Aly & Andrews All Aussie Accounting Adventures
Aly & Andrews All Aussie Accounting Adventures
A Practical AI Starter Kit
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Can AI really save your firm hundreds of hours? Sure, if you don't mind it also confidently making things up like your most confident grad, the one who's never wrong and also never right. Aly and Andrew get into the nitty gritty of adopting AI in their own practices without letting it run wild, and what the Tax Practitioners Board actually expects from you day to day, because "vibes based compliance" is not a strategy.
First, the unglamorous stuff nobody wants to talk about at drinks but absolutely needs sorting, an AI policy that says what's approved and what's banned, data security limits so client details don't end up somewhere they have no business being, and consent that's baked into your engagement terms instead of a nervous afterthought. Then the practical bit, Microsoft Copilot inside the Microsoft stack versus a dedicated tool like Claude on an enterprise plan and you control the settings, sharing and guardrails. Plus building shared skills so the whole team is working off the same prompts, templates and tone, instead of ten people quietly reinventing the wheel in ten slightly different ways.
Then it gets real, how to stop AI turning learning into copy paste, why a human still needs to check the work, no exceptions, and how you win over the team members who are overwhelmed, sceptical, or straight up not here for the ethics of it. We close with the reality check, should your KPIs even change yet, what ROI actually looks like this early, and why we're all quietly bracing for the vendors to jack up prices the second we're hooked.
If this hit the spot, subscribe, send it to the firm owner still doing this all by hand, and leave a review so more accountants find it.
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MUSIC
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Creative Accounting And The AI Hook
SPEAKER_06Hey Ali.
SPEAKER_02Yes, Andrew.
SPEAKER_06So I asked AI to help me automate my accounting firm.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_06It was going really well. Saved us hundreds of hours. Then it discovered creative accounting. Anyway, I'm speaking to you live today from an undisclosed location.
SPEAKER_02Man, it would go absolutely wild. Some of the stuff that it would make up and be confident about.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely. It'd be frightening. And if I asked AI if it was safe to rely on AI, it would say absolutely, which is exactly what I would say if I was AI, right?
SPEAKER_07Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_06Anyway. You can have a guess of what we're talking about today.
SPEAKER_02AI.
SPEAKER_06It's the hot topic. It's the thing.
SPEAKER_02You finally twisted your arm enough. I've been avoiding this whole whole episode. I love it. I know you do.
SPEAKER_06And I do like it too. Love, love. Love will probably be the one there as well. I definitely do. I just can't be fucking talking about it. But for you, Allie, I'm going to, and for our millions of listeners, we're gonna have this chat. It needs to be done. Ally and Andrews, all of Z accounting vegetables, AI exploration. Let's go to the theme tune and we'll be in a second.
SPEAKER_01You should have said AI A something.
SPEAKER_06Ai. Alright. Allie. Yeah, sounds good. For the purpose of this conversation, I'd like you to picture me as an accounting firm owner.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_06Who is a laggard when it comes to technology?
SPEAKER_02Gosh, how can I do that?
SPEAKER_06I have to be so hard. Hey, come on, mate. Easy. Easy. I got no idea. I'm a laggard when it comes to tech. You know, cloud stuff I was behind, and uh and I'm laggard. I've got, you know, 20, 25 team members in my business, and I'm staring at this AI thing, and I've made the decision that no, I can no longer be a laggard. I can no longer sit down and watch this thing fly by. I need to do something and I want to do something, but I've got no ideas.
SPEAKER_02Well, Andrew, I'm so glad that you came to me and were able to talk to me about how you were feeling because I can definitely help. Because I can 100% assure you you may think that you're not using AI on your firm, but I can bet your bottom dollar that your team members might be, but they just may not be telling you about it.
SPEAKER_06Well, thank you, Allie, from AI Advisory.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_06It is actually your business.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh, I can oh hello, thank you. I can use that.
