April 2, 2025 • 28 mins
John Higgins, a CPA with a focus on technology discusses his extensive experience in helping CPAs understand and apply emerging technologies. He emphasizes the importance of strategic investment in continuing professional education, especially with the rapid advancements in AI.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
KC Brothers (00:06):
Welcome to another episode of Canopy Practice
Success.
Oh, my goodness.
That is my second time stumblingover that.
I don't know if you can hear I'mrecovering from a small cold.
So hopefully I'm not terrible tolisten to today with my
conversation with John Higgins.
John, will you introduceyourself?
John Higgins (00:24):
Yes.
Uh, so hello Casey and helloeveryone who's watching us
today.
Uh, thanks for joining us.
So, uh, a little bit about mybackground, I am a CPA with the
CITP credential, which standsfor Certified Information
Technology Professional, andthat's an AI CPA specialty
credential that lets mecommunicate to the marketplace
(00:45):
that, yes, I'm a CPA, but Ireally focus on technology.
Uh, I've been in the professiona long time, and, uh, for all
that time, I've really focusedon helping CPAs to understand
emerging technologies.
and how to apply them.
And during the course of mycareer, I started with a local
CPA firm here in the Detroit,Michigan area.
(01:07):
That's where I'm from.
And then from there, I had twostartup client advisory
practices along the lines ofclient and technology advisory
for CPAs.
Uh, sold both of those.
The first one I sold into BDO,and I was a partner in BDO's,
uh, national practice here inDetroit for a few years.
(01:27):
Uh, and then most recently, CPACrossings, which started as a
technology advisory company inthe early 2000s, and kind of
morphed into a, uh, uh, prettygood sized continuing
professional education platform.
for CPAs.
We, uh, at CPA Crosses, we, webasically got together a group
(01:47):
of, uh, professionals who couldspeak on a lot of different tap
topics for CPAs, uh, and wedistributed those as webinars.
It was all webinars, uh, throughstate CPA associations.
And, uh, so that company waspurchased by the Pennsylvania
Institute of CPAs.
In 2020, uh, so they could useit to kind of expand their
offerings to their members andget more involved in online
(02:09):
learning.
Uh, but, you know, I've seen thewhole landscape of emerging
technologies for CPAs.
I like to joke that, you know, Istarted in the profession before
we had electronic spreadsheets.
With somebody as young as Caseydoesn't even know what I'm
talking about.
How can we have a world withoutspreadsheets, right?
Uh, so I've seen all that andI've seen the whole evolution
of, uh, transitioning to thecloud computing.
(02:29):
And then, of course, noweverything's all about AI, which
is really exciting.
I really enjoy it because Ilike, you know, new
technologies, learning aboutthem and trying to figure out
how we can put them to work.
And there's going to be noshortage of ways to put AI to
work.
That's for sure.
KC Brothers (02:43):
Oh, I couldn't agree more with that last
statement.
And maybe we touch on that abit, um, as well in our
conversation.
But with all of your many years,um, in consulting and providing
education, do you have anythoughts or strategies on how
CPAs should be approaching, uh,this CPE requirement.
(03:06):
I love that it's a thing in theindustry.
I love that, um, you know, Idon't have a little nudge, a
little fire under you to, like,keep you updated and, and
learning constantly.
Um, but what, whatrecommendations do you have to
make sure that people aregetting the most of that?
John Higgins (03:24):
Yeah, I think as a CPA, you know, and I know
because I've seen it for over mywhole career, a lot of CPAs are
just focused on, I gotta get my40 hours of education each year
and I don't care where I get it.
Sometimes they go for thecheapest option.
Uh, and I understand all that,but in this day and age, I think
it is so important as aprofessional to make sure you're
investing in the right kind ofeducation.
(03:46):
Uh, this whole area oftechnology is just.
You know, we're at the veryearly stages of, I think, a very
major transformation in the waywe deliver services to clients
as CPAs, whether you're workingin an accounting practice or
maybe you're a CFO working in acorporate environment.
But the way we deliver servicesis definitely about to go a
(04:07):
major transformation.
So as CPAs, I think you have tobe strategic about how you
invest your time for education.
And there's lots of goodopportunities.
You know, all the education Iget, uh, Casey, frankly, is.
I mean, the CP is likesecondary.
I could almost care less if Iget CP.
I just want to learn and I'llget my 40 hours of CP.
(04:28):
I'll get that one way oranother.
But, uh, you know, so right nowfor me, I'm spending all my
learning time primarily on AIbecause it's moving so fast and
has so much potential.
There's a lot of hype around itfor sure, but it's not all hype.
It's real and it's going to havea major impact.
So, so if I was a, you know,advising a CPI, I'd say, you
(04:49):
know, Invest a little bit oftime at the beginning of each
year thinking about what do youreally want to learn, what
should you be learning, and thenfigure out what are the avenues
of resources.
Uh, to get the kind of learningthat, that you're looking for.
KC Brothers (05:02):
Yeah.
I, you said beginning of theyear, and I kind of want to dig
into that a little bit more.
Do you really mean January?
John Higgins (05:10):
Well, so here's how it goes for CPAs.
You know, the cycle is that, uh,you know, their, their, their
best time for getting educationis really November, December
KC Brothers (05:20):
and
John Higgins (05:20):
then, you know, May, June, July, August.
Uh, because they're, they'rereally busy, of course, from the
middle of January through themiddle of March.
Yeah.
With tax work and busy seasonwork and so on, um, and then
they come out of there.
So what happens if you plan now,if you plan early in the year,
then when you come out of yourbusy season, you already kind of
(05:41):
know where you want to go andyou, you don't spend a lot of
time thinking about, well, whateducation should I get?
And you know, there's a lot ofgood conferences out there and
those are on the, on theschedule.
Usually pretty early, so it'snot too early to figure about,
figure out where you want to getyour education from.
KC Brothers (05:57):
Have you ever seen firms, um, divvy out types of
learning, or say like, or, oreven just raise their hand and
be like, hey, I'll, I want toelect to be the AI expert in our
firm, or I want to be the clientrelationship management expert
of our firm, or do you see themjust kind of, I gotta get it, so
(06:18):
I'll just, to your point, getthe cheapest thing.
John Higgins (06:21):
Yeah, I'd say, I'd say, unfortunately, that a lot
of firms, especially when you'redealing with the smaller firms,
because they may or may not havean HR department, they may not
have a dedicated, uh, person toactually help them, guide them
through what they should be, youknow, focusing their learning
on.
So a lot of them just take, youknow, whatever they're
interested in, which is, whichis fine.
Uh, but it's typically not, uh,strategic.
