The Importance of Consulting with Industry Veteran Kim Blascoe: Part 2
In this episode of the SALTovation podcast, we continue our conversation with industry veteran Kim Blascoe. Kim discusses the critical need for upskilling talent within public accounting firms to meet the growing demand for advisory services. Kim shares why firms must assess their current skill sets and develop their teams to deliver effective advisory services as the industry shifts from a compliance-focused model to a more client-centric approach. Listen this week as we discuss how firms can adapt to these changes, and navigate the challenges posed by competition, and the increasing complexity of client needs.
Key Takeaways:
- Upskilling existing talent in public accounting is crucial to meet client advisory needs.
- The pandemic has changed client expectations, making virtual consulting more accepted and effective.
- Client advisory services must focus on delivering real value beyond traditional compliance work.
- Firms should assess their service offerings to include advisory services for competitive advantage.
- Building relationships with clients is essential as advisory services evolve in public accounting.
- Smaller firms can leverage larger firms' resources to enhance their service offerings and expertise.
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Transcript
Welcome to saltivation.
Speaker A:The Saltivation show is a podcast series featuring the leading voices in Salt where we talk about the issues and strategies to help you make sense of state and local tax.
Speaker A:When you talk about upscaling existing talent, what exactly does that mean?
Speaker B:Yeah, so I'll speak from a caste practice perspective, but it really is something across the, the entire gamut of public accounting firms.
Speaker B:So we have people that come out of school and have basically been taught compliance based stuff.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:It's all still technical training.
Speaker B:Not very much.
Speaker B:Even soft skill training when you think about that.
Speaker B:So we have these kids coming out of school and we're looking at them and we're saying, okay, it took me 20 years to build my advisory level skill set that I have.
Speaker B:You don't have 20 years.
Speaker B:So how can we get you to to an advisor level type of role as quickly as possible and what can we do to do that?
Speaker B:So first of all, we're looking at our practices and we're saying, let's take a skills gap assessment on what you have today.
Speaker B:Because if you want your services to include advisory services, you have to have the people that actually can deliver the advisory services.
Speaker B:And so often in our practices right now, we don't have that, especially in our CAASPP practices.
Speaker B:We have a lot of CAS practices that are really, really good at transactional through controller type of services and they can't figure out how to move beyond that.
Speaker B:So that's one of the things we work with firms on in our coaching program is thinking about the whole build.
Speaker B:So we call it kind of building a factory.
Speaker B:Like you wouldn't open a door to a factory with only one piece of equipment.
Speaker B:If you need six pieces of equipment to deliver the product that you want to deliver, we need our cast practices to think that way too.
Speaker B:So if you look at your services, we look at who you're going to work for, like the clients, basically the industry niche, niche that you're going to work in, like who's going to deliver that?
Speaker B:And how do we get those people upskilled to those, to those different skill sets that we have today?
Speaker B:Some people will never be able to deliver consulting services and advisory services.
Speaker B:It's just not in their DNA.
Speaker B:They're technical people.
Speaker B:We need technical people.
Speaker B:That's all good.
Speaker B:I think we just have to embrace the fact that not everybody's gonna be an advisor, but the people that you do see like a glimmer, like early on in their careers, it's like those are the individuals you grab, you mentor, you put in upskilling programs.
Speaker B:We're actually working.
Speaker B: 'll have a launch on this for: Speaker B:So, like, they can come and spend three days on site somewhere, and it literally is like, you know, doing, like, working with other people and doing role play type of stuff, you know, so that individuals get more comfortable doing that, because, again, we don't have 20 years to build these advisors.
Speaker B:We need it now.
Speaker B:Clients are asking for these services that they weren't asking for ten years ago.
Speaker B:Certainly the pandemic has changed a lot of that, too.
Speaker B:That scared a lot of people.
Speaker B:There were a lot of businesses that ended up not making it because they didn't have the cash flow that they needed to sustain a pandemic.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So there was no cash flow planning.
Speaker B:There was nobody.
Speaker B:I mean, nobody realized a pandemic was gonna happen.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:Maybe some doomsday people were saying it was gonna happen.
