I’m still just positively buzzing from CPA Con on Tuesday. It was a great opportunity to hear from some truly phenomenal leaders in the accounting industry and I felt like I learned a lot. For starters, I learned about the benefits of off-shoring. My business is in a place where I really need to hire help if I want to grow, but that cuts into profits. As a business owner, you run the risk of hiring someone and if you lose business, then you have someone on payroll that you don’t have enough work for and that you may not be able to afford. Off-shoring sounds like a nice half-step between being a one-person shop and hiring a part-time employee. I was always a little hesitant to do it because I thought it was more of a solution for larger firms, but from what I learned at CPA Con, it sounds like it’s a solution that can be customized for businesses of any size.
Another conversation that was unexpectedly intriguing was about AI and Blockchain and how the two can actually work together to help the accounting field eliminate some of the more repetitive tasks. We are warned in our field not to trust AI because a lot of times it’s incorrect. I use AI for some administrative tasks like helping write emails or blog posts, but I often find I have to do a lot of editing because it’s not fine tuned to my field of work. It never occurred to me that there may be AI systems available specifically for accountants that would be more reliable. It also sounds like there is a plan to use blockchain to regulate AI so that it will become more reliable in the future.
Of course my two favorite panels were the Tax Planning and Hollywood Accounting panel. The Tax Planning panel talked a lot about educating the client because a “knowledgeable client is a less risky client.” I’ve had several clients that I’ve had to disengage with because their “tax strategies” posed a risk to my license. I think in our industry, we have this need to protect our intellectual property because we worked so hard for it, but informing clients on basic tax information would not eliminate their need for us. If anything, making sure clients understand the basics would give us more time to focus on the more detailed tax issues where our expertise is really needed. And educating clients it’s something that breaks up the monotony of filing tax returns and helps to alleviate some of the burn out.
The Hollywood Accounting panel was really insightful. Part of why I chose to go to law school in California was because of the availability of entertainment law programs. But a concern I had was that there might not be a demand in the entertainment industry for someone with a CPA license and a law degree and I found out on Tuesday that that could not be further from the truth. A lawyer on the panel actually said the best entertainment lawyers have a background in accounting because most of the arguments are about money. And because many people in the accounting field don’t think about working in entertainment, a lot of the accountants working in the entertainment industry are usually people who don’t have a degree in accounting, so their knowledge on the subject is limited.
So yes, the first CPA Con was well worth the trip to Los Angeles. I really hope more state societies do something like this to help small firm owners and generate interest with accounting students. I think one of my biggest complaints about my education is that there is no preparation on how to operate a firm. The focus tends to be on preparing you to work for a large accounting firm, but that’s not the right path for everyone. But one of the great things about the accounting profession right now is that there is no competition, so there isn’t any hesitation to help each other reach our goals. There are so many people leaving the accounting industry, that it’s really in our best interest to elevate those who are remaining in the field so that they don’t get burnt out and leave too. I think events like this will help keep the conversation going and provide some respite.
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