SPEAKER_02Have you not figured that out yet? No, I didn't. Jeez, it takes a creative mind like I know it really does, because I hadn't thought about it in that way. There you go. That's a yeah, I'm getting that, Brennan. Okay, so um, look, and I think it's it's very important that you understand that everybody usually in some level, whether that be privately or in business, has actually had some connection to AI.
SPEAKER_06And for years, right? It's not like it's not like AI is the thing. It's just the version of it now, is what we're seeing a lot more in our face, but like it's been around for ages.
SPEAKER_02It has. And the thing about being an accounting business owner at this point in time is the tax practitioners board has actually just released their
TPB Rules AI Policy And Consent
SPEAKER_02guidance um and code of professional conduct. So there's actually things now that we must do as practitioners to make sure that we are doing the right thing. And so the way that I would start out, and I I guess I'll tell you the journey of how um All In has done it, is we created a policy, right? The AI policy, which is what products are we going to use? Um, and we made choices around that. And um then we built in, you know, things like what are we going to use it for? Um, what level of information is going to be put in there, as in security of data, you can't put in client details, you can't put in, you know, private details, etc. Um, and so creating a policy, setting the rules and letting the team know, hey, these are the policies, these are the rules. You then also at the same time need to get consent from your clients that um you are actually using AI. And so that can be part of your engagement terms. So updating engagement policies, if you use ignition, make sure it's in there. Um, but it also goes to the level of actually listing out what AI tools you use, where they're sourced. Like it's actually you need to actually do a little bit of work on that.
SPEAKER_06It's a bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And so those are the two things that you have to do first of all before you even think about well, what products are we going to do?
SPEAKER_06Can't do those ones, can't we just turn it on and it's good.
SPEAKER_02No, my friend, not since the TBP.
SPEAKER_06Well, thankfully, as an accountant, I appreciate elements of regulation within reason. Yeah. Within reason, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I think, you know, the other thing
Where Your Firm Sits On Adoption
SPEAKER_02about AI is is you need to think about where you are on the curve, right? So are you an innovator, as in you're gonna create the AI agents and bots and you're gonna create your own AI products within your firm? Are you an early adopter? As in, you know, there is some stuff kind of flying out there at the moment. Am I gonna be a beta tester on those and get everybody involved in the team? Am I the majority where I'm just gonna wait for AI products to be built, or I'm only going to use AI within products that we already use? Or am I a laggard, Andrew, um, where you're just not using it at all. It's Andre. I'm sorry, it's Andre. It's Andre for the purpose of today. Once you've kind of worked out where you are, and look, I'm I'm most probably an early adopter. Um, I'm happy to test out beta products, give them feedback. And some of us, most of us sit in the majority, right? And so if we're looking at majority, you've most probably already got AI in some of the tools that we're using, like for instance, Jack's um in Zero. You may not be using that yet. Give it a crack. And this is the thing about AI, give it a crack. If it doesn't work, try it again next week. You know, there's already things like, you know, if you're using ContentSnare or if you're using um Ignition, there's already AI within those parts.
SPEAKER_06Half of the software that I use now, I've noticed like they're even rebranding the support to AI help or something like that. Like, and they're making it really obvious that we're gonna use it's AI support or AI help here, which I actually don't mind because at least they're not pretending like it's not AI.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Um, but yeah, but like it's it's already and it has been there for ages already, right?
