• EP553: Craig Taylor - You Are A Prime Target: Why Bookkeepers Must Understand Modern Cyber Threats
    2026/10/13
    See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now →Bookkeepers sit right next to the money, and that makes them a favorite target for financially motivated hackers. In part one of this two-part conversation, Cyberhoot founder and CEO Craig Taylor explains how AI has changed the threats landing in your inbox, your texts and your phone calls. He also gives you a short list of habits that shut most of those attacks down. Craig started in cybersecurity 30 years ago with a psychology degree, and his focus is on behavior change rather than fear and shame.Chapters[00:00] Why bookkeepers are targets[02:00] Craig's path from psychology to cybersecurity[08:00] How AI changed phishing attacks[11:00] Smishing, quishing and vishing explained[15:00] Safe words and callback verification[19:00] A listener's phishing story[22:00] Are QR codes safe to scan?[24:00] Password managers and passkeys[29:00] Next-of-kin recovery and staff transitionsWhy bookkeepers are a prime targetCraig is blunt about it: "Bookkeeping is the purse strings of the companies you're supporting." If you pay bills, wire funds or manage the financials of multiple companies, you are, in his words, "not just a little one, you're a prime target." Five years ago the attack was a clumsy gift card request with bad grammar. Today it can come from a breached inbox, with perfect spelling, the right branding, and urgency, authority and secrecy built in to rush you past your instincts.Phishing, smishing, quishing and vishingCraig walks through the whole family of scams: phishing (email), smishing (SMS text), quishing (QR code phishing) and vishing (voice). Fake toll violation texts and stickers pasted over parking meter QR codes are everyday examples. Voice is the scariest, because AI can clone a voice from two or three seconds of audio, and a call that sounds like someone you know carries built-in trust. As Craig puts it, the common thread is "getting you to react and do something financially without proper validation."Verify before you actThe fix is the same whatever the delivery method: verify the identity of the requester. Craig's two best tips for bookkeepers:Set a safe word with every client. Never publish it in email or any electronic format. If an urgent wire request comes in by phone and the caller can't give the safe word, "click, they hang up" and move on to an easier target.Call back on a number you already trust. Use the one saved in your phone, not the one in the email, because attackers will swap in a number they answer themselves.Michael adds his own version of this: when someone calls claiming to be the bank or the government, look up the general number yourself and call in.QR codes and a real-world phishing storyMichael shares a listener's story. After an office break-in, she tightened up her security, then got caught by a very good phishing email over a busy weekend and entered her password. Craig says scanning a QR code on your phone is relatively benign unless something is attacking the phone itself, but you should know where the code came from. A menu at a busy restaurant is fine, while a code on a telephone pole is not. If the next screen asks for a credit card when you only wanted an event date, stop.Make this the week you adopt a password managerIf you do one thing after this episode, Craig says, make it a password manager: "It allows you to create unique passwords everywhere you go." A manager only fills in credentials on the real site, so it protects you from phishing pages, and it saves you from changing 100 passwords after one breach. Craig also recommends passkeys, which can't be stolen and reused, and says to protect the manager itself with multi-factor authentication. Both he and Michael use 1Password. Set up the next-of-kin recovery feature so a trusted person can regain access after a delay. It also helps when staff change jobs: the next person can pick up the client accounts the last one managed.Links mentionedCyberhoot1PasswordThe Successful Bookkeeper: thesuccessfulbookkeeper.com (resources and links)Part 2 of this conversation: business-side cybersecurity and preparing your teamAbout the guestCraig Taylor is the founder and CEO of Cyberhoot, a company that makes cybersecurity simpler, more practical and easier to manage for small and mid-sized businesses. He began his career in cybersecurity roughly 30 years ago after studying psychology in Guelph, Ontario, and worked at several Fortune 500 companies, including a large bank, Computer Sciences Corporation and Vistaprint. Twelve years ago he founded Cyberhoot to teach cyber literacy in a way people enjoy, using positive reinforcement rather than punishment and shame.About the hostMichael PalmerMichael Palmer is the host of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast — almost 600 episodes and counting — and founder of The Successful Bookkeeper Global. He's spent over 15 years in the bookkeeping industry, working one-on-one with thousands of bookkeepers across the ...
