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Fixing an Accounting Mess with Josh Farber · Budget Your Business

• 0:00
  Scott: Hello and welcome to Budget Your Business, the podcast for small business owners who want to learn how to financially plan for every aspect of their business.
• 0:10
  Scott: I'm your host, Scott Geller.
• 0:13
  Scott: Today I'm joined by Josh Farber of GNA Partners to talk about cleaning up an accounting mess.
• 0:19
  Scott: Welcome, Josh.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for having me.
• 0:22
  Scott: Absolutely.
• 0:24
  Scott: For folks who are meeting you for the first time, could you share a little bit about who you are and what you do?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Josh Farber, I'm the Vice President of Outsourced Accounting at GNA Partners.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I started my career as a CPA doing audits mainly in the middle market private equity space before jumping into industry and spent the better part of a decade in corporate controller roles for similar type businesses.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think in hindsight, maybe I couldn't articulate this, but I wanted to be back into a profit center, not a cost center.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I found my way back to professional services and for the last four years have been building and expanding an accounting services business with the intention of delivering that accounting department that I was used to building in larger organizations, now fractionalizing it to deliver it to the small business community, giving them the same impact without the same investment.
• 1:24
  Scott: Great.
• 1:24
  Scott: Yeah, that's that's great, Josh.
• 1:26
  Scott: And thanks for giving us a little bit of background there.
• 1:31
  Scott: You're the accounting side.
• 1:32
  Scott: I don't do the accounting.
• 1:34
  Scott: I look at a lot of accounting, uh, and I like to rely on the experts like yourself.
• 1:40
  Scott: But when I look at a business and I see poor accounting, I kind of compare to the five stages of grief, if you will.
• 1:49
  Scott: I see the denial, right?
• 1:51
  Scott: It's a business owner saying just one entry or one month that's off, and it's not going to make a big deal.
• 1:56
  Scott: And then they kind of go through this anger of why doesn't QuickBooks work?
• 2:00
  Scott: Or why doesn't this bookkeeper do what they were supposed to do?
• 2:04
  Scott: And then you know the next stage is bargaining.
• 2:07
  Scott: And maybe if I ignore it, it'll fix itself approach.
• 2:11
  Scott: Finally, you go rolling in depression, and that's the feeling of a business owner saying, Wow, you know, this is a mess, and I'm just I'm buried by it.
• 2:19
  Scott: Finally, they hit acceptance of my accounting is just wrong.
• 2:24
  Scott: And then I don't know to me, I feel like that's kind of the five stages of grief are similar to what people deal with in accounting.
• 2:30
  Scott: Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm off base here, but that's my view of it, Josh.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You you might not be wrong.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a sad story to see, though, because as folks progress through those five stages, it doesn't get easier to fix.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Problem definitely does not solve itself, and it doesn't get cheaper to fix either.
• 2:49
  Scott: Very true.
• 2:50
  Scott: How does how does a business know that they have an accounting issue or or I'm just gonna call it a mess?
• 2:57
  Scott: Because a lot of times once it starts a little bit and it just keeps growing.
• 3:00
  Scott: But so how how do they know they have an accounting mess?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll answer that question through two lenses, um, because I will separate it between what is a true mess, like what is just wrong bookkeeping, versus what is suboptimal, which is not as good as it could be.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So on that on that first term, what is a mess?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the first thing that we do when we look at new prospects or meet new companies for the first time is I want to see what their bank statement says and what their financial statements and their balance sheets say.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if those are are wildly off for long periods of time, it's a pretty dead giveaway that the bookkeeping is not buttoned up.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: We'll go down, we'll go down the list and go through layer by layer, um, ultimately trying to find something to tie these financial statements to.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times with small businesses, that's a tax return.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll do a short and quick reconciliation between a business tax return and the financial statements just to see how tightly in sync these things are.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last thing we really do is go through balance sheet account by a balance sheet account and see when was the last time accounts were updated?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: When was the last time accounts were reconciled?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do these balances make sense?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are they going the right direction?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Not to get too technical, but are debits and debit-focused accounts and credits and credit-focused accounts, or do we have things that are upside down?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's really sort of the tip of the iceberg, and from there we can go deeper and deeper to really diagnose what the challenge is.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on the other side of the coin, when I start to think about less than optimal, I start to think about are the accounts that are in place enough to capture the insights that we're trying to derive to derive from the business?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or is it too much?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have so many accounts that it's creating noise that is not meaningful and it's creating too much detail?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if a business owner comes and starts talking about their three different business segments and their five different product lines and there are two different locations, but when we look at the financial statements in the accounting system and we see revenue and we see 50 accounts of expense sorted alphabetically, that's suboptimal.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's not telling the right story.
