March 2, 2025 • 29 mins
Join Adam Larson on today's episode of Count Me In as he welcomes dynamic guest Razzak Jallow, the CFO of FloQast, who is anything but your typical CFO. Uncover how his unique path through tech and finance has shaped his perspective on finance transformation. Razzak shares insights on the evolving role of CFOs in today's tech-driven landscape and what it really means to drive a financial transformation. Discover his thoughts on the vital mix of systems, people, and culture in reshaping business processes and how crafting a future-driven vision can empower companies. If you're ready to see the exciting opportunities in finance transformation, Razzak's passionate insights will inspire you to jump in. Tune in to explore the future of finance with Razzak Jallow!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Adam Larson (00:21):
Welcome to Count Me In. In today's episode, we're
thrilled to have Razzak Jallowwith us to explore the exciting
world of finance transformation.With a unique career journey
from tech and finance to CFO atFloQast, Razzak shares valuable
insights into how modern CFOroles are evolving with changing
markets and technology. We diveinto the benefits and challenges
(00:41):
of financial transformation,what organizations should watch
for, and how both large andsmall businesses can
successfully navigate thischange. Additionally, Rizoc
provides a glimpse into thefuture of accounting and finance
teams as technology continues toadvance.
So tune in for an engagingdiscussion filled with insights
and practical advice forleveraging technology in
finance. Well, Razzak, I'mreally excited to have you on
(01:09):
Count Me In today. And today,we're gonna be talking about a
lot about finance transformationand what that looks like,
especially from the CFOperspective. But I wanted to
take a moment just to kindastart off. You don't have the
typical career, getting up to aCFO, and I figure we could start
a little bit by you could tell alittle bit about your story.
Razzak Jallow (01:26):
Absolutely, Adam. Thank you for having me here.
It's a great podcast, and I'vereally been excited listening to
some of the episodes that you'vealready done across
transformation, accounting andfinance. My my career has been a
little atypical. I've been intech and finance for my whole
career, including positions likeVP and head of finance at
Looker, just later exit toGoogle.
(01:46):
Really felt broad experienceacross finance, whether that be
at at SAS companies or fintechcompanies or B2C companies,
hardware companies. But B2B SASis where I really found my
passion and wanted to investmost of my time. I found FloQast
in particular to have afantastic product and mission,
and the customers really lovedit in an area that, is really
(02:09):
underserved quite often. I met amanagement team there that I
thought had the, amazing passionfor making the lives better of
of finance and accountingprofessionals and the forever
elevated accountants. So it'sbeen a great, great, great
experience here.
Adam Larson (02:25):
That's awesome, and that's great. I think
organizations,
Razzak Jallow (02:28):
you know, like a full class, like those SaaS type
companies need someone with thatwith your type of experience.
And I think that the the ways ofthe typical path to CFO has
shifted greatly, especially withthe changing of the markets and
how technology is so vastlychanging. Absolutely. I think
(02:49):
the you know, when you thinkabout the history of CFOs and
where they came from,originally, a CFO, you know, go
back thirty, forty years ago. Itwas, you know, you had a very
strong operational backgroundand then closing the books was
was a % of the role.
And now we're seeing that thatlanguage of the business
accounting be really valuableacross everything. And as
(03:10):
business models get more longterm and more complex, companies
are relying on CFOs more andmore to help them chart the
strategic waters of, of is thismetric I see going up? Is this
good or bad? Should I do more orless of it? And that's not as
readily apparent in today'sbusiness models as they were a
long time ago.
And so you've seen CFObackgrounds shift from maybe a
(03:33):
banking background to helppeople raise money to more of
the analysis background andunderstanding the long term
business model of the companyand the ability to really help
push the company across alldifferent functions towards this
strategic goal.
Adam Larson (03:47):
So, you know, as we're looking at the modern CFO
and how this that role ischanging and financial
leadership is changing acrossthe board with all the, the
things that have to happen, whenwe'd say the word financial
transformation, what does thatmean to you?
Razzak Jallow (04:01):
I like to take a very broad definition of it.
It's reshaping, rethinking,modernizing financial processes
to empower companies to reallyunleash their potential, whether
that's employee potential orpotential for customers. And a
lot of that involves systems,but a lot of that involves
people and processes. And you'llfind that culture is actually
(04:24):
one of the big drivers in that.If the company has a culture
that is always wanting to pushforward, always wanting to
improve, you'll findtransformation projects move
faster, are more successful, andthey're more likely to finish on
time and have real value for thecompany and ultimately for
customers than ones that have aculture a little bit more of
(04:46):
stagnation or this is how it'salways been done.
Adam Larson (04:52):
Mhmm. How do you think somebody goes from this is
how it always been done to theculture that you just described?
Because it's not an easytransition and it doesn't happen
happen
Razzak Jallow (05:00):
overnight. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really
tough question. I I think theway I see it kind of manifest is
a few ways.
One is to have a vision muchlong much farther out than than
six or twelve months. So thechallenge we often will have
internally is forget where we'reat today. Three years from now,
what should this look like? Andif you can kind of see that end
(05:24):
state in mind, then all the painof trying to get there makes a
lot more sense where projectscan get stagnated is when it
says, well, let's just take thisexisting thing and make it a
little bit better. And then youfind that you are pushing this
giant boulder uphill to get verylittle benefit.
And part of that culture isreally reliant on leadership,
(05:45):
making sure that leaders rewardthe people willing to take the
risks. And by that, I mean thatnot everything, not every
project's going to work out.There's going to be a couple
that like, Yeah, this didn'twork out. And while that's not
good, I think you've got toempower employees to take risks
and reward them when they takethese risks with their career
(06:08):
progression. And so let me, letme dive in a little bit on that.
These projects are really hard.They're cross functional. So you
have to be able to, to grabteams and project management and
lead cross functional teams tocompletion on this project. But
they're also very complicated.So you have to be able to be
going really deep and have areally deep understanding of the
(06:28):
business and the processes andwhere the real value is created
in these processes andworkflows.
And to do that, that's, that's areally hard skillset. And it's
also a lot of pain for peoplethat, Hey, look, I've got a, we
got a nine to five job already.I don't want to also take on
this transformation project,even though it's really
important. And so for the peoplethat are willing to, to rise up
(06:50):
to that challenge, they're goingto drive more value in the
business. And they're also atkind of step a little bit aside
from, from the normal checkboxes in their career path to go
do this project.
And so the ones who are willingto do that and do it well,
you've got to make sure in thecareer path and what you reward
in the company's culture ispeople taking that risk and
(07:11):
taking that's on that super hardchallenge that that other people
don't wanna do.