SPEAKER_02You can no longer pretend. And the other thing that the TPP says is that you can use AI, but must have human review. So everything that goes out must have a human review over it, and that just makes complete sense, doesn't it? Yeah. Um, and so I think once you've kind of worked out, okay, well, we've got all of our systems and processes and policies in place, we've got client consent, we now know, okay, well, we've already using these products, they've got AI
Choosing A Primary AI Platform
SPEAKER_02in them, we'll give it a bit of a testy, see if it works. Then there's a choice around, well, are we going to have a particular product like a ChatGPT, a Claude, a Microsoft Copilot, which is our AI tool that we're going to kind of lock down, so what's our like what's our zero for what's our zero? Yeah, what's your base platform if you're going to have one? What are you? We use Claude. Now I did a lot of work on ChatGPT and Claude and Gemini, and Claude for the business purposes, actually worked really, really well. And I found that it had guardrails that I could kind of put in. Um, and out of all of them, they're most probably the most ethical. Um, and so that worked really hard stretch. I know it is a really big stretch. It's a huge stretch. I said out of all of them, it's the most. Yeah. Right. Doesn't mean they are. Doesn't mean they are exactly right. And so I think for me it was
Enterprise Setup Skills And Team Buy In
SPEAKER_02okay, well, this is the product we're going to use. And then I purchased it for my team, enterprise plans. You don't want people out on pro on personal plans, you don't want people out that aren't paying for it. You also then need to make sure within those products that you're not sharing that information back. I mean, there's some toggles in the settings, and then I took my team through how to customize Claude. So I got them in a room, sat them down over lunch, and I said, Let's build, let's get your logins, customize your settings. And here is the all-in um project, which has everything around all in. So it's got our verbiage, our brand guide, all of those other bits and pieces. So they can ask questions of it.
SPEAKER_06So you can just copy paste, like dump what you've already kind of built and say, I'm just going to give you now. It's called skills. The skills, yeah. So you can automatically just give your team the same skills that you've already built.
SPEAKER_02Yep. And it shares it with the team. You can share projects, etc. And then I also we worked through um doing, we set up a project, whether that be HR, admin, whoever, didn't matter where they were in the team, to basically build something or create something where they could actually see the value of that. And that actually, because they were very underwhelmed with AI, and I was the one banging on about it, and I was using it and they weren't. And so it enabled us to kind of share and care a little bit, and and that really invigorated the team and brought a bit of excitement. And so now they use it.
SPEAKER_06So you're saying that like in my lag art accounting firm, if I have my policies and procedures, yeah, uh, and I gotta build the skill thing. So I look at that and I go, I don't even know how to do that. So I'm probably gonna need to find someone. Do I get someone to help me to do that? Or is it no, Andre, you need to go and do that?
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, well, it can help you build it. So you can ask it to. So you can say, hey, this is what I want to build. Um, can you help me? And um you could direct it to your website, you could direct it to a SharePoint folder potentially if it doesn't have um client data in there. You can fit you can um connect it to different things. So, you know, I think um use what you already have and ask it to help you and prompt and ask questions of you, kind of a bit like a journalist. So this is what I'm trying to build. You be the researcher, you pull the data that you need from me, I'll give it to you in bite-sized pieces, or I'll direct you as to where it needs to go. And that helps to build out that skill. So it doesn't need to be I need a whole day to do this. It's just this is my you know project that I'm gonna build today, and and off you go.
SPEAKER_06And when you say build, because I hear I hear a lot of this, right? A lot of people use AI to like write a better email, they'll use AI to you know plan for a conversation, you know. Often it's in conversational space. I see a lot of people get a benefit out of that. Yeah, what would I build as an accounting for? Like, well like if I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go start building something, and I've never built something in my life because I do tax ed accounting work and I use off-the-shelf software for it. How do what am I gonna build? How do I know what I'm gonna build? Yeah, so there are a couple of things that I by the way, Ali, I love playing with rolls as great. Like, I I do need I do need the listers to know that whilst I have a particular opinion and relationship when it comes to AI, I do have a decent enough understanding. I am acting right now.
