great, you're right, I can see the value in the solution.
Speaker 1:So, either way, we're dealing with the problem and, you know, in a relatively nice open floor communication kind of way. Yeah, exactly that's exactly it. Um, then it's up to you to sell the idea to the decision makers. Basically right, which can be kind of a daunting task, but technically, if you've done all your prep work in relation to this, then you've you. It should be quite easy just to put together a you know, a use case and a scenario as to why you would, whether you want to present that in a PowerPoint slide deck I'm going old school now or whether you just want to sit them down and go hey, can I book in 15 minutes? I just want to show you this is what it's going to be.
Speaker 1:These are the you know. This is the information I found. Believe it is a good thing. Be open to questions, be open to feedback, be open to the fact that they might say no, just saying they might, and, you know, be open to the fact that they might actually say good idea, but more research. Can you please go and look at X, Y, Z instead, for example?
Speaker 2:But yeah, you need to find a way to actually present that to them. So I think business owners always appreciate as well when you know, at the end of the day, it is their money If you're talking about buying new things or investing in new tech. So I think they appreciate when you come knowing that, hey, like look, I appreciate this is a new cost that we're not incurring right now, but, like, how have I approached trying to minimize that aspect of this? Like you know, like I haven't just gone to one app and been like sure we need this, we need to sign up to a look, it's this huge amount every month, but I think we should do it. It's like look, I've looked around. This app seems the best market rate. We seem to be investing this amount of time over here. It's costing us x, you know I.
Speaker 2:I'm wary of over complicating it too, though. So you know, because there's always an element of risk that you could do a whole bunch of research, present something and then it does. It turns out that you're not aware, but the business owners have other priorities right now. They've got other things they need to be thinking about and so they can't invest in this or they can't give it the you know the time a day that it needs. So maybe it gets delayed to the next quarter or whatever it is. So you don't want to overdo it and then have invested a whole bunch of time in something that doesn't get across the line. You don't want to come underdone. But I think, finding that balance where you can be useful and insightful and and get someone excited about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um without yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it depends on the app, though, as well. Right? So if you're looking at multiple apps in your business, like if you're looking at, hey, I think we should change our practice management platform over, I'd recommend that you do a hell of a lot of investigation. If you're changing one of the more peripheral apps, though, so maybe it's a workflow tool, maybe it's I don't know maybe it's one of the receipt management tools that are out there, for example, that you feel like it's going to be a really good benefit to you and your clients, that probably doesn't need as much investigating, but something that's going to have a really big impact on the entirety of the operation of the team spend the time and, to be honest with you if that's a point, then you probably it's probably not just going to be solely you, but I just wanted to highlight that more, so, just in case. Yeah, so this is more probably.
Speaker 2:Well, I think so this is interesting. I would say that if we're going down the route of potentially changing our practice management system, then I, as a business owner, absolutely want to know that you, that this is something on your mind.
Speaker 1:That's my point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I don't need you to come to me fully, because I'm going to now be like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, like this is our biggest, most important system. Great that you've spent six months researching this and figuring out every detail, but we're not changing our practice management system.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Not today, not this year. So I'd be saying, look, go to the team meeting or book in a meeting with the boss and say, hey, the team meeting, or book in a meeting with the boss and say, hey, I don't think we've got the best practice management system in the world. This is why but I understand and appreciate this would be a huge project for us to undertake. Would you be happy for me to go through an initial phase of research where I'm going to zero roadshow next week, I'm doing X or I'm doing Y, I'm going to go speak to the vendors, I'm going to do some, and then let me come back to you with a little bit more information and then we can decide together whether or not we go further down the line.
Speaker 1:I agree, but I feel like you should be doing that regardless with this whole process. With any app, have an initial conceptual. Hey, I've identified this problem. Are you comfortable with me going and doing a bit of research to possibly?
Speaker 2:find a solution.
Speaker 1:Yes, Start with that. Yes, start with that. Then, if you've got the go ahead, then cause you would have had a bit of a discussion around it If you've then got the go ahead based on that initial conversation, then you can go and do your deeper research and then obviously present that back, present your findings back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you're bringing them on the journey. I know this is another part of this process, because you're bringing the decision maker on the journey and maybe you're bringing some other team members along too and saying hey, I spoke to boss. Um, we're going to, you know, start to look into these things. You know, I'd love to get your thoughts on the practice management system or this system or that system. Are there any pain points or bugs or issues that you have?