Speaker B:Most of us didn't believe it, right.
Speaker B:And I think even when we were still home almost a year later, we still didn't believe we were, like, in the situation that we were in.
Speaker B:But you think about, like, how do we get individuals to a point where the skill sets that they have match the services that we're providing inside of practices and firms are looking all the time for opportunities to upskill those individuals?
Speaker B:There's just not a lot out there that's still an area that's being widely built out from a training and education perspective, for sure, because you learn rules.
Speaker D:And we should clarify that.
Speaker D:CAS means client advisory services, which is a very broad based word.
Speaker D:I mean, right.
Speaker D:Acronym.
Speaker D:Because honestly, client advisory.
Speaker D:Like, what does that mean?
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, one of the things that we're really working with now, advisory leaders.
Speaker B:So one step up from cast leaders, because most of our cast leaders roll up through advisory inside of public practices, especially the large firms.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So one of the things we're working on@cpa.com.
Speaker B:is how do we take all those advisory services, right.
Speaker B:There's a lot of them.
Speaker B:Anything that doesn't fall into tax or audit or a test falls into advisory or consulting services, right?
Speaker B:So how do we take all of those services and start focusing on the client centric model where what's the best for the client?
Speaker B:So, like, not thinking about a lot of times in VAR, which is the direct technology build for a client rather than going through like a client advisory services practices where we build the technology for the client.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:That we're going to use for that client.
Speaker B:So a little bit different model.
Speaker B:Like they're very focused on a get in and get out model.
Speaker B:Cass is very focused on get in and stay model.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:You know, so it's a, it's a very, very different model.
Speaker B:But you know, one of the things on the VAR side of the house is they're very focused on selling this and moving on to my next sale.
Speaker B:We're not like that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So we're like, how do we get everybody thinking bigger?
Speaker B:So, and also a lot of the larger firms have an outsourced CFO practice.
Speaker B:So if you take those, the bar, the outsourced CFO, the CAS practice, and you start getting them to work together on what's the best opportunity for the client, what's best for the client, and what's also then does that make it good for the firm?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So we want to say to the bar practice is just building out that technology for client the right move, or should you be talking to the client about potentially client advisory services?
Speaker B:Maybe they don't need a tech build, maybe they just need outsourced accounting and CFO services.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:And that could solve their problem.
Speaker B:And then the firm benefits from that too, because it's not a one time fee and it's recurring revenue.
Speaker B:It's recurring revenue.
Speaker B:And everybody loves recurring revenue.
Speaker B:You think about all the PE backed stuff that's happening now.
Speaker B:They love the recurring revenue, so they immediately go to the advisory.
Speaker B:They love cast practices because it is based off of recurring revenue.
Speaker D:Yep.
Speaker D:No, it's a huge, and I found that myself because we've done a lot of automation where we'll set people up to click sales tax, get them licensed, all the things, and then they don't maintain it.
Speaker D:Or the people that started it helped get it set up, leave and you're thinking, oh my gosh, nobody's watching it anymore.
Speaker D:You were watching it.
Speaker D:Who's going to watch it now?
Speaker D:And I think there's a lot of that happening in the co sourcing outsourcing area and in software where people are thinking, set it, forget it, is just not correct.
Speaker D:It's not set it, forget it.
Speaker D:So there's a huge disparity between what software companies and tech, you know, all the things, it's just rolling up where people like, they want to hand it off because they're CEO's and they're visionaries, but they are like, I didn't pick the right pieces to get my business in order.
Speaker A:So then in the spirit of that kind of dynamic software, recurring revenue kind of changes, in what ways are you seeing CPA firms kind of pivoting and transforming their practices?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think one of the most important things that we need to think through is that we are still a fairly compliance based industry.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And there's so much competition other than a test, which we own.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:The audit space.
Speaker B:Public accounting firms own that space.
Speaker B:Other than a test, though, we really, public accounting firms don't own anything else.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So tax cast services, all these additional advisory services, technically, anybody with a skill set can do those.