Adam Larson (07:17):
All that's, of course, easier said than done
because, as you said, it can bevery challenging. You know, it
is as we're talking aboutfinancial transformation and
transforming our organizationsto be better, you know, using
technology better and thenmaking our financial processes
and closing better and all thosethings that we need to do within
organizations. Maybe we couldtalk about some of the benefits,
(07:37):
but then also what are somethings you like, red flags you
should look for as you'relooking out? So those are two
questions. Like, what are somegreat benefits that people can
have?
I think you've mentioned some ofthem already, but then red
flags. Because when you'regetting into this, it's not it's
not just cut and dry becauseevery organization is different.
Razzak Jallow (07:55):
Yeah. I I look at, I think everyone has
different red flags. I mean,there's obviously there's
obviously a lot that, that havebeen discussed in the past. I
would say the red flags for meare primarily around when
evaluating who's going to leadthe process. If that person
can't articulate the vision ofwhere this is going in the long
term or what the steps are toget there, you know, that
(08:17):
there's a high likelihood thisprocess is going to start
spinning in circles and it'snever going to deliver value.
Second red flag is how long ittakes to get to value. You know,
when you're doing a massivetransformation, it can take a
while to get everything youpromise. But if you can't start
getting value in the first threemonths, the first six months,
(08:39):
and you're looking at like multiyear implementations before you
see any benefit. One you know,I, I question how likely it is
you ever get to that benefit.And I think talking to others
who have gone down that pathwith that that that provider or
that vendor and getting theirfeedback on how long it took
them to get value.
If they got everything, ourpromises is good research to do.
(09:01):
Until you lose people along theway, right? So these are
projects that I mentioned arehighly complex. You need some of
your best people that are mostdetail oriented working on it
and working on it passionatelyand willing to sacrifice to get
to this, finish line. And ifthat finish line, if they're not
seeing any benefits six monthsin, or I like to say three
months in, you're going to losethem either lose their, their
(09:25):
passion and their desire to workon it or lose them entirely out
of your company.
And then the project is going tohave a really hard problem. So I
look at like time to value as a,I don't know if I'd say red
flag, but a very, very importantfactor in this. And then the
third red, the third thing thatpeople should be very mindful of
(09:45):
is who can use the software. Soif you are taking a process that
is primarily driven by a financeprofessional and you're rolling
out a solution for that financeprofessional, whether it's it's
accounting, FP and a pricing,biz ops, payroll, procurement,
whatever it is. And you'retaking that entirely out of the
finance person's hands andgiving it to a developer or an
(10:08):
it team.
There's high risk that doesn'twork. There's high risk that,
you know, the, the non financeperson doesn't fully understand
the reason behind every, theaccounting process that we do or
every finance process that wedo. There's also much less
likely to be engagement from thefinance team. If the tool is so
hard to use that, that it needsa developer to use it and can't
(10:32):
be used by the individual. Sothose are three of the things
that really jump out to me thatanytime we start looking at
that, say, hey.
Hey. I this this sounds likethis might not work out that
well.
Adam Larson (10:43):
Yeah. Well, and you mentioned, you know, sometimes
having to involve developers andkeeping that in mind. You know,
this transformation that we'retalking about doesn't just
involve the finance andaccounting team. Right? So what
does that team look like?
What does that group look likeas we're talking about it for
organizations?
Razzak Jallow (10:58):
Yeah. It's, you know, I'm really glad you,
pointed that out because I thinkwhat what a lot of one mistake
or one thing people don'trealize going into financial
transformation is how much thefinance systems and finance
processes are are interconnectedWhether that is, you know, sales
and customer and revenue andbilling data, maybe that's
(11:18):
working with, your CRM tool,whether it is your your AP and
procurement tools that areheavily reliant on how say
marketing is interacting withvendors payroll, etcetera. Most
of the company processes infinance are actually very
business and partner andoperational focused. And so a
(11:39):
lot of the times this financetransformation is really a whole
company transformation in a way,because it's working with those
business partners to come upwith a collaborative solution
that works better for the wholecompany. And so, you know,
that's why I go back to like,who works on these projects is
so critical.
You need people that can engageand lead cross functional teams
(12:01):
and deliver not just value tofinance, but also deliver value
to the whole company and otherother departments through these
fi through these transformationprojects.
Adam Larson (12:11):
Well, and it it also seems like it's a way to
break down some of the silosthat sometimes we put ourselves
in because a lot of times, maybesomebody from finances and talk
to the marketing person and theydon't have those conversations,
but it's a way to kinda breakdown those walls and see what
everybody's doing and see how weall interconnect.
Razzak Jallow (12:27):
Absolutely. And I think that's why, as you
mentioned earlier, more and morecompanies are turning to their
CFOs to lead this projectbecause it does have to have a
vision across all functions. Youknow, whether you're
transforming something as simpleas how do we get better customer
information for billing. And,you know, if you ask the billing
team that they'd say, well, Ican buy this database that might
(12:48):
have the right email address, orright billing address to figure
out the headquarter of thecustomer. I can all populate
that and all these things.
And, and that data might alreadyexist in Salesforce, or it might
already be captured duringduring by the AE or this order
desk order desk team during theinitial sale. And so being able
to to see, hey, across the wholecompany, what's the most
(13:11):
efficient way to solve thisproblem is really important. And
silos often you you just createmore systems and more things to
break than than thecomprehensive solution.
Adam Larson (13:23):
It really does. Well, and I also think about,
you know, size of your businessdefinitely matters because, you
know, larger organizationsprobably have more capital, more
people to work on a financialtransformation. But if you're a
small to medium sized business,you know, what what advice would
you give to somebody saying, Ireally wanna dive into this, but
I don't know if I have thecapital. I don't know if I have
the people. You know, I'm I'mafraid to jump in with a SaaS
(13:44):
company.
Like, what advice would you giveto them as they're kinda looking
at this?
Razzak Jallow (13:48):
Yes. I do think that when I talk about this
being not just a process and notjust a people and and then
workflow and technologytransformation problem, the
people are extremely important.And so if you have, you know, a
finance leader that knows how todo things that can save a lot of
time when you're debatingbetween software process and
(14:09):
people. However, a lot ofsmaller companies don't have
that. And so I think the the keyquestion, if you're in an SMB
and you're in a very small teamof finance professionals and
you're debating, do I solve thiswith, with people or with
product, is to understand likewhat you're buying.
