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The year ahead for accounting & why remote work works · The Accounting Podcast

• David Leary: 74 percent of people said they would quit their current job to get a job that lets them work remotely. Blake Oliver: Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver. David Leary: And I'm David Leary. Another week, Blake. Blake Oliver: Another week. Congratulations are in order. Congratulations, David! You made the Accounting Today Top 100 Most Influential List for the first time. David Leary: It is the first time, and congratulations to you, as well, because you also made the list! Blake Oliver: Well, yes, I did. We actually share [00:00:30] the same spot, or slot, I should say. I think we- David Leary: We each half got on the list. Blake Oliver: Well, I'm not gonna put that on my LinkedIn profile. I'm just gonna put the whole thing. People can go look at the list, and the link is in the show notes, and they can see all the folks who made the list - some friends of the show, people who've been on the show. I think it was a different list this year. They kinda mixed things up. David Leary: They frame it as "A very controversial list," which, maybe it's done on purpose to get more attention and people talking about it more. There's a [00:01:00] lot of great people in this industry because they have that sidebar of 20 up-and-comers, or whatever they wanna call that sidebar they do. You look in that like, you're like, "Geez, all those people should be on this." The only knock on that whole thing is the format Accounting Today puts out the list in. We'll have a link in the show notes, but it's like a weird ... It feels like a late-'90s fake magazine ... "Hey, we're gonna put a magazine on the internet ..." Blake Oliver: Oh, yeah, I wish- David Leary: -it's hard to click around. It's hard to send links to people. It's just weird. Blake Oliver: Yeah, well, I wish they'd just made it into [00:01:30] a blog post. I don't know what's going on with that PDF/semi-PDF reader thing. Anyway, you can get through it ... Get TO it through the link in the show notes and check out the whole list. This time, also what's different is they ranked the top 15. So, I guess the Top 100 voted on who they think are most influential, and that list became the Top 15, and they actually ranked that list- David Leary: And we're not on that list. Blake Oliver: No, we're definitely not on that list [crosstalk] I don't even think we were close. I mean, yeah ... David Leary: We weren't even an option ... Blake Oliver: They have another list they didn't publish. It's like The Least Influential in Accounting, and [00:02:00] we're probably on that one because I'm sure- David Leary: I think we might- Blake Oliver: -most of the people on the Top 15 have no idea who we are. David Leary: It was interesting. John Garrett made it. We made it. So, podcasters are on the list. There's YouTube people. There's podcasters ... Other media forms are making the list, which was interesting. There's politicians; there's [crosstalk] big firms- Blake Oliver: Speaking of digital, I was really happy to see Scott Zarret, founder of CPA Academy, on the list because that is changed- at least, in my opinion, changed how CPE is delivered. Really cool to see digital- people who are doing digital stuff getting on there. So- David Leary: Yeah. Congratulations to everybody [00:02:30] who's on there- Blake Oliver: Yes, congratulations. David Leary: It's really, really cool. Blake Oliver: All right, so what is your top story of the week, David? David Leary: That was it [crosstalk] Blake Oliver: That was it? Okay, my top story is the- also Accounting Today ... They have their "Year ahead for accounting: 2020 in numbers." They do this annual survey of accountants and accounting firms - 600 firms of all sizes. They do it in late October. They publish it toward the end of the year. That is out, and there's lots of stats in that to talk about. So, that'll be my story, but I think we [00:03:00] gotta read some reviews first, right? David Leary: Yeah, we got some reviews that came in and then, we also have a couple updates from the last episode. Blake Oliver: So, let's hit those reviews first. David Leary: I'll read the first one here. "The only accounting podcast that won't put you to sleep - if you're looking for someone to summarize all the important stuff we in the accounting industry need to know on a weekly basis, I would highly recommend this podcast. Blake and David succinctly digest each week's news, and tech developments, and its latest scandals in an entertaining way with great insight. I look forward to each new episode! Well done!" That is from Growyourprofit [00:03:30] on Apple Podcasts. Blake Oliver: Our second review this week - "Best way to keep up to date on cloud tech/accounting news. Thanks, Blake and David for the great content. I started my cloud accounting firm in Canada about three years ago and was always listening for relevant accounting podcasts. There was a lot out of Australia and New Zealand, but I struggled to find a great North American-based program. This fit the bill, and I was an early and