Speaker B:And we are seeing competition come into the split that is very compliance based but also very client centric.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So they throw a bunch of technology at it.
Speaker B:They have a very specific, ideal client profile that they're going after, and they have way more money.
Speaker B:A lot of them are pe backed, so they have a lot more money to throw at things.
Speaker B:So I think the importance to the accounting industry is to take a step back and say, where are we only doing compliance?
Speaker B:And can we add advisory to everything that we're doing from a compliance perspective?
Speaker B:And then also looking at what advisory and outsourcing opportunities are we not, do we not have in our toolkit today that we should potentially look at adding?
Speaker B:And the importance of that is that CPA firms still have the relationship with the majority of clients.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So if you look at, we mentioned in the beginning, there's 46,000 CPA firms out there.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And you think about that.
Speaker B:So they're the ones that hold the majority of the relationships if we don't keep up with the competition or stay ahead, really, I think I look at adding an advisory to everything we do as staying ahead of the competition because the competition is still very compliance based.
Speaker B:If we don't do that, we're going to lose our leg in the industry, and we don't want to do that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So it's very, very important to AICPA and cPA.com that we continue to advocate for that in the industry, for adding advisory services to everything we do for compliance so that we maintain the relationships and stay ahead of the competition.
Speaker A:Well, and that's where we even see from, you know, we work with sales tax software vendors to help our clients solve a problem that they have.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker A:They need to collect sales tax.
Speaker A:They need to get on invoice.
Speaker A:What's the best way to do that.
Speaker A:And so often we partner with various sales tax software platforms, but what we also are finding them doing, it's like, you know, that same kind of vein of, well, we can solve this problem by way of putting tax on an invoice.
Speaker A:Oh, but then we can help you register.
Speaker A:Oh, and then we can help you research the tax rules and then we can help you put all of that collected tax on a tax return.
Speaker A:So they are expanding and kind of, I would say kind of doing what you're suggesting CPA firms do.
Speaker A:But at the same time, you've got to understand, like really, what's your core competency and what are you really good at?
Speaker A:Because as a software vendor, you're not good at advisory services when you're also not an advisory firm, but also the advisory firms, it's like we do, and kind of going back to some of our earlier conversation, we do want to be kind of like all things for our clients because that is that relationship and we value that connection and want to assist you with your problems.
Speaker A:But at the same time, that's where we look at it.
Speaker A:It's like, well, we've got to also partner with other firms because we can't be all things to all people.
Speaker A:So let's get to know really good people that we can refer you to and us as state and local tax experts.
Speaker A:We don't have to also be competent in permanent establishment for some of our non us based businesses, but let's partner with some of those other firms that are really good at that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you know, I think we a lot of times talk, even in our coaching program, we talk about we work because we work a small, medium and large firms, right, when we do coaching and consulting and you know, I always tell everybody, I'm like, okay, think about, think about the difference in the service offerings that you have between small, medium and large firms, right?
Speaker B:So your large firms, they probably have a huge amount of service offerings that they do, including assault practice, including a payroll practice or an HR consulting practice.
Speaker B:So they have, they have like, you know, really like honed in on different services that in a generalist practice they're going to keep at high level.
Speaker B:And the large firms have, you know, kind of scoped that much in more, much more detail.
Speaker B:Then you think about the medium sized firms and they probably have a good number of services but not as many.
Speaker B:So they have to go to find resources in other places and they just build those relationships.
Speaker B:And then you think of the small firms where they're really focused on the some very, you know, small, maybe a small number of services that they have to offer, and they absolutely have to go out and find other resources to help them.
Speaker B:I always said, you know, one of the, you think of one of the beauties of merging in, like, a smaller firm, merging into a larger firm.
Speaker B:It's like heaven on earth the first year when it comes to the service offerings you have available to your clients.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So you have, like, all this growth in the very first year because you're like, oh, my gosh, we can do cyber, we can do R and D credits, you know, like, all these things that before you had to go find resources for.
Speaker B:And you realize, like, how many more service opportunities your clients have inside of those large firms.
