Making a Top 100 ProAdvisor - 'The Tech Stack'

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This article is the second in a 4-part Series developed cooperatively with ADP, one of the sponsors of Insightful Accountant's 2021 Top 100 and ProAdvisor of the Year Award Program. ADP will be hosting a webinar titled, Secrets to Becoming a Top 100 ProAdvisor on February 4th at 1:00 pm Eastern that serves as a companion to these articles.

Most ProAdvisors have found their clients obtain efficiency and productivity improvement if they have the right technology in place. That technology may vary because someone in the construction business has different requirements than someone in retail sales, but there are core functions common across client types; Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Expense Management, CRM, Payroll and Time-tracking are fairly consistent. And, if you specialize, or have a ‘niche’, your entire ‘Tech Stack’ may be singular in design.

Whether you have one or more ‘toolboxes’ depending on client type, the tools that make up your ‘tech stack’ matter because if they don’t work seamlessly with the rest of your clients' systems, they’re not going to get efficiency out of them, nor the productivity they were striving to accomplish. A fully-integrated ‘tech stack’ is the best way to get the intended results; so all of your software, apps, and systems must work seamlessly together.

When Insightful Accountant first began the Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards we listed 100’s of software products and asked each participant which ones they used. We found many participants had never heard of countless numbers of these products, and that far too many participants were asking why we didn’t have other products listed. So, we removed our long list and now we take the ‘Tech Stack’ approach.

We ask you to tell us about ‘your Tech Stack’, the Apps and Software you use, how you use those products, and the details of their use such as number of clients on each App or software installations you have performed, and more.  Obviously, if we asked you to tell us about every one of the Apps and Software the process could take forever, so we ask you to list your ‘favorite 5’ in each of our evaluation areas. We also reward you with points based on the extent to which you are involved with each of these products.

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Now, let’s look at various sections by which Insightful Accountant evaluates your Tech Stack in regard to our Top 100, Categorical and ProAdvisor of the Year Awards:

Tech Stack Use

You to tell us how you use your Tech Stack (licensed software/apps) in Software/Apps Section 1 of our Formal Application. You first list 5 of your favorite 3rd party products in the upper section (as shown below), be sure to spell the name of each product neatly and correctly (our OCR technology isn’t the best in the world). You then use the grid (below the list) to tell us about how you use those products. But here is the thing, you tell us about your ‘maximum or most extreme use’ of each of the products (I will give you an example in a moment).

As an example, let’s assume that one of my favorite Apps is TSheets, so I list it in the # 1 block of the top section. I happen to use TSheets to keep track of my own time when I go see my clients, and when I work on projects for those clients, so my first inclination might be to select the grid option, “I personally use this for success”, but that wouldn’t be my ‘maximum or most extreme’ use because I also have more than 75% of all my clients using TSheets. So, I want to select that I, “Use with more than 75% of my clients” as my grid choice for this App. You can see that simply by understanding how this one question works can earn you a lot of points toward either the QuickBooks Desktop Integrations or the QBO Appologist awards.

But there is more to working with 3rd-Party Developers than just using their Apps and Software, and that’s why Insightful Accountant values ‘referral partner’ status higher than someone who only uses an App, so we have another Software/Apps Section to help us measure this area of your Tech Stack status.  

Tech Stack Referral Partnerships

Insightful Accountant recognizes that many ProAdvisors who participate in the Top 100 Awards Program rely on ‘referral partnerships’ with software developers as valued sources of income. If we didn’t believe in this concept, we wouldn’t write our ‘Advisor Alliance’ articles that feature such opportunities. This is exactly what our Software/Apps Section 2 is all about evaluating. Like Section 1 it begins by asking you to list five of your 3rd party products, but these should be products with whom you have ‘referral partnership’ arrangements with the developer. Please note that we define a referral partnership as an arrangement in which you as the ProAdvisor receive either a one-time, or on-going, commission or residual payment from the software developer for having made a formal referral of your client to that developer. Again, we ask you to ‘spell’ the name of each 3rd party product neatly and correctly. These could be the same 3rd party products you listed in Section 1, or they could be entirely different products, that’s up to you.

Using the bottom grid portion of the question (shown above) you are going to tell us how many ‘referrals’ You successfully made during our evaluation period of ‘December 1, 2019 to date’. A ‘successful referral’ is one in which You made a referral to the software developer in which your client either purchased the software or subscribed to the App for a period greater than a ‘trial’ period, and for which You received a one-time, or on-going commission or residual payment as a result of the referral.  This is so simple I don’t think I need to give you an example of how it works, but I do want to make one or two other things very clear.