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, because I guess there are definitely in every practice out there, there are always some less tech savvy, um, people that you will have to bring along the journey. And that's one of the questions that we always get asked like how do you bring? How do you bring Bob Sorry, bob, how do you bring? How do you bring Bob along for the ride, for example? And you know, I don't mean to stereotype, but they are traditionally the more senior partners that might've been there for a while that are probably not quite ready to exit but are on the path to being exited. But you, they're still one of the heavy decision makers, um, and you need to get their buy-in, you need to get them to transition as well, but then it's not always those I am saying. Typically, there are just some people who don't like change and they don't like, you know, being able to adopt things. So how do you get them? Exactly what you said. First point bring them along for the journey.
Speaker 1:Just involve them as much as possible would be my takeaway. And no matter how much you think that they'll be like, oh, they're not going to be interested in this or oh, you know, they're not going to like this, you would be surprised. Everybody loves learning, everybody loves that excitement of finding something new and shiny and new toy to play with. So, you know, go and you know involve them as much as possible. Involve them in demos, involve them in the conversations that you have. Don't keep them out of the loop. I appreciate it. Depending on the size of the practice that you're in. You can't always involve everyone, otherwise it becomes a decision via committee which can be really challenging. It can take its time, but you do need to involve them to a certain level, to get some level of buy-in, so that they're excited and they're you know they're they've bought into the idea that change is coming.
Speaker 2:Basically, yeah, I think that's. That's a good point. Um, you know, it's not coming in and saying cool, we've made this decision, and this is the first you're hearing about it.
Speaker 1:It's my way or the highway you know, that's obviously the worst case scenario here.
Speaker 2:And also, yeah, I agree, it's not like, hey, we're going to go through a whole bunch of stuff and then we're going to vote in a circle and if we don't get 90% of hands up, then we're not going to do it.
Speaker 2:It's like no, no, no, the decision is still with a decision maker or a couple of people in the business, but we want to bring everyone on this journey and we want to hear what your concerns are, and we might not be able to address all the concerns, we might not be able to give you everything that you want in this, but we want to understand as much as possible from all of you what you're dealing with so that we can take that into account, so that, when we get to our final decision, we could say look, look at all these positives listed out. But we also know that you know this person or this person that's going to make their life a little bit tougher or it's going to be a much, a big change for them. So what can we do to address that? Rather than coming in and being like, oh, we've got this awesome new platform, does all these amazing things unbeknownst to us, it's impacting, you know, two or three people on the team in a really negative way yep, and I feel like that's where you get.
Speaker 1:That's where you piss people off the most is when you don't actually get the buy-in from everybody to, on a certain level, get an understanding of how this particular change will impact them. As we say, some of the smaller apps, it's not going to impact anyone, right? So that's fine. But for some of the bigger apps, it will impact them on a day to day, so you should understand it. One thing I will say, though around the less tech savvy and those that are probably fearing this is most of their fears or their, their negativity towards the adoption of a new platform is their fear around the unknown. So the more you can enlighten them and help them understand and educate them as to the why and what problem you're solving and also, um, you know, like, what you're actually trying to actually achieve with this and what benefits it's going to bring, bring them along that journey. It's only going to help them understand the exact reason for it more than anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think just something to look out for as part of this, which can come up quite a bit, is you could have this amazing solution in mind that's going to solve 99 out of a hundred problems with the process, but be aware there will be people who focus on the one thing that they're losing or the one thing that's not there that they're used to, rather than the 99 things that are improving their lives and I'm not going to say I have a great uh, a great way around that I mean.
Speaker 2:I think it's just something to be take note of that you know this will happen and and getting people to kind of focus on the improvements rather than like, hey, you know, yes, we might be a bit slower here or that might not be a thing you want to do, but let's think about all the time you're going to save.
Speaker 1:I have a solution for that. Actually, great. It's all about how you set the scene, slash, preface it Like so, especially for this industry. Right? Accountants are literally conditioned to focus, focus on the one percent anomaly, right? That's what makes you amazing at what you do and it's one of those skills that you know.