Speaker B:But, you know, there's trades to everything you do.
Speaker B:You know, you get into a large firm environment and it becomes a little more of, like, I hate to use the word silo, but, you know, like, you've become more practice and industry focused.
Speaker B:And now that generalist concept is a little bit different.
Speaker B:And not all clients like that.
Speaker B:So some clients like working with small firms because it's a more intimate relationship.
Speaker B:But then you have to go and find some of those additional resources.
Speaker D:And I don't know if we talked about this, but, you know, this whole India thing, we had a huge facility in Hyderabad at Deloitte.
Speaker D:And what I found that was challenging for our team was we had to do things, have them do things three times.
Speaker D:So even though we got this huge cost differential and the salaries, we have this huge training cost to the people in the US and these poor people out of work in the middle of the night.
Speaker D:And I.
Speaker D:And I see this going on, this dilution across the nation.
Speaker D:Why using different countries to take advantage of wage disparity?
Speaker D:And I wonder how you feel about that, given the CPA community in America.
Speaker D:Because it's almost like we're lowering the costs by giving other work to other countries instead of making american business.
Speaker D:Recognize the true cost of doing business in America by paying us wages.
Speaker D:And sometimes I struggle with that, even though there's a need for it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, I mean, I guess I have maybe a couple of thoughts on that one.
Speaker B:I think the philosophy today is different than when we first started getting into the foreign countries from a workspace.
Speaker B:I think now we really have a problem.
Speaker B:Filling seats in the accounting space and hiring offshore helps solve some of those problems.
Speaker B:I think initially the stars in the eyes were all about, oh, my gosh, we can get these individuals for a much smaller fee.
Speaker B:But I agree with you, it wasn't a dollar for dollar trade.
Speaker B:There definitely was a learning and education difference between the individuals in the offshore teams in some of the offshore countries versus what we saw on the us side.
Speaker B:So it really did require additional training.
Speaker B:The other thing is, I think when we first went into the offshore world, and Wiflli's had their offshore world for a really long time, they had it.
Speaker B: When I came in in: Speaker B:I had nothing to do with it.
Speaker B:It already existed.
Speaker B:I inherited it, but it already existed.
Speaker B:But I think back then, you know, it was like, you know, let's, let's look at the profitability aspect of it then.
Speaker B:We very quickly learned that it is really important to do a very defined job description and what you're looking for for skill sets on the offshore piece so that you make sure that everybody's hired for success.
Speaker B:Otherwise you're gonna constantly be disappointed in the quality of the work that you're getting over on the us side.
Speaker B:And I think we all learned from that, right?
Speaker B:It was very much a struggle and we all learned from it.
Speaker B:And I tell my firms that I'm coaching with that are looking at doing an offshore piece.
Speaker B:Cause that's the other thing.
Speaker B:That offshore piece used to be a very big firm thing, right?
Speaker B:Now everybody does offshore small.
Speaker D:I get pissed every day somebody is offshore.
Speaker D:I have resources in India, Philippines.
Speaker D:I'm like, holy moly, I don't know who you are, but they're pitching me to use them.
Speaker B:It's all over the place.
Speaker B:And, you know, in all different service offerings.
Speaker B:It's just the way people are solving some of their employment issues nowadays.
Speaker B:But I think the importance of that goes back to make sure that you know what you're hiring, right?
Speaker B:And make sure that the skill sets that you're hiring fit the service offerings that you expect them to do.
Speaker B:Because when I talk to firms, I'm like, what do you want your offshore piece to do?
Speaker B:And I've been here, right?
Speaker B:Like, I have done the offshore piece.
Speaker B:I get it.
Speaker B:And they're like, I want them to do everything from transactional to controller.
Speaker B:Everything that's not automated.
Speaker B:And I'm like, okay, but you understand controller type of services is a higher level service.
Speaker B:That's a manager level service on the us side, right?
Speaker B:So think about who you're hiring over on the offshore side.
Speaker B:Because in order for them to do those services they have to have the proper training to do them.