• 5:31
  Scott: I I have to agree with that, Josh.
• 5:32
  Scott: The the first piece I look at, and if I see nothing but a uh GL that's all alphabetical based, it's sure.
• 5:43
  Scott: I guess it's easier to find the advertising expense account because it's an A's, but uh forget that you call something else, you know, depending on what you call it, it might be in the S's or the or the or the M's or whoever, who knows where.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, advertising is a long way from sales and marketing.
• 6:00
  Scott: Yes, it is.
• 6:01
  Scott: Yes, it is.
• 6:03
  Scott: So if if a business owner is you know looking at their books and and maybe they're seeing some of these items that you mentioned, right?
• 6:13
  Scott: Like, well, it it's hard for them to know, I think a lot of times what is a debit account and or what is a credit account.
• 6:20
  Scott: So are there any key or any red flags that you would recommend a business owner to be looking for that gives them an indication that maybe is not just suboptimal, but maybe it's there's something even deeper that's wrong?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think the first piece is that cash.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think we find that as as um folks launch businesses, usually the first metric of success is how much money's in the bank account.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And is that balance going up or is that balance going down?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So as we see um financial statements that sort of challenge that gut feeling, challenge that cash-focused definition of success, I think if you sort of smell the smoke, your intuition is probably right.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um the other thing that we see is when we see sort of wild swings month to month, it's a decent indicator that something's not dialed in the proper way.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there could be reasons for that depending on the industry or the business type, but we try to see consistency that really mirrors the you know growth in customers or the growth in orders or another metric that we can observe outside of the financial statements.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when we see things varying wildly from a trend perspective, it's a little more cause for some investigation.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:44
  Scott: Let's say I've I realize that I have an issue, or at least suboptimal at best, accounting.
• 7:51
  Scott: Who do I bring in to help clean up an accounting mess?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we've found as we've um built a team and built several service delivery teams, that the folks that are really good at fixing it and optimizing it is a little bit of a different profile than the folks that are really good at maintaining it and keeping it in sync for a long period of time.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that led us to create a dedicated onboarding and implementation team.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we found that these folks are a similar background as the rest of our accounting team in terms of education and experience.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I call these folks the break it-fix-it kind of accountants, not the keep it forever kind of accountants.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they're gonna come in and they're gonna have a more curious nature, they're gonna be asking why.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um we've always done it this way, it's not gonna be part of their vocabulary.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it is a little bit of an audit mindset, a little bit of a forensic accounting mindset.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a heavy attention to detail for sure, but it's also an aspect of um processes and procedures and a really good grasp of the ecosystem from the accounting landscape.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we sort of start higher level, and these folks start higher level, and they say what systems are in place, how are these systems um mapped to each other?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Should they be connected?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are they feeding each other?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what is the source of truth?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: How can we tie this to cash transactions?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when we can start at the most granular level, then these folks can expand their scope from there to work from fixing the critical issues to working towards that optimized accounting setup and workflow.
• 9:47
  Scott: Great, Josh.
• 9:48
  Scott: That's that I like that that breakdown between because then not every accountant is the same, right?
• 9:54
  Scott: Just like not every analyst or or person is the same.
• 10:00
  Scott: And I imagine for small businesses, it's hard for them to have a whole team of accountants.
• 10:05
  Scott: So it's probably hard to have somebody that's that can come in and is good at both fixing it and then after it keeping it straight.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and you know, definitely.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard, it's it's hard, I would call it, um, not a smart move to have a full team for most small businesses.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: The budget just doesn't support that.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing is, is there's not there are accounting rules naturally, but there's not one way to create an optimal structure.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's not one way, there's not one set of systems.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So having consistency is key.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where we lean on folks like you.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're gonna come in as the strategic um advisor, and you're gonna have influence and direction.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we're taking that direction from strategic advisors and being a thought partner.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, other times when we come in on our own, we can almost look at the accounting and look at the set of books and see like rings in a tree.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: We can see the generations of accountants that have come before us because everyone has tried something different, and there's a different scheme, a different setup, a different nomenclature, a different numbering structure.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And without you know, ripping the band-aid off, it's really hard to get from point A to point Z, which is optimal, without unraveling all of that work that's done before.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So the the less you can minimize those rings and those generations, the more clean and more efficient, and more effective the books are going to be.