(06:42):
But when I do, uh, technologyadvisory services, when I offer
that to, to accounting firms,You know, I always talk about
champions.
So, whether it's, uh, you know,using a particular software
tool, like Canopy, or using, uh,uh, ChatGPT for generative AI,
whatever the tool is, that, uh,you know, you really should have
a champion, or, depending on thesize of your firm, maybe
(07:05):
multiple champions.
And those champions, one oftheir, uh, goals should be to
really immerse themselves ineducation in that particular
area of focus.
And they can bring that to therest of the firm and share
their, what they learn, sharetheir knowledge with the firm.
You know, at the appropriatelevel, not everybody has to be
an expert in everything.
It's just not practical.
KC Brothers (07:23):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can't.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm just curious.
I know like one of our goals,just even within our marketing
team right now is, is reallyCentered on AI and what, what
tools can we use to make ourjobs smoother or better?
(07:45):
And I bring this up, I don'tusually talk about my function
or, or even like our team hereat Canopy on the podcast.
Um, but I bring it up because.
It signals a lot to ourinvestors as well to the members
of the board that we areinvesting in the technology and
um, and leveling up our skills.
(08:07):
And I'd say that same conceptapplies to your clients.
Um, where you can when you makeclaims of like, or or even put
your best foot forward andyou're showing that you are, um,
progressing as a firm, whateverthat might look like, but an
easy way that that doestranslate to clients being able
(08:30):
to understand that you areimproving is technology is the
way they interact with youthrough, you know, whatever
medium it is that you'reutilizing.
Um, and then, yeah.
A.
I.
Um, just it all reflects to yourclients on you improving your
business.
And I think in that way to helpsretain them.
John Higgins (08:51):
Yeah.
And I think, you know, everybusiness has at least two
primary goals.
One is to be profitable and oneis to build value.
So at some point have an exitstrategy, you know, for that for
that business and In the case ofan accounting practice, an
important part of that extraexit strategy to your point,
Casey, is really to show thatyou have been leveraging
(09:11):
technology, you're keeping yourfirm, you know, modernized,
going through the digitaltransformation, as we like to
say, and that will be much moreappealing to a potential suitor
who might want to buy yourpractice.
Uh, because if they walk intoyour practice to see a bunch of
paper and a bunch of filefolders, uh, that's going to
just lower the value to them.
(09:32):
In their eyes, this could say,this is a problem because we got
to then help this firm gothrough a digital
transformation.
We'd rather acquire a firm thathas already been through the
digital transformation.
KC Brothers (09:42):
Yeah, like trying to sell your home with a hole in
the roof.
John Higgins (09:46):
Yeah, exactly.
You
KC Brothers (09:48):
know, it seems silly even when we put it that
way, but how often are we seeingpeople getting to retirement or
wanting to sell or or evenexiting in some form or fashion,
right?
But particularly I'm thinkingretirement age because they're
tired or you know, just want torelax and call it a day.
(10:10):
Um, thinking I'll just keepoperating the way I want to
operate.
I know this, we're comfortable,and then when I'm ready to
retire, I'll sell it.
And, I mean, curious, howfrequently are you seeing that
actually happening?
John Higgins (10:24):
Uh, quite a lot.
Majority of the
KC Brothers (10:27):
time?
John Higgins (10:28):
Yeah, I would say with the smaller the firms like
the small practitioners that youknow, maybe five to ten person
firms It's like they just likethey're what they're doing.
Yeah, they complain aboutworking a lot of hours, but
they'd actually like it There'sno question in my mind about
that.
I've seen it for many years andSo they don't really Spend a lot
of time thinking about how tohave an exit strategy until they
(10:49):
get to the point where say, youknow, like you said, I mean, I'm
tired now.
I think, yeah, maybe it's timeto get out.
And I would also make the point,Casey, that it's not just about
getting your business or yourpractice in shape for an
acquisition.
It's about being able to hirepeople because, you know, you
want young people to come intoyour firm.
They expect you to be digital.
They want digital.
They want to be in digital todaymeans embracing AI.
(11:13):
And, uh, in fact, it's a, youknow, I hear a lot from smaller
firms about how it's tough forus to compete for talent against
the large firms that can pay thelargest, you know, higher
salaries.
But I would say, you know, Icould come in and tell you
exactly how to recruit a youngperson into a small firm because
you can give them so much more.
(11:33):
Uh, latitude and responsibility.
You get into a larger firm, youstart to get pigeonholed.
Just the nature of the beast,you know?
But, uh, in a small firm, boy,you can offer the world.
And you get somebody that says,Hey, uh, I need you to come into
my practice as a young person,understanding, uh, AI
technology.
Help me figure out in mypractice how to put this to
work.
(11:53):
And you're going to have, Ithink, very good success
recruiting somebody.
And to even the smallest offirms.
KC Brothers (11:58):
Oh, couldn't agree more.
And again, I like never do thison the podcast, but you're
talking about things that arejust so applicable to me
personally too, like I could go,we've got a big Adobe, everybody
knows Adobe, I feel like, evenif you don't use them, it's a
big name.
Sure.
We've got a big Adobe campus,just 15 minutes from our canopy
(12:20):
office.
I could easily get a job thereand make more money and get
killer benefits.
They're a huge company.
They can offer lots of funthings.
I choose to be a canopy becauseof what working at a smaller
technology company than abehemoth like Adobe can do for
me.
Um, but the thing is like.
(12:42):
It's not just working for Canopyand the size of the company.
It's working for my specificmanager, our CEO, all of the
leaders as well, and theirvision and how that impacts my
day to day.
So to your point about likeattracting talent, um, same
thing.
It's the same thing in anaccounting firm that yeah, you
(13:03):
just can't sleep on how much,um, that impacts your
attractiveness.
When, when you're interviewingcandidates, it's not like the
employee has a, a, what's thephrase I'm looking for, has the
advantage, I guess, over the oneseeking employment.
(13:26):
It goes both ways.
Like each, each party has powerand the ability to interview
each other and say, no, you'renot the right fit because I'm
seeing X, Y, Z about your firmthat shows me what my life would
be like, what I'd be battlingor, or, or the success rate I
might have the satisfaction Imight get out of my day to day.
John Higgins (13:49):
Yeah.
And you know, we all wantpurpose in what we do is our
careers.
You know, so I think in a lot ofcases, you can have, feel, have
more purpose in a smaller firmbecause you can have a bigger
impact just by the nature of it.
KC Brothers (14:01):
Yeah.
And even if, and some peoplemight be able to come in and
see, um, a lack of moderntechnology as an opportunity, as
long as the leader is showingthat like the maybe humility of
like, Hey, I need helpevaluating this.
John Higgins (14:20):
Yeah.