Speaker B:You can't expect, you can't expect those individuals to be able to do it on their own.
Speaker B:And their education systems are different than the us education system.
Speaker B:So you might need to send some people over to do some training.
Speaker B:And you know, maybe I always said the beautiful thing would have been to have had somebody that was willing on the us side, a couple people that were willing to maybe go spend a year over in India.
Speaker D:We did a ton of tons of delay, tons of people.
Speaker B:We would send a lot of people over there.
Speaker B:I went over there many times.
Speaker B:So we send a lot of people over there, but nobody was there for the long haul.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Go spend a year, help us train up our people.
Speaker B:So I think that's all really important and something to take into consideration when you're looking at the officer.
Speaker B:So I don't think it's necessarily about profitability anymore.
Speaker B:I think it's about finding people to do the types of services that we need to do for our individual practices because we just don't have as many bodies on the us side.
Speaker D:I think younger generations just wants more time and not as much, you know, hands on and wants to utilize tech.
Speaker D:But there's, there's a dichotomy going on here where they think tech solves all and there's still talent and operations that need to be done.
Speaker D:In fact, just talking to some other firm leaders recently at this boomer conference, which I assume is kind of similar to the CPA.com is doing, which I didn't realize was doing something similar.
Speaker D:That's why we're talking to you.
Speaker D:But logging to these other teams and they're like, well, I did it all the way.
Speaker D:I know how it needs to be filed.
Speaker D:So now I know the automation is right.
Speaker D:And there's nothing to be said about that.
Speaker D:You count on automation.
Speaker D:We don't.
Speaker D:I was taught never to count on automation.
Speaker D:That was just my training.
Speaker D:You can't trust it.
Speaker D:But I think we've got a generation that's saying we'll trust it, but verify.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker D:We don't know how to verify it though, so we gotta kind of figure some of that out nationally.
Speaker D:Meredith and I, years ago, we wrote this article about Sweden because Sweden loves their taxing authority, they love the part of their government that's involved in their life from birth to death.
Speaker D:And so there's something about it they've done really well.
Speaker D:Maybe because they're a homogenous society, I don't know.
Speaker D:But we have this very anti tax culture in America.
Speaker D:And I'm like, but you know, you have roads and schools and fire departments and police and people taking care of science and airports.
Speaker D:I mean, that all took tax dollars.
Speaker D:Like it didn't get built out.
Speaker D:People were going on their wagons and riding horses just a little while ago.
Speaker D:So that all came from people coming together.
Speaker B:Yeah, I have an interesting story about that.
Speaker B:Back when I was doing tax work, I had a client, a new client.
Speaker B:They came into the country.
Speaker B:They were Canadians, they came into the country and so they were living here full time and so they had to file a tax return.
Speaker B:So I did their tax return for him and I told them.
Speaker B:And he was, he was a contractor, so he had to pay Social Security tax and income tax, and they had not been paying at all, right?
Speaker B: He was a: Speaker B:And so I prepared the tax return for them.
Speaker B:I'm like all stressed out because they owed just a ton of money, right?
Speaker B:In my mind, they owed a ton of money income because there was no planning.
Speaker B:There was no planning on the upfront.
Speaker B:It was like, they walked in my office, they said, do this tax return for me.
Speaker B:And I'm like, oh, where are you from?
Speaker B:They're like, oh, we're canadian.
Speaker B:And I'm like, oh, cool, okay.
Speaker B:So we did the tax return, I handed them the bill and they go, that's all we owe.
Speaker B:And so it was a husband and wife.
Speaker B:They were sitting in front of my desk and I'm like, really?
Speaker B:I thought that was horrible.
Speaker B:And they're like, oh my gosh, no.
Speaker B:In Canada, we give minimum 50% of our income back to taxes.
Speaker B:And he's like, we think nothing of it.
Speaker B:And you all complain about how much it costs you in income tax, and even if you have Social Security and Medicare tax to that, you're not giving 50 and your state tax, you're not giving 50% for most people.
Speaker B:I thought that was a really interesting eye opener.
Speaker B:It's a us problem.