• 11:42
  Scott: Well, let's say we have a situation where there's a whole lot of rings, and maybe some of those rings are even broken.
• 11:48
  Scott: What should I, as a business owner, what should I expect to get it fixed?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a great question.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's a different story, right?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: But for us, the the one thing that we've made a we've made a rule, we've made a principle, is we've said we don't, number one, we don't know the answers, we don't know the clear path forward until we've lived in the pain and lived in the mess for a little while.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: So when we do um partner with a new organization, we insist on now outside like the obvious fixes, we insist on living in the right environment in the current environment for about one month.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we can take everything that we learned and discovered during a pretty comprehensive scoping process, but now pressure test that in a one month of actually doing the accounting services.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: That helps us get that roadmap.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: It helps us identify the priority for what needs to be cleaned up, and it gives us a good understanding of the systems that are working together to create these results.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: From there, the other principle that we've really put in place is we do not want to disrupt the accounting.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to stop doing accounting just so we can clean up.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're starting to go project by project, task by task, keeping the accounting moving down the field, even if it's in a sub-optimal way, while we fix the key components that are at the highest priority based on that initial diagnostic.
• 13:23
  Scott: So you're kind of fixing the car as it's driving down the road, you're making sure that it doesn't run off the road, but you're working on it to get kind of running as you're moving along instead of just stopping and saying, nope, nothing else is going in until it's it's fixed, right?
• 13:39
  Scott: Is that is that kind of what you're saying?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is, it is, and sometimes that can be challenging.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we we try to do a really clear job of communicating um up front through milestone reporting and separating the onboarding into different phases and having really clear-cut objectives that we need to meet to move from phase one into phase two and phase two into phase three.
• 14:02
  Scott: Okay.
• 14:03
  Scott: And I I I know this is gonna this is going to vary a lot depending on the size of the company and a lot of other variables, but can you give an idea at least, or maybe an example or or so, of how long could this take?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: So let's call it an average size mess.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit of mess, definitely suboptimal.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: We look at that onboarding period as anywhere from 90 to 150 days.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that 90 to 150 days is really when our onboarding team is owning the relationship.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's to your point, fixing the car while we're going down the road.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we're still getting monthly financials, we're still getting weekly cash snapshots, um, we're also getting progress updates on the cleanup projects.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then once we get through that first 90 to 150 days, three to six months, now we're at a point where we're ready to start talking about a recurring services motion.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have processes that have been refined and documented, and now we can start to bring in our long-term accountants to learn these processes, learn these procedures, and then take the relationship while we can then leverage that onboarding team to go do it again with someone else.
• 15:26
  Scott: Okay.
• 15:27
  Scott: So yeah, I you like to make sure you understand what's going on in the business before just recommending change is kind of what I'm hearing.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think you be wary of the people that um propose to have all the answers without getting into the weeds.
• 15:46
  Scott: Um how much would that kind of cost a business to get something to get their accounting fixed?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think um I think the first question to ask really before answering that is what's what's the what's the solution, who's doing the fixing, right?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if we have if I'm a small business owner and I've got an organization with a great accountant or a great team of accountants, and I just need some practical guidance in what to do and how to do it, then that's that's one answer.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um most of the time though, we find folks don't have that team, or they've gotten in a mess because of team turnover, and they find themselves looking for a different solution, which is really where we plug in.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a little difficult to answer how much does it cost to clean it up, because that's only the beginning of our relationship.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we will typically have an onboarding fee that's equivalent to about one month, plus or minus, is sort of a starting point, and that covers some of the system transition costs, some of that initial heavy cleanup.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: But really, the onboarding is just baked into part of that long-term service motion.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for us, that partnership, um, the thesis is that even small businesses that really want financial insights, they need a team.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, our team, that's our solution.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Our team is a staff accountant, a senior accountant, and a controller.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we leverage those three people in the proper doses based on the client's needs.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And typically that partnership costs the equivalent of one full-time employee.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's, you know, it may not be a massive cost savings, but for what you would pay one full-time employee, now you have a team of three giving the business continuity and the critical segregation of duties to help these business owners sleep better at night.
• 17:54
  Scott: Okay.