Speaker 1:That's why accountants are so good at what they do, except that when you're trying to sell them a new idea and this is the challenge with it so if you actually set the scene and say I'd like to present you with a different way of thinking or a different alternative way of you know, doing this particular particular process or implementing this new piece of software, when I take you through this process, I know that you're going to sit there and instantly think of all of the clients that this won't work for, because that will be your first MO, right, that's your MO You'll think of all the ways that this won't work. I encourage you, when I'm going through this, to keep an open mind and think about all of the things, all of the clients that it will benefit, rather than the ones that it won't work for, because we're aiming for 80% success rate out of this whole change, right, those 20% that we want to handle in a bespoke way that it won't work for, we can still do that. So think of the 80% that it will work for.
Speaker 2:Well said, thank you. Thank you very much. Good time for a little sponsor break, I reckon.
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Speaker 1:Yep, so we've been talking about different ways to get you know people, to get buy-in of you know different apps and things like that. So some of the other concerns that I guess that we have around this is how to address the concerns from certain team members of it's going to take my job. That's a big one because you know there are sometimes concerns based on some of the apps that you might want to implement, whether it's a process, whether it's an app, whatever it is that there will be people in you know that you work with that will have actual concerns around. Well, this is going to replace me. Oh my God, what am I going to do?
Speaker 2:Are we not all really busy?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I get that. So I was, and this is why I kind of want I want to raise this as a topic of conversation. But I think the short answer to this is there is so much work out there there is quite literally so much work out there that I don't think that most accounting practices have time to scratch themselves normally, let alone, you know, having like. I would encourage people to consider finding apps to replace some of the manual tasks that they do. But that can actually obviously be quite fearful for some people, because they feel quite comfortable in the way that they've done things, because they are the master of their domain. They know everything about the intricacies of that particular process or procedure or that particular app that they've been using. So it can be quite daunting to think that, oh gosh, if I implement this, then this is going to change.
Speaker 2:I mean, I do Part of me feels like if you're not willing to kind of get on board, though, with making things better and improving and changing, and.
Speaker 2:I mean we need our business to get better and improve and be innovative, otherwise our competitors will do that and we won't have any business left. So in a way, I am kind of in the ballpark of. This is kind of part and parcel of having a job. You know it's, you're working for someone else and you kind of have this like if you're not growing and changing and improving someone who's not in your job is, and would they not take your job from you? So like I think there is a reality to that so yeah, I agree I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't think tech's gonna change. Take your job. I think someone who's willing to kind of yep, make the most of that tech or get on board with it or or be more comfortable with the the new tasks that are going to come onto their plate because those other tasks are no longer there. So don't get me wrong. If you're like two years away from retiring, I appreciate it. You know you don't really want to change and you're probably not going to have to. You've been around for a long enough time. Whoever's hired you hired you, you know, potentially years ago, and they're not going to fire you because you've got two years left to go and they're just going to they. They love having you around. So don't get me wrong. I don't think this applies there, but if you're in the middle of your career, I think you still kind of got it.
Speaker 1:I disagree.
Speaker 2:Oh I disagree.
Speaker 1:No, I disagree in so far. So on one hand, you're a bit of the on the if you're not on the bus, then get off the bus type scenario, like as in with the evolvement of the business. And if you, then get off the bus type scenario, like as in with the evolvement of the business. And if you, yeah. So there's that. But I feel like you know, if you're in the last couple of years of your career and you're sitting there going, I don't want to have to change. I'm of the opinion that bad luck. It's still part of the evolution of the business. That's the first thing. But also, why wouldn't you want to still continue to learn?
Speaker 2:Oh, you're just talking about the people with two years left. Yeah, okay, cool yeah, I was just being nice oh all right. So here I was thinking you were about to say no, no, no, jack, I disagree. You know, people don't need to get on board with jane. No, no, no, everyone has to.
