Chandra Bhansali
Editor's Note: This is another profile in our series of exclusive interviews with some of the accounting industry's leading executives and thought leaders.
Pioneering cloud technology developer. Thought leader. Highly sought-after speaker. There isn't much praise that can be left out of the description when you mention the name Dr. Chandra Bhansali.
To note, the co-founder and CEO of AccountantsWorld is has been consistently named one of the "Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting" by Accounting Today magazine for the past decade.
A well respected thought leader, Chandra is the author of scores of articles and white papers around best practices for accounting firms. If you scan the myriad industry publications, you will find his expert insights on the implementation of leading-edge technology into today's accounting practices.
Insightful Accountant caught up with Chandra to get his take on today's ever-changing accounting landscape and what you should expect from AccountantsWorld moving forward:
What do you expect from the accounting space in 2017?
In 2017 and beyond, migration to the cloud will obviously proceed at a much faster pace than in the past. While this is important, even more important is the question of how accountants are going to benefit from this technology migration. Some of the benefits are obvious, like the ability to work anywhere at any time. But there are other benefits that have far-reaching consequences, and these require us to rethink the way we perform professional services.
The irony of the accounting profession is that today, accounting is not led by accountants. It is dominated by a “Do-It-Yourself” accounting system that is sold directly to small businesses. As accountants have lost control over accounting, this has weakened their ability to serve their clients well, hurting both accountants and their clients.
But there is an alternative: Cloud-based professional accounting systems that are sold exclusively to accountants can put accountants back in the driver’s seat. Accountants can decide how to customize these systems to best serve the needs and preferences of each client.
Our hope is that more and more accountants will take advantage of this opportunity while migrating to the cloud to greatly enhance client satisfaction, add value to clients’ businesses, and feel a greater sense of accomplishment while greatly boosting their own bottom line.
Why should accountants be focusing on developing a "Complete Accounting Services" business model?
There are many reasons, but the most important one is to allow their small business owners to focus on what they do best. Has a small business owner ever expressed enthusiasm for spending their time on accounting activities? Of course not – for most owners, it’s a headache. They would much prefer to use their energy and time to manage and grow their businesses. These business owners would be more than happy to offload all of their accounting work to their accountants.
By offering “Complete Accounting Services” (CAS) to these clients, accountants are satisfying their needs and reducing their pain.
Another reason is to relieve accountants of their own pain. When clients do partial bookkeeping work in their own offices, there is no quality control. The work that accountants receive from their clients is often full of errors that accountants waste a significant amount of time fixing.
With the right tools, the accountants’ staff can do what the clients’ staff currently does – only faster, better, and more accurately. That way, without any increase in cost to clients, accountants can eliminate clients’ headaches as well as their own.
Last, but not least, professional systems like Accounting Power include advanced tools such as dashboards, snapshots, alerts and performance analysis. These give accountants the ability to monitor each client’s cash flow and Key Performance Indicators in real-time, and offer them the financial advice they need.
The bottom line is that by offering Complete Accounting Services, accountants create a win-win situation for themselves and their clients.
What does that model look like?
At its full scope, Complete Accounting Services include:
- Accounting – Bill payment, accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank reconciliation, trial balance, preparation of financial statements, fixed assets and depreciation
- Payroll – Live payroll processing, after-the-fact payroll, payroll taxes (SUTA, FUTA, 941, states), W-2/W-3, 1099, and year-end filings
- Income tax preparation – Entity tax preparation, federal and state tax planning
- Non-income tax – Sales tax
- Virtual CFO – Managing cash flow, managing KPI, preparation of budgets, financing
We need to understand that, in a sense, CAS is a commodity service, except for certain components like virtual CFO services. Therefore, efficiency is critical. To make CAS highly profitable requires streamlining the firm’s workflow and a high level of automation, primarily in payroll processing, so it is important to choose solutions that accomplish these goals.
In our view, the solutions whose basic premise is Client DIY (Do-It-Yourself) are not ideal for CAS. Their DIY premise is the exact opposite of the idea of CAS. To make CAS profitable, look for solutions created specifically to help accountants offer CAS.
Why should accounting be something done by professionals and not by people who simply enter data into a software model?
Have you ever gone to a baker with a loaf of half-baked bread and asked him to bake it fully? You wouldn’t, and even if you did, most bakers wouldn’t take it because you and the baker both know the end result would be far better if the baker did everything himself.
Why then would a small business hire someone to do data entry and leave the rest of the accounting to an accountant? Most small business owners have no quality control over the data entry or bookkeeping work their staff does.
That’s why the bookkeeping messes accountants get from their clients are some of their worst time wasters. No one is gaining anything. Business owners spend money on data entry, and accountants waste time fixing the errors the data entry person makes.
When accountants manage the entire process, they have full control, including data entry. Clients don’t spend any more money, and can focus on their businesses, while accountants can focus on providing the best possible accounting services and financial advice their clients need. It’s a win-win for everyone.
What type of partnerships is AccountantsWorld developing in 2017?
We have always been a true partner for accountants as we never sell our products and services directly to their clients or compete with them. Our only focus is on helping accountants become more successful.
This year, we are undertaking many activities to strengthen that partnership, including offering CPE courses relating to CAS.
We are also creating external partnerships to expand the scope of our services. Toward the end of 2016, we formed a partnership with Trans America to help accountants offer 401K services, and this year, we will develop a series of webinars related to 401K services.
In addition, we have partnered with LedgerSync to expand our bank feed capabilities. Accounting Power is now the only solution that lets accountants download bank statements and cancelled checks along with bank and credit card transactions.
What does your to-do list look like in 2017?
This year looks very promising for AccountantsWorld. We have made significant enhancements to Accounting Power that elevate it to become a premier CAS solution. The key enhancements include Digital Checks and a streamlined bill payment workflow.
We have hired an Accountants’ Success Manager whose role is to add value to our relationships with accountants, and to find ways to help not only our own customers, but accountants who are not our customers become more successful.
What’s the next "best thing" for AccountantsWorld?
The next best thing for AccountantsWorld is tied to accountants understanding two important things about the impact of technology on their practices. First, while technology has brought a lot of benefits to accountants, major corporations have used technology to penetrate deep into accountants’ core services – tax, accounting, and payroll.
That’s hurting accounting practices. The second thing is that AccountantsWorld is using cloud technology to help accountants reclaim the ground they lost in accounting and payroll and create new opportunities for them.
Once accountants understand these two aspects of technology and take the right step, then we can make a true difference in their practices. In the long-term, that will lead to AccountantsWorld becoming a leading force in transforming the profession and making it more relevant to the needs of small and medium businesses.