Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome everyone and welcome back to Accounts 2.0. I'm Steve Perpich and with me, as always, is Ted Williamson. Ted, how are you doing?

Speaker 2: 0:12

today. I'm always here, always, I'm good. Thanks, nice to see you, nice to be here with everybody.

Speaker 1: 0:18

Yes, yes, yes. Today it's a dry subject, but we're getting through these steps. We have 11. We do have 11, right? Yes?

Speaker 2: 0:25

11. It's a dry subject, but we're getting through these steps.

Speaker 1: 0:27

We have 11. We do have 11, right, yes, 11, and it's yes, we're being expert on compliance and regulations. Sum it up you got to know stuff. Okay, like you can do stuff, you got to know stuff, and compliance and regulations is, um, it's a dry subject, but the thing is just staying updated is the key, and, and when I'm talking about compliance is um the changes in regulations, state federal regulations with regards to tax filings and and things like that, as well as um advantages and various other uh things that can help your client, uh, by knowing this stuff yeah, I just want to note this, but it's going to be really heavy on on accountants, um, rather than bookkeepers.

Speaker 2: 1:06

So we'll still bring in some bookkeeping type stuff, but this is more. This is going to be heavier on on accountants, who have to deal with more of the advisory stuff and tax concerns and liability. That but forgiving that with with, oh absolutely, but with with bookkeepers. Bookkeepers still do payroll things like that, so we have to worry about compliance there as well, and to understand gap and basic tax information, how we have to prepare our documentation and record our transactions within our bookkeeping software. Right.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Absolutely so. With me, the two biggies, just to stay compliant, continuous education, especially if you have a professional designation, not only to stay current but if there are opportunities that come up, new aspects of your profession that could help open up new channels and opportunities as well as, by doing that, balance out with subscribing to official publications and it comes down to consistency. Maybe pick a day a month where you review any upcoming official changes or things that are on the horizon. It doesn't have to be something a source of anxiety or taking over your life in any way, shape or form, as long as it's part of your monthly processes and routine to kind of check that stuff. But there are some ways of making it a little better. Like, okay, so, Ted, when you're running your firm, compliance issues or things that changes in legislation was it a frequent thing? Or like how, how did you know and what? What steps do you take to to implement things?

Speaker 2: 2:49

um, well, a lot of things we would depend on on publications, uh, so newsletters, uh. We would get a monthly update, um from uh, from a private company that used to do updates for us Tax software a lot of times will give a monthly update. They'll have a group or they might have a Facebook group or they'll have a monthly newsletter or monthly video kind of explaining the changes in tax legislation, something like that as well, as your payroll software usually has the same thing where you can subscribe to get updates. Those are a lot of things. Obviously, through your CPA association or whatever body you're a member of, they usually have some sort of thing as well. They usually have some sort of thing as well, and basically anybody who or any aggregator of CPD credits. Usually they'll send you the latest webinar about updates and stuff like that. So it's good to kind of just keep your ear to the ground and pay attention a little bit.

Speaker 1: 4:03

One thing I found from the bookkeeping end ear to the ground and pay attention a little bit. One thing I found from the bookkeeping end um, and this is why I'm kind of more of a fan of sas, uh platforms as opposed to desktop. In most of the major platforms accounting platforms they do in their own notifications kind of let you know what upcoming changes, because it usually impacts the use or the functioning of the software. I like that over emails, because I get inundated by hundreds of emails a day. So if I have desktop system or I don't have notifications, I'm saying, well, I'll get emails, we get emails. Well, they're easy to miss if they're not from your clients. So that's why, again, saas solutions I'm a bit biased for because again they kind of give you those heads up while you're using it. It's in your face, you're not going to miss it.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Absolutely Well, I like there's like SAS software for that are specifically for research. Right, I like those. Walter's Clures has one that I used to use a lot. That one was really good and you can a lot of times you get notifications on changes, but that one if you ran into a situation that you didn't understand that much or you didn't have the knowledge yet on it, you could definitely look it up. So that's always good. And the other thing is getting regular updates as well. So the research, always good. And the other thing is, you know, getting getting regular updates as well. So those read the research software. I like those. Usually usually larger companies are the ones that adopt those because there's, you know, it's usually a heavy cost to them and not everybody uses them, like in our firm it didn't get used nearly as much as as I think it should have. Um, but uh, but you know a larger, larger firm would definitely use that and they're very useful to stay up to date, so that's great.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Another. Another way to stay up to date, um is uh, networking again. Networking once your peers uh joining a community, like like the accounts 2.0 community. We've updated the name of it, didn't we, ted? What's the name of the community now?

