Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back. This is Accountants 2.0. I'm Steve Perpich and with me is Ted Williamson.

Speaker 2: 0:10

Hello everybody.

Speaker 1: 0:12

Today is a momentous, momentous podcast episode. It is step 11, the last step in our journey to become a new age accountant.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Just what happens after this one. Hmm, we actually after this step. We actually released the book so that those who subscribe to the newsletter can actually get the book, or you'll probably be able to purchase it or something if you want to, but it's usually free for everybody involved in our community and if you are staying up to date, you will get all this in writing in front of your face.

Speaker 1: 0:50

That's great. And step 11 today is sustainable social responsibility and ethics. A policy is not a one and done. It's an everlasting process, lasting process. So when we talk about sustainable social responsibility and ethics, there's just ways of conducting your business and it all comes down to your policy. And we'll go right down the list. Our blog has it listed.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Each one is a huge topic, which future versions of the book and various other things will expand on it. We're going to have talks on all this stuff. This is good stuff Right off the bat.

Speaker 1: 1:32

Transparent reporting so, which, from an accounting perspective, is kind of easy to do. Numbers don't lie. I mean, you're going to report what you are given. Now, of course, there's always disclaimers to the client. I mean that a proper accountant does. If the accountant is not doing an audit, they're trusting or they're assuming that the transactions they're receiving, the information they receive from the client, is accurate. So, based on the information you have at hand though there should be no obfuscation the basic reports are done, done. It all leads back to you know a pnl, a balance sheet and and you and you don't mess with that and uh, that's that's. That should go without saying. But transparent reporting, forecasting and various other reports again should have that as a bedrock, should always refer back to the, the hard numbers, so that the audience knows that there's does not have a doubt where the source is for certain information to take action and that they can trust it Right and that's so.

Speaker 1: 2:34

That's a more of a mechanical, practical sustainability practice or responsibility practice. The other is like environmental responsibility, a little higher level. So environmental responsibility is a tricky one because you need to show that you're taking that responsibility from an ethical viewpoint but also a PR viewpoint. But then there's extremes. If you honestly believe that you should not do carbon emissions, for example. But it's unrealistic if you're a logistics company to say I'm never going to use a diesel-powered vehicle like today, because that's probably your best economical option in most scenarios. When you're taking environmental responsibility you have to be realistic. What I recommend is comply to municipal bylaws. Okay, stick to the letter of what the public consensus is as far as bylaws, and then the extra mile could be well you know, a little more organized in your recycling plan.

Speaker 1: 3:29

If there is an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions or show some green initiative or renewable resource access, work out an action plan, publish that to your, to your things, even if you're not implementing or ready to implement it for half a decade. Show that you're doing it, and I go that way because you don't want a bunch of people showing up at your door when they don't have to. Or if they've shown up at your door, you're going to want to do it for marketing purpose and hanging out swag, not their picketing. Don't become a target for no reason and don't be controversial on that level. Accountants, though, we want to promote a new age accountant with with a more vibrant lifestyle and and and and getting more time for yourself and your family and all that good stuff, don't? It's not laissez-faire. You should be conservative in your approach to things. So if, as long as it's realistic, um, your environmental stuff could be cut?

Speaker 2: 4:24

not politically. We're not saying no, we're talking about conservative in your steps for environmental responsibility.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Well, that gets down to you. Just say, wait, social inclusion. So social inclusion is a broad topic. Okay, we're covering every aspect of people's lives, lifestyles, all that stuff, including politics. Do not recommend getting involved in politics, taking a political stand that's public.

Speaker 1: 4:52

With regard to your friend, accounting, like the Constitution, like any bedrock document or field, like the medical field, law and order, judicial these are things that should be the bedrock of society and accounting is included. Do not profess a side. Your personal life is your personal life, but when you're serving clients and your client base, the numbers, a balance sheet, is neutral because it's balanced. That should be your conduct when dealing with people. Of course, follow your conscience. If there's anything that you consider a non-starter, then you make sure that's in your policy. All right, spell it out. Do not be arbitrary, but it should be inclusive. Not only is that the legal thing to do, it will again save you from that picketing group in front of you.