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    32 分
  • EP552: David Priemer - Sell the human, not the data: Why clients still need you in an AI world
    2026/10/06
    See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now → If you've ever worried that AI will make bookkeepers obsolete, this episode is the antidote. David Priemer, founder of Cerebral Selling and a scientist-turned-sales expert, makes a compelling case that the human experience of working with a trusted professional is the product — and no app can replicate it. Michael Palmer and David dig into how bookkeepers can identify what clients truly value, tell better stories, and attract new business without feeling like a salesperson. Chapters [00:00] Guest intro and origin story[03:42] From research scientist to sales expert[08:00] Why meteorologists still matter[12:00] The forecast is not the product[16:00] What clients actually buy from you[21:00] The one-thing question[26:00] Using one client story effectively[32:00] Selling if you hate selling[37:00] Building a belief-led message[43:00] Resources and book recommendations The Meteorologist Lesson: The Forecast Isn't the Product David opens with a striking analogy: anyone can check a weather app, yet millions still watch meteorologists on TV. Why? Context, trust, and the reassurance of another human being. "When you hire a bookkeeper, you're not hiring a machine to run the books for you and give you the answer," David explains. "You're paying another human being to care about your business, to help you grow, and bring all of their experience and expertise to help you avoid some of the pitfalls." The data — like the forecast — is just the starting point. The experience of working with a professional is what clients are actually buying. Ask the One Thing Question Most bookkeepers sell the technical side of what they do. But when clients are asked why they love their service providers, they rarely mention technical skill. They talk about responsiveness, feeling heard, and getting proactive advice. David's fix is refreshingly simple: ask one question. "What's one thing you find most valuable about our meetings?" Framing it around a process rather than yourself removes the awkwardness and focuses the client's mind. The answers you collect — even from just one or two clients — are legitimate and powerful material for marketing and prospecting conversations. You Don't Need Statistical Significance One of David's most freeing pieces of advice: you don't need 100 data points to craft a point of view or share a client story. "Don't worry about having statistically significant feedback," he says. "A couple of data points that allow you to go out to the world and say, here's some of the things I've heard my clients say about why they value working with me — that is very powerful." For bookkeepers who are wired to get things exactly right, this is a meaningful permission slip to tell real stories and share real observations without waiting for a perfect sample size. Lead With What You Believe For bookkeepers who hate the idea of selling, David offers a way in that doesn't feel like a pitch: lead with what you believe. Inspired by how Phil Knight talked about running — not shoes — and how Steve Jobs described changing the world before mentioning a product, David encourages bookkeepers to articulate the problem they see in the world and why it matters. "Beliefs are very powerful and intoxicating," he says. The one trap to avoid: sounding like everyone else. A belief statement needs an edge — a named problem or a clear "enemy" — to cut through the noise and stick in a prospective client's mind. Three Ways to Sell If You Hate Selling David distills his approach into three practical moves any bookkeeper can take: lead with what you believe, tell more client stories, and create content that does the selling for you. That last point has an unexpected bonus — roughly a third of the new clients who find David now come through AI-powered searches, simply because he has published enough content that reflects his distinct point of view. A digital footprint built on real beliefs and real client experiences doesn't just attract people; it also sharpens your own thinking. "The act of writing and crystallizing your point of view is very powerful for you," David notes — not just your audience. Links Mentioned Cerebral Selling website — free blogs, resources, and information on David's books and trainingSell the Way You Buy by David Priemer — available on Amazon, Audible, and KindleTo Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink — referenced during the discussion on sales perceptionShoe Dog by Phil Knight — referenced on leading with beliefDavid Priemer on LinkedIn — subscribe to his LinkedIn newsletter About the Guest David Priemer is the founder and Chief Sales Scientist at Cerebral Selling. A former research scientist who fell into sales during the dot-com boom, David went on to lead sales teams at four high-growth tech companies — including five years at Salesforce running small business sales for the Eastern US. For the past nine years he has run ...