Speaker 2: 6:11

It is growth and operations. So for accountants, bookkeepers, tax pros and advisors because we wanted to make sure that the name was representative of what it is, that of who would be involved in the group and what we're there to know about. So we we're not really there to learn about compliance in the group, where it's more about how do we grow as accounting firm owners and bookkeeping firm owners, right, and how do we like not perfect, but how do we improve our operations and in which increases our profitability, right, as well as increases our our loving of life and and traveling and things like that. So well, yes, but when networking amongst your peers, though, are another, groups are specifically increases our loving of life and traveling and things like that.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Well, yes, but when networking amongst your peers though another groups are specifically clients these things come up and again, these are just ways of staying aware and being up on your profession with regard to nuances, sometimes catching things in the wind or give you a heads up of, maybe legislation that could be years away.

Speaker 1: 7:20

But there are opportunities and if you're a strategic thinker, there could be advantage for some of your better clients and you want to make sure that you're giving them the best service possible, some next level stuff, if you really want to be, you know, total new age and total on point.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Like anything, it's a discipline or schedule. Anything to do with change to the better takes a shift in activity and that always comes with consistent behavior. So you know, in my point of view, when it comes to compliance and just being aware of that stuff, pick a day a month, much like you're doing your other filings and stuff, and say, look, we're going to have a two-hour session with the individuals in your firm and just do a general review of what is known, based on the publication stuff, so that everyone in the team is just aware and aware of what management has acknowledged it. So sometimes if everybody's operating in their professional silo, even within an office with just several people, it may not be clear that individuals are aware of certain things and then it either creak, results in repeat conversations or quietly thinking that they're incompetent or whatever that kind of stuff, and it creates a lack of team cohesion. But you want to just review that once a month. That's. You know my two cents on that. I think it's worth more than two cents.

Speaker 2: 8:42

Well, I like, I like that, I like. But I want to go a little one step further and and and not just having a meeting and spitting it out, but actually integrating that information into your, into your operations and into your, your processes and and dealing with your clients. So what we did in in our firm was we actually had a knowledge library that we referenced within our workflows. So we would actually have our workflow set out. We used Financial Sense, we used Carbon and then we used Financial Sense and in there we would, within the specific tasks that we did, we would actually have a reference in our Workplace by the workflow and we would update that URL so that people had an updated resource that they could always stay up to date. So when you have those meetings that you're suggesting, steve, that would prompt them to actually hey, I need to make sure I click on this link to make sure that I'm staying up to date when I'm actually performing the task itself. Right? So then they get used to to adapt or adjusting their tasks to the new process.

Speaker 1: 10:03

These are the notification points for a client to show your expertise and build that stronger relationship as well.

Speaker 2: 10:11

Absolutely All right, you got your next point.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Well, you're running the show here, just kidding. Actually, this is a shorter topic.

Speaker 2: 10:21

It's your article. I'm just throwing my two cents in.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Well, the scope of what can possibly come up with regard to compliance and changes in legislation is so broad that you know to come up with specific examples is so broad that you know. Come up with specific examples. Um, you know a major one obviously, changing in any tax rate or the application of a tax on a type of revenue or expense, or in that varies from state to state. Uh, this type of awareness, um, um, is important. Um, even if it's not changing, you just have to know it. If you're doing business across state lines, there are implications in some cases and they have to be known, even at the bookkeeper level. If you're managing transactions, these things should be set and reviewed Anytime that you're going out of region. You really have to just have a little check to make sure that this is the way to do it.