avid listener. Thanks for continuing to bring great insights and keep us in the know! Your friends in the North are listening." Alissa Bryden, CPA, Virtual Heights [00:04:00] Accounting. Thanks, Alissa- David Leary: Yes, thank you. Blake Oliver: So cool to know that we've got so many Canadian listeners and ... We're a North American podcast, not an American podcast. We have to remember that, David! David Leary: We're a global podcast- Blake Oliver: We're a global podcast. That's right. Coming to you from [crosstalk] Coming to you from Southwestern United States ... David Leary: Huh ... The location ... But, you've recorded in another city. We've recorded in cities all over- Blake Oliver: That's right. David Leary: We haven't recorded internationally yet, but we've recorded from lots of hotel rooms. Blake Oliver: Actually, speaking of ... I'm headed to the Digital CPA [00:04:30] Conference immediately after we finish recording today. So, we're gonna do a snappy episode; a quick episode; try to get through as much as we can in like half an hour. David Leary: So if I drone on, and on, and you're gonna miss your flight? Blake Oliver: Exactly. So, let's talk about this Accounting Today year ahead for accounting in numbers, and then we'll do the follow up to last week. How about that? David Leary: Okay, good. That works. Blake Oliver: There were some really interesting insights. Great survey. I highly recommend everyone take a look at it. One that really stuck out to me was accounting firms' biggest concerns in 2020. They divide [00:05:00] this up by large and small firms. Large firms, it's pretty typical. It's kind of the same as it was last year. The top concern - 42 percent said recruiting, and retaining good employees is their biggest concern. Continuing down the list, in the 30 percentile, acquiring and retaining new clients; and then keeping up with new technology, keeping up with regulatory change, data and IT security. Then, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act actually went way down to 21 percent. I guess the large firms have kinda figured out what they need to do with that, and succession planning. [00:05:30] So, recruiting, and retaining good employees, always the top concern for big firms. Now, for small firms, it's actually not that. They don't even mention recruiting and retaining good employees. The number-one concern ... 42 percent of small firms, their biggest concern is keeping up with new technology, and that is up from 29 percent last year; a huge jump. So, what this means to me is that small firms are starting to really think about their tech strategy. It's starting to really hit mainstream. 42 [00:06:00] percent, that's a lot. After that, we've got acquiring and retaining new clients; that's 37 percent. Keeping up with regulatory change, data and IT security, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and then, remaining relevant to clients. David Leary: Now, are they showing these year-over-year changes? Blake Oliver: Well, they just happened to mention the year-over-year change for the keeping up with new technology, because that was such a big change. Most of the time, these don't change a whole lot. They go small percentiles, or small [00:06:30] amounts every year. So, there are trends. It would be interesting to compare, long term, over five years, or 10 years, what the change has been, but we'd have to go do a bunch of work to figure that out [crosstalk] David Leary: So, Accounting Today ... We will talk about this article if you do a decade-long comparison of all your surveys. Blake Oliver: Yeah, that would be really cool to see, or maybe we should get an intern at this point, David, and just have them do it. If you want to be an intern for The Cloud Accounting [00:07:00] Podcast, and you're listening, hey, let us know! I'm just tossing that out there right now. We'll do that ... David Leary: That would be great. Blake Oliver: Yeah, so expectations for the 2020 tax season ... 59 percent say it's gonna be better than 2019; 5 percent say it's gonna be worse. About the same, 36 percent. So, overall, either the same, or better than 2019. Makes sense given that Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made everybody's life a living hell last year. Another thing we've talked about, actually, that's relevant [00:07:30] to the show that we're gonna ... Some of the stories we're gonna be talking about later on in this show is will your staff work Saturdays in tax season? We talked about this before - should you make your staff work on Saturdays? That has actually been declining, but it stayed the same last from last year to 2019. 39 percent of firms require their staff to work all Saturdays in tax season; 27 percent, only some Saturdays; and 24 percent say [00:08:00] no, if work is finished; 10 percent, not at all. That's still a pretty good chunk that are requiring their staff to work all Saturdays in tax season. The question is - is that work required from home or at the office? I'm gonna suspect that if they're requiring their staff to work on all Saturdays, probably most of the time it's gonna be at that office because, otherwise, how would you know they're working? Right? What else here? Looks like more firms are getting involved in payroll, [00:08:30] in CAS. Those two are growing a lot. Payroll, about half of firms offer it now - 53 percent; 20 percent plan to add it. That's good news for the payroll processors, or the payroll apps out there. 