Speaker 1:No, everyone has to get on board with change, I, but I think that there is a way to get everybody on board, and that's the whole point of it like helping understand what their why is like really actually drill down. Why don't't you want to change? Why don't you like this? What is it about this new thing that you are really concerned about? Like that part you need to, actually you need to understand it from that perspective. But, um, I think one of the things to help them identify, though, is understanding that you know it's it's not going to remove them. It's going to actually probably enhance what they've got, but also it's going to enhance their knowledge. It's going to actually expand on their knowledge. It's going to actually identify how much more valuable they are with their knowledge set, because they're now going to have more knowledge, because you're actually expanding on the knowledge rather than reducing or decreasing it.
Speaker 2:I mean I do. I appreciate that there's people out there who are like I just go to work, I roll up and I just want to do what I do and I kind of love secretly behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:I love that I just do this process that takes like 20 minutes longer than it should, but it's like really just methodical and easy to follow, and I'm just typing from this piece of paper next to me into this computer and I don't really have to think too much, and they all think that I'm amazing and I get it Like there's a whole.
Speaker 2:you know some, if you're a business owner which you are, I have been it means that that's kind of in our blood. Like you know, we enjoy that process of innovation and change and improving and finding ways, solving problems, whatever. Some people just want to come to work, do their job and then go home and they want to spend. You know it's a means to an end.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Right, and so you know I do get that. But you know, the unfortunate reality of life is someone else who's not in your job, wants your job and is willing to do it. So yeah, I understand why people might be resistant, but at the same time, yeah, he's a bit, you get on board or go home, yeah exactly Either stay on the bus or get off the bus. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I get it, I get it entirely. I think the final thing in relation to this is, when all else fails, definitely get the experts involved, like this is the other thing, and failure is not actually what I mean by that is you also need like as part of this whole adoption process?
Speaker 1:you actually need to get the experts involved with this, which is, talk to the apps, the actual app vendors themselves, like they need to like. Speak to them, the salespeople in the app you know in the actual app that you are looking to implement. They should know that app inside out, so it is up to you to make them work for their money in the nicest possible sense. Get them to tell you every intricate detail about what the app will and won't do. Don't just assume that you've been, you know that they, that you, what they've been sold or what they're selling you is actually true and correct. Dig deep. The other thing is don't get sold on the idea of what the potential of this app is going to be and what their roadmap looks like. Get sold on the app as to what the functionality is right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fair. That's fair and I and I think one of the one of the beautiful things about our industry is accounting is technical and sometimes complex and, yeah, it's a nuanced, and so the people who get hired to sell accounting tech are often ex-accountants yes who aren't amazing sales people, but they're great, helpful, like to talk to their customers and help them out.
Speaker 2:We know we're talking about this earlier and and I think that means that, generally speaking, when you're dealing with an app in the accounting space, you're going to get a decent, you know person who who's there primarily to understand your problem and if they can help to solve it. To solve it, um, you know, in other industries you're going to get super, super, mega salesy people who will promise the world and then, you know, move on from their job in a few months, whereas I think we have a pretty good group of ex-accountants who have moved into that role. Sorry, I know this is a complete tangent but if you're dealing with salespeople.
Speaker 2:I understand where your guard could be up, but I think in our space we're fortunate to have some pretty good people working in apps that have your best interests in mind as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, I agree wholeheartedly with that. The other thing is also I mean, you know, shameless plug speak to an implementation specialist as and when. Not just us, there are others out there, so I won't just push Clarity Street, but there are others out there should you need Speak to an implementation specialist, depending on what level of app you actually require. But also the other one that I think people fail to um utilize as enough is speak to your peers, because you know every, every uh firm these days is going through some sort of change in some way, shape or form. So bounce off your peers every time. You know you've you've got your um your industry body catch-ups monthly, those kinds of things. Um, everybody, every accountant, has accounting friends, so speak to them about what they're doing within the practice um and ask some questions around that, because that's where you'll also get some really good feedback.
Speaker 1:We know we often get asked if you know we're willing to share um practices that have gone through the same change journey and things like that. We're always willing to share the details. We obviously ask our clients first, um, because just to be respectful, but otherwise, you know, willing to share because there are lots of outcome. You know lots of accountants out there that have gone through the same thing. They're also most of the time really willing to actually invite you into their office space and actually show you how it all works as well. So this is one thing to your point around. We're really lucky with sales people in this industry. We're also really generous with our time.