SPEAKER_02Anyway, so so yeah, look, I I what I did with my team is I said, okay, this is what um Claude specifically is really good at writing content, yep, um, marketing, um, getting meeting notes, putting that into an email format, a file note format, following up, um, drafting emails, finding data, research, really great for research, second opinions. That's been really good for, like find the faults, um, content, proposals, reports, um, internal process documentation, all of those things is what I would focus on initially
What To Build First In Practice
SPEAKER_02because that's where you're going to get your big bang returns.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, but I've even got to the point with clients where I'll say, okay, set up Claude, connect your zero file. Here's a prompt to actually build out the key performance indicators for your business, put it in a co-work format so that you are, you know, can get that on repeat once a once a week, once a day, once a month, whatever you want. Um, I've also got it for clients to build them three-way forecasts. Now, the issue is that it regenerates it each time. It's not a software piece where you update bits and pieces, it recreates the whole thing. It's generative. Yeah. But it's a really great starting point, right? That um it does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. And so it's more about a mindset shift and change of can AI do the heavy lifting on this for me? Can it help to give it diversity of thought, make it better, um find things that I may not find? And so that's how we use AI in our business. Now, I know people that have built agents and bots and are doing crazy, ridiculous things. They're innovators.
SPEAKER_06Do I need so like that's what I hear as well, right? So there's a bunch of people doing crazy stuff and everyone's trying to tell me, though, it's easy and you can do it, and anybody can do it, rah- rah-rah. Do I need to do it?
SPEAKER_02No, you don't need to do it. And I think that that's what I want to be clear about, which is why I go back to are you an innovator? If you are, then yeah, give it a crack. But understand that people spend hours and hours of this stuff. Are they getting the return on investment? I think is the question we need to ask. Um, and so it's okay if you want to dabble and innovate and create new things. Go ahead, do that. But you actually still do need a skill set in order to do that. Even with the co-works of the world, even with the clawed code, you still can get very stuck or you get 80% there, or it continually breaks. And I think that that's the thing. Understand where you're good. So if you're an innovator, go ahead. If you're an early adopter, take something that somebody else has built, make it better. But if you're the majority, hold. Use, use, you know, learn, engage, start to find the things that'll really help you with, but don't then go and try and change everything because it's not at that point yet.
SPEAKER_06So I don't need to rush out right now and start doing things for fear of being a laggard and never getting it. Like I it's just just do you know?
SPEAKER_02I think the easiest thing would be once you've got your policies and consent is to use copilot. A lot of us sit in a Microsoft world. Um, use copilot. It's in emails, like pay for it. It's in emails, you can use it in Excel, Word, PowerPoint. It's actually very powerful in those tools. And so that might be a way that you can start you know, one of the best things.
SPEAKER_06I think it's a good one to see what it can do, and then it might spark my enthusiasm. Well, I think it does.
SPEAKER_02I think when you realize the
Accuracy Ethics And Team Overwhelm
SPEAKER_02power of what it can do in particular parts, then yes, it can. And I look I'll go into the parts that I'm concerned about. I'm concerned that it's a product that doesn't check itself and it can be consistently wrong and confidently wrong. That's a problem. I I think it's an enabler. Like if you don't know what you're doing, it makes you, you know, you don't know what you don't know, so you think it's right. I mean, that's a problem. I also think, you know, ethically the there are problems, you know. They're they're basically taking all of human creation, regurgitating it, and we're paying for it and saying, you check if it's right or wrong. I mean, I there are there is a massive, massive issues. But there is still some value in what it can currently do and help. The other thing I would also highlight is that it can do a lot of the bulk heavy lifting, but sometimes, and this is what I'm finding in my team, they can be overwhelm. So you're then stuck in this space of being this creative problem solver with deep technical stuff all the time. And you're missing out on sometimes you just want a Friday afternoon where you're just doing like the basic just simple, easy.
SPEAKER_06Just give me just a cruise yavo. That's what I think couple of beers, the pub, you know, punch a bass out.
SPEAKER_05Oh, it's all good.
SPEAKER_02But I think sometimes we need that.
SPEAKER_06We do, right?
SPEAKER_02And I think that that's what I'm seeing is going to be a bigger problem as we move forward is that the II is taking all of that data entry, low level, basic route, normal stuff. And so we're having to then move into this higher space of reviewing, researching, finding the errors, and then working into that other space where I don't think we're built for that 24-7. And so, you know, I think it's it's a balancing act. You'll find where your team fit, but I think building the excitement is a really big part of that, and giving them the guardrails and giving them permission to fail. You know, one of my f favorite sayings is if you're gonna fail, just do it quickly and cheaply. AI kind of helps with that. Um, and so you know, I think it it allows us to maybe just change that mindset a little bit. How can it support and help us?