Speaker B:It's our thought process about our taxing system and how everybody feels like they get taxed all the way around.
Speaker B:And in all actuality, most countries are much worse than ours.
Speaker D:They're much worse.
Speaker D:And I feel like I wish people would appreciate that.
Speaker D:I always try to get from a perspective, appreciation.
Speaker D:I mean, certainly we advocate on behalf of taxpayers, but we also recognize that they haven't complied.
Speaker D:So we've got to say with governments, like, hey, you know, give these guys a little grace so that we can get them in compliance because they do want to do the right thing.
Speaker D:They just didn't know.
Speaker D:So, you know, but you can only plead the fifth so long.
Speaker B:And, you know, the acknowledgement that government is a business, right?
Speaker B:So if you're running a business, which the government should be running a business, you have to be able to make money in order to do things.
Speaker B:Like you said, nice roads, clean cities, you know, like all those things that take a lot of money, people's time and infrastructure to do.
Speaker B:So somebody has to pay for it.
Speaker B:But also, you know, I don't want to pay any more than my share.
Speaker B:So that's like my whole deal.
Speaker B:Like, I'm happy to pay, but I feel like everybody needs to actually pony up some money as well.
Speaker B:But it's not.
Speaker D:It actually, I feel it works out from my experience, big for regional to small.
Speaker D:I'm like the big firms, the big companies bear the brunt of the tax obligations and small companies get away with murder, which is why the Wayfair decision did even the playing field.
Speaker D:And there's no reason that decision needed to go forward.
Speaker D:Wayfair could have given a rip about South Dakota.
Speaker D:They did it out of the goodness of their hearts because they're very wealthy individuals that started that company.
Speaker D:And they and Newegg and overstock.com all came together, paid the legal fees to have that fight on behalf of taxpayers.
Speaker D:And I think you have come some young tech entrepreneurs who are open to this process as they've learned to deal with America.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:If I've got to do it because I've made myself a big name, I'm going to sue, get sued, get audited, I'm going to kind of settle, I'm going to let it go forward.
Speaker D:And that's how that decision came forward, because it was a hundred percent a plan thing.
Speaker D:It was not, it did not need to go this court.
Speaker D:It was, it was a contrived procedure.
Speaker D:And the fastest way the great Supreme Court was to go through South Dakota.
Speaker D:But playing field to some degree from a.
Speaker B:Changed things.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Definitely changed things.
Speaker B:And I think, you know, to some degree made things a lot more complicated or maybe the.
Speaker D:Yeah, way complicated.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:I've never seen states act that quickly in my whole flipping life.
Speaker D:I've been doing this almost 30 years.
Speaker D:I've never seen every state get on board within three years.
Speaker D:Years.
Speaker D:Every state has a wayfare law.
Speaker D:Now, they all are varied, but they all have one.
Speaker D:You just do not see that kind of conformity ever.
Speaker D:But they're like, there's a huge amount of money not coming to my front door because it's coming to my, I'm getting packages delivered to my front door now, and so I'm going to even it.
Speaker D:And, you know, the other thing, the cost of doing business is slower now because of tech.
Speaker D:And people are open for business everywhere, including myself.
Speaker D:I don't just have Colorado clients.
Speaker D:We have clients all over the world.
Speaker D:We can help anybody because we have tech.
Speaker D:We can talk to you like we're doing now.
Speaker D:We're not barrier.
Speaker D:We don't have barriers to entry by having someone drive up to our office.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker D:And even though we have offices, we work remotely because why go in if we don't need to?
Speaker D:So it's really changed the dynamic of our ability to help one another.
Speaker D:And with tech, we can do it.
Speaker D:I mean, of course, we were pandemic proof because, you know, you were already in that job.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, I did say it was one.
Speaker B:I thought that the one thing, one really beneficial thing for cash practices coming out of the pandemic was clients now realized that you didn't have to be sitting in their office to have a conversation with them.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So, you know, even though a lot of staff on cast practices were already working remotely, they still had a regional draw to them to some degree.