Come
KC Brothers (14:20):
in and help me change this.
Like that is so attractive tosome people, to me in
particular.
Like I love that, the excitementof transforming something.
So it's not just like to yourpoint, um, just because you
haven't updated, it's nottotally going to hurt your
ability to attract talent, butyou need to meet the talent
(14:41):
you're interviewing with this.
opportunity and maybe find a wayto really sell it to them
because it can be a huge resumebuilder.
John Higgins (14:51):
Absolutely.
And that's the kind of peopleyou want in your firm, right?
That somebody wants to take onthe challenge and has a thirst
for, you know, trying thingsout, you know, and being
innovative.
KC Brothers (15:01):
Yeah.
So, with firms like this,because you say it does happen
the majority of the time where,you know, we're still, um,
participating in this digitaltransformation, what are some
things that these individualsshould wrap their brain around?
Expectations of how long itmight take, where to start, what
(15:22):
questions to ask, things likethat.
John Higgins (15:24):
In regards to the digital transformation, is that
what you're asking?
KC Brothers (15:27):
Yes.
John Higgins (15:27):
Yeah, well, so ideally you start with, you
know, developing some strategy.
Uh, and again, that's nottypically the case in the, when
you get into the smaller firms,it's, it's oftentimes more
reactive, uh, reactive to, youknow, we're just not happy with
our tax software anymore.
Let's go find something new, orI was at this conference and I
learned about this new software.
(15:47):
Looks really cool.
Uh, you know, so the partnergoes out and he or she sees us
at the conference, they say,okay, we're going to put this
in.
They just bring it back to thefirm.
And now the people that work inthe firm have to figure out how
to make it all, all work.
So, so having a strategy is, isdefinitely beneficial because,
you know, with, when it comes totechnology, Casey, there's,
there's so many ways in a firmto spend money and it's so easy
(16:10):
to spend it in the wrong things,you know, lower priority, uh,
things or things that can justtake it on a rabbit hole.
Yeah.
And, uh, and it's also, it's,it's not just deciding what to
acquire, but also when, youknow, and AI is a great examples
like, you know, when do I jumpon the AI bandwagon?
Well, I think as individual CPAprofessionals, we have to get on
(16:31):
it now just to learn how to, howto crawl before we walk, before
we run.
Um, but you know, when you'retalking about big investments in
a firm, you got to really figureout when, you know, when's the
right time to make that biginvestment.
Um, in the firm.
So, so starting with a strategyand that could be, you know, a
simple strategy, you know, maybea few meetings with a small
representative group of peoplein the firm say, you know, where
(16:53):
are we having the mostinefficiencies, where are we
spending a lot of labor effortto get things done and
therefore, let's figure out,let's tackle those, those areas
first and, uh, gosh, there'soften so much in the way of a
low, what I call low hangingfruit.
You know, like I'll just giveyou a simple example, password
management.
(17:14):
I've been doing webinars onpassword managers for 15 years
now.
And when I'm speaking to CPAgroups, like maybe 5 percent of
them are using the passwordmanager.
So I'm thinking, well, what areyou using?
Are you still using Excelspreadsheets?
Are you writing it down onpaper?
Or are you using the samepassword for everything?
It's like, I mean, a passwordmanager is a low cost item that
(17:37):
has cybersecurity benefits forthe practice, but also has
efficiency benefits for theuser.
So it's, it's a classic lowhanging fruit.
Let's just go do this.
And there's a lot of thoseopportunities.
Yeah.
KC Brothers (17:51):
Okay.
So starting with the strategy, Ilike your point too of like
getting key people in a room andreally hitting on pain points.
I've done similar things likethat and I call them a pre
mortem because we talk aboutpost mortems.
But like, let's imagine thatlike the firm's not in business
in six months because We can'tprocess anymore because our
(18:13):
systems break.
Our internet's gone out for twoweeks and who knows?
John Higgins (18:19):
Yeah.
KC Brothers (18:19):
Um, but what's, what's the worst case and, and
how can we extrapolate on thatand then take those problems and
solve for them and then to yourpoint, prioritize?
Um.
That, and, and what that does isgets people bought in to what
needs to be prioritized, whichis huge.
So that you don't run into theissue of what you said of like,
Oh, I saw this flashy new thingat a show and I got it.
(18:42):
So let's, sorry, let's figure itout.
Um, okay.
So what's next after that?
Let's, we, we've got a strategy.
Are there top tools that yourecommend?
I mean, you said a passwordmanagement, that one's so easy,
but yeah, to your point.
As a lot of security.
John Higgins (18:59):
Yeah.
Well, along the same lines, too,as you're looking at kind of
developing a plan, a technologyplan is look at the tools you
currently have and make sureyou're getting the most out of
them.
So often I see where gosh.
Only a fraction of thecapabilities are being used.
I use Microsoft 365 as anexample.
There's so much capabilityacross that ecosystem, but
(19:22):
typically, very little of it isreally being taken advantage of.
So that's another point whereit's not about just going out
always and getting newtechnology or spending more on
technology tools.
But just really focusing on whatyou can get more, get more out
of what you already have.
Um, and then, you know, whateverthe initiative is, let's say you
decide, you know, we need abetter file storage system.
(19:44):
We need a better practicemanagement solution.
Well, then you got to go out,somebody's got to go out and get
educated on what's out there inthe marketplace.
And that's where conferences canbe very helpful.
You know, you go to some of theCPA conferences.
I know Canopy is at a lot ofthose conferences, right?
And so that's a greatopportunity as a practitioner to
go and talk to the people, uh,that are with those software
(20:05):
publishers and, you know, askthem the questions and just
learn more about what, what isout there.
Because frankly, in ourprofession, there's been, uh,
obviously some very largeplayers that have really
dominated the market.
Uh, but I would also say theytend to be really slow at being
innovative.
Has been my experience.
Sometimes I look at productsthat I used back in, I had to
(20:26):
admit it, back in the 80s.
And sometimes I look at themtoday and say, Gosh, it still
doesn't look like it's changed awhole lot.
Uh, they try to be cloudenabled.
But, uh, you know, I always saywhen you want to go to the
cloud, if you have the abilityfinding a software solution that
was built natively for thecloud, it's going to be a whole
lot better because it's going totake advantage of the, of the
(20:46):
technology, uh, as opposed totrying to be kind of retrofitted
to be a cloud application whenoriginally back in the day, it
was a, you know, on premisesolution.
Um, but, you know, so you haveto go out and find out what's
available in the market.
And, uh, And, you know, do someresearch and, uh, always I think
it's important to talk to otherpractitioners.
It's such a basic thing, butit's very rarely done.
