If you’re an accountant who’s been to a tradeshow or two this year, there’s a good chance you’ve seen our own Kasey Bayne repping Kashoo and beating the simple cloud accounting drum. If you haven’t, she taken the time to capture some notes from the road. Enjoy—and say hi next time you see Kasey! Over the past month, I’ve had the pleasure of traveling throughout the U.S., spreading the Kashoo word at numerous accounting conferences. One of my favorite events is the AICPA Practitioners Symposium & TECH+ Conference, which this year included the Association for Accounting Marketers. If you wanted to see the “who’s who” of accounting, this was the place to be! You might be wondering just what happens when you put together 1200+ CPAs and friends over a few days in the Las Vegas desert. Here are a few hot topics that continued to creep up and are likely on the minds of CPAs everywhere—maybe even yours… Just like you, CPAs are small business owners too. They’re working on ways to get more business. They’re thinking about how they can provide the best value to help their clients be more successful. Your CPA isn’t just the person behind a desk who does your taxes and calms you down when you get letters from the government. They can help with everything from financial planning to virtual CFO services and everything in between. In fact, a key phrase kept popping up at AICPA: “A CPA is successful when their client is successful.” The takeaway? Your CPA is valuable—perhaps even more so than you realize. Sit down with them (in person, or online) and see how you can work together so you’re both getting the most from the partnership. You may have that image of the old stogy accountant in your head. You know, the one still using carbon copy paper. While there are still folks like that out there (and we respect you for staying true to yourself!), the legions of tech-savvy, mobile CPAs is growing by the minute. They’re updating cloud-based files on their iPads, taking pictures of important docs with their smart phones, and Skyping with their clients around the world. “Cloud” and “mobile” were the words of the day, every day. Did some conference attendees do app demos poolside at the Bellagio? Who knows! But as they say, a CPA’s gotta do what a CPA’s gotta do. The point is, lots of CPAs at the conference practice what they preach. And for a company that makes simple cloud accounting software, that’s a great thing to see. You don’t have to be a tech expert to keep up with technology! While there were plenty of “tech geeks” at the event, everyone was focused on learning about new technologies that will make their lives and their clients’ easier. So when you find yourself thinking there’s got to be a better way, check with your CPA—they may have just the advice and recommendations you need.