Speaker B:So, like, if they had clients that still wanted them to come and sit in their offices, they did that.
Speaker B:Well, then the pandemic happened, and we spent a year on Zoom, and then, like, I'd have clients and they, I'd be like, do you want me to start coming out again?
Speaker B:They're like, no.
Speaker B:Like, we like this.
Speaker B:We're used to it.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And it was really the birth of virtual, the virtual conversations and CFO and trusted advisor conversations that individuals were having with their businesses and the feeling that sitting next to them wasn't as important anymore.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, and as we wrap up, and I can't believe we're kind of coming to the end of Q three.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Looking into the end of Q four.
Speaker A: As: Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think one of the, you know, I probably mentioned today already, like, one of the big things that we're focused on is the advisory transformation piece.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So we will continue to focus on our audit and CAS transformation and offerings that we have.
Speaker B:And we have a lot of firms that haven't even started any of that.
Speaker B:You know, I think if you think about the audit transformation, it's a, it's a much slower move than cast transformation has been, right, you know, because audit has been the same for many, many years.
Speaker B:So we now have, you know, things being built that change the way audits are done.
Speaker B:And that's amazing.
Speaker B:And there's technology being thrown at it.
Speaker B:So spreadsheets may be a thing of the past, even in the audit world.
Speaker B:So that's really cool.
Speaker B:And we continue to work with cast practices on their transformation as well.
Speaker B:But I think overall, that whole, you know, discussion that we had earlier on the advisory piece of it, and what that advisory transformation looks like from an overall firm perspective, and then how do we get things aligned appropriately from a service offering perspective so that we are more client centric and thinking about what that client experience looks like working with the firms, which is maybe a little bit different approach than we've had in the past, we've been very practice or service offering focused, not necessarily thinking about the client experience.
Speaker B:So that's a big part of it with what we're doing today.
Speaker B:We also continue to work on the upskilling piece because we have a long way to go.
Speaker B:And there, you know, you had mentioned when we were talking about like, you know, things that the younger generation doesn't know how to do a bank reconciliation.
Speaker B:They don't know how to do bank reconciliations.
Speaker B:They grew up on their computers.
Speaker B:Everything is on their phones.
Speaker B:Everything is in real time.
Speaker B:They don't have any of those skills yet.
Speaker B:We still do that inside of caste practices from a business perspective.
Speaker B:So, you know, building out even some of those, what we would consider to be entry level skills into a CAS practice, because the service offerings in cas are different than what they need from an audit and tax perspective.
Speaker B:So we continue to work on our upskilling programs and education that we have.
Speaker B:And I think that is one of the areas we know that firms come to us all the time and say, we need this, right?
Speaker B:So we have this thing called CAscorps at AICPA, which is an education, packaged education platform for casino associates that they can go.
Speaker B:They also have something called MBA Express, which is really like a leadership soft skills thing.
Speaker B:But we don't really have anything on that lower end.
Speaker B:And our cast leaders are saying to us, could you please build something so that when we have new people coming into our cast practice, we can give them cast 101 training on what cast is, because this is not something that is being trained and educated inside of the university level stuff.
Speaker B:We're working on a lot of that as well.
Speaker B:So very much still focused on the education and training piece of it.
Speaker B:But transformation is our number one focus and continuing to build vendor relationships that help the firms that we work with, that's awesome.
Speaker A:And I think we're so kind of grateful and helpful that there are resources out there like CPA.com, especially because I think the industry is changing.
Speaker A:We're not just greenvisors sitting in a desk, you know, not moving anymore, not talking to any people.
Speaker A:And, you know, it is truly a relationship field.
Speaker A:And so, Kim, we really, really appreciate your time today and thank you so much for being here and we look forward to continuing the relationship.
Speaker B:Yeah, so much fun.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me.
Speaker B:I really did enjoy it.
Speaker A:Well, this has been another episode of saltivation.
Speaker A:Till next time.
Speaker A:This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended nor should it be relied upon as legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice.
Speaker A:You should consult with a competent professional to discuss specifics of your situation and the applicability of the information presented.