20 percent of firms plan to add it. For CAS, only 29 percent currently offer client accounting services, or outsourced accounting, and 22 percent plan to offer it or add it in 2020. That is huge growth. Overall, [00:09:00] firms are planning to increase tech spending a little bit. In terms of remote staff, 64 percent of firms have no remote staff, and the rest have one, two, or three, or more. Only 64 percent, however, do not have any fully, fully remote staff, I should say. Those are the highlights for me. David Leary: Cool! Like I said, I would love to see a year-over-year monitor of trends. That would be great ... Blake Oliver: Oh, one more bonus step! Sorry- David Leary: No, that's all right. Do it. Blake Oliver: I'm a little disorganized today. David, [00:09:30] just take a guess - if you're not looking at this - how many firms, small and mid-sized, do you think are on LinkedIn? What percentage? I actually say Facebook, too. LinkedIn, and Facebook. David Leary: It's gotta be pushing 80, 90 percent? Blake Oliver: You are way too optimistic, I'm afraid. It's only in the 50s ... David Leary: Wow ... Blake Oliver: 53 percent of small firms are on LinkedIn. 53 percent of small firms are on Facebook. Mid-sized firms, you'd think that would be more, right? No. 56 [00:10:00] percent on LinkedIn; 59 percent on Facebook. Even the large firms doesn't even break 80 percent. Only 78 percent of large firms are involved in social media, on LinkedIn. David Leary: So, how are all these LinkedIn, "We'll help you get clients," accounting-firm coaching people ... How are they reaching half their potential customers if they're not on LinkedIn, or Facebook? Blake Oliver: I don't know. Good question. I wonder if- David Leary: Cold-calling on the phone? Are they doing the same thing? Blake Oliver: Well, I wonder if the question is about whether or not they're involved in social media, [00:10:30] from a firm perspective - like, you have a company page that you actively promote content on, or if it's just all individual? I could imagine the partners are probably all on LinkedIn. You gotta be there, but maybe the firm doesn't have somebody who's doing social media for the firm; it's just individuals? David Leary: I mean, just us doing it on the show, we have all our socials. You and I both have our own personal socials, and it's work trying to do the show ones, as well. Blake Oliver: Yep. David Leary: So, I get why they may not have the firm [00:11:00] as a presence on the ... I get less for Facebook, but I definitely think more on LinkedIn, maybe as people are more comfortable with the business relationship there, possibly, but I guess we'll see. I have a couple things from last week to update on. Blake Oliver: Yeah. David Leary: All right, so last week, we talked about CakeHR. So, Sage bought CakeHR ... Blake Oliver: Yes. David Leary: And I misread the article. Then, the article actually left out, possibly, information. One of the founders of CakeHR reached out to me [00:11:30] on Twitter and just gave me a little correction. I can't figure out ... His Twitter handle's @ERTSNO, and it says Nori on Twitter, but then he says, "Hi, Norberts here ..." so I'm not sure of the exact name here. Feels like there's three versions of a name. So, he just pointed out that, hey, they span- they're in 60-plus countries; because I think, last week, I said that they were only in the UK and Australia, but that was in reference to, actually, Sage Intacct. The article just didn't [00:12:00] make it very clear, so I misread that. Blake Oliver: Okay. David Leary: Then, they actually don't do any payroll, yet, services ... They do not offer payroll services. It's just HR-management-type services. Blake Oliver: Interesting. So, Sage then needs to acquire a payroll company, as well, to bundle into their Sage Accounting, unless they've already done that, and we just are not informed ... Yeah. Interesting. Sage Accounting is not big in the United States, so I'm very ignorant of it. So, maybe if somebody knows, they could reach out and let us know if there is an integrated payroll solution that's owned by Sage [crosstalk] David Leary: Doing [00:12:30] payroll in multiple countries is very, very hard; that's [crosstalk] Blake Oliver: Oh, really hard. Insanely hard. David Leary: That's where it's really interesting ... As you're seeing, Xero's partnering with Gusto here in the states. Intuit partnered with KeyPay in Australia. I think Intuit partnered with a payroll provider in the UK, payroll provider in Canada ... You almost have to utilize an app or a company that's in each region because it's just- the payroll's just complex. I think there's dreams of one company that does payroll in every single country, but it's not really a [crosstalk] Blake Oliver: Never. No, not gonna happen. David Leary: It's gonna be a little hard for ... Then, [00:13:00] another