If you're buying software thatdoes most of the work for you
(14:33):
and truly automates it. A lot oftimes, that's a pretty good ROI.
If you're buying softwarebecause you don't understand how
the process works and you justwant someone to teach you how to
do it, that's going to be a veryexpensive buy because you're
effectively paying an ongoingrecurring basis for something
that you just need to learnonce. And so, you know,
(14:53):
obviously experience is veryhelpful, but that would be the,
that would be the metric if youdon't have the experience in
what you're trying to automateto to measure. Is am I paying
for this because it actuallyautomates my problem?
Or am I paying for this becauseit teaches me how to do it, and
then I'm gonna be paying for itevery year, and it doesn't
automate that much.
Adam Larson (15:11):
Okay. I like that approach of understanding why
and what. I mean, knowing yourwhy is a huge thing. You know,
there's the book thateverybody's heard about, and
Simon Sinek has read thosethings. You know?
But knowing your why is morethan just knowing your why about
what how you're doing in life,but it's also in your
organization understanding thatwhy. And I think that's why
mission statement and vision areso important and and is really
(15:32):
important for the CFO to be partof that conversation.
Razzak Jallow (15:36):
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think, you know, it's good
that CFOs are still focused onhow do we automate, how do we
drive our our organizationforward, whether that's finance
transformation or or touchingthe entire company's digital
transformation. You know,recently there was a study that
73% of CFOs still agree thatdigitizing more of the finance
(15:58):
function is a really highpriority. And I use digitizing
very broadly in that,description.
But despite a lot of a lot ofcompanies right now looking
heavily at their tech stack andseeing what's driving value or
what's what's, just a nice tohave, they're still seeing a lot
of value in investing in moredigitization and more automation
in their finance tech stack.
Adam Larson (16:20):
Yeah. It's it's it's hugely important. I mean,
the technology is the key toyour finance transformation,
your digital transformation, andhaving the right technology. And
so whether that's accessing theknowledge of somebody with the
organization or maybe gettingsomebody outside to say, hey. We
need help with this.
And I think that's the biggest Ithink that's probably a big
first step is understanding howmuch help do you need,
especially in that. Like, do youneed to bring in a consultant?
(16:42):
Do you have or work with asoftware company to say, hey.
What's the best solution forthis?
Razzak Jallow (16:47):
Yeah. And it's great for CFOs to make sure that
they're talking to their wholeteam. There's an I especially
say this is true in smallerteams, not just your direct
reports. You often have teammembers that are highly
specialized and know their areaand their workflow very well.
And they can help guide CFOs onwhich products and solutions
(17:09):
actually drive value and whichones are more nice to haves and
kind of make things a littleeasier.
But ultimately if you turnedthem off, it wouldn't
drastically impact their day today. And so that communication,
not just to the CFO directreports, but with the whole org
on where they see value, it canbe very helpful as the CFO does
have to take that broaderperspective across the whole
(17:31):
company.
Adam Larson (17:32):
So you mentioned about there's times where we can
get good ROI for our when we,when we choose the right
software and it can automate alot of things, But that's gonna
change how our teams look andhow it the aspect of our teams
because it they might now beable to do the same functions
they did every day. And so it isimportant to have that human
element within technology tomake sure we're checking on how
(17:54):
things are. But what advicewould you give to a team who is
to a leader who's looking at histeam and saying, we're doing all
this digital transformation, butit's gonna change the dynamics
of my team and their functionsevery day.
Razzak Jallow (18:04):
Yeah. I I think, I think for some people, that
can be very scary and for otherpeople, it can be very exciting.
This is a, this digitaltransformation, whether it is
with, SaaS software, AI basedsoftware, rethinking processes
is really powerful because itallows accountants to, in my
opinion, do more of what theylove and less of what they don't
(18:26):
love. Less and less manual workand more and more using their
vast accounting skills andbusiness knowledge to drive the
company forward. I think a lotof people, anytime there's,
there's a lot of digitaltransformation, it's scary for
people.
You know, you think about, youknow, we, we went from not
having calculators tocalculators. We went from having
calculators to having Excel,went from having Excel to having
(18:48):
an ERP. And now there's even newcutting edge, digital
transformation products in theoffice of the CFO. And each time
I think it's more exciting. Ithink I have way more fun
spending time on the bigproblems in accounting and in
the business and in finance.
And Excel can automate a lot ofthat for me than if I had to do
that with a pen and paper orwith a calculator. And so I
(19:11):
think the scary thing is it isnew tools, right? So you've got
to learn a slightly differentway to get some of the things
done. But if you look over thelast forty years, accounts have
proven they're really, reallygood at adapting the times and
really, really good learning newtools. And you know, the, the
accounting and financeprofessionals are better for it
and they'll, they'll keep beingbetter for it.
(19:32):
Now, as you, as you think aboutit as a leadership, what does
that mean? I go back to a littlebit of what we were talking
about earlier. You've got toreward people for learning the
new tools for embracing newtools for driving change. I had
a conversation with a directreport once that, and this was
just Excel, but she was a littlescared. Cause she said, Hey,
(19:52):
look, you know, like, she was anExcel Excel goddess.
And so she's like, well, youknow, I, I built this amazing
Excel macro and I think I justlike automated away my whole
job. Like, am I gonna lose myjob? I was like, no, keep, keep
doing that everywhere you go.This is great. Like, and that's,
that's, that's great, skillprogression.
That's like highly valuable tocompanies. So I think helping
(20:13):
people see the ROI of embracingembracing new things and new
tools can be really helpful.
Adam Larson (20:19):
Are there any success stories that you've seen
or you've been a part of thatyou can, you know, just share
some of the highlights that, youknow, our audience could, to
benefit from?
Razzak Jallow (20:29):
Sure. I think I'll talk about our recent
migration to a new FP and aplanning tool that was a little
different. I'll resist the urgeto be self serving and talk more
and more about FloQast as that'sa huge portion of our, of our
really platform of thecontroller and everything runs
through that. But I'll, I'll hopover to FP and a for this one. I
(20:50):
think finding the right scopeand the right tool was extremely
important.
There are dozens of FP and atools out there. They range
everything from great for SMB togreat, to large businesses. Some
are very self serve some needlarge dedicated developer teams
to get value out of. And sofiguring out for us that we
(21:10):
wanted something a little morepowerful than, a lot of the SMB
tools, but also something thatthe FP and a team could own and
run the models. We really didn'twant to have to, as I said, go
out and be reliant or beholdento an ITQ to, to update our
models and scenarios, whateverwe wanted.