(21:08):
It's like, okay, if I'm going togo down this, uh, path of
looking at this particularsolution, I want to talk to some
other firms that are using it.
And, uh, you know, when you talkCPA to CPA about something like
that, my experience has beenthat CPAs really like to be
candid when they're talking witha fellow practitioner.
They, you know, they're notgoing to, uh, sugarcoat it.
Of course, the softwarepublisher is going to give you
(21:30):
references of people that havebeen successful with the tool.
That's what you'd want, right?
Uh, because I want to know thatyou can be successful with the
tool.
Now just tell me how to besuccessful with the tool and
what should I watch out for, youknow?
Maybe it takes more to implementit than I, than I was led to
believe, or maybe I need to makesure I invest in training
because that's such a common,um, uh, mistake that firms make
(21:53):
is they just buy the tool andthey subscribe to the tool, but
don't really invest in planningthe deployment and training the
people on how to.
How to use it.
And the training is not just howto use it, not just how to click
the mouse clicks and so forth.
It's how do we, how are we goingto do our workflow now with this
new tool?
So if we're getting a newbilling system, how are we going
to do billing going forward?
KC Brothers (22:13):
I love that you said that.
Um, and I have a few otherthings I want to add quickly as
well.
But to double down on that, um,English is not Spanish.
Spanish is not English.
They translate well to eachother, um, more or less.
Um, English is harder totranslate into Arabic and vice
(22:33):
versa, right?
We need to think the same wayabout our systems, um, and that
you cannot just take what you'vebeen doing, buy a new system,
and do it the exact same way.
If that were the case, then juststick with your old system.
John Higgins (22:48):
Right, right.
KC Brothers (22:49):
The, the, part of the process of getting a new
software system is alsoevaluating how can we be better
and how, where does thissoftware, Excel and, and
thinking more, not aboutfeatures, but maybe philosophies
and executions.
What is it that we're trying toaccomplish?
(23:09):
And then, yeah, of course, do wehave to change the way we do it?
Um, but the other thing I wantedto say just as you were talking
about, you know, evaluatingvendors, my personal preference
and recommendation is toevaluate no less than three.
If you're looking at one andyou're like about to sign the
(23:30):
contract, hard stop, like,evaluate that there's a reason
why there are multiple tools.
Um, we have built a.
Rubric for people to use.
Um, it is a Google sheet, um,that is, has a whole list of
functionality that should atleast get you started.
(23:50):
But evaluate, look at differentones and weigh what does what
better, whatever is mostimportant to you.
Um, and then yeah, to yourpoint, talk to the community.
I don't know if you have otherrecommended spots other than
shows, but I see a lot ofchatter in Reddit, um, and a
(24:11):
decent amount in LinkedIn.
But there are online communitiesas well as in person
communities.
I know there are lots of localcommunities.
Um, lots of opportunity to talkto each other and talk shop.
John Higgins (24:23):
Yeah, no question about it.
Anytime you can get togetherwith other CPA practitioners,
they're using something.
Uh, you know, I really like youridea about looking at three
solutions because you might lookat the third solution and say,
Gosh, that feature never evencame up in the first two
KC Brothers (24:38):
solutions
John Higgins (24:38):
I looked at.
Then it makes you think, go backto the other two and say, Do
they have that capability?
Or why don't they have thatcapability?
So that, that's a really goodidea.
The part of the challenge isbecause, uh, most CPAs are
pretty busy.
Right?
They don't have a lot ofdowntime.
So, it's like easy to, to avoidlooking at three.
You might say, I'll look at twoand that's good enough.
But, um, you know, if they caninvest that extra time, any time
(25:00):
invested up front in evaluationand planning will pay big
dividends on the back end duringimplementation.
And gosh, I've had enoughexperience seeing
implementations go wrong.
KC Brothers (25:11):
Yeah, and I've heard enough chatter, too, of,
um, people purchasing somethingand being like, well, I just did
this last year, but it's notsuiting my needs, but I don't
want to do it again this year.
Especially when, if there's evera client portal attached to Any
Decision 2, because they don'twant to do it to their clients.
It's like, well, then make sureyou evaluate it properly the
(25:33):
first time.
John Higgins (25:36):
Yeah, for sure.
And, and the portal is a greatexample, because sometimes, uh,
We make decisions for ourclients about what we think they
want or don't want, uh, like aportal.
And you got to make sure youcommunicate to them what the
portal can do for them.
And, uh, you know, more andmore, we're all transitioning.
We're all going through thisdigital transformation.
Some people are, you know,almost completely down the path.
(25:58):
Others are still at thebeginning.
Uh, but you have a lot ofclients typically who are going
to be eagerly wanting to adoptnew technology because
everybody's, you know, we're allwatching news and, you know,
YouTubes and things like that.
And we see that, gosh, this is,this is changing, things are
changing and we need to get onboard.
Uh, so yeah, I think that, uh,it's good to, uh, spend the time
(26:21):
to do your research and investwhat's out there and investigate
what's out there.
KC Brothers (26:24):
Yeah.
And I'd even make a plug heretoo.
I mean, we use.
seasonal talent during taxseason to help with the
accounting work.
Don't shy away from hiringseasonal talent to help with
evaluating software or, or notseasonal talent.
Let's even scratch that.
Hiring someone like yourself.
Um, there, there are lots ofopportunities like that where
(26:48):
you can look to an expert, um,to help you evaluate your, your
tech stack and your,Efficiencies or lack thereof.
Yeah.
And, and then work with them ona solution to get something in
place and adopted well,
John Higgins (27:08):
yeah.
And if you get a, you know,truly independent advisor, he or
she's gonna be able to beobjective about.
You know, what are your needs ormaybe, maybe it's not the
software that's the problem.
Maybe it's the way you areorganized as a firm or your
approach towards technology.
So, it's, it's, the tool is justone part of it, right?
You got the tools, you got thepeople, and you got the
processes.
They all three need to be lookedat and evaluated, um, as you go
(27:31):
about any digital transformationinitiative.
KC Brothers (27:34):
I love that.
I'm gonna double down on that.
The tools, the people, and theprocesses.
Yeah.
I love that.
I, I think that's
John Higgins (27:42):
a
KC Brothers (27:42):
A good way to end.
In fact, I wish I mean, weprobably could have even talked
more about that because there'sso much to unpack with how you
approach each to make sure thatyou're successful as a firm.
Um, but thank you again, John.
This was great.
It goes to show like you reallycan't sleep on technology.
It moves every day, especiallywith AI, and it's gonna be
(28:04):
really exciting to see how thisimpacts accounting.
John Higgins (28:09):
Oh, yeah, we're in for some interesting times.
No question about it.
And, uh, We'll see how it goesin the next couple of years, but
it's going to move fast.