Speaker 1: 5:48

That's potential that can cause disruption to your business. You can't take a side, and even professing that you take all sides is a side. So just don't enter into the conversation. Create a blanket policy that's aligned with. Again, civic governments are pretty good as a template for statements of inclusion. Stick with your municipality or regional blanket statements on that and just conduct yourself accordingly and get right back down to serving your clients and not even mentor into the conversation. Keep a low profile on that level. That shows that it frees you up to just be ethical. It stops the noise and also it it creates a lot of um more calmness in the workplace too, because you don't want that internal arguments and things and um in your workplace as well. Ted, do you have a commentary on that?

Speaker 2: 6:38

no, I just think, um, like when you, I think you just need to follow, you know, the ethics of your governing body. Really, don't bring your own personal things into your accounting firm, accounting, bookkeeping. You know dealing with finances. You are the bedrock of the economy. Really, you are the ones who who help it run, help help the economy run, and you need to make sure that you're bipartisan. I mean, obviously, everybody's different, like you said, um, you have to feel, you know you have to feel right about a certain way, but but definitely, uh, don't engage in the conversation, just follow your. You know the guidelines of the AICA or whatever other body you might gravitate towards. If you're not mandatory to be a member, definitely do that and stick just like the law. You should be nonpartisan. The facts are the facts, finances are finances. That's it. When it comes to running business, there's certain, there's ways to do it, there's ways not to, and that's the way, a good guideline is is the, those, the ethics of those professional bodies.

Speaker 1: 7:52

Even if you're not a member of certain professional bodies, your allies and your and the services do follow it. If you're aligned with those, those principles, two things are going to happen you're not going to have any friction with the service you're providing and you're going to build trust, and that's the currency that you want to create. You want to be trusted. If people feel you have a personal agenda, political agenda, sociological agenda, they're not going to trust you because that's above and beyond and outside of generally accepted accounting activity or bookkeeping. You have to be the clean slate, the, the, the, the, you know so totally um, neutral when it comes to approaching, um, uh, the, the job at hand. Anything else, that means you're bringing something in and again you're going to cause problems.

Speaker 2: 8:43

We're all here. Think about your team like you don't. You don't want them to have those conversations. They could get in arguments. People could leave because they think that you're very you don't follow their beliefs and they feel hurt by that. That's a possibility too.

Speaker 1: 8:56

They should not even. Yes, so they shouldn't even be spheres of conversation. And when I question a manager's acumen, if a manager has to delve into that type of thought pattern when managing people, then you're really not managing according to neutral principles. Yes, everybody can be friends, but you have to set clear lines saying when it's work time, when we're doing our tasks, we're this For going on a hike or doing something else and the clock's off. Yeah, those debates are healthy and interesting and all good, but everyone's got to realize that game time's game time.

Speaker 2: 9:32

The separation between work and personal.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Yeah, and that comes with again clear responsibilities, tight policies. Everyone will get along better. This is not restrictive, this is actually quite permissive because it lets people do their job, because at the end of the day, you're serving the client, you're not serving yourself. And that gets to the ethical thing. It is a selfless career and many people during tax time grinding out those late hours, will realize that the self is not in consideration.

Speaker 2: 10:05

You're doing the work to help all those people make sure they file stuff on time.

Speaker 1: 10:10

So, but now efficiency and proper setup of your business. You'll have more time yourself, but at the same time, it is selfless you are loving that grind actually.