(21:32):
And then we want something thatwas pretty enough that our
business partners would actuallybe willing to log into it and
use it a little bit as well. Andso narrowing those requirements
were really powerful andpowerful for us. And we are
getting a lot of value andengagement, both from FP and a
being able to iterate quickly aswell as roll up bottoms up
(21:52):
forecast from our businesspartners really well. And so we
had to sacrifice other thingsthat, Hey, we're a software
company. We didn't need all ofthe crazy supply chain and
logistics that some other FP anda tools did.
So, so really figuring out theright scope and the right tool
for us, not the shiniest one,not necessarily the simplest
(22:12):
one, but kind of the the justright, porridge for ourselves.
Definitely. And I appreciatethat that explanation. But, you
know, as you were talking, I wasjust thinking, somebody might be
listening to this
Adam Larson (22:23):
conversation and say, okay. You mentioned
FloQast. What is that? So maybeyou could talk a little bit what
is FloQast, and what do you guysoffer for CFOs? Because you're a
CFO who I'm sure loves to talkto our CFOs and say, hey.
This is great.
Razzak Jallow (22:33):
Absolutely. I'm really glad you asked that
question. So FloQast is anaccounting automation platform.
It's built around the platformfor the controller. So when you
think about, especially midmarket and small enterprise
companies, almost everythingrolls through the controller.
You have FP and A on one sidewith an FP and A tool, and
you've got most of the company,the finance processes within the
(22:56):
controllership. And so westarted off ten years ago,
automating the close and now,and optimizing the close. The
close is the one time that thewhole company has to come
together and agree on numbersand they've got to do it every
month. And so everything we seeeverything in the company either
flowing into or flowing out ofthe close. And recently we've
launched our Sox complianceproduct.
(23:16):
When you think about, as you'regoing through IPO, you're
eventually gonna have to be Soxcompliant and all of the
processes and Sox compliant flowout of the close. And so we're
building this platform aroundthe office of the controller.
We've done it in the pastthrough workflows. And the last
couple of years, we've beenrolling out a lot of AI
automation as well to helpautomate those workflows and
(23:39):
build an AI platform that peoplecan build around. What we hear
from our customers is that they,they love the ease of use.
They love the quick time tovalue and they love how the AI
we've rolled out is automatingthose workflows, but allowing
the account still be in controlof everything going on and just
making their lives easier andfaster so they can spend more
(24:00):
time on operations. And for aCFO, I don't need to reiterate
how important it is to have aclean and fast close. You want
it done early. You want it doneright. We massively reduce the
time to close.
We massively reduce thelikelihood of an error. We
massively reduce audit time andwe reduce the likelihood that
you're going to have to reopenyour books later to make an
(24:22):
adjustment. And so that's areally powerful finance teams.
It's also really powerful forcontrollers. One of the big
things that's out there that Ithink this audience probably
knows pretty well is there's amassive shortage of accountants
and CPAs out there.
There's less and less enteringthe profession every year versus
more and more leaving theprofessional either through
(24:44):
retirement or just leaving for,for different professions. And
so there is a massive talent gapas regulations, compliance, and
business complexity continues togrow at a rapid pace. And so we
see it as our job and ourmission at FloQast to forever
elevate accounting and to fillin that talent gap, because
there's way more demand foraccountants than there are
(25:06):
accountants out there. So it'sreally important technology to
fill the gap, but alsotechnology to make your
accountants' lives easier so youcan develop and retain them
because that's not as easy aswhen one leaves going and
finding a replacement. There'svery few out there and the ones
that are looking aren't alwayslooking to stay in accounting.
Adam Larson (25:25):
Yeah. And I appreciate that. And I think
what we've been talking aboutthis whole conversation really
shows that importance of havingthe right people in place,
especially when you're lookinginto your finance
transformation, whether thatfinancial rotation includes
something like a FloQast or someother tool or something like
that. You know? It's a superit's super important to have the
right people at the table tomaking sure that you have the
(25:45):
the the right stakeholders thereto to make sure you're choosing
the right best platform for yourorganization.
Razzak Jallow (25:52):
Absolutely. And I think that's where we we go back
to the prior topic of it'sreally important to have
everyone involved in thesetransformation decisions. Maybe
not everyone's a decision maker,but being heard and highlighting
the areas where there's the mostvalue or the least value at
ninja contributor level all theway up through CFO can be really
helpful in both making the rightdecisions, but also driving a
(26:15):
collaborative culture whereeveryone can celebrate the
transformation win.
Adam Larson (26:19):
Yeah. Now as we look toward the future, you
know, technology's changing atan alarming pace. And, you know,
techno technology companies arecatching up very, very quickly.
You know, what is the what isthe future of the accounting and
finance team? You said lesspeople are going in, but are you
gonna need more people?
Are we gonna need different typeof person going forward? Like,
what is that gonna look like?
Razzak Jallow (26:41):
Yeah. I think, I think that's a great question
that a lot of people arewrestling with and even even
worried about. We talked alittle bit about that, but
there's, there's still so manychallenges in accounting going
forward, both from businessmodel complexity. And we talked
about the supply constraints ofnumber of accountants out there,
and the talent shortage and theburnout within the accounting
(27:02):
profession. Yeah.
And I think that the way thingswill develop is that accountants
will be more and more empoweredwith this technology. I think
the ones, the technology that'sgoing to drive the most value
and be most, embraced by theaccounting community is
technology that can still beowned by the accounting team.
(27:23):
And it does not have middlemenpreventing them from getting
their work done or slowing themdown or relying on accountants
to explain the intricacies ofcounting to someone who's not an
accountant. And so the future isgoing to be a continued
combination of technology andbusiness acumen that accounts
have had and always done. Andinstead of everything being
(27:44):
calculators or everything beingExcel or everything being a
point and click workflow,there's going to be a whole lot
more AI assisted workflows andaccounts are going to be
elevated from, from their jobsas both preparers and reviewers
to reviewers and operationalpeople that can help really
drive the business forward.
And so I think this is going tobe a golden age to be an
(28:06):
accountant going forward.There's not enough of them.
Technology's coming to maketheir lives easier. And I think
they are going to be able to domore and more of the things they
love, the strategic andoperational activities versus
the manual turning the crank. SoI think it's a really exciting
time.
Adam Larson (28:23):
Mhmm. It really is. Well, Razzak, I really
appreciate you coming takingsome time out of your busy day
to talk with us on this podcast,and I really hope our audiences
has enjoyed it as much as Ihave.