Speaker 1:The accounting industry and like this is one thing that I say to accountants you're all too damn nice, but use it to your benefit and you know in a respectful way, but actually bounce off of them. And actually, if you know people that have gone through changes like this and they're implementing tools like this, then speak to them about it, because I mean, the community is fantastic.
Speaker 2:Absolutely agree with both points. That accounting is, you know, let's say, relatively traditional profession, so you know it's been around for a while. People have figured out how to run firms yes, number one, number two. There is constant evolution here, though. So you know things are changing, but there's still examples and precedent. For the vast majority of you, the super early adopters there aren't. You're the ones creating that change, so you might not have that many you can call upon to be like hey, have you done this before?
Speaker 2:but for the vast vast majority, let's say 97.5 percent of people are not early adopters so therefore, you've got someone who's leading the way that you can talk, to that you can say hey, you did this and said yeah, this is what I did wrong yeah that's pretty open about it I I agree.
Speaker 2:And then when it comes to implementers, I think it's an underrated space in tech and I don't. I think it's because it's really hard to execute properly as a like, hard to find people who can do it, who you know are willing to do it, because it is so project-based and it's it's quite. It's difficult to keep on top of all the different apps that are out there and understand how they can all piece together and work together all the different apps that are out there and understand how they can all piece together and work together.
Speaker 2:So you know if someone's doing it full time every day versus you know, someone in your team who you've kind of delegated, to say, hey, can you be the champion of this project? It's going to be a different outcome. So you know, either you can invest a whole bunch of someone in your team's time for six months to maybe get the same result, or you can bring someone in who can provide that to you instantly, basically because they've been there, done that before many times over.
Speaker 1:And it's going to actually work in your favor. You're going to charge out the time of your team member who won't be able to actually do chargeable billable work, as opposed to letting them do chargeable billable work, and it's probably going to cost you the same price as like half of their salary anyway, if not less, actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you can't recreate all the mistakes that someone who's been through it many, many times over has seen and learned from you know, having just run a marathon and having everyone tell me don't go out too hard. Um, you know, bring it home at the end if you've still got legs. What did I do? I went out too hard, it felt good and it completely blew up my face yeah so don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you have to learn the lesson yourself before you listen to what someone else is going to tell you. But like so, so make a mistake on something that you know isn't isn't so pivotal to your business. Roll out a new piece of tech. Learn that like okay, that isn't so pivotal to your business. Roll out a new piece of tech. Learn that like okay, this isn't all it's cracked up to be. I need some help with this. Okay, cool, you made your mistake. That's fine. We all have to make our own mistakes sometimes. But then moving forward, trust the experts. I think it's a good idea.
Speaker 2:Thanks, jack, thank you, wow, I wasn't expecting to bring it all the way back.
Speaker 1:I know I do have one final point, I guess. So if you are looking at one of the smaller apps, but even if you're looking at a bigger app and you're using an implementation partner or things like that or one of the apps directly, the final bit for getting buy-in, for implementing new tech in your practice would be you need to get a plan in place. You need to get like what does implementation look like? Timeframes, testing, training, downtime, um, crossover period of old app versus new app.
Speaker 1:If you know you you're getting an, you know you're replacing an app um the adoption of the new app, the removal of the old platform, Again, if you're no longer using it. You need to get a plan in place. You're not going to know the specifics, that's okay, but you need to at least have considered how long you believe things will take. One thing that I will say to you all out there is however long you think it's going to take, double that time and then double it again, Because that's usually a good guidepost of like how long it will actually probably take around what your perception is of how long it will take. So, perception versus reality on that one.
Speaker 2:No, it's a nice place to finish it.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Jack, Great chat Very good. Go and get a massage or something for those sore legs. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:All right, leave you guys to it.
Speaker 3:Bye, bye, hey team, hey team. It's Ali and Andrew from All Aussie Accounting Adventures here. I hope you really enjoyed this episode with Amy and Jack. What did you think, andrew?
Speaker 5:Oh, stunning. As always, the two of them are brilliant minds and are brilliant communicators. So we hope that you have got some incredible learnings out of this episode and if you'd like to continue to follow us, make sure you check out our website. Find us on the socials. You'll see accounting adventures or look for all Aussie accounting adventures wherever good stuff can be found, whether that's conferences, whether that's websites, whether it's podcast or social media.
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