• 17:55
  Scott: So you're still paying for almost an accountant, but you're getting the variety and experience of more than just one person.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and and de-risking.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's accountants, accountants can do a very effective job working inside a company.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other thing we see is accountants like to grow.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: They, you know, there's lots of opportunities.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: So again, creating those rings in the tree when we change accountants, we disrupt a whole lot of business processes more than just managing QuickBooks or managing the bank account.
• 18:33
  Scott: Okay.
• 18:34
  Scott: And if if I get this cleaned up through that period, what are what are some ways to keep the bookkeeping, the accounting accurate?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the first one is make sure it's a partnership.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is this is an extension of your team.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um you need to know who's doing the work.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And there needs to be a level of trust and communication throughout the month.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is not come in at the end of the month, come in at the end of the quarter, turn bank statements to financial statements.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think when it's well designed, it's operating on a weekly cadence.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we can identify challenges, we can make sure we're staying on top of transactions, so then when it comes month end close time, it's more just repeating another week and maybe definitely adding some extra emphasis focus on the balance sheet and journal entries.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So staying staying on top of it weekly and having a personal relationship.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think the other piece is make sure we have a few different sets of eyes on it.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's where that team concept comes into place.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have reviews at every level.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have reviews on vendor invoices through the accounts payable process.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have reviews over the reconciliations at the end of the month, we'll have reviews over the weekly cash snapshot to make sure that things are buttoned up on a weekly basis.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: All of those little steps build to a great solution when put together in total.
• 20:08
  Scott: So, Josh, you've been in accounting for some time for a while.
• 20:12
  Scott: I won't I won't throw out years or a while.
• 20:14
  Scott: I've I've I've been in an examiner and auditor.
• 20:18
  Scott: So I'm I'm curious as to how my experience compares with yours.
• 20:22
  Scott: It's always, it seems like it's always the the nicest and maybe not quietest, but you know, like the you know, kind of the nicest person who just does their work always comes in.
• 20:36
  Scott: And a lot of times those it's not always that person, but when there's an issue or there's some type of fraud that is occurring, everybody's blown away because it's by somebody that's been in the role forever.
• 20:48
  Scott: Everybody loves them versus who you would expect it to be of some you know jerk off the street that's coming in and then and stealing stuff right away.
• 20:57
  Scott: I don't know.
• 20:58
  Scott: That's kind of what I've seen.
• 21:00
  Scott: Josh, correct me if I'm wrong there.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you never know.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like you there is not a profile.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know what you're right.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's not.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know what's going on in people's lives, you don't know what their pressures are, you don't know what their motivations are, you you don't know what their character is.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you think you do, but the only thing you can control is the opportunity.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we can control.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: We can control the opportunity.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, how can we reduce the opportunity for any one person to commit fraud, to steal your money?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when we focus our efforts on mitigating those risks, mainly through checks and balances and um supervisory level reviews, both from a process perspective and a technology perspective, then we're doing the best we can.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then we start to look for the high character folks and really make sure we we you know stay on top and build the best team we can.
• 21:59
  Scott: Right.
• 22:00
  Scott: Good.
• 22:02
  Scott: So Josh, what are a few do's and don'ts?
• 22:06
  Scott: And if you have some, if you don't mind, of you know bringing in and out bringing in an accounting resource.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I think I've got two thoughts there.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is more do's and don'ts as a small business owner that's really starting to professionalize the accounting and starting to think about positioning these financials for other folks to look at other than just their personal consumption.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one that we see sometimes that muddies the waters is I would say don't, don't mix personal and business.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Get a good separation.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you want to take money out of the business, by all means go for it.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Consult your CFO, consult your financial advisor.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do it.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: But do it in a way that separates that from the operations of the business.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: That way we've got a high level of financial hygiene and we have a good, true, accurate representation of the performance of the business, good, bad, or otherwise.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing is oftentimes we are, well, sometimes we're the first professional bookkeeping and accounting solution that organizations have ever had.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say make sure you're ready.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get professional accounting help if you're not ready to lean into that relationship.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you're ready to communicate, make sure you're ready for a proactive partnership, make sure you're ready to hear best practices of how things should be done, and make sure you're ready to certainly make the financial investment, but also intellectual and the time investment in that partnership to take things to the next level.
• 23:51
  Scott: Josh, I like to wrap up all shows with one to three immediate takeaways that our listeners could literally put into action as they turn off the podcast.