kind of tie back into last week. This is also from Twitter, Alicia, whose Twitter handle's @GetOff_MyLawn, she posted a letter. This was about a half a day after we recorded last week. Remember, we talking about the gold rush of apps - it's over, right? Blake Oliver: Mm-hmm. David Leary: You have to start building new SaaS-app-type models, which include adding services, and which is the QB Live model ... The article [00:13:30] really pointed out - this is the new business model. You kinda have to go down this path. Well, she posted a letter. She got a physical paper letter - a photo - that she got from Sage, and she made a comment ... I'll read her tweet. She said, "The plot thickens. Sage Partners knows QuickBooks' mistake is bigger than what they want to believe it is," and then she CC'd us on this. This image, the letter from Sage, clearly jabs about some accounting software packages are gonna try and steal your clients. It's kinda- Blake Oliver: The headline [00:14:00] is, "A partner you can trust," in this letter. So, they were mailing these letters out to probably QuickBooks partners, right? David Leary: Yeah. Blake Oliver: Trying to get them to switch to Sage Business Cloud Accounting. It says, "Are you worried your software provider may be stealing your clients? You need a secure accounting solution that will keep your firm's best interests in mind, ensure your financial data is safe, and protect your client base." Then, they go on to talk about Sage Business Cloud Accounting ... David Leary: Where I'm coming from on this ... I was already like 99.9-percent sure, there's no way Xero, and Sage [00:14:30] can't go to this model. They're all gonna have to do it. But then, after you surfaced that article last week about this SaaS gold rush, I'm 100-percent sure they have to do it. So, I'm wondering what ... How are communications like this going to come back to bite? Because I think Xero also put out a communication like this, right after QB Live was announced. Blake Oliver: Right. David Leary: Are they gonna come back to bite them? Are they setting themselves up for- setting up a bad expectation? Because they're public companies, and The Street, investors ... That article was from an investor. Investors are going demand that they do this, and they've been [00:15:00] communicating it, "We'll never do this." I think that it might bite them eventually here-. Blake Oliver: Or maybe people will just forget about it. So, interesting- David Leary: Anyways, if you haven't listened to last week's episode, I think there's gold in there about ... It's not just Blake and I talking about these new models. Others outside of our industry are noticing these new business models. Blake Oliver: Continuing on with app news, Xero is changing their pricing and, big news, they are also bundling Hubdoc with Xero. Starting on March 18, 2020, the [00:15:30] price of Xero Early, Growing, and Established plans is increasing by $2 a month in the United States. Cashbook and Ledger, no price increase. That's not changing; business as usual. Then, in exchange, essentially for that price increase, Xero is going to include Hubdoc for that price, which is normally $20 a month per client. Now you get that included with Xero Early, Growing, and Established plans. So, David, did you see this coming? Was this something that you saw on the horizon [00:16:00] when Xero acquired Hubdoc? David Leary: I mean, obviously, they're going to bundle and offer a cheaper price to the existing customers. It doesn't mean it's gonna be a closed platform or anything like that. It's just- Blake Oliver: No. David Leary: -of course, there's [inaudible] some sort of bundling or price discount. That totally makes sense to me. I noticed on the socials, people were ... Some people were shocked by this. Some people were upset by this. Some people thought it was really good. Like, "Hey, for two bucks more, now I get this $20 program ..." Blake Oliver: The partners who [00:16:30] are currently using that as their tech stack - Xero and Hubdoc - man, they are really happy because it just cut their Hubdoc costs by 90 percent. David Leary: Especially if you've already figured this into your fixed fee or value-billing model, right? Blake Oliver: Right! David Leary: Your costs just finally went down. Blake Oliver: You just got 18 bucks back per client to utilize on other SaaS, or whatever you want. Maybe it's just profit. So- David Leary: Cloud Accounting Podcast T-shirts. Blake Oliver: Yeah, I think this is brilliant, especially since, to be honest ... This was part of the discussion. It's not just me. People [00:17:00] were talking about this on online. Hubdoc has not done a lot in the way of feature improvements in a while. The user interface could use some improvement. So, it's not the same level of product as Xero, in terms of polish. So, I think for Xero to try and sell it as a Xero product didn't make a lot of sense unless they were gonna put a ton of resources into it. Making it free, or included, it allows that existing product to add value without people feeling [00:17:30] like, "Hey, come on, guys, this needs more work." It does, like any product. It's