SPEAKER_06This is a lot. I'm gonna I'm gonna need to take a moment just to catch my breath.
Sponsor Break
SPEAKER_06But thankfully, thankfully, we've got some sponsors who can cover the void and fill us in with some wonderful things.
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SPEAKER_06Hey Ellie, um, who do you use when it comes to, you know, additional resourcing for your accounting business?
SPEAKER_01Ugh, 100%. Tell Global, they're the bomb. And you? Yeah, me too. Tell Global. We are we are the both the best. What are you using? Elite talent, my friend, for an accounting firm, and people are job ready.
SPEAKER_06Ready, rock and roll. I love it. I think it unlocks firm potential. I think it's really good, and I think it's it allows you to build a strategy to grow your business and service your clients better.
SPEAKER_01100%, get onto it.
SPEAKER_06Get amongst the friends, Tower Global. That's where the good stuff's at. Allie, I'm sure you get asked all the time, just like I do, who do you use for digital signatures? And I know we use the same team, the crew at Fuse Sign, right?
SPEAKER_01The absolute bum, yes, I get asked that all the time. It is digital signing done simply, my friend. It is amazing.
SPEAKER_06It's so simple. I love it. It gives you great control, heaps of flexibility, and the experience for clients and team is quite exceptional too, right?
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SPEAKER_06Bloody amazing.
SPEAKER_01Excellent.
SPEAKER_06Get amongst it, friends. Fuse your signatures today with Fuse Sign. Well, alright, so clearly AI advisory, Ellie.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_06Is you you you're into this, mate. You're all about it. I am. I've uh once again, Laggard.
SPEAKER_02Of course you are.
SPEAKER_062025 team members. I've got a few questions I'd like to ask and see if you can have some perspective on it for me. Does uh the way I utilize, implement, adopt AI change if I'm looking at the different elements of my business, such as bookkeeping to compliance, to advisory,
Using AI Across Admin Bookkeeping Advisory
SPEAKER_06to administrational duties? Do I do it differently?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you do. And I think you have to approach each of those differently, and AI will support in different ways. Um, I think in the admin marketing, well, marketing can definitely help. I think in the admin side, um, it's very good at collating a lot of data, showing you insights. It can it's great with building processes and systems. In bookkeeping, you know, you see the zeros of the world trying to overlay their autoreconcile. There are still some issues with that. Yes, there are. And I think that's where we need to be careful, like it's generative, right? So, um, and it's predictive, it's not your software guardrailed hard rules. And I think with bookkeeping, there is still software guardrailed hard rules. So I think you do need to be clever about where you're thinking in compliance. Um, you need to be very careful around security of data, but I think it can help you with tax technical, like we use um, it was previously tax law cyborg, now it's nylon. I mean, gosh, when I remember when I started, you know, I had my volumes of the master tax legislation. And then I look at the young guys now coming through and they just chuck their queries in nylon and I'm like, far out, Brussels sprout. Like I had to do all this really hard work and it's just being spat out for you. Um, so you know, I think it there's a different way of learning. Um, and so yes, there's some definite ways in it around deep research um and reports that can be written. Advisory, it absolutely is wild in advisory, and I think that's because it's in that more creative, generative space. And I've found it really has uplifted my advisory to a really great level. And there's some great products. Brief is one of those that uses AI in their product as well. So, yes, I think you need to approach each of those differently, and it's and it's more once I I go back to mindset, talk to the people who are doing those jobs and getting them to change their mindset of can I help me um in this process to either be more creative, be more efficient, to build a process.