Razzak Jallow (28:32):
Thank you so much, Adam. I had a great time.
I really appreciate you havingme here.
Announcer (28:38):
This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast providing
you with the latest perspectivesof thought leaders from the
accounting and financeprofession. If you like what you
heard and you'd like to becounted in for more relevant
accounting and financeeducation, visit IMA's website
at www.imanet.org.
Welcome to Count Me In. In today's episode, we're
thrilled to have Razzak Jallowwith us to explore the exciting
world of finance transformation.With a unique career journey
from tech and finance to CFO atFloQast, Razzak shares valuable
insights into how modern CFOroles are evolving with changing
markets and technology. We diveinto the benefits and challenges
(00:41):
of financial transformation,what organizations should watch
for, and how both large andsmall businesses can
successfully navigate thischange. Additionally, Rizoc
provides a glimpse into thefuture of accounting and finance
teams as technology continues toadvance.
So tune in for an engagingdiscussion filled with insights
and practical advice forleveraging technology in
finance. Well, Razzak, I'mreally excited to have you on
(01:09):
Count Me In today. And today,we're gonna be talking about a
lot about finance transformationand what that looks like,
especially from the CFOperspective. But I wanted to
take a moment just to kindastart off. You don't have the
typical career, getting up to aCFO, and I figure we could start
a little bit by you could tell alittle bit about your story.
Razzak Jallow (01:26):
Absolutely, Adam. Thank you for having me here.
It's a great podcast, and I'vereally been excited listening to
some of the episodes that you'vealready done across
transformation, accounting andfinance. My my career has been a
little atypical. I've been intech and finance for my whole
career, including positions likeVP and head of finance at
Looker, just later exit toGoogle.
(01:46):
Really felt broad experienceacross finance, whether that be
at at SAS companies or fintechcompanies or B2C companies,
hardware companies. But B2B SASis where I really found my
passion and wanted to investmost of my time. I found FloQast
in particular to have afantastic product and mission,
and the customers really lovedit in an area that, is really
(02:09):
underserved quite often. I met amanagement team there that I
thought had the, amazing passionfor making the lives better of
of finance and accountingprofessionals and the forever
elevated accountants. So it'sbeen a great, great, great
experience here.
Adam Larson (02:25):
That's awesome, and that's great. I think
organizations,
Razzak Jallow (02:28):
you know, like a full class, like those SaaS type
companies need someone with thatwith your type of experience.
And I think that the the ways ofthe typical path to CFO has
shifted greatly, especially withthe changing of the markets and
how technology is so vastlychanging. Absolutely. I think
(02:49):
the you know, when you thinkabout the history of CFOs and
where they came from,originally, a CFO, you know, go
back thirty, forty years ago. Itwas, you know, you had a very
strong operational backgroundand then closing the books was
was a % of the role.
And now we're seeing that thatlanguage of the business
accounting be really valuableacross everything. And as
(03:10):
business models get more longterm and more complex, companies
are relying on CFOs more andmore to help them chart the
strategic waters of, of is thismetric I see going up? Is this
good or bad? Should I do more orless of it? And that's not as
readily apparent in today'sbusiness models as they were a
long time ago.
And so you've seen CFObackgrounds shift from maybe a
(03:33):
banking background to helppeople raise money to more of
the analysis background andunderstanding the long term
business model of the companyand the ability to really help
push the company across alldifferent functions towards this
strategic goal.
Adam Larson (03:47):
So, you know, as we're looking at the modern CFO
and how this that role ischanging and financial
leadership is changing acrossthe board with all the, the
things that have to happen, whenwe'd say the word financial
transformation, what does thatmean to you?
Razzak Jallow (04:01):
I like to take a very broad definition of it.
It's reshaping, rethinking,modernizing financial processes
to empower companies to reallyunleash their potential, whether
that's employee potential orpotential for customers. And a
lot of that involves systems,but a lot of that involves
people and processes. And you'llfind that culture is actually
(04:24):
one of the big drivers in that.If the company has a culture
that is always wanting to pushforward, always wanting to
improve, you'll findtransformation projects move
faster, are more successful, andthey're more likely to finish on
time and have real value for thecompany and ultimately for
customers than ones that have aculture a little bit more of
(04:46):
stagnation or this is how it'salways been done.
Adam Larson (04:52):
Mhmm. How do you think somebody goes from this is
how it always been done to theculture that you just described?
Because it's not an easytransition and it doesn't happen
happen
Razzak Jallow (05:00):
overnight. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really
tough question. I I think theway I see it kind of manifest is
a few ways.
One is to have a vision muchlong much farther out than than
six or twelve months. So thechallenge we often will have
internally is forget where we'reat today. Three years from now,
what should this look like? Andif you can kind of see that end
(05:24):
state in mind, then all the painof trying to get there makes a
lot more sense where projectscan get stagnated is when it
says, well, let's just take thisexisting thing and make it a
little bit better. And then youfind that you are pushing this
giant boulder uphill to get verylittle benefit.
And part of that culture isreally reliant on leadership,
(05:45):
making sure that leaders rewardthe people willing to take the
risks. And by that, I mean thatnot everything, not every
project's going to work out.There's going to be a couple
that like, Yeah, this didn'twork out. And while that's not
good, I think you've got toempower employees to take risks
and reward them when they takethese risks with their career
(06:08):
progression. And so let me, letme dive in a little bit on that.
These projects are really hard.They're cross functional. So you
have to be able to, to grabteams and project management and
lead cross functional teams tocompletion on this project. But
they're also very complicated.So you have to be able to be
going really deep and have areally deep understanding of the
(06:28):
business and the processes andwhere the real value is created
in these processes andworkflows.
And to do that, that's, that's areally hard skillset. And it's
also a lot of pain for peoplethat, Hey, look, I've got a, we
got a nine to five job already.I don't want to also take on
this transformation project,even though it's really
important. And so for the peoplethat are willing to, to rise up
(06:50):
to that challenge, they're goingto drive more value in the
business. And they're also atkind of step a little bit aside
from, from the normal checkboxes in their career path to go
do this project.
And so the ones who are willingto do that and do it well,
you've got to make sure in thecareer path and what you reward
in the company's culture ispeople taking that risk and
(07:11):
taking that's on that super hardchallenge that that other people
don't wanna do.