younger than Xero. It's not been around as long. So, hopefully they'll continue to work on it and not just now give it away for free. But I think it was a really smart move, and I would anticipate AutoEntry becoming free as part of the Sage Cloud Accounting offering, as well. It would make total sense, especially since QuickBooks now has that integrated receipt processing. David Leary: Yeah, it makes sense to bundle your existing services and offer [00:18:00] them to your own customers at a cheaper price ... I don't know if it's necessarily news, but, obviously, we have to cover it because that's what people are talking about. I think it's a natural thing. Speaking of something else people are talking about that's an app update - in QuickBooks Online, there's a plus (+) sign, and you click that to add ... It's a quick way to click and access all the things you want to add - any transaction types - to QuickBooks Online. They moved the plus sign! It moved from the upper right-hand corner to the left-hand menu bar, along with the other actions [00:18:30] you'd be clicking. Instead of your focus being on the left margin bar and then shifting to the right when you wanna do a new transaction, you're just all in the same spot, which is fine, but people train themselves, right? I saw a couple funny tweets about it. Somebody said, like, for five years, they were QuickBooks trainer, and every class, they told people this is the most important button. It's always in the right-hand corner, and now it moves. So, there's a little of that. But then, I talked to- Cathy Iconis loosely was telling me that ... She has her website, QBO Chat, and she has [00:19:00] lots of blog post, and people go there for help and QBO-type resources. She said that instantly, one of her top search terms is "Where's the plus sign?" This move, the people did not find it ... It moved, and actually changed to more of an oval, as well. So, it's just new ... If you're looking for it, and you're listening to podcast, and you still can't find it, it's over there on the left margin now. Blake Oliver: So, it's gone from the right to the left. David Leary: Yes, yes. Blake Oliver: That is confusing, though, and maybe small changes like that should be communicated with [00:19:30] a big pop-up, or something? David Leary: Well, there is a pop-up ... I don't know if that pop-up was added a couple days later, but there is a pop-up that draws attention that it's been moved over to the left. Blake Oliver: Well, hey, while we're speaking about app changes, a small but important update from Practice Ignition that I wanted to highlight from last month. Now, you can get paid faster with client self-service payment retries. So, previously with Practice Ignition, if a client's credit card or payment method failed, you had to get involved. It wasn't easy [00:20:00] for them to go and retry the failed payment themselves. Now clients can do it. They'll get notified and then they can say, "Charge me again," so less problems for accounting firms, or less issues when it comes to like a credit card changing or what not- David Leary: That's good. Blake Oliver: So, yeah ... David Leary: I have a small update on Canopy. I think last week, we talked about how Canopy's CEO was leaving the company. Blake Oliver: Yeah, well, he got booted ... After all those layoffs they had to do, something- [00:20:30] David Leary: Failed product releases, et cetera. So, Canopy named a new CEO now, and they raised an additional $13 million dollars in funding- Blake Oliver: All right. David Leary: -from the existing investors. So, they're going to pivot and just double down on their existing tax practice management software- Blake Oliver: They are un-pivoting. David Leary: Or, un-pivoting, yeah. Blake Oliver: Exactly [crosstalk] David Leary: Which was the original focus- Blake Oliver: The original thing was the practice management solution, and then they added ... They said, "We're gonna do tax, too," and they're going back to practice management. David Leary: Yeah, and it [00:21:00] sounds like ... The fact that the existing investors put more money in tells me that the runway of what money they probably had left was probably running out very fast, but they obviously cared, and they believe in enough of the core product, and the opportunity there to invest more. But it sounds like, based on our observation of Canopy last year, it was highly mismanaged. People made a lot of mistakes, or they placed the wrong big bets. Blake Oliver: My theory is they just got too ambitious, tried to grow too quickly, and it was a lot harder than they thought it was gonna be. Tax is [00:21:30] really hard. David Leary: Yeah, or everybody'd be building a tax product. Blake Oliver: Exactly. David Leary: Everybody's building a time-sheet app, or a dashboard app because those are easy, apparently. This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by OnPay. Many times, when choosing a payroll service, you have to choose between a new startup with a great app, or an established company whose tech may feel a little behind the times. With OnPay, you get the best of both worlds - a great app from an established