So thanks for having me, Casey.
I appreciate it.
KC Brothers (28:17):
Yeah.
You're welcome.
Welcome to another episode of Canopy Practice
Success.
Oh, my goodness.
That is my second time stumblingover that.
I don't know if you can hear I'mrecovering from a small cold.
So hopefully I'm not terrible tolisten to today with my
conversation with John Higgins.
John, will you introduceyourself?
John Higgins (00:24):
Yes.
Uh, so hello Casey and helloeveryone who's watching us
today.
Uh, thanks for joining us.
So, uh, a little bit about mybackground, I am a CPA with the
CITP credential, which standsfor Certified Information
Technology Professional, andthat's an AI CPA specialty
credential that lets mecommunicate to the marketplace
(00:45):
that, yes, I'm a CPA, but Ireally focus on technology.
Uh, I've been in the professiona long time, and, uh, for all
that time, I've really focusedon helping CPAs to understand
emerging technologies.
and how to apply them.
And during the course of mycareer, I started with a local
CPA firm here in the Detroit,Michigan area.
(01:07):
That's where I'm from.
And then from there, I had twostartup client advisory
practices along the lines ofclient and technology advisory
for CPAs.
Uh, sold both of those.
The first one I sold into BDO,and I was a partner in BDO's,
uh, national practice here inDetroit for a few years.
(01:27):
Uh, and then most recently, CPACrossings, which started as a
technology advisory company inthe early 2000s, and kind of
morphed into a, uh, uh, prettygood sized continuing
professional education platform.
for CPAs.
We, uh, at CPA Crosses, we, webasically got together a group
(01:47):
of, uh, professionals who couldspeak on a lot of different tap
topics for CPAs, uh, and wedistributed those as webinars.
It was all webinars, uh, throughstate CPA associations.
And, uh, so that company waspurchased by the Pennsylvania
Institute of CPAs.
In 2020, uh, so they could useit to kind of expand their
offerings to their members andget more involved in online
(02:09):
learning.
Uh, but, you know, I've seen thewhole landscape of emerging
technologies for CPAs.
I like to joke that, you know, Istarted in the profession before
we had electronic spreadsheets.
With somebody as young as Caseydoesn't even know what I'm
talking about.
How can we have a world withoutspreadsheets, right?
Uh, so I've seen all that andI've seen the whole evolution
of, uh, transitioning to thecloud computing.
(02:29):
And then, of course, noweverything's all about AI, which
is really exciting.
I really enjoy it because Ilike, you know, new
technologies, learning aboutthem and trying to figure out
how we can put them to work.
And there's going to be noshortage of ways to put AI to
work.
That's for sure.
KC Brothers (02:43):
Oh, I couldn't agree more with that last
statement.
And maybe we touch on that abit, um, as well in our
conversation.
But with all of your many years,um, in consulting and providing
education, do you have anythoughts or strategies on how
CPAs should be approaching, uh,this CPE requirement.
(03:06):
I love that it's a thing in theindustry.
I love that, um, you know, Idon't have a little nudge, a
little fire under you to, like,keep you updated and, and
learning constantly.
Um, but what, whatrecommendations do you have to
make sure that people aregetting the most of that?
John Higgins (03:24):
Yeah, I think as a CPA, you know, and I know
because I've seen it for over mywhole career, a lot of CPAs are
just focused on, I gotta get my40 hours of education each year
and I don't care where I get it.
Sometimes they go for thecheapest option.
Uh, and I understand all that,but in this day and age, I think
it is so important as aprofessional to make sure you're
investing in the right kind ofeducation.
(03:46):
Uh, this whole area oftechnology is just.
You know, we're at the veryearly stages of, I think, a very
major transformation in the waywe deliver services to clients
as CPAs, whether you're workingin an accounting practice or
maybe you're a CFO working in acorporate environment.
But the way we deliver servicesis definitely about to go a
(04:07):
major transformation.
So as CPAs, I think you have tobe strategic about how you
invest your time for education.
And there's lots of goodopportunities.
You know, all the education Iget, uh, Casey, frankly, is.
I mean, the CP is likesecondary.
I could almost care less if Iget CP.
I just want to learn and I'llget my 40 hours of CP.
(04:28):
I'll get that one way oranother.
But, uh, you know, so right nowfor me, I'm spending all my
learning time primarily on AIbecause it's moving so fast and
has so much potential.
There's a lot of hype around itfor sure, but it's not all hype.
It's real and it's going to havea major impact.
So, so if I was a, you know,advising a CPI, I'd say, you
(04:49):
know, Invest a little bit oftime at the beginning of each
year thinking about what do youreally want to learn, what
should you be learning, and thenfigure out what are the avenues
of resources.
Uh, to get the kind of learningthat, that you're looking for.
KC Brothers (05:02):
Yeah.
I, you said beginning of theyear, and I kind of want to dig
into that a little bit more.
Do you really mean January?
John Higgins (05:10):
Well, so here's how it goes for CPAs.
You know, the cycle is that, uh,you know, their, their, their
best time for getting educationis really November, December
KC Brothers (05:20):
and
John Higgins (05:20):
then, you know, May, June, July, August.
Uh, because they're, they'rereally busy, of course, from the
middle of January through themiddle of March.
Yeah.
With tax work and busy seasonwork and so on, um, and then
they come out of there.
So what happens if you plan now,if you plan early in the year,
then when you come out of yourbusy season, you already kind of
(05:41):
know where you want to go andyou, you don't spend a lot of
time thinking about, well, whateducation should I get?
And you know, there's a lot ofgood conferences out there and
those are on the, on theschedule.
Usually pretty early, so it'snot too early to figure about,
figure out where you want to getyour education from.
KC Brothers (05:57):
Have you ever seen firms, um, divvy out types of
learning, or say like, or, oreven just raise their hand and
be like, hey, I'll, I want toelect to be the AI expert in our
firm, or I want to be the clientrelationship management expert
of our firm, or do you see themjust kind of, I gotta get it, so
(06:18):
I'll just, to your point, getthe cheapest thing.
John Higgins (06:21):
Yeah, I'd say, I'd say, unfortunately, that a lot
of firms, especially when you'redealing with the smaller firms,
because they may or may not havean HR department, they may not
have a dedicated, uh, person toactually help them, guide them
through what they should be, youknow, focusing their learning
on.
So a lot of them just take, youknow, whatever they're
interested in, which is, whichis fine.
Uh, but it's typically not, uh,strategic.
(06:42):
But when I do, uh, technologyadvisory services, when I offer
that to, to accounting firms,You know, I always talk about
champions.