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    43 分
  • EP551: Debra Kilsheimer - Beyond The Numbers: Why AI Makes Your Expertise More Valuable
    2026/09/29
    See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now →Debra Kilsheimer has been in the accounting profession for 45 years, and she has never been more excited about its future. In this episode, she and Michael Palmer dig into what AI actually means for bookkeepers right now — not as a threat, but as a tool that clears away the task work and makes room for the conversations clients have always needed. If you have been wondering how to position your firm in an AI world, this episode is a practical place to start.Chapters[00:00] Opening Hook on AI and Jobs[01:18] Welcome and Guest Introductions[03:30] Blazer Accounting: An AI-Native Firm[08:00] Pivoting From Task Work to Advisory[13:00] The Doctor Analogy and Client Conversations[18:00] Winning Clients With Sample Reports[23:00] Real Workflow Wins With AI Tools[28:00] Human Connection AI Cannot Replace[32:00] How to Start Small With AI[35:00] Closing Thoughts and ResourcesThe Shift From Task Work to ExpertiseDebra's core message is simple: if you are only selling data entry and reconciliations, AI can replicate that. But if you are selling interpretation, insight, and relationship, no machine touches you. "If all you're selling is getting the numbers on a piece of paper, Chat will take your job," she says. The opportunity for bookkeepers is to move confidently into the role they have always wanted — explaining what the numbers mean and helping clients build the business and life they are after.Building an AI-Native FirmDebra and her colleague Donna Reed launched Blazer Accounting (getblazer.ai) specifically to test what an AI-first practice looks like in the real world. Their premise: bookkeeping should be free, because the machines now handle the transactional work. What that frees up is time for advisory — the higher-value conversations clients genuinely want to pay for. She also described concrete workflow wins, from having Claude automatically process PDF sales reports into a standardized template, to using AI to track tip payments from a hair salon's texted receipts before weekly payroll runs.Winning New Clients With Sample Advisory ReportsOne of the most actionable ideas in this episode is Debra's approach to prospect meetings. Before sitting down with a potential restaurant client, she uses AI to generate a sample monthly advisory report — using anonymized data from an existing client in the same industry — so the prospect can see exactly what working with her looks like. "They literally will sign on the spot," she says. "We're getting clients at like twice the pay that we were getting before. Because they've never had this. Never." It reframes the conversation away from transaction counts and toward outcomes.The Human Element AI Cannot ReplaceDebra is enthusiastic about AI, but she is equally clear about what it cannot do. It has no soul, no personal connection, and no real understanding of what a client wants out of their life. She draws the analogy of WebMD versus a doctor: a symptom checker might give you the right answer, but you still want a human to look you in the eye, ask the right questions, and catch what the algorithm missed. "You give your clients a connection that AI cannot give them," she says. "AI is just data — it's not the personal connection that only you can give."How to Get Started Without Getting OverwhelmedFor bookkeepers who are not yet using AI tools, Debra's advice is to start small and stay curious. Pick one task — a bank rec that won't foot, a client report you want to draft — and try it. She recommends using Claude for number-heavy work and ChatGPT for writing and communication tasks. Most importantly, she says, don't compare your progress to anyone else's. "You are in your journey with this where you are. And where you are is great."Links MentionedBlazer Accounting — getblazer.aiBookkeepers on Fire (YouTube channel with Donna Reed) — live every Tuesday at 3 p.m.Behind the Scenes Financials — Debra's traditional accounting firmDeb Liberate — Debra's speaking and consulting brandWomen Who Count conference — upcoming keynoteReframe stage, Miami — upcoming speaking appearanceThe Woodard Report and OnPay — publications Debra writes forPureBookkeeping.com — episode sponsorAbout the GuestDebra Kilsheimer is an accounting professional, speaker, and founder of Deb Liberate, where she helps accountants and bookkeepers price their services, communicate their value, and lead with confidence. She is co-owner of Behind the Scenes Financials alongside her husband Hal, and co-founded Blazer Accounting, an AI-native firm, with Donna Reed. She also co-hosts the Bookkeepers on Fire YouTube channel and writes regularly for The Woodard Report and OnPay. Debra is based in Port Orange, Florida, and can be found on LinkedIn.About the hostMichael PalmerMichael Palmer is the host of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast — almost 600 episodes and counting — and founder of The Successful Bookkeeper ...
