Natalie Brown, adding technology
Editor's Note: This is the first installment of our ongoing series highlighting 2022's Insightful Accountant's Top 100 ProAdvisors. We will continue to introduce you to our winners—checking in on their insights regarding a wide range of topics, including what it is like to be a leader in their profession, how to stay on top and what the future holds.
Natalie Browne has always found the perfect balance between the bookkeeping and accounting worlds. As the founder of adding technology and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor in Santa Barbara, California, she works hard to help support contractors with financial data and technology.
With her help, her clients are able to focus on building the businesses and their future—a role she has worked seamlessly for the past 35-plus years.
Her accounting career started in 1985, where she served as a receptionist in an accounting office in the old Piccadilly Square in Santa Barbara. From there, she moved into a bookkeeping position while working part-time for another local bookkeeper. After doing accounting for a publishing company in Woodland Hills, California, Natalie returned to Santa Barbara to eventually start adding technology in 2001.
Today, she works in the construction/contractor, real estate/developer and property management industries providing a broad array of services, including bookkeeping and book cleanup, payroll, cost accounting, financial reporting, migration services, setup and configuration, and training and support.
We sat down with her to get her thoughts on the road ahead.
Give us a snapshot of your business, including how long you have been in business, etc.
I founded adding technology (nickname addtech) in 2001. I took a semi-hiatus between 2004-2017 to work for a larger tax firm, but have maintained my QuickBooks ProAdvisor membership and certifications under addtech since 2002. Working for that firm really expanded my knowledge as a bookkeeper.
When I separated from that firm in 2017 (under very good terms, as I still share many clients with them), I opted to incorporate technology. Around that same time, I slowly started moving toward specialization in construction and real estate ventures and investments.
I am still feeling my way around to see where I want to serve the construction community but as I do have several small general contractor clients who operate as paper contractors, I am leaning in that direction.
How does the award fit into your overall business mission statement?
As it happens, I am in the middle of remodeling (pun intended) addtech’s mission statement to better focus on this chosen niche. I attended Woodard’s “Ideal Practice” course and am in the middle of the “Ideal You” workshop to help with restatement of my personal VMP and the business VMP. It is a work in process.
How will you leverage the honor in your continued success?
I am not really sure, yet. It’s not my first honor and since there is a year gap (family matters pulled me away in 2019). I am working on how to best say I have been in the Top 100 seven times.
What are some of your strategies/initiatives coming up? Business? Personal?
For business, I am working on shifting from hourly after the work is done billing to subscription/menu pricing. Woodard courses have been instrumental in giving me the motivation and the tools to make this move.
In addition, I am implementing new back office tech to streamline workflow (Keeper) as well as the client engagement process (Ignition).
Personally, I am working on that work/life harmonization, but with all of the work I am putting into the business, there is this period of storm before the calm. I am sure I will see a shift after this next tax season. I need only keep my eye on the prize and keep my chin up.
What are some of the biggest issues/trends impacting the accounting space today?
Subscriptions. Everything is a subscription today. Making a pivot in that direction for my firm is causing me to pause and take a harder look at what I am paying for within my firm. Not just the client facing subscriptions but the back office.
It is really easy to sign up for something, not get around to implementing it and then before you know it, you have paid for a year or even two without having used it at all.
In my case, this is caused by not taking the time to move or migrate the work that was intended in the first place. An example would be reporting. I subscribed to Reach Reporting, which is fantastically amazing.
But when I go to work on a client and get their monthly or quarterly reports done, I am jumping into Excel like I always have because I am pressed for time or by a deadline. What I need to do is set aside the time to create the reports so I can get out of the manual process.
What's the biggest item on your to-do list right now?
Right now at this minute, it’s getting everyone squared away so I can go on vacation. But really, my biggest item is to have all of my workflow for existing clients in Keeper and documented before the end of this year.
What are your expectations for 2023 and beyond?
Since 2022 is almost over, I would say my desire (I dislike the term expectation) for 2023 is to have better work/life harmonization. The buzz term for so long was work/life balance but in a recent webinar or maybe it was this past “Scaling New Heights,” I heard work/life harmonization.
So I looked up the two words to see the difference.
Balance — to keep or put (something) in a steady position so that it does not fail.
Harmonization — the action or process of making something consistent or compatible. Much prefer the latter. And I love that it mentions action. Nothing happens without action.
What is the best piece of advice you can offer your clients today?
Stop and smell the flowers and take life one day at a time.
What was the best advice you ever received?
Stop and smell the flowers and take life one day at a time.
Is there a story/anecdote you can share that really sums up the work you do for your clients (a recent success story)?
I can share something a client posted on the "Find a ProAdvisor" site a couple year’s back that encapsulates my impact: "Natalie has become an essential resource that keeps us running smoothly and invaluable in overcoming the constant changes that have become a normal part of business, especially when dealing with the government. I am continually amazed at her incredible knowledge of QuickBooks and her complete understanding of accounting principles. The long and short of it is, she makes my job much easier and this is really important to me. Thank you Natalie."
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