Speaker 2: 11:20

You have sales tax concerns and payroll concerns that you need to consider when people are selling in multiple jurisdictions and again, if you're selling outside the country.

Speaker 1: 11:30

If you're selling something outside the US, every nation out there has a different twist and there's some different filing and a different way of account structure. Maybe we've been tracking it for the sake of reporting to the IRS, as well as just managing the expense properly, so that you're making sure that you're giving your client the best tax credit position with regards to anything that they can rightfully get.

Speaker 2: 12:02

Absolutely. I think, uh, in your article you actually had mentioned about don't go to loan and and utilizing, like, uh, consultants, uh, legal, legal and tax consultants Um, I like I'd like to touch on that point because I think it's important to network with people, and especially people that are. So, for example, if you service real estate agents and you help them, working with real estate lawyers would be a good idea, um, and so you can, you know, or people, lawyers that deal with real estate, they can understand a little bit more of how the transaction works so that they can guide you along and then you can figure out the tax implications of things. But, as well as they are going to also give you referral opportunities, so you engage them in a professional manner and you can actually hope that they end up becoming more of a resource than just research and assistance on compliance. So that's just one example.

Speaker 2: 13:01

The same thing with different associations. So if, for example, you're the construction association, there might be tax changes that the construction association is specifically paying attention to because they know how it's going to impact them. So, with you, if you serve as construction, you want to make sure that you are paying attention to that, because they will hunt that down and find it. And so if you don't get it specifically from whatever tax agency or professional association like CPA association or something like that, because it's all mixed in with all the other stuff they will highlight that specifically for you because that helps their members. So it's good for you to pay attention and be involved with all those people as well.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Well, there you go, so I have nothing further to add. Yeah, again, just's a dry topic. Not all the steps have to be a 30 minute marathon, so we want to make sure that they're all aware. So step eight, though a smaller step, but a very important one. So do you have any closing? I would note.

Speaker 2: 14:16

One more thing is just make sure that you find what is what so like. Having a newsletter or something like that on compliance for your, for your, for your clients um, would be important, would be good. Adding that into your own newsletter would be great. So, paying it, paying attention, because you want to be seen as that expert.

Speaker 1: 14:35

I think you've already kind of touched on this, but yeah, you attention because you want to be seen as that expert.

Speaker 2: 14:38

I think you've already kind of touched on this, but you want to be seen. Yeah, absolutely. So it's not just knowing the information, but you also need to give the information to them. So, because they're not going to know it in detail, but they know that you're paying attention and they can identify some things within their own specific situation that you might not be able to to see until year end, so that they can bring it to your attention before then, um, which is really good. But and so those are really handy to give to your clients for for being seen as the expert and the fact that you actually know stuff, um, and and that, uh, that they can actually bring things up to you. You can be more proactive with them on their files. But, yeah, so dry topic, we got her done.

Speaker 1: 15:25

And we're wrapping it up.

Speaker 2: 15:27

We're wrapping it up.

Speaker 1: 15:28

Make sure you follow us on YouTube. Go to Accountants 2.0 on Facebook. Join our groups. Oh, a notification we did merge our group in LinkedIn to the Facebook group, so our group is in Facebook. We're finding that's the most responsive platform for our purposes. And again, ted, what's the name of that group? Again?

Speaker 2: 15:52

Growth and Operations. Accountants, bookkeepers, tax pros and advisors.

Speaker 1: 15:58

You can find that by going to our Facebook page Accountants 2.0. And that's it for today. I'm Steve Perpich and this is Ted Williamson and away.

Speaker 2: 16:08

You go, like subscribe and hit the notification bell. I always forget about that. So make sure, on YouTube, like subscribe and hit that notification bell. That way you can get up to date every time that we come out. All right, thank you.

Speaker 1: 16:20

Subscribe to our podcast on all the major podcast platforms.

Speaker 2: 16:26

Yeah, I think we're on like 20. I'm just joking, I don't know. Like 10 or something.

Speaker 1: 16:30

All the major and not so major.

Speaker 2: 16:31

Yeah, all right, all right, all right. Have a good day everybody Bye now.