• 24:03
  Scott: What can you share with us today?
• 24:05
  Scott: And if you've already mentioned it, that's fine.
• 24:07
  Scott: Just you can just remind us as well.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the first one that comes to mind is don't overthink it.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Don't overthink it.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Precisely inaccurate is still inaccurate.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, do your do your thinking, think it, think through the scenarios, build up the assumptions, document the assumptions, but don't spend too much time looking for perfection.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that sort of bleeds over to the second piece, is I would say budget the way you bookkeep.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: If we have a fairly straightforward chart of accounts, let's budget in that format so that we can make sure we can ultimately compare our actuals against our budget.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if we're if we're going through the budgeting process and we're thinking in terms of more business segments and more classifications, maybe that means we need to fix the chart of accounts and invest some time to create the right infrastructure.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: But make sure that when we put that budget together, we start with the template that we're used to using to review our financial results.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if we start there, it streamlines that process of ultimately getting your budget numbers into the accounting system to create that easy way to compare versus actuals so we can take action, which is ultimately the whole goal of the budget.
• 25:32
  Scott: I like that.
• 25:34
  Scott: One follow-up there.
• 25:37
  Scott: I I believe I at least in budgeting for your business once a year, or I I like it when you're looking at it every month and over the next, you know, looking at the next 12 months consistently, but at least having that that once a year strategic deep dive planning session.
• 25:56
  Scott: What you've mentioned there is kind of an add to it of think about your chart of accounts maybe once a year and make sure it aligns with where the business is going.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh absolutely 100% agree.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where it's it's um, you know, it's good to peek up above the transaction and above the the bookkeeping sometimes and see what the what the feel is.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we love on a monthly basis connecting in real time with the business owner or connecting with other strategic advisors that are in place so that we can hear what's going on from a strategic perspective and make sure that the bookkeeping is going to support those needs from the business owner and the strategic advisors.
• 26:43
  Scott: Absolutely great.
• 26:44
  Scott: I enjoy a good podcaster book recommendation.
• 26:47
  Scott: What do you have for us?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've got two quotes that came from two books, and it's sort of the stuff that's always bouncing around in the back of my head.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's mostly focused on leadership and people.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Our business, 99% of our cost is people, and we are a people business.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we focus a lot of time and energy on building the best team and building the best team members.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one comes from Stephen Covey's Stephen Covey's Seven Habits for Highly Effective People.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Great book.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's probably read it.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't, go get it.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing that stuck out to me among all of his great words of wisdom was to be efficient with processes, not people.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Be efficient with processes, not people.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, it just reinforces the need for the human relationships.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, even though we are an outside accounting services provider, it all comes down to the people and the relationships, both within our teams and between our clients and our team members.
• 27:50
  unknown: Okay.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: The second one comes from the book Radical Candor by Kim Scott.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the the suggestion and the guidelines there is to create a culture of guidance, both for praise and criticism.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: So by creating a culture of guidance, it's not easy to give feedback.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to give positive feedback, it's not easy to give negative feedback.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: But when you build a relationship that's based on trust and respect, you can be very direct and still have it strengthen the relationship, not deteriorate the relationship.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had we've had tough conversations where the folks on the receiving end of the feedback say thanks because they're genuinely grateful to have that feedback and give them that opportunity to course correct or optimize within their um direct contributions.
• 28:42
  Scott: Two great quotes, Josh.
• 28:44
  Scott: Thanks.
• 28:44
  Scott: Thanks for those.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: My pleasure, Scott.
• 28:48
  Scott: You've given us a great framework for going in, fixing, fixing an accounting, um, which is very helpful.
• 28:56
  Scott: Where can people find out more about you online?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Connect with me on LinkedIn, check out GA partners.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, not only are we leaders in the accounting services space, we've also got deep offerings in the HR and payroll space.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it is uh you know a deep back office solution, but would love to engage on LinkedIn and happy to have a conversation.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming out, Josh.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Scott.
• 29:21
  Scott: All right, folks, that's it for today.
• 29:23
  Scott: If you like the show, check out more on your favorite podcast locations, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or others, and please rate the show.
• 29:32
  Scott: If you found something useful, I recommend or ask that you share the show with other business owners that might also find it helpful.
• 29:42
  Scott: Follow and rate the show and listen to more episodes.
• 29:46
  Scott: I'm Scott Keller, and I hope you join me next time for budget your business.