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    40 分
  • EP550: Hunter Rademacher - Sell The Pain: How To Close More Bookkeeping Deals With Ease
    2026/09/22
    See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now → Hunter Rademacher has closed roughly 250 bookkeeping, payroll, and accounting deals in five years as an Account Executive at CSI Accounting & Payroll. In this conversation with guest host Louie Crossberry, Hunter shares the practical sales framework he uses every day — the kind of thinking that bookkeepers rarely get exposure to, but desperately need when it comes to winning new clients and holding on to good-fit ones. Here’s a special gift for YOU. Visit Plooto.com/TSB and try it for FREE for two months! That’s a FREE 30-day trial, plus an extra free month for Successful Bookkeeper podcast listeners! Don’t miss out, sign up TODAY! Chapters [00:00] Opening Quote on Emotional Decisions[01:12] Hunter's Background and Path to Sales[04:30] Dos and Don'ts When Engaging Prospects[07:00] Discovery Questions That Surface Real Pain[10:30] Building Strategic Partnerships[16:30] Cold Outreach and Research Tactics[21:00] Using AI to Prepare for Sales Calls[25:00] Why Deals Fall Apart: Lack of Discovery[29:00] Handling the Pricing Conversation[33:30] Follow-Up and the Free Financial Review Stop Talking About Your Services First The most common mistake Hunter sees bookkeepers make is diving straight into what they do — features, software, deliverables — before the prospect has even explained their situation. Business owners often think of bookkeeping as a necessary evil, so opening with a feature list gives them nothing to connect with emotionally. "Tell me about your business" is the simple opener Hunter uses to let prospects surface their own pain. From there, the questions go deeper, and the prospect usually does most of the talking. It's an Emotional Decision, Not a Logical One Hunter is direct about something that trips up a lot of number-focused professionals: "People don't know that it's an emotional decision. And us accountants and bookkeepers especially think everything's logical and it should make sense." He's lost deals that were clear no-brainers on paper — the prospect just wasn't emotionally bought in. The fix is digging past surface-level answers to find the real pain, then being explicit about how you'll take that pain away. Building Strategic Partnerships That Actually Send Referrals CPAs get all the attention, but Hunter finds that other bookkeepers, business bankers, and consultants are often overlooked and highly valuable. His key insight is that a great strategic partner isn't just someone who'll trade referrals — it's someone who genuinely needs clean, timely financials to do their own job well. When reaching out cold, a vague "I'd love to work together" won't cut it. Instead, Hunter ties his outreach to something timely and specific: a filing deadline, a common client pain, a real reason they should care right now. Pricing: Give a Range Early, Then Offer Options Hunter pushes back on the old advice to hide pricing until the very end. Today's business owners research before they call, so stalling on price can feel evasive. He recommends giving an honest range early ("generally somewhere between $500 and $1,000 for a business your size") and explaining the factors that move the number up or down. When it comes to the proposal itself, presenting three service tiers shifts the conversation from "do I want to hire you?" to "which option fits me best?" — a much easier question for a prospect to answer. The Follow-Up: Give Something Worth Coming Back For When a prospect says "call me later," Hunter's move is to offer a free financial review — a look at their current books that delivers real value regardless of whether they sign on. "I want everybody that meets with me to have a great experience," he says. Even prospects who don't become clients often leave a Google review or send a referral. Building that reputation for genuine helpfulness, consistently, is what compounds into a full pipeline over time. Links Mentioned Connect with Hunter Rademacher on LinkedIn: search Hunter Rademacher (R-A-D-E-M-A-C-H-E-R) and send a DM — he's offering a free sales audit of your current sales process to listeners of this episodeCSI Accounting & PayrollPureBookkeeping.com — the proven system to grow your bookkeeping businessThe Successful Bookkeeper — free business-building resources About the Guest Hunter Rademacher is an Account Executive at CSI Accounting & Payroll in Minnesota, where he has spent five-plus years closing bookkeeping, payroll, and accounting engagements for small businesses ranging from $250K to $10M in revenue. With a background in finance and early experience at ADP, Hunter brings a rare combination of numbers fluency and genuine sales craft to the bookkeeping world. About the hostMichael PalmerMichael Palmer is the host of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast — almost 600 episodes and counting — and founder of The Successful Bookkeeper Global. He's spent over 15 years in the bookkeeping industry, ...