company that's been providing payroll for over 30 years in all 50 states. OnPay is an easy-to-use, full-service payroll with simple, straightforward pricing, and it includes all their features - employee self-onboarding, HR tools, health insurance, worker's comp tracking, and 401(k). With an accountant's dashboard and partner program combined with best-in-class integrations with Xero, and QuickBooks, OnPay is the right fit for all your clients, whether they have just one or 500 employees. They also handle all the complicated stuff that other payroll providers don't, like agricultural payrolls, including Form 943, multi-state payrolls, and employees with H-2A visas. I'm really excited to tell you that OnPay is offering an exclusive promo code only for the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to get three free months of OnPay payroll service for any of your clients that you set up by February of 2020. Head over to CloudAccountingPodcast.promo/onpay. That is Cloud Accounting Podcast dot promo forward slash O-N-P-A-Y, and use code "CAP3FREE," when you sign up your clients. That is C-A-P, the number 3, F-R-E-E. And to be clear, you cannot get this promo anywhere else. It's only available to the listeners of the Cloud Accounting Podcast. Blake Oliver: Follow on to the Bill.com news we've covered, Bill.com filed to go public a few weeks ago. They kind of surprised me because they only filed for a $100 million IPO, and they're worth over a billion dollars, so that was kind of like a small amount. They have now boosted their target on the IPO [00:23:30] to raise nearly $183 million, so they're going way up. David Leary: That's a very exact amount; like it very calculated and thought out. Blake Oliver: Yeah, maybe that was the original amount, and then [crosstalk] David Leary: -$85 million more, or just go for another $100 million. You're already ... It's interesting how exacting that is. Blake Oliver: We've got like 10 minutes left before I gotta run. Do we wanna talk about remote work, or do we got any other stuff to hit before that? David Leary: Before we get into remote work, did you see the op-ed piece from Ranica Arrowsmith about celebrity keynotes? Blake Oliver: Yes, and [00:24:00] I'm curious to know what you think. I kind of agree with her. David Leary: She was not impressed with the celebrity keynotes that happened at QuickBooks Connect. She goes pretty hard on them about how they really didn't ... There was no value for accountants or small business owners. She went pretty hard on them. She actually even said that she got up and left one of them. Then she just questioned the whole need of these keynotes. For her, as a reporter, she'd rather see somebody show something about the product or a VP, or somebody talk [00:24:30] about things like that. I get where she's coming from, and I kind of agree, to some extent ... Do you remember when we were at Sage Intacct, and we were walking away, after the inspirational keynote. We were walking down the hallway, and we were both just like, "What was the point of that?" Blake Oliver: I don't even remember who spoke. David Leary: It was the painter guy ... Blake Oliver: Oh, yeah, the guy ... He paints on stage and then, talks and does inspirational speaking while he paints. Yeah, and it had nothing to do with accounting, or finance, [00:25:00] or anything ... I mean, vaguely kind of not even business-related. David Leary: I totally hear where she's coming from. My take is I'm not sure. At one level, I agree. I didn't think the keynotes were outstanding this year, at QuickBooks Connect. On the other hand, I don't know ... Am I tainted because, oh, I got to see Oprah once, and I saw Magic Johnson, and I saw [crosstalk] Blake Oliver: Any [00:25:30] of this stuff can be hit or miss. I think part of the problem with the celebrity keynotes is that, especially with the big ones, they do the same talk for all sorts of different groups. So, of course, it can't possibly be targeted or specific to what we do, so sometimes, it's very general, and it's not very relevant. David Leary: Yeah, I think that's the takeaway for me ... If I think back to the first QuickBooks Connect, people talked more about their small business problems. Martha Stewart was talking about how [00:26:00] her friends and neighbors made fun of her. "Oh, you're opening this cute little business up in your garage," and those are true small business problems ... I feel like the current- even though I could relate when Jade Simmons was talking about how her kid ... You make eggs for them on Monday and they don't wanna eat them on Friday - the same eggs - and it drives you crazy as a parent ... I can relate to that. It's not that they weren't relatable. I'm just like, are we hearing the small business story, entrepreneur story? Blake Oliver: Yeah. Exactly. That's what I like ... One that springs to mind that was really good is [00:26:30] at one of the XeroCons, they had. Marcus Lemonis come and speak- David Leary: The Profit, yeah. Blake Oliver: Yeah, the guy from the show, "The Profit." He's an entrepreneur; he's a businessman; he helps people with their businesses. That was all super-relevant