Adam Larson (07:17):
All that's, of course, easier said than done
because, as you said, it can bevery challenging. You know, it
is as we're talking aboutfinancial transformation and
transforming our organizationsto be better, you know, using
technology better and thenmaking our financial processes
and closing better and all thosethings that we need to do within
organizations. Maybe we couldtalk about some of the benefits,
(07:37):
but then also what are somethings you like, red flags you
should look for as you'relooking out? So those are two
questions. Like, what are somegreat benefits that people can
have?
I think you've mentioned some ofthem already, but then red
flags. Because when you'regetting into this, it's not it's
not just cut and dry becauseevery organization is different.
Razzak Jallow (07:55):
Yeah. I I look at, I think everyone has
different red flags. I mean,there's obviously there's
obviously a lot that, that havebeen discussed in the past. I
would say the red flags for meare primarily around when
evaluating who's going to leadthe process. If that person
can't articulate the vision ofwhere this is going in the long
term or what the steps are toget there, you know, that
(08:17):
there's a high likelihood thisprocess is going to start
spinning in circles and it'snever going to deliver value.
Second red flag is how long ittakes to get to value. You know,
when you're doing a massivetransformation, it can take a
while to get everything youpromise. But if you can't start
getting value in the first threemonths, the first six months,
(08:39):
and you're looking at like multiyear implementations before you
see any benefit. One you know,I, I question how likely it is
you ever get to that benefit.And I think talking to others
who have gone down that pathwith that that that provider or
that vendor and getting theirfeedback on how long it took
them to get value.
If they got everything, ourpromises is good research to do.
(09:01):
Until you lose people along theway, right? So these are
projects that I mentioned arehighly complex. You need some of
your best people that are mostdetail oriented working on it
and working on it passionatelyand willing to sacrifice to get
to this, finish line. And ifthat finish line, if they're not
seeing any benefits six monthsin, or I like to say three
months in, you're going to losethem either lose their, their
(09:25):
passion and their desire to workon it or lose them entirely out
of your company.
And then the project is going tohave a really hard problem. So I
look at like time to value as a,I don't know if I'd say red
flag, but a very, very importantfactor in this. And then the
third red, the third thing thatpeople should be very mindful of
(09:45):
is who can use the software. Soif you are taking a process that
is primarily driven by a financeprofessional and you're rolling
out a solution for that financeprofessional, whether it's it's
accounting, FP and a pricing,biz ops, payroll, procurement,
whatever it is. And you'retaking that entirely out of the
finance person's hands andgiving it to a developer or an
(10:08):
it team.
There's high risk that doesn'twork. There's high risk that,
you know, the, the non financeperson doesn't fully understand
the reason behind every, theaccounting process that we do or
every finance process that wedo. There's also much less
likely to be engagement from thefinance team. If the tool is so
hard to use that, that it needsa developer to use it and can't
(10:32):
be used by the individual. Sothose are three of the things
that really jump out to me thatanytime we start looking at
that, say, hey.
Hey. I this this sounds likethis might not work out that
well.
Adam Larson (10:43):
Yeah. Well, and you mentioned, you know, sometimes
having to involve developers andkeeping that in mind. You know,
this transformation that we'retalking about doesn't just
involve the finance andaccounting team. Right? So what
does that team look like?
What does that group look likeas we're talking about it for
organizations?
Razzak Jallow (10:58):
Yeah. It's, you know, I'm really glad you,
pointed that out because I thinkwhat what a lot of one mistake
or one thing people don'trealize going into financial
transformation is how much thefinance systems and finance
processes are are interconnectedWhether that is, you know, sales
and customer and revenue andbilling data, maybe that's
(11:18):
working with, your CRM tool,whether it is your your AP and
procurement tools that areheavily reliant on how say
marketing is interacting withvendors payroll, etcetera. Most
of the company processes infinance are actually very
business and partner andoperational focused. And so a
(11:39):
lot of the times this financetransformation is really a whole
company transformation in a way,because it's working with those
business partners to come upwith a collaborative solution
that works better for the wholecompany. And so, you know,
that's why I go back to like,who works on these projects is
so critical.
You need people that can engageand lead cross functional teams
(12:01):
and deliver not just value tofinance, but also deliver value
to the whole company and otherother departments through these
fi through these transformationprojects.
Adam Larson (12:11):
Well, and it it also seems like it's a way to
break down some of the silosthat sometimes we put ourselves
in because a lot of times, maybesomebody from finances and talk
to the marketing person and theydon't have those conversations,
but it's a way to kinda breakdown those walls and see what
everybody's doing and see how weall interconnect.
Razzak Jallow (12:27):
Absolutely. And I think that's why, as you
mentioned earlier, more and morecompanies are turning to their
CFOs to lead this projectbecause it does have to have a
vision across all functions. Youknow, whether you're
transforming something as simpleas how do we get better customer
information for billing. And,you know, if you ask the billing
team that they'd say, well, Ican buy this database that might
(12:48):
have the right email address, orright billing address to figure
out the headquarter of thecustomer. I can all populate
that and all these things.
And, and that data might alreadyexist in Salesforce, or it might
already be captured duringduring by the AE or this order
desk order desk team during theinitial sale. And so being able
to to see, hey, across the wholecompany, what's the most
(13:11):
efficient way to solve thisproblem is really important. And
silos often you you just createmore systems and more things to
break than than thecomprehensive solution.
Adam Larson (13:23):
It really does. Well, and I also think about,
you know, size of your businessdefinitely matters because, you
know, larger organizationsprobably have more capital, more
people to work on a financialtransformation. But if you're a
small to medium sized business,you know, what what advice would
you give to somebody saying, Ireally wanna dive into this, but
I don't know if I have thecapital. I don't know if I have
the people. You know, I'm I'mafraid to jump in with a SaaS
(13:44):
company.
Like, what advice would you giveto them as they're kinda looking
at this?
Razzak Jallow (13:48):
Yes. I do think that when I talk about this
being not just a process and notjust a people and and then
workflow and technologytransformation problem, the
people are extremely important.And so if you have, you know, a
finance leader that knows how todo things that can save a lot of
time when you're debatingbetween software process and
(14:09):
people. However, a lot ofsmaller companies don't have
that. And so I think the the keyquestion, if you're in an SMB
and you're in a very small teamof finance professionals and
you're debating, do I solve thiswith, with people or with
product, is to understand likewhat you're buying.
If you're buying software thatdoes most of the work for you
(14:33):
and truly automates it. A lot oftimes, that's a pretty good ROI.
If you're buying softwarebecause you don't understand how
the process works and you justwant someone to teach you how to
do it, that's going to be a veryexpensive buy because you're
effectively paying an ongoingrecurring basis for something
that you just need to learnonce. And so, you know,
(14:53):
obviously experience is veryhelpful, but that would be the,
that would be the metric if youdon't have the experience in
what you're trying to automateto to measure. Is am I paying
for this because it actuallyautomates my problem?
