Episode 40: Bringing Clarity to Your Accounting Practice, with Amy Holdsworth

In Episode 40, Sam has a brilliant conversation with Amy Holdsworth, the CEO and Founder of Clarity Street. Amy and Sam discuss her background and why she started Clarity Street, how we can supercharge our processes as an industry as well as the beliefs that have served our industry well in the past that now need to change going forward.

Amy shares what you need to know about integrating all your applications together and her suggestion for having a fully integrated app stack.

Sam and Amy then discuss the fact that they industry right now is in the messy middle of changing pricing, productivity and efficiency methodologies.

They finish their conversation discussing Amy’s top tips for business owners and why software isn’t going to solve your problems if you haven’t got the people and process pieces right.

Connect with Amy at https://www.claritystreet.com.au

Listen to an excerpt

What we cover in this episode

• Amy’s background and why she started Clarity Street

• What Clarity Street does supercharging accounting practices’ processes in the digital space

• The number one underlying belief and biggest block accountants have to get over

• Why you should engage an implementation partner for the digitalisation of your firm

• The reason the older generation of accountants may have some fear around getting ripped off by software and IT providers

• The shift the industry needs to make from terminal based to cloud based thinking

• What you need to know about integrating all your applications together

• Amy’s thoughts on getting a fully integrated app stack

• The messy middle of changing pricing, productivity and efficiency methodologies in our industry

• Amy’s top tips for business owners in these changing times

• Why software isn’t going to solve your problems (it might just increase them!) if you haven’t got the people and the process piece right

Quotes

“I find that when we're really trying to change, I've always found it very powerful the outsider's views of our belief systems.”  Sam

“We are business frustration extractors. We implement systems, processes and cloud applications to improve efficiencies in accounting practices.” ~ Amy

“You're already spending so much time servicing your clients, is there any time left to look at your own business, researching all the apps and doing all the change management and the training and the hand holding that comes with adopting new software and technology?” ~ Amy

“One of the underlying beliefs that [accountants] have to get over is getting other people in who might be experts in their field. We were taught from an early time that we should be the solution provider for our clients and also internally in our businesses….that's a belief that we really need to undo because we want to [be the external experts] in clients’ businesses.” ~ Sam

“One of the biggest blockers that we get is probably the ‘we can do it ourselves’ [mindset]. And I don't disagree, you probably can do yourself but at what cost your own business at work? What we are doing is allowing you to still continue doing business and if nothing else, doing better business and more business by being able to outsource it to somebody like ourselves.” ~ Amy

“For so long, you have had to find your worth and your value based on your time, and by putting that on the invoice to quantify what you've done and why you're charging that price. The client doesn't care [what’s on the invoice], they care that you've provided a good service.” ~ Amy

“If you think the job's going to take 10 hours based on the last three years that you've done the job, then charge that price…But now it's up to you to increase the average hourly rate by driving down the hours so you get it done quicker, because you should be able to get it done quicker.” ~ Amy

“Software is an enabler…Software is 90% of the time is not the issue. 10% of the time, it might be the software, but realistically, the other 90% is people and process, who is using it and the way it's being used. They are the reasons why you're having issues with your software.” ~ Amy

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