So, whether it's, uh, you know,using a particular software
tool, like Canopy, or using, uh,uh, ChatGPT for generative AI,
whatever the tool is, that, uh,you know, you really should have
a champion, or, depending on thesize of your firm, maybe
(07:05):
multiple champions.
And those champions, one oftheir, uh, goals should be to
really immerse themselves ineducation in that particular
area of focus.
And they can bring that to therest of the firm and share
their, what they learn, sharetheir knowledge with the firm.
You know, at the appropriatelevel, not everybody has to be
an expert in everything.
It's just not practical.
KC Brothers (07:23):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can't.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm just curious.
I know like one of our goals,just even within our marketing
team right now is, is reallyCentered on AI and what, what
tools can we use to make ourjobs smoother or better?
(07:45):
And I bring this up, I don'tusually talk about my function
or, or even like our team hereat Canopy on the podcast.
Um, but I bring it up because.
It signals a lot to ourinvestors as well to the members
of the board that we areinvesting in the technology and
um, and leveling up our skills.
(08:07):
And I'd say that same conceptapplies to your clients.
Um, where you can when you makeclaims of like, or or even put
your best foot forward andyou're showing that you are, um,
progressing as a firm, whateverthat might look like, but an
easy way that that doestranslate to clients being able
(08:30):
to understand that you areimproving is technology is the
way they interact with youthrough, you know, whatever
medium it is that you'reutilizing.
Um, and then, yeah.
A.
I.
Um, just it all reflects to yourclients on you improving your
business.
And I think in that way to helpsretain them.
John Higgins (08:51):
Yeah.
And I think, you know, everybusiness has at least two
primary goals.
One is to be profitable and oneis to build value.
So at some point have an exitstrategy, you know, for that for
that business and In the case ofan accounting practice, an
important part of that extraexit strategy to your point,
Casey, is really to show thatyou have been leveraging
(09:11):
technology, you're keeping yourfirm, you know, modernized,
going through the digitaltransformation, as we like to
say, and that will be much moreappealing to a potential suitor
who might want to buy yourpractice.
Uh, because if they walk intoyour practice to see a bunch of
paper and a bunch of filefolders, uh, that's going to
just lower the value to them.
(09:32):
In their eyes, this could say,this is a problem because we got
to then help this firm gothrough a digital
transformation.
We'd rather acquire a firm thathas already been through the
digital transformation.
KC Brothers (09:42):
Yeah, like trying to sell your home with a hole in
the roof.
John Higgins (09:46):
Yeah, exactly.
You
KC Brothers (09:48):
know, it seems silly even when we put it that
way, but how often are we seeingpeople getting to retirement or
wanting to sell or or evenexiting in some form or fashion,
right?
But particularly I'm thinkingretirement age because they're
tired or you know, just want torelax and call it a day.
(10:10):
Um, thinking I'll just keepoperating the way I want to
operate.
I know this, we're comfortable,and then when I'm ready to
retire, I'll sell it.
And, I mean, curious, howfrequently are you seeing that
actually happening?
John Higgins (10:24):
Uh, quite a lot.
Majority of the
KC Brothers (10:27):
time?
John Higgins (10:28):
Yeah, I would say with the smaller the firms like
the small practitioners that youknow, maybe five to ten person
firms It's like they just likethey're what they're doing.
Yeah, they complain aboutworking a lot of hours, but
they'd actually like it There'sno question in my mind about
that.
I've seen it for many years andSo they don't really Spend a lot
of time thinking about how tohave an exit strategy until they
(10:49):
get to the point where say, youknow, like you said, I mean, I'm
tired now.
I think, yeah, maybe it's timeto get out.
And I would also make the point,Casey, that it's not just about
getting your business or yourpractice in shape for an
acquisition.
It's about being able to hirepeople because, you know, you
want young people to come intoyour firm.
They expect you to be digital.
They want digital.
They want to be in digital todaymeans embracing AI.
(11:13):
And, uh, in fact, it's a, youknow, I hear a lot from smaller
firms about how it's tough forus to compete for talent against
the large firms that can pay thelargest, you know, higher
salaries.
But I would say, you know, Icould come in and tell you
exactly how to recruit a youngperson into a small firm because
you can give them so much more.
(11:33):
Uh, latitude and responsibility.
You get into a larger firm, youstart to get pigeonholed.
Just the nature of the beast,you know?
But, uh, in a small firm, boy,you can offer the world.
And you get somebody that says,Hey, uh, I need you to come into
my practice as a young person,understanding, uh, AI
technology.
Help me figure out in mypractice how to put this to
work.
(11:53):
And you're going to have, Ithink, very good success
recruiting somebody.
And to even the smallest offirms.
KC Brothers (11:58):
Oh, couldn't agree more.
And again, I like never do thison the podcast, but you're
talking about things that arejust so applicable to me
personally too, like I could go,we've got a big Adobe, everybody
knows Adobe, I feel like, evenif you don't use them, it's a
big name.
Sure.
We've got a big Adobe campus,just 15 minutes from our canopy
(12:20):
office.
I could easily get a job thereand make more money and get
killer benefits.
They're a huge company.
They can offer lots of funthings.
I choose to be a canopy becauseof what working at a smaller
technology company than abehemoth like Adobe can do for
me.
Um, but the thing is like.
(12:42):
It's not just working for Canopyand the size of the company.
It's working for my specificmanager, our CEO, all of the
leaders as well, and theirvision and how that impacts my
day to day.
So to your point about likeattracting talent, um, same
thing.
It's the same thing in anaccounting firm that yeah, you
(13:03):
just can't sleep on how much,um, that impacts your
attractiveness.
When, when you're interviewingcandidates, it's not like the
employee has a, a, what's thephrase I'm looking for, has the
advantage, I guess, over the oneseeking employment.
(13:26):
It goes both ways.
Like each, each party has powerand the ability to interview
each other and say, no, you'renot the right fit because I'm
seeing X, Y, Z about your firmthat shows me what my life would
be like, what I'd be battlingor, or, or the success rate I
might have the satisfaction Imight get out of my day to day.
John Higgins (13:49):
Yeah.
And you know, we all wantpurpose in what we do is our
careers.
You know, so I think in a lot ofcases, you can have, feel, have
more purpose in a smaller firmbecause you can have a bigger
impact just by the nature of it.
KC Brothers (14:01):
Yeah.
And even if, and some peoplemight be able to come in and
see, um, a lack of moderntechnology as an opportunity, as
long as the leader is showingthat like the maybe humility of
like, Hey, I need helpevaluating this.
John Higgins (14:20):
Yeah.
Come
KC Brothers (14:20):
in and help me change this.
Like that is so attractive tosome people, to me in
particular.
Like I love that, the excitementof transforming something.