SPEAKER_06Good answer. Second question I'm con
Preventing Skill Loss With Human Review
SPEAKER_06you touched on it in your answer there. I'm concerned that my team are not learning by using AI because they just get an answer to do something, as opposed to understanding why it's the thing to do. How do I ensure that I don't train a bunch of monkeys who can put a question in any Get an answer.
SPEAKER_02And I think this is where self-review is going to be, and education is such a critical component because you have to review that work. You have to click on the link to make sure that it's taking you to the right section and read it and make sure that it's in context and make sure that and so this is where if somebody came, one of my team members came to me and they'd give me an AI response. Um, I'd be like, Have you checked it? Because that's your job. So in checking it, you have to understand it, which means you have to educate yourself on it, which means you've got to click the link and read it and you have to correct it. And so this is where teaching them how to, you know, um refine the prompt to actually know how to write the prompt with context and how to it's called promptception, right? So you can get AI to help you with it, but it's basically making sure that it's right. Um, and so that is still learning from the normal.
SPEAKER_06So you really have to encourage and work with your team to understand that AI is not an answer, but it's like a it's a process that involved, and you need to still understand why you're doing it.
SPEAKER_02Like, because I can imagine like all the old school training is still there, you're still doing your tax nuggets education, you're still getting things reviewed, you're still, you know, sitting with a senior to to work through. I don't understand this. You're still doing all of those things.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Question three.
SPEAKER_02Yes, it's
Resistance Training KPIs And Ethical Opt Outs
SPEAKER_02so formal. Yes, Andrew, I'm not used to it.
SPEAKER_06I've got a team member who refuses to work with AI, and the reason is they just don't want to, and they can't be bothered loading it.
SPEAKER_02Oh, well, that's an attitude problem.
SPEAKER_06How do I bring them along?
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um, so they well, this is I have actually four categories, and they don't actually fit in any of these four categories because that's just lazy. Yeah. And I think that's an attitude problem. So I would deal with them outside of that.
SPEAKER_06Maybe let's rephrase the question then. I have a teamer who doesn't want to because they're too busy and don't have time to.
SPEAKER_02That's also an attitude problem.
SPEAKER_06I'm like But it could be inaccurate. It's like, hey dude, I'm swamped. I have so much fucking work to do. You want me to go and learn this thing over here? When do you want me to do that? Because I got clients climbing up my ass and I got KPIs got to hit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but don't your KPIs have training and as well, my team have training KPIs. So as they So you're talking to Andre here, by the way. Sorry, Andre. So yes, um, yes, I implement training KPIs where they have to have a certain amount of training. And so I would say you need to allocate this amount of time to that, or like I did, let's just have a lunch and learn. Like where you're sitting down, somebody else can either train you on it or you're sending somebody out to train them on it. So you have actually got to find time, you've got to invest if it you've maybe have to throw a little bit of money at the training, right? To get them out of there every day. Because if if they are so overwhelmed that they don't have time to make their job more efficient, that's a problem. And I wouldn't, in my team, I wouldn't allow that in any other way. I would always build a system and a process and educate. So I think we've got to go back to the core issue there of system process educate, and then they can actually bring change to their job. I have had a situation though in my team where ethically they don't want to use it.
SPEAKER_05Ethical objection.
SPEAKER_02And so I have said that's okay, you don't need to. Now I know there may be different people offering different opinions and they their opinion may change over time. I don't know.
SPEAKER_06But like they understand that they're still using AI with every other technology they're using.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, and I I think it's more um being able to say this is my principled approach. So if I can choose to be ethical, I will. But if you're forcing me to, there's nothing much I can do about it. I can't control a product that you've, you know, put AI in if I'm it's part of my core job. But right now, it is not part of their core job. It might change. I'm not saying that it might not change, yeah. But it is something that you do need to. And there are skeptics, there are people that are resisting it, that are overwhelmed by it, that that think it's you know, it's gonna blow over, that it's just a big thing. And I think, you know, you can use those people quite effectively. Um, they can be the people that write the policy, that do all the research.