Speaker 2: 10:19

So, like some people actually love taxes and they get off on it and they want to. They love the. You know the income that comes from that big influx of income, right. But and that's great, but most people don't right.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Well, and for the exceptions that do send us your resume for the, for the, for the ones that uh want to have a life, sign our agreements and let us represent you. We got something for everybody here. Uh, we're smart. Not all the time, that's my motto, but again, um, that's the, the, the idea of selflessness, and and you're working for the industry. You're not working for a paycheck, you're not working for profit, you're working for the need and the desire to create a calm, stable environment for people's businesses and personal lives to flourish. That's part of the accounting practice Making sure that everyone can make rational decisions for their business future and managing day-to-day operations. But again, that attitude breeds trust. If you keep to that and don't bring in a lot of other stuff, then you're going to do well and have a great reputation for your firm, and then the moments that you do show a little bit of your humanity in the proper channel, it will be seen more as a nice thing and a positive thing, because they'll see that side of you as well. So there is a bit of a balance. But everything has its time and place. Now that leads into the time and place and the outside of things. Time and place. Now that leads into the time and place and the outside of things. So things like thought leadership and outside of your organization's operations.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Part of the whole thing of social responsibility and sustainability is how are you seen outside the business? So what are you doing? Participating in events and volunteering organizations that are aligned with your business goals, that are community building, industry building, synergy organizations like tech hubs and business boosting, business improvement associations. Those types of participations are not only possible to bring in opportunities for a firm, but it also shows that you're giving back to the community, your region. You actually care about the business environment outside yourself, outside your firm. Again, there's more trust. It indirectly helps your marketing. It always does.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Sorry, we know you've got to be positive where you're in business to sustain and make money, but it also again, though, what that participation is important. Keep it. Also again, though, what that participation is important. Keep it neutral, keep it positive, keep it business building, keep it aligned with your civic government. There need to grow. Be part of that growth and you can do no wrong, and then it creates a great social setting for constructive relationships. You'll make new friendships, and friendships always lead to new opportunities as well. So that's what you do outside your business. And then you get a little more deep. You can actually sponsor these events, not just be a member as your firm progresses. And you can sponsor these events, set them up, do some pro bono work. If there's a favorite charity, do their tax return. You know, do their books at cost or you know, marginal rate. That's giving back. That's social responsibility.

Speaker 2: 13:39

Um, there's many charities I think you should still charge for the charities like I said, at cost, yeah, because, yeah, because, like I've given pro bono before to charities like ones I've worked for and it just ends up being you ever notice, like the ones that you give the most to take the most you know. So certain ones like, like, are the biggest pain in the butt because they're like oh, I don't there's there's no skin.

Speaker 2: 14:04

There's no skin in this, so I don't really care. You know, I didn't like I'm not, you know, because I didn't pay for this.

Speaker 1: 14:09

It doesn't seem like there's as much value in it, right, so I I see what you're saying and it may vary from charity to charity, but I think at cost is the way to do it. Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Something reasonable, but that's you know. But doing if someone's in a bind or there is that one act that could be remembered, or you know, I think it's up to the individual manager to make that decision. Weigh the pros and cons. Obviously, an ongoing free relationship for a business critical process is not recommended under any stretch of the imagination. Now, unless you can show an in-kind value or some type of tax advantage to do that, then you're technically not doing it for free, you're doing it for an advantage. So it all depends on how it appears right.

Speaker 2: 14:56

Well, it's more about the relationship with that charity or that organization or something right, like not necessarily your own benefit or tax rate option or things like that, but the actual fact that you need to have it helps to manage expectations. So like because the more it seems like the more you give, the more it costs sometimes. So like because the more it seems like the more you give, the more it costs sometimes. So if you just give, you know, instead of being like you know, like you said, do it at cost, then they know that there's value there.

Speaker 1: 15:24

And you say and then you show them this is what it would cost right and so we're giving you so what you're saying is be consistent, define it and be um make them understand the value of what's being offered or provided.

Speaker 2: 15:37

And to be respected.