and really cool. He talks about personal responsibility ... As a business owner, myself, or former business owner - well, I guess the podcast is a business, so that counts, too - it really resonated with me; whereas Ashton Kutcher, at QuickBooks Connect, he's [00:27:00] an investor; he's a celebrity. I don't know, I didn't have much ... Obviously, I think he's cool, and it's cool to see Ashton Kutcher, but I don't relate to him. Let's talk about remote work. David Leary: Yes, since we're both remote, recording this. Blake Oliver: Yes, and we promised we would talk about it last episode, so we'd better do it. I'm trying to remember, actually, what got us on that subject. I don't even remember. David Leary: You mentioned that there was some article about remote workers in Japan got way more efficient- Blake Oliver: Oh, yes ... David Leary: Then, coincidentally, I had an article about Zapier. They have the remote work report from Zapier out. Blake Oliver: Okay, here's [00:27:30] what started this whole thing was Microsoft doing an experiment in Japan. In August of 2018, Microsoft's Japan subsidiary closed every Friday in August, and you would think that productivity might stay stagnant or drop. David Leary: And this was in Japan, where things are very regimented. Blake Oliver: Oh, yeah. I bet very few people in Japan work remotely. It's like you go to the office, and you gotta be there. Well, they closed their office every Friday in August, in Japan, and saw a 40-percent [00:28:00] boost in productivity. FORTY PERCENT boost in productivity. Full-time employees, they were given paid leave during the closures. So, they were paid the same as if they came in five days a week. One of the other things that Microsoft did because they had less time in the office, is they reduced their time spent in meetings by implementing a 30-minute limit for meetings and encouraging remote communication. David Leary: So, they changed two variables at once, so it may not be the four-day workweek. It just may have been killing meetings. Blake Oliver: Well, and it could've been just killing [00:28:30] the meetings, but you have to kill the meetings if you're gonna cut your workplace by- or your time at work by 20 percent because ... I don't know; this is my personal experience, but I feel like most of the time in the office is just wasted in meetings that wouldn't happen or they'd be shorter if they were just done remotely and if they were limited. How many meetings actually need to be more than 30 minutes? If they do need to be more, maybe you could just schedule another meeting. If all meetings are an hour by default, just cutting them to 30 minutes, you probably can get the same [00:29:00] amount done if you're just efficient. It's like today, with the podcast. We're going 30 minutes, or we're gonna try to. Normally, we go an hour, but we probably fit in just as much good stuff. David Leary: That ties into the remote work from Zapier. 42 percent of people in their survey say that they're more productive at home. Blake Oliver: It's because you're not distracted ... Did they give reasons why they're more productive at home in the Zapier survey? I feel like it's because I'm not distracted. David Leary: I don't have the exact quote here, but they referenced about just these conversations at work; these meetings, and water-cooler talk- Blake Oliver: Water-cooler talk, yeah. David Leary: Just, it all adds [00:29:30] up. It just all adds up to being unproductive. The interesting thing is 52 percent of baby boomers said they feel that they're more productive at home, but only 11 percent, currently, of boomers get to work home [crosstalk] work remotely- Blake Oliver: Work remotely, full time. David Leary: Full time. So, that's kind of interesting. Blake Oliver: Now, we should say this is a survey of 880 U.S. knowledge workers, so we're talking white-collar people who work in front of a computer, so the home-office thing makes a lot of sense. There were some other stats [00:30:00] in here that are really cool. You wanna read those? David Leary: Yeah. One of the big questions is the vast majority think the office, itself, will be obsolete by 2030. I don't know if I buy into that or not, but that could be interesting. Some scary ones for you firm owners out there. 74 percent of people said they would quit their current job to get a job that lets them work remotely. Blake Oliver: I've talked to firm owners who have remote accounting firms. We have talked to those owners, and they say that the fully remote aspect is one of the big draws, so they're stealing [00:30:30] staff from the firms that won't let them work remote. David Leary: For those of you with your firms that are like, "Hey, we have free lunches, or we are gonna offer unlimited vacation," remote working is the most highly desired perk; even more than free lunches and unlimited vacations. So, if you're thinking about how you're gonna reach and hire people, remote work is really, really big. Blake Oliver: Some more stats here related to that 74 percent willing to quit their job to work remote - 31 percent would like to work remote, but their company doesn't allow it, and 