SPEAKER_06Because often the argument is I'm already doing my job, we're already profitable, we're already delivering what we need. Why do I need to do this?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I think, you know, well, why did we pick up cloud? Why do we pick up software? Why aren't we still in the boony ages with not having a calculator? We progress, we move, we change, and this is part of the series. This is part of change. I know.
SPEAKER_05Did you like how I tied that in? I know. Geez, I'm smart at times.
SPEAKER_06This is Andrew talking, by the way. Back to Andrew.
SPEAKER_02No, Andre. I can't pick out who that's right.
KPIs Productivity And The Real ROI
SPEAKER_06Another question for you. Uh does the implementation of AI change your KPIs and expectations for your team? It hasn't for me. So the assumption being is that as an organization, you might be able to achieve more and do more because AI is doing a bunch of grunt work that you used to get a human to do. So is the expectation in KPI for a team member different now? Because they're not doing that work.
SPEAKER_02I haven't done that because we're still, I think, in infancy adoption. Um, I can see how that might progress as as we use it more and it becomes more effective, but it still hasn't taken a job from beginning to end for me. So I don't think I can.
SPEAKER_06But even if it's doing half of the job, because I I look at that and I'm curious in the idea of like, all right, well, you might have a KPI that's you know, it could be you know rev generated comparative to wages, it could be, you know, various different things. Uh, and if all of a sudden we're using heavier and heavier technology to do it, do we just challenge?
SPEAKER_02I'm challenged because there's still overwhelm for the person, and I mentioned it before because they're sitting in a different space, they're not sitting in the processing space, they're sitting in this review, creative technical space. And so there's only so much a human can do in that space without getting tired and overwhelmed and exhausted. So I think it will and it has in certain things, it's made some things quicker. Um, and so it may help on an efficiency point of view, not not in massive numbers in my business, to be honest. I'm trying to think about the colour. It's the little wins, right? It's the little wins.
SPEAKER_06And obviously, in my laggard accounting firm, when the cloud came, we didn't really do it, but we're kind of doing it now because it's the only option. But I'm trying to think like when the cloud came in, were my expectations of the team different? Did did your expectations for your team changed when cloud became a thing?
SPEAKER_02I I only the expectation that they use it. Um I I what I did recognize is it was it it well, it gave flexibility, it gave accessibility, it gave real-time data. So it allowed us to provide different types of services. Um but the KPIs for people in relation to their chargeable work, which is the world that we live in, that didn't change.
SPEAKER_06Because if you think about it from an overhead perspective, the cloud technology all the apps that we've got now, we're spending so much more money on technology than we had beforehand, right? And some of the thought processes, oh, well, it saves you costs in other areas. You know, you don't have to have another administrative team member or so this or that, but the reality of that varies.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um depends how it depends on your systems and processes, it depends on your people.
SPEAKER_06We just chunk in a whole bunch more overhead cost and then going, shit, we actually need a we need better GP now because our overheads are growing and growing and growing because of more and more adoption of software.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and uh I I I think you're most probably gonna get a little bit more profitability on the services if if your margins don't go down, but that is going to
Preparing For AI Price Rises
SPEAKER_02be reduced by the cost of the AI. And, you know, we are at a point where it the AI is the worst it's ever gonna be, but it's also the cheapest it's ever gonna be. If they were charging us what it actually costs, we wouldn't be using it. They aren't getting, and this is another, this is my view, they're getting us addicted to it, so we can't live without it, and then they're gonna start ramming the prices up.
SPEAKER_06I love the fact you said that, and you don't even know what my last question is. Okay, but my last question was are you bracing for the impending technology price hike when all the apps we use force the AI model onto us at a rate where they have to play? Like do we are we all of a sudden just gonna stop using it?
SPEAKER_02Can we afford to stop using it? AI can't do that right now because then nobody would use it. That's the issue. So they need to get us addicted to it. They need to get us addicted to it, and then they'll start slowly ramming the prices up. Because if they did that, we would just be like, no, it like to do this particular car, uh task or job, a person would be cheaper. Yeah. Right?