Speaker 1: 15:38

Yeah, to maintain that. And then there's not being abused Absolutely. It sets the threshold and expectation. So the other thing is you know there are cultural sensitivities people have to pay attention to. So, yes, you can be as neutral as you want, but your workforce and the people you're going to be interacting with are parts of different cultures, and so we do live in a melting pot of cultures. But, like in any melting pot, everyone doesn't turn into the same. Everyone keeps their identity Within the workplace. Instead of always.

Speaker 1: 16:13

Accommodating identity is one thing, but learning about it, maybe acknowledging aspects of people's cultural identity If there's a special holiday, special time, make out a calendar, make an awareness and also give, if it's possible and it's a professional environment, so the people are your employees, workforce might be sophisticated enough. Maybe give them the opportunity to do kind of a show and tell or just you know like, so that other people can learn that the acknowledgement of diversity and learning about it is a great way to handle peace and and kind of camaraderie and and people will discover great things. Usually it's food related. I'm being going to be biased. I learn about cultures through food and some cultures have incredible food, some incredibly spicy, uh, but it. It's such a common thing for everyone and nothing but laughter is going to occur. In good times.

Speaker 1: 17:08

Cultural sensitivities have to be maintained but at the same time, learning is where where that comes, as opposed to just accommodating. Oh, we can't do X because this person's from this culture and we don't want to offend. Okay, well, that's a stand. But instead of white gold thing, let's learn about it. Let's learn about the history, let's learn about it. So then that person feels much more part of the team and you'll find you'll discover all kinds of cool stuff and also many accounting firms. As you grow, you know you might be outsourcing, you're going to be dealing with people overseas for efficiency Heck, you might even try to do business overseas. You got to know this stuff. You got to be a player, okay. So you got to be kind of open-minded and understand how a lot of stuff works.

Speaker 2: 17:53

I agree. I agree, well, I mean a lot of the outsourcing and understanding different. You know different cultures and stuff. So I had a hard time at one point, almost biased towards, you know, north America, and then when I finally realized, okay, you know I should be looking at other places, I started researching the cultures of the places you know, the efficiency, all those different things, and I found that I actually got really good service somewhere else because I opened my mind up a little bit more beyond, even though, like we always hired like very, very multicultural and our team and our clients were all very, very multicultural and they came from different areas and I, I thought I believed I bet I traveled the world and you know like served in different countries and stuff and uh, and for people that don't know, ted you were.

Speaker 1: 18:51

You were in the marines, correct?

Speaker 2: 18:52

yeah, I was in the US Marines. I was also in the Canadian Army, um so yeah, so you've served?

Speaker 1: 18:58

yeah, so you've.

Speaker 2: 18:58

You've seen it, so you've been around yeah, I've been around the world doing stuff, so, um, is it, uh, definitely interesting. But so I've, you know, I've been influenced with all these different cultures and um, but I I almost forgot that when I was doing like my last accounting firm because I was just like, I want to make sure I was. I've always been like big on, like like business in North America, stay in North America, but, as you all know, the accounting industry and the people there's less people coming into the industry and it's actually shrinking. So we need to actually focus on some of these outsourcing solutions. So I had to open my eyes a little bit because I've had a hard time finding people you know really good employees and I found out I got really good employees there. It opened my eyes.

Speaker 2: 19:45

I started, you know, considering cultural differences you know of, like I always did with people here, but I had to start thinking about globally. What does that say for our company? What does what are the advantages, disadvantages, all those things Like? You have to kind of think about that, right? Well, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 20:05

Put that in perspective. I mean, I'm not saying choose offshore as a rule of thumb.

Speaker 1: 20:11

They still have to meet their performance objectives. They still have to meet their requirements for whatever you're contracted to do. But, like the nations that we're in, like the United States, its vibrant economy is based on overseas trade. Yes, we have to pay attention to our regional employment and opportunities for our region. And if you are a community-based organization and not national, yeah, of course you're going to give preference for some roles to domestic, but other roles, as Ted said, could be far more efficiently performed by someone offshore. And you got to open that bridge and then again comes in that level of awareness. If you're not healthy domestically because you're making choices to not do business offshore, you're not helping your community. You want to be a successful business. You have to have a balance. You have to use the opportunities that are given within within um. You know ethical and legal means to to make your business grow. Yeah, you don't have to do offshore at all. Yeah, what's that if you?