Or am I paying for this becauseit teaches me how to do it, and
then I'm gonna be paying for itevery year, and it doesn't
automate that much.
Adam Larson (15:11):
Okay. I like that approach of understanding why
and what. I mean, knowing yourwhy is a huge thing. You know,
there's the book thateverybody's heard about, and
Simon Sinek has read thosethings. You know?
But knowing your why is morethan just knowing your why about
what how you're doing in life,but it's also in your
organization understanding thatwhy. And I think that's why
mission statement and vision areso important and and is really
(15:32):
important for the CFO to be partof that conversation.
Razzak Jallow (15:36):
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think, you know, it's good
that CFOs are still focused onhow do we automate, how do we
drive our our organizationforward, whether that's finance
transformation or or touchingthe entire company's digital
transformation. You know,recently there was a study that
73% of CFOs still agree thatdigitizing more of the finance
(15:58):
function is a really highpriority. And I use digitizing
very broadly in that,description.
But despite a lot of a lot ofcompanies right now looking
heavily at their tech stack andseeing what's driving value or
what's what's, just a nice tohave, they're still seeing a lot
of value in investing in moredigitization and more automation
in their finance tech stack.
Adam Larson (16:20):
Yeah. It's it's it's hugely important. I mean,
the technology is the key toyour finance transformation,
your digital transformation, andhaving the right technology. And
so whether that's accessing theknowledge of somebody with the
organization or maybe gettingsomebody outside to say, hey. We
need help with this.
And I think that's the biggest Ithink that's probably a big
first step is understanding howmuch help do you need,
especially in that. Like, do youneed to bring in a consultant?
(16:42):
Do you have or work with asoftware company to say, hey.
What's the best solution forthis?
Razzak Jallow (16:47):
Yeah. And it's great for CFOs to make sure that
they're talking to their wholeteam. There's an I especially
say this is true in smallerteams, not just your direct
reports. You often have teammembers that are highly
specialized and know their areaand their workflow very well.
And they can help guide CFOs onwhich products and solutions
(17:09):
actually drive value and whichones are more nice to haves and
kind of make things a littleeasier.
But ultimately if you turnedthem off, it wouldn't
drastically impact their day today. And so that communication,
not just to the CFO directreports, but with the whole org
on where they see value, it canbe very helpful as the CFO does
have to take that broaderperspective across the whole
(17:31):
company.
Adam Larson (17:32):
So you mentioned about there's times where we can
get good ROI for our when we,when we choose the right
software and it can automate alot of things, But that's gonna
change how our teams look andhow it the aspect of our teams
because it they might now beable to do the same functions
they did every day. And so it isimportant to have that human
element within technology tomake sure we're checking on how
(17:54):
things are. But what advicewould you give to a team who is
to a leader who's looking at histeam and saying, we're doing all
this digital transformation, butit's gonna change the dynamics
of my team and their functionsevery day.
Razzak Jallow (18:04):
Yeah. I I think, I think for some people, that
can be very scary and for otherpeople, it can be very exciting.
This is a, this digitaltransformation, whether it is
with, SaaS software, AI basedsoftware, rethinking processes
is really powerful because itallows accountants to, in my
opinion, do more of what theylove and less of what they don't
(18:26):
love. Less and less manual workand more and more using their
vast accounting skills andbusiness knowledge to drive the
company forward. I think a lotof people, anytime there's,
there's a lot of digitaltransformation, it's scary for
people.
You know, you think about, youknow, we, we went from not
having calculators tocalculators. We went from having
calculators to having Excel,went from having Excel to having
(18:48):
an ERP. And now there's even newcutting edge, digital
transformation products in theoffice of the CFO. And each time
I think it's more exciting. Ithink I have way more fun
spending time on the bigproblems in accounting and in
the business and in finance.
And Excel can automate a lot ofthat for me than if I had to do
that with a pen and paper orwith a calculator. And so I
(19:11):
think the scary thing is it isnew tools, right? So you've got
to learn a slightly differentway to get some of the things
done. But if you look over thelast forty years, accounts have
proven they're really, reallygood at adapting the times and
really, really good learning newtools. And you know, the, the
accounting and financeprofessionals are better for it
and they'll, they'll keep beingbetter for it.
(19:32):
Now, as you, as you think aboutit as a leadership, what does
that mean? I go back to a littlebit of what we were talking
about earlier. You've got toreward people for learning the
new tools for embracing newtools for driving change. I had
a conversation with a directreport once that, and this was
just Excel, but she was a littlescared. Cause she said, Hey,
(19:52):
look, you know, like, she was anExcel Excel goddess.
And so she's like, well, youknow, I, I built this amazing
Excel macro and I think I justlike automated away my whole
job. Like, am I gonna lose myjob? I was like, no, keep, keep
doing that everywhere you go.This is great. Like, and that's,
that's, that's great, skillprogression.
That's like highly valuable tocompanies. So I think helping
(20:13):
people see the ROI of embracingembracing new things and new
tools can be really helpful.
Adam Larson (20:19):
Are there any success stories that you've seen
or you've been a part of thatyou can, you know, just share
some of the highlights that, youknow, our audience could, to
benefit from?
Razzak Jallow (20:29):
Sure. I think I'll talk about our recent
migration to a new FP and aplanning tool that was a little
different. I'll resist the urgeto be self serving and talk more
and more about FloQast as that'sa huge portion of our, of our
really platform of thecontroller and everything runs
through that. But I'll, I'll hopover to FP and a for this one. I
(20:50):
think finding the right scopeand the right tool was extremely
important.
There are dozens of FP and atools out there. They range
everything from great for SMB togreat, to large businesses. Some
are very self serve some needlarge dedicated developer teams
to get value out of. And sofiguring out for us that we
(21:10):
wanted something a little morepowerful than, a lot of the SMB
tools, but also something thatthe FP and a team could own and
run the models. We really didn'twant to have to, as I said, go
out and be reliant or beholdento an ITQ to, to update our
models and scenarios, whateverwe wanted.
(21:32):
And then we want something thatwas pretty enough that our
business partners would actuallybe willing to log into it and
use it a little bit as well. Andso narrowing those requirements
were really powerful andpowerful for us. And we are
getting a lot of value andengagement, both from FP and a
being able to iterate quickly aswell as roll up bottoms up
(21:52):
forecast from our businesspartners really well. And so we
had to sacrifice other thingsthat, Hey, we're a software
company. We didn't need all ofthe crazy supply chain and
logistics that some other FP anda tools did.