So it's not just like to yourpoint, um, just because you
haven't updated, it's nottotally going to hurt your
ability to attract talent, butyou need to meet the talent
(14:41):
you're interviewing with this.
opportunity and maybe find a wayto really sell it to them
because it can be a huge resumebuilder.
John Higgins (14:51):
Absolutely.
And that's the kind of peopleyou want in your firm, right?
That somebody wants to take onthe challenge and has a thirst
for, you know, trying thingsout, you know, and being
innovative.
KC Brothers (15:01):
Yeah.
So, with firms like this,because you say it does happen
the majority of the time where,you know, we're still, um,
participating in this digitaltransformation, what are some
things that these individualsshould wrap their brain around?
Expectations of how long itmight take, where to start, what
(15:22):
questions to ask, things likethat.
John Higgins (15:24):
In regards to the digital transformation, is that
what you're asking?
KC Brothers (15:27):
Yes.
John Higgins (15:27):
Yeah, well, so ideally you start with, you
know, developing some strategy.
Uh, and again, that's nottypically the case in the, when
you get into the smaller firms,it's, it's oftentimes more
reactive, uh, reactive to, youknow, we're just not happy with
our tax software anymore.
Let's go find something new, orI was at this conference and I
learned about this new software.
(15:47):
Looks really cool.
Uh, you know, so the partnergoes out and he or she sees us
at the conference, they say,okay, we're going to put this
in.
They just bring it back to thefirm.
And now the people that work inthe firm have to figure out how
to make it all, all work.
So, so having a strategy is, isdefinitely beneficial because,
you know, with, when it comes totechnology, Casey, there's,
there's so many ways in a firmto spend money and it's so easy
(16:10):
to spend it in the wrong things,you know, lower priority, uh,
things or things that can justtake it on a rabbit hole.
Yeah.
And, uh, and it's also, it's,it's not just deciding what to
acquire, but also when, youknow, and AI is a great examples
like, you know, when do I jumpon the AI bandwagon?
Well, I think as individual CPAprofessionals, we have to get on
(16:31):
it now just to learn how to, howto crawl before we walk, before
we run.
Um, but you know, when you'retalking about big investments in
a firm, you got to really figureout when, you know, when's the
right time to make that biginvestment.
Um, in the firm.
So, so starting with a strategyand that could be, you know, a
simple strategy, you know, maybea few meetings with a small
representative group of peoplein the firm say, you know, where
(16:53):
are we having the mostinefficiencies, where are we
spending a lot of labor effortto get things done and
therefore, let's figure out,let's tackle those, those areas
first and, uh, gosh, there'soften so much in the way of a
low, what I call low hangingfruit.
You know, like I'll just giveyou a simple example, password
management.
(17:14):
I've been doing webinars onpassword managers for 15 years
now.
And when I'm speaking to CPAgroups, like maybe 5 percent of
them are using the passwordmanager.
So I'm thinking, well, what areyou using?
Are you still using Excelspreadsheets?
Are you writing it down onpaper?
Or are you using the samepassword for everything?
It's like, I mean, a passwordmanager is a low cost item that
(17:37):
has cybersecurity benefits forthe practice, but also has
efficiency benefits for theuser.
So it's, it's a classic lowhanging fruit.
Let's just go do this.
And there's a lot of thoseopportunities.
Yeah.
KC Brothers (17:51):
Okay.
So starting with the strategy, Ilike your point too of like
getting key people in a room andreally hitting on pain points.
I've done similar things likethat and I call them a pre
mortem because we talk aboutpost mortems.
But like, let's imagine thatlike the firm's not in business
in six months because We can'tprocess anymore because our
(18:13):
systems break.
Our internet's gone out for twoweeks and who knows?
John Higgins (18:19):
Yeah.
KC Brothers (18:19):
Um, but what's, what's the worst case and, and
how can we extrapolate on thatand then take those problems and
solve for them and then to yourpoint, prioritize?
Um.
That, and, and what that does isgets people bought in to what
needs to be prioritized, whichis huge.
So that you don't run into theissue of what you said of like,
Oh, I saw this flashy new thingat a show and I got it.
(18:42):
So let's, sorry, let's figure itout.
Um, okay.
So what's next after that?
Let's, we, we've got a strategy.
Are there top tools that yourecommend?
I mean, you said a passwordmanagement, that one's so easy,
but yeah, to your point.
As a lot of security.
John Higgins (18:59):
Yeah.
Well, along the same lines, too,as you're looking at kind of
developing a plan, a technologyplan is look at the tools you
currently have and make sureyou're getting the most out of
them.
So often I see where gosh.
Only a fraction of thecapabilities are being used.
I use Microsoft 365 as anexample.
There's so much capabilityacross that ecosystem, but
(19:22):
typically, very little of it isreally being taken advantage of.
So that's another point whereit's not about just going out
always and getting newtechnology or spending more on
technology tools.
But just really focusing on whatyou can get more, get more out
of what you already have.
Um, and then, you know, whateverthe initiative is, let's say you
decide, you know, we need abetter file storage system.
(19:44):
We need a better practicemanagement solution.
Well, then you got to go out,somebody's got to go out and get
educated on what's out there inthe marketplace.
And that's where conferences canbe very helpful.
You know, you go to some of theCPA conferences.
I know Canopy is at a lot ofthose conferences, right?
And so that's a greatopportunity as a practitioner to
go and talk to the people, uh,that are with those software
(20:05):
publishers and, you know, askthem the questions and just
learn more about what, what isout there.
Because frankly, in ourprofession, there's been, uh,
obviously some very largeplayers that have really
dominated the market.
Uh, but I would also say theytend to be really slow at being
innovative.
Has been my experience.
Sometimes I look at productsthat I used back in, I had to
(20:26):
admit it, back in the 80s.
And sometimes I look at themtoday and say, Gosh, it still
doesn't look like it's changed awhole lot.
Uh, they try to be cloudenabled.
But, uh, you know, I always saywhen you want to go to the
cloud, if you have the abilityfinding a software solution that
was built natively for thecloud, it's going to be a whole
lot better because it's going totake advantage of the, of the
(20:46):
technology, uh, as opposed totrying to be kind of retrofitted
to be a cloud application whenoriginally back in the day, it
was a, you know, on premisesolution.
Um, but, you know, so you haveto go out and find out what's
available in the market.
And, uh, And, you know, do someresearch and, uh, always I think
it's important to talk to otherpractitioners.
It's such a basic thing, butit's very rarely done.
(21:08):
It's like, okay, if I'm going togo down this, uh, path of
looking at this particularsolution, I want to talk to some
other firms that are using it.