First, and this is very important, a referral includes on-going commissions or residuals for subscription software, so even if you initially referred a client prior to December 1, 2019, if their subscription continued during the period of ‘December 1, 2019 to date’ and you received an on-going commission or residual for any portion of that period, that should be counted in your number of referrals for purposes of this question.

Second, like all of the questions in our Formal Application we are evaluating ‘You’ as a ProAdvisor, not your firm… these numbers should reflect referrals made ‘only by you’ and for which ‘you alone’ received referral compensations or residual payments. While any such payments can be paid to your firm (on your behalf), ‘You’ can not consider total referrals by your firm or referral compensation/residual payments paid to your firm as the basis for this question. 

When you think about it you should realize that it takes far longer to gain formal ‘App Certification’ status or earn a formal ‘Software Implementer’ designation then to become a Referral Partner or just turn-on an App for your own use. This is why we also use sections to evaluate if you are Certified in any Apps, or to evaluate the hours you have spent to gain Implementation status.

Tech Stack Certifications

Just like we value certification for products within the Intuit Ecosystem, we also value certification for the 3rd-party products you support. By definition, the word ‘certification’ implies that the one who is certified holds a certificate, we therefore require you to hold a valid certificate from each of the 5 developers of the products you list in the upper section of Software/Apps Section 4. We don’t require you to have ‘earned’ the certificate during the period of ‘December 1, 2019 to date’, just that your certification was valid at any time during that period.

Because we understand that the learning requirements for certification vary significantly based upon the specific software or App, we ask you to tell us (in the grid) how many hours of training/study or mentorship were required in order for you to obtain each of the certifications you listed in the upper portion of this section. You can count on the fact that each award winners' credentials have been ‘verified’ with the various 3rd-party product developers prior to our finalization of awards, so don’t fudge your credentials.

By the way, if you participate in our sponsor’s RUN Powered by ADP Payroll for Partners Certification Program which is designed to provide you with the knowledge, skills and expertise needed to become proficient in the use and application of ADP’s payroll and HR solutions, this is the part of our ‘Formal Application’ where you will be recording your certification status. The RUN Certification curriculum is self-paced, so each individual will have their own time spent going through course content in addition to the 3-hour examination that must be passed to become certified. RUN Powered by ADP Payroll for Partners is a prime example of the way ProAdvisors can maximize ‘certification’ credit for 3rd party Apps/Software in their favor.  

There is a big difference between connecting a simple App to QuickBooks Online and integrating a manufacturing system with QuickBooks Desktop. That's why we also have a Tech Stack section devoted toward evaluating the complexities of 'implementations.'

Tech Stack Implementations

As with the other Tech Stack evaluation sections you begin by listing (in the top section) those 3rd-party products with which you personally had the most significant implementations over the period of December 1, 2019 to date. Then in the grid below you will list the 'number of hours' You personally spent in implementation of each of those 3rd-party products during the period. Our definition of implementation means complete installation, set-up and integration of the Software or App with either QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online (as applicable).  It is NOT limited to a single 'client', 'engagement' or 'billing event'., it represents all uses of that one specific software/App over the entire calendar period.  However, if any implementation was a result of a 'team effort' by you and your firm or team members, or you and the software/App Developer, you are to ONLY include the hours You actually spent as part of the implementation.

Insightful Accountant recognizes that our International candidates eligible for ‘the Americas’ and ‘the Non-Americas’ awards may not have access to as many 3rd-party products or Apps as other ProAdvisors simply because not all developers choose to produce a version that works with all QuickBooks country-versions or products. But most International ProAdvisors do have an ‘App stack’, even if limited, they themselves use, recommend, or help clients implement, even if those Apps don’t offer certification, but do offer ‘Partner programs’ for referrals or implementation. Insightful Accountant’s process focuses on both use of your preferred Apps (or software), your implementation of them, and the extent of your participation within any offered developer programs (at whatever level of participation they offer) for the country in which you reside, or the QuickBooks country-version with which you work.

Next week, in Part 3 of this series, we will be stressing the importance of 'Certifications' in regard to Insightful Accountant's Top 100 ProAdvisors and ProAdvisor of the Year Awards.   Don't forget to register for Secrets to Becoming a Top 100 ProAdvisor on February 4th at 1:00 pm Eastern which is a special webinar that ADP is hosting that serves as a companion to these articles. 

Nominations are still Open for this Years Awards, you can GO HERE to Nominate Yourself or another ProAdvisor.

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