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    32 分
  • EP549: Sam Leon - AI Does The Heavy Lifting: How One CPA Automated His Whole Workflow
    2026/09/14
    See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now →If you have ever wondered what it actually looks like to build AI into your accounting practice — not in theory, but day-to-day — this episode is for you. Sam Leon, CPA and founder of TaxWeave, joined guest host Louie Prosperity to share exactly how he went from experimenting with ChatGPT to building his own secure AI platform for tax professionals. The conversation is practical, honest about the risks, and full of ideas you can act on right away.Chapters[00:00] Introduction and Sam's Background[02:45] Why Sam Chose Claude Over Others[06:30] Claude Code: Beyond Just Chatting[09:30] Workflow Automation for Bookkeepers[12:30] The Data Security Problem[16:30] Building TaxWeave as a Secure Platform[20:00] Top AI Tasks to Tackle First[24:00] Keeping Up as AI Models Evolve[26:30] How Sam Checks His AI Outputs[28:30] Where to Find Sam and TaxWeaveFrom Curiosity to Real WorkflowsSam has been watching technology waves roll through the accounting profession for years — cryptocurrency, machine learning, practice management software. When AI chatbots arrived, he started testing them immediately, but it was a specific feature of Claude that changed how he worked: the ability to connect the tool directly to files on his computer. "That's how I got started with a lot of the more time-saving workflows that I was doing," he explains. The shift from chatting with AI to feeding it real documents opened the door to genuine time savings rather than novelty.The Tasks Best Suited for AutomationSam is direct about where AI earns its keep: document summarization, transaction categorization, and building QuickBooks rules. He recently spoke with a bookkeeper who used AI to generate an extensive list of transaction rules that could be imported straight into QuickBooks — a task that would have taken hours to build manually. His broader advice is to start with tasks that are data-heavy and repeatable, then layer AI on top of the tools you already use rather than replacing them outright.Handling Sensitive Data the Right WayThis is where Sam slows down and gets careful, and so should you. For tax professionals in the US, IRS Code Section 7216 governs what client information can be shared with third-party systems — and most AI platforms have not yet been through the kind of SOC 2 certification process that established tax software has. Sam's personal rule: never upload anything containing Social Security numbers, EINs, or last names. For bookkeeping work, he sees a slightly lower barrier since transaction lists are often less personally identifying, but the principle holds. "Being more cautious than not — if you're unsure about it, probably take another step to make sure that information really doesn't have any personal identifying information on it." Upgrading to a Teams or Business plan on these platforms also adds a layer of data protection over personal accounts.Building TaxWeave: From Workaround to PlatformThe manual redaction problem — using Adobe to black out client details before running documents through AI — was slow and error-prone. That frustration pushed Sam to start building TaxWeave, a platform designed to handle the redaction automatically inside a secure environment, then run AI workflows on the cleaned documents. He built the initial prototype using Claude Code, which lets you describe what you want in plain language and generates the underlying code. "The barrier where you had to understand how to do that — it's removing that," he says. TaxWeave currently focuses on tax practice project management and client organization, with AI workflow integration being the layer built on top.Keeping Up as the Models Keep ChangingAI models update constantly, and Sam's advice is to treat your workflows the same way you treat your engagement letters — review them periodically and adjust. He recommends using the Projects feature in Claude to maintain context across sessions, and revisiting your saved instructions whenever a new model version drops. You can even ask the AI itself what needs updating. For quality control, Sam still does his own research to verify AI-generated answers and checks outputs manually, paying attention over time to where the tool is weakest. "You can start to see what it's weaker on — what kind of things does it always miss — and what you can start trusting it with."Links MentionedTaxWeave: taxweave.aiSam Leon on LinkedIn: search Samuel Leon CPAClaude (Anthropic): claude.aiPureBookkeeping: purebookkeeping.comPluto (sponsor): pluto.com/tsbAbout the GuestSam Leon is a CPA with 14 years of experience in tax accounting, specializing in corporate tax, startup tax issues, R&D credits, and individual returns. After building his solo firm, The Millennial CPA, he was recognized in the 2026 Accounting Today Best Firms for Technology Awards. He is currently developing TaxWeave, an AI-powered platform built specifically for tax ...