And, uh, you know, when you talkCPA to CPA about something like
that, my experience has beenthat CPAs really like to be
candid when they're talking witha fellow practitioner.
They, you know, they're notgoing to, uh, sugarcoat it.
Of course, the softwarepublisher is going to give you
(21:30):
references of people that havebeen successful with the tool.
That's what you'd want, right?
Uh, because I want to know thatyou can be successful with the
tool.
Now just tell me how to besuccessful with the tool and
what should I watch out for, youknow?
Maybe it takes more to implementit than I, than I was led to
believe, or maybe I need to makesure I invest in training
because that's such a common,um, uh, mistake that firms make
(21:53):
is they just buy the tool andthey subscribe to the tool, but
don't really invest in planningthe deployment and training the
people on how to.
How to use it.
And the training is not just howto use it, not just how to click
the mouse clicks and so forth.
It's how do we, how are we goingto do our workflow now with this
new tool?
So if we're getting a newbilling system, how are we going
to do billing going forward?
KC Brothers (22:13):
I love that you said that.
Um, and I have a few otherthings I want to add quickly as
well.
But to double down on that, um,English is not Spanish.
Spanish is not English.
They translate well to eachother, um, more or less.
Um, English is harder totranslate into Arabic and vice
(22:33):
versa, right?
We need to think the same wayabout our systems, um, and that
you cannot just take what you'vebeen doing, buy a new system,
and do it the exact same way.
If that were the case, then juststick with your old system.
John Higgins (22:48):
Right, right.
KC Brothers (22:49):
The, the, part of the process of getting a new
software system is alsoevaluating how can we be better
and how, where does thissoftware, Excel and, and
thinking more, not aboutfeatures, but maybe philosophies
and executions.
What is it that we're trying toaccomplish?
(23:09):
And then, yeah, of course, do wehave to change the way we do it?
Um, but the other thing I wantedto say just as you were talking
about, you know, evaluatingvendors, my personal preference
and recommendation is toevaluate no less than three.
If you're looking at one andyou're like about to sign the
(23:30):
contract, hard stop, like,evaluate that there's a reason
why there are multiple tools.
Um, we have built a.
Rubric for people to use.
Um, it is a Google sheet, um,that is, has a whole list of
functionality that should atleast get you started.
(23:50):
But evaluate, look at differentones and weigh what does what
better, whatever is mostimportant to you.
Um, and then yeah, to yourpoint, talk to the community.
I don't know if you have otherrecommended spots other than
shows, but I see a lot ofchatter in Reddit, um, and a
(24:11):
decent amount in LinkedIn.
But there are online communitiesas well as in person
communities.
I know there are lots of localcommunities.
Um, lots of opportunity to talkto each other and talk shop.
John Higgins (24:23):
Yeah, no question about it.
Anytime you can get togetherwith other CPA practitioners,
they're using something.
Uh, you know, I really like youridea about looking at three
solutions because you might lookat the third solution and say,
Gosh, that feature never evencame up in the first two
KC Brothers (24:38):
solutions
John Higgins (24:38):
I looked at.
Then it makes you think, go backto the other two and say, Do
they have that capability?
Or why don't they have thatcapability?
So that, that's a really goodidea.
The part of the challenge isbecause, uh, most CPAs are
pretty busy.
Right?
They don't have a lot ofdowntime.
So, it's like easy to, to avoidlooking at three.
You might say, I'll look at twoand that's good enough.
But, um, you know, if they caninvest that extra time, any time
(25:00):
invested up front in evaluationand planning will pay big
dividends on the back end duringimplementation.
And gosh, I've had enoughexperience seeing
implementations go wrong.
KC Brothers (25:11):
Yeah, and I've heard enough chatter, too, of,
um, people purchasing somethingand being like, well, I just did
this last year, but it's notsuiting my needs, but I don't
want to do it again this year.
Especially when, if there's evera client portal attached to Any
Decision 2, because they don'twant to do it to their clients.
It's like, well, then make sureyou evaluate it properly the
(25:33):
first time.
John Higgins (25:36):
Yeah, for sure.
And, and the portal is a greatexample, because sometimes, uh,
We make decisions for ourclients about what we think they
want or don't want, uh, like aportal.
And you got to make sure youcommunicate to them what the
portal can do for them.
And, uh, you know, more andmore, we're all transitioning.
We're all going through thisdigital transformation.
Some people are, you know,almost completely down the path.
(25:58):
Others are still at thebeginning.
Uh, but you have a lot ofclients typically who are going
to be eagerly wanting to adoptnew technology because
everybody's, you know, we're allwatching news and, you know,
YouTubes and things like that.
And we see that, gosh, this is,this is changing, things are
changing and we need to get onboard.
Uh, so yeah, I think that, uh,it's good to, uh, spend the time
(26:21):
to do your research and investwhat's out there and investigate
what's out there.
KC Brothers (26:24):
Yeah.
And I'd even make a plug heretoo.
I mean, we use.
seasonal talent during taxseason to help with the
accounting work.
Don't shy away from hiringseasonal talent to help with
evaluating software or, or notseasonal talent.
Let's even scratch that.
Hiring someone like yourself.
Um, there, there are lots ofopportunities like that where
(26:48):
you can look to an expert, um,to help you evaluate your, your
tech stack and your,Efficiencies or lack thereof.
Yeah.
And, and then work with them ona solution to get something in
place and adopted well,
John Higgins (27:08):
yeah.
And if you get a, you know,truly independent advisor, he or
she's gonna be able to beobjective about.
You know, what are your needs ormaybe, maybe it's not the
software that's the problem.
Maybe it's the way you areorganized as a firm or your
approach towards technology.
So, it's, it's, the tool is justone part of it, right?
You got the tools, you got thepeople, and you got the
processes.
They all three need to be lookedat and evaluated, um, as you go
(27:31):
about any digital transformationinitiative.
KC Brothers (27:34):
I love that.
I'm gonna double down on that.
The tools, the people, and theprocesses.
Yeah.
I love that.
I, I think that's
John Higgins (27:42):
a
KC Brothers (27:42):
A good way to end.
In fact, I wish I mean, weprobably could have even talked
more about that because there'sso much to unpack with how you
approach each to make sure thatyou're successful as a firm.
Um, but thank you again, John.
This was great.
It goes to show like you reallycan't sleep on technology.
It moves every day, especiallywith AI, and it's gonna be
(28:04):
really exciting to see how thisimpacts accounting.
John Higgins (28:09):
Oh, yeah, we're in for some interesting times.
No question about it.
And, uh, We'll see how it goesin the next couple of years, but
it's going to move fast.
So thanks for having me, Casey.
I appreciate it.
KC Brothers (28:17):
Yeah.
You're welcome.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com