26 percent [00:31:00] already have quit their job for one that allows remote work. That's crazy. That's a lot, like a quarter of people in the survey quit their job for a job that would let them work remote. David Leary: I've been doing this for 12, 13, 14 years now, to some extent; not always at home, but within a remote- a team that's located in another city if you wanna think about it that way; it's kind of like remote work. I don't know how I ... I don't even know how I could [00:31:30] work not doing that way now. I don't know how I could go back to, "All right, we're all in the same room together eight hours a day." I don't even know if I could work the other way anymore. Blake Oliver: Yeah. David Leary: The other one that I thought was really interesting, and this ties back to about WeWork, only 11 percent of remote workers feel they get more work done in a co-working space. Blake Oliver: Yeah, you don't go to the co-working space to get more work done. I think you go to have like people time because, if you spend all your time at home, in the office, at home, it can [00:32:00] be kind of isolating. David Leary: Yeah ... Blake Oliver: I like to go to a co-working space once or twice a week. It's like going to the coffee shop, like you like to say, David. David Leary: Yeah, just, it's cheaper ... Blake Oliver: Also, I have an article related to this about why remote workers are more productive. It's called, "Asynchronous Communication: The Real Reason Remote Workers Are More Productive." This is on Doist.com, and the argument in this article is that remote workers are more productive because [00:32:30] it forces the company and their co-workers to embrace asynchronous communication; meaning that ... Asynchronous meaning that it's not at the same time. So, giving employees control over when they communicate with their teammates ... In an office setting, I, as the manager, or co-worker, can just walk up to you, David, and you're working hard on something. You're deep in the flow. You're writing some amazing piece of content, perhaps ... Then, I tap you on the shoulder and that pulls you out of that. Now, you [00:33:00] have to respond immediately to my concern, which may be completely inconsequential, or, even if it's important, it distracted you and set you back, and now it's gonna take you time to get back into the flow. David Leary: Well, I think I've seen studies that it's like- it takes you at least 20 minutes to get back on track after somebody interrupts you. Blake Oliver: Right. That's one of the reasons why it's really hard to focus at work is because anybody can just ... Especially if you don't have your own office, and you can't close the door ... If you're just in an open workspace, people can just walk up to you, take you out of your flow of doing the work and [00:33:30] distract you. So, by having people work at home ... Of course, this can be a problem with like Slack, and chat, but if you have the right expectations about communication, and you say, "Look, you just have to get back to me in a few hours, when I ask for something," or, if it's really important, have a way to call people; to say, "I'm gonna call you if it's really important, but otherwise, I don't expect you to respond to my emails immediately," people can be way more productive. That's the argument in this article. I think it's really worth a read if you're a firm owner and you want to help your [00:34:00] employees be more productive. Whether or not they're in an office, or at home, just letting them embrace asynchronous communication and not have to be constantly responding to their co-workers and to their managers will really help. David Leary: Yeah, because I think some of the most productive time is when I'm on an airplane flight. It's anywhere nobody's going to bother you, or tap you on the shoulder ... I know for a fact, if I'm at Starbucks, nobody's gonna come and talk to me. Even though there's noise, and there's [00:34:30] action, and there's hustling, and bustling, nobody's trying to get my attention, and that's, I think, the ... How do you create that? If you're not gonna offer remote work, how do you create that in your office? Is it special rooms that are soundproof that people can actually turn a lock on the door that nobody can open? I don't know ... How do you create this environment? Blake Oliver: Yeah, well, I wouldn't recommend that because I think HR would have a problem with that. But the expectation that if you close the door, nobody's gonna interrupt you would be good, yeah. David Leary: Well, [inaudible] put the locks on the opposite side. Blake Oliver: Well, [00:35:00] David, I gotta run to the airport, so that's all the time I've got this week. Anything our listeners should know before we go? David Leary: We have about four more days to get your limited-edition Cloud Accounting Podcast T-shirts. The link's in the show notes. Blake Oliver: Head to the merch store, and if you wanna follow me on Twitter, I'm @BlakeTOliver. How about you, David? David Leary: I'm @DavidLeary. Have a good week, and we'll talk to everybody next week. Blake Oliver: Thanks, David. See ya! David Leary: All right, bye.