Speaker 2: 21:12

can find the right people and you can do it at the right cost and clients are happy and you don't know. If you don't do any offshoring or outsourcing, then that's great.

Speaker 1: 21:21

Yeah, it's possible.

Speaker 2: 21:22

That can be your model absolutely.

Speaker 1: 21:25

But as we all, know the stank.

Speaker 2: 21:27

Reality is that it's becoming an issue finding qualified people to help us in running our firms and to help our clients. So I mean you just have to be open-minded. Maybe you don't do it, which is great. If you can run your firm without, that's wonderful. But I think we have to have our minds open. This isn't supposed to be an offshore and outsourcing discussion. I just wanted to bring it into considering cultures.

Speaker 1: 21:56

Yeah, it definitely falls into the cultural diversity and perception Ted cultures. And yeah, it definitely falls into the cultural diversity and perception ted. Um, creating artificial rules and barriers in your mind is gonna hurt your business. You make your decisions, set your your criterion, uh, with rational thought and logic and business, uh, not because of some perception. That has nothing to do with debits and credits. Okay, again we get back to accounting principles. If it works for your business growth, then it's great. If it doesn't work for it or you can't explain why you're imposing something in terms of business, then it should be brought into question. So that's kind of glossing over the whole concept of ethics, social responsibility and sustainability. As we're getting close to wrapping up our series, again each one of the topics that we touched on in the blog for Step 11 and in the book. They can be subjects of great discussion on their own. So, ted, do you have any final words for Step 11 and final words for the series of New Age Accounting, so that people can boldly go and become New Age accountants?

Speaker 2: 23:11

I would say be ethical and be forward-thinking, because the world is moving forward and you need to move with it, and it's very, very important because the world is moving forward and you need to move with it and it's very, very important. So I think this subject of the 11 areas, with the 11 steps, this is very good. So it's for the new age account thinking about what you need to think about as a new age account and somebody wanting to move forward in the industry, that's great. There's a lot of information, obviously. Take it bite by bite and if you can implement some or all of this, that would be great. You'll definitely do well in in in your career, I think.

Speaker 2: 23:57

Look forward to more types of subjects coming out. You know, right now this is our first one. You know the 11 areas in 11 steps, but you know, eventually we'll be breaking down a lot of these, a lot of these things, and we'll probably bring more information, especially in the marketing world, because, as you know, we are in the marketing and sales realm of accounting. Uh, so we understand it pretty well and we would love to, you know, bring some of that knowledge to you. Yeah, so I hope you keep in touch with us and keep, keep you know, watching us. We're gonna have a lot of exciting uh, a lot of exciting guests. Come on podcasts and and the vlog cast, I guess, and if you're watching from youtube, so the future holds.

Speaker 1: 24:43

Yes, we have uh, we have guests that are some of our partners, um, and some are just experts in their in their field. This, this series, is going to become an ebook and book for for people to get, and we're going to have have workshops and events related to some of the subjects that have been covered as we move forward. So give us your feedback. If you're on YouTube, comment. If you're on the podcast, you'll give us feedback at. You can get back to our website, accountants20.com. Find us on facebook.

Speaker 1: 25:20

We have our user group there of um for for accounting growth and um excellence. We have all kinds of ways of getting in touch with us and we love, we love to give feedback, we love to interact. At the end of the day, we want to help you grow, we want your business to grow, we want everyone to be successful. There's so much winning out there If you just stick to your principles and stick to the stuff that we talk about in these 11 steps. So again, I'm Steve Perpich with Ted Williamson. We're Accountants 2.0 and have a great day. Have a great day.