SPEAKER_06And so, you know, I I I think it's but this this is the model that pretty much everyone out there, particularly in the technology space, plays, is usually what it is is they build something, it has a whole bunch of really cool features and it gets acquired. They buy the thing that has all the features, they stop utilizing the features, they give it for free and it's cheap, but then the features disappear, and then lo and behold, next year the new product, new thing, you know, the pro version comes out with the features that you used to get beforehand and now you're paying three times the price, but it's covered as a totally new thing, not the same thing we had. Obviously, in AI that's gonna happen. Hey, uh, that's right. You your plan only now allows you to do three questions per month. If you'd like to do more than that, you now have to pay $100 per head for access to this thing, and then multiply that by the 10 pieces of software that we're probably using by that point.
SPEAKER_02That's where you know it comes back to you as the business have to make that call.
SPEAKER_06Just paper and pen it. Fuck it. Let's just old school tea ledger, just you know, who cares? At the end of the day, it's not.
SPEAKER_02Look, it's another tool in the toolkit. I I don't I don't think it's gonna replace everyone's jobs. That's my personal view. It's another tool in the toolkit. Um, and to me, it's kind of like that next inversion, right? We we went to cloud. This is just that next layer, that next level. I do think there's gonna be, we're gonna top out at some point as to the capability. Um, I still think humans will need to be involved in the mix, um, you know, just even the economics of that. Um, so yeah, there are so many other layers and so many rabbit holes you can go down with this. Um, and I'm at this point, I'm seeing it for what it can do,
AI As A Tool And Final Takeaways
SPEAKER_02just like what I saw for cloud. Um, I see how that can embed um it can help my team, it can help the business, it can help my clients. Um, and so I'll use it to the service of those things.
SPEAKER_06Do I need to brace myself for 17 different Bass Workpaper AI bots that are gonna get released in the next 12 months?
SPEAKER_02I don't think anyone's actually mastered it yet, so no.
SPEAKER_06Everyone's trying to.
SPEAKER_02I know they are. But no, but nobody's mastered it. We'll see. We shall see.
SPEAKER_06Ellie, you have been informative. You have been informed. Thank you, Andre. Supporting. I hope I helped you, Andre. I I feel like I have been given a toolbox with a couple of tools in it. It's not a full toolbox because I need to fill it myself. Need to go find a few tools. I've got a couple of them back home. Um, but I feel like I'm better prepared. And I I hope, listeners, if you are like Andre and you are feeling like this AI thing is just too much, that maybe some of the tips and tricks that our AI advisory expert here has given you gets you moving, gets the juices flowing, gets you a little bit inspired.
SPEAKER_02Even if it's just, you know, curiosity.
SPEAKER_06Doesn't have to be a jump, just has to be a step. Yeah. You know, just get curious. See where it goes. And if you build some cool shit, tell us about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'd love to know.
SPEAKER_06Allie would love to know. I would love to know, obviously. Andrew, this is Andrew speaking now. Andrew would love to know. Um, but wonderful.
SPEAKER_02I feel like this has been a podcast of threesome.
SPEAKER_06Uh, that's an awkward. That's that's a um uh shall we leave it there?
SPEAKER_00Okay, bye everybody.
SPEAKER_06Catch you everybody, see you later, buddy.
Where To Follow And Share Ideas
SPEAKER_06Wasn't that a fun adventure, my friends? Thank you so much. So incredibly much for hanging out with us today. Allie, you've been amazing. Andrew, you've been alright. How good is it to be able to have adventures together?
SPEAKER_00It so is, and you know what? Keep following us. We are all over the socials at accounting adventures. Uh on the website, give us a bit of a like. You know how much we love that stuff.
SPEAKER_06The best thing about the adventure is the people that we do it with. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for hanging out with us, and please bring all the ideas, keep them recoming. We can't wait to share more cool adventures with you.
SPEAKER_02We love you guys.
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