So, so really figuring out theright scope and the right tool
for us, not the shiniest one,not necessarily the simplest
(22:12):
one, but kind of the the justright, porridge for ourselves.
Definitely. And I appreciatethat that explanation. But, you
know, as you were talking, I wasjust thinking, somebody might be
listening to this
Adam Larson (22:23):
conversation and say, okay. You mentioned
FloQast. What is that? So maybeyou could talk a little bit what
is FloQast, and what do you guysoffer for CFOs? Because you're a
CFO who I'm sure loves to talkto our CFOs and say, hey.
This is great.
Razzak Jallow (22:33):
Absolutely. I'm really glad you asked that
question. So FloQast is anaccounting automation platform.
It's built around the platformfor the controller. So when you
think about, especially midmarket and small enterprise
companies, almost everythingrolls through the controller.
You have FP and A on one sidewith an FP and A tool, and
you've got most of the company,the finance processes within the
(22:56):
controllership. And so westarted off ten years ago,
automating the close and now,and optimizing the close. The
close is the one time that thewhole company has to come
together and agree on numbersand they've got to do it every
month. And so everything we seeeverything in the company either
flowing into or flowing out ofthe close. And recently we've
launched our Sox complianceproduct.
(23:16):
When you think about, as you'regoing through IPO, you're
eventually gonna have to be Soxcompliant and all of the
processes and Sox compliant flowout of the close. And so we're
building this platform aroundthe office of the controller.
We've done it in the pastthrough workflows. And the last
couple of years, we've beenrolling out a lot of AI
automation as well to helpautomate those workflows and
(23:39):
build an AI platform that peoplecan build around. What we hear
from our customers is that they,they love the ease of use.
They love the quick time tovalue and they love how the AI
we've rolled out is automatingthose workflows, but allowing
the account still be in controlof everything going on and just
making their lives easier andfaster so they can spend more
(24:00):
time on operations. And for aCFO, I don't need to reiterate
how important it is to have aclean and fast close. You want
it done early. You want it doneright. We massively reduce the
time to close.
We massively reduce thelikelihood of an error. We
massively reduce audit time andwe reduce the likelihood that
you're going to have to reopenyour books later to make an
(24:22):
adjustment. And so that's areally powerful finance teams.
It's also really powerful forcontrollers. One of the big
things that's out there that Ithink this audience probably
knows pretty well is there's amassive shortage of accountants
and CPAs out there.
There's less and less enteringthe profession every year versus
more and more leaving theprofessional either through
(24:44):
retirement or just leaving for,for different professions. And
so there is a massive talent gapas regulations, compliance, and
business complexity continues togrow at a rapid pace. And so we
see it as our job and ourmission at FloQast to forever
elevate accounting and to fillin that talent gap, because
there's way more demand foraccountants than there are
(25:06):
accountants out there. So it'sreally important technology to
fill the gap, but alsotechnology to make your
accountants' lives easier so youcan develop and retain them
because that's not as easy aswhen one leaves going and
finding a replacement. There'svery few out there and the ones
that are looking aren't alwayslooking to stay in accounting.
Adam Larson (25:25):
Yeah. And I appreciate that. And I think
what we've been talking aboutthis whole conversation really
shows that importance of havingthe right people in place,
especially when you're lookinginto your finance
transformation, whether thatfinancial rotation includes
something like a FloQast or someother tool or something like
that. You know? It's a superit's super important to have the
right people at the table tomaking sure that you have the
(25:45):
the the right stakeholders thereto to make sure you're choosing
the right best platform for yourorganization.
Razzak Jallow (25:52):
Absolutely. And I think that's where we we go back
to the prior topic of it'sreally important to have
everyone involved in thesetransformation decisions. Maybe
not everyone's a decision maker,but being heard and highlighting
the areas where there's the mostvalue or the least value at
ninja contributor level all theway up through CFO can be really
helpful in both making the rightdecisions, but also driving a
(26:15):
collaborative culture whereeveryone can celebrate the
transformation win.
Adam Larson (26:19):
Yeah. Now as we look toward the future, you
know, technology's changing atan alarming pace. And, you know,
techno technology companies arecatching up very, very quickly.
You know, what is the what isthe future of the accounting and
finance team? You said lesspeople are going in, but are you
gonna need more people?
Are we gonna need different typeof person going forward? Like,
what is that gonna look like?
Razzak Jallow (26:41):
Yeah. I think, I think that's a great question
that a lot of people arewrestling with and even even
worried about. We talked alittle bit about that, but
there's, there's still so manychallenges in accounting going
forward, both from businessmodel complexity. And we talked
about the supply constraints ofnumber of accountants out there,
and the talent shortage and theburnout within the accounting
(27:02):
profession. Yeah.
And I think that the way thingswill develop is that accountants
will be more and more empoweredwith this technology. I think
the ones, the technology that'sgoing to drive the most value
and be most, embraced by theaccounting community is
technology that can still beowned by the accounting team.
(27:23):
And it does not have middlemenpreventing them from getting
their work done or slowing themdown or relying on accountants
to explain the intricacies ofcounting to someone who's not an
accountant. And so the future isgoing to be a continued
combination of technology andbusiness acumen that accounts
have had and always done. Andinstead of everything being
(27:44):
calculators or everything beingExcel or everything being a
point and click workflow,there's going to be a whole lot
more AI assisted workflows andaccounts are going to be
elevated from, from their jobsas both preparers and reviewers
to reviewers and operationalpeople that can help really
drive the business forward.
And so I think this is going tobe a golden age to be an
(28:06):
accountant going forward.There's not enough of them.
Technology's coming to maketheir lives easier. And I think
they are going to be able to domore and more of the things they
love, the strategic andoperational activities versus
the manual turning the crank. SoI think it's a really exciting
time.
Adam Larson (28:23):
Mhmm. It really is. Well, Razzak, I really
appreciate you coming takingsome time out of your busy day
to talk with us on this podcast,and I really hope our audiences
has enjoyed it as much as Ihave.
Razzak Jallow (28:32):
Thank you so much, Adam. I had a great time.
I really appreciate you havingme here.
Announcer (28:38):
This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast providing
you with the latest perspectivesof thought leaders from the
accounting and financeprofession. If you like what you
heard and you'd like to becounted in for more relevant
accounting and financeeducation, visit IMA's website
at www.imanet.org.
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