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    33 分
  • EP548: Julie Daniluk - Sitting Is The New Smoking: How Bookkeepers Can Work And Move
    2026/09/08
    See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now →If you work 8-plus hours a day in front of a screen, your body is paying a price you may not fully see yet. In this episode, host Michael Palmer welcomes back nutritionist, TV host, and bestselling author Julie Daniluk for a frank conversation about what sedentary desk work is actually doing to bookkeepers' bodies — and, more importantly, what you can do about it starting today.Chapters[00:00] Standing desk setup intro[01:37] Julie's plane crash recovery[03:54] Why sitting harms your body[07:00] Walking pads and movement snacks[09:48] Diagnosing your energy crashes[12:00] Continuous glucose monitors explained[17:00] Oura Ring and sleep tracking[21:00] Hidden energy thieves and diet[26:00] Ketones, brain fog, and yerba mate[30:00] LumaBody program and resourcesSitting Is the New SmokingThe phrase sounds dramatic until you hear what the research actually shows. "Sitting still for 8 hours a day is absolutely horrendous for your health," Julie explains. "You end up with very poor blood sugar control. It reduces your insulin sensitivity. It's hard on your heart, and it certainly reduces your circulation." The solution, she argues, isn't to stretch after work — it's to stop sitting so much in the first place. A desk topper that converts any standard surface into a standing workspace, combined with a compact walking pad (now as small as 2.5 feet long), can let you move your legs while you work without disrupting your typing rhythm. Alternating between a standing position and a balance ball chair throughout the day adds an unexpected core workout on top of the circulation benefits.Movement Snacks and the Hourly ResetJulie recommends treating movement the way many bookkeepers treat their billable time — in structured intervals. "Every hour you should be taking a small movement break," she says, whether that's 50 squats, calf raises, arm swings, or even just tapping your feet under the desk. She calls these "movement snacks," and the research behind them is clear: brief bouts of muscle activity pull blood sugar down, restore circulation, and fight the metabolic slowdown that comes with prolonged stillness. Pets help too — Julie walks her dog twice a day and counts an energetic ball-throwing session in the backyard as a legitimate movement break.Tracking Your Metabolic HealthOne of the most practical tools discussed in this episode is the continuous glucose monitor (CGM) — a small microchip worn on the back of the arm that pairs with a smartphone app to show real-time blood sugar readings throughout the day. No doctor's prescription required; they're available at most drugstores. Julie uses them regularly with clients and consistently finds surprises: smoothies, fruit-bottomed yogurt, and white rice can spike blood sugar just as sharply as obvious offenders like donuts. "It's going to give you charts and graphs to show you" exactly which foods cause peaks and crashes — and the crashes, she notes, are when fatigue, brain fog, and headaches hit hardest. The Oura Ring comes up as a complementary tracker for sleep quality, with Julie crediting mouth taping and acupuncture for doubling her nightly deep sleep.Hidden Energy ThievesBeyond movement, Julie identifies several drains that busy bookkeepers rarely connect to their afternoon slumps. Liquid calories — think blended coffee drinks topping 700 calories — don't register as fullness the way solid food does, so they spike insulin without satisfying hunger. Ultra-processed foods borrow nutrients like B vitamins, zinc, and chromium from your body's own reserves just to metabolize their empty carbohydrates, leaving you with less energy than you started with. Food sensitivities to gluten, corn, soy, or refined sugar can trigger an immune response that feels like pure exhaustion. And caffeine, she clarifies, doesn't give you energy — it suppresses adenosine, your body's fatigue signal, which is a very different thing. Her recommended alternative: yerba mate, which naturally stimulates GLP-1, reduces appetite, and delivers gentler stimulation without wrecking sleep.Fueling Your Brain DifferentlyFor bookkeepers struggling with brain fog, Julie points to ketones as an underused fuel source. When sugar intake drops, the liver produces ketones that can power the brain with remarkable clarity. "In the absence of sugar, how extraordinary my focus and memory really can be," she says, drawing on her own experience managing ADHD through nutrition. Therapeutic ketone powders and medium-chain triglycerides (from coconut products) offer a way to access this fuel without committing to a strict ketogenic diet. She also advocates for a protein-forward breakfast — a batch-cooked frittata made with a dozen eggs, roasted peppers, olives, and feta — as a practical way to stabilize blood sugar from the first hour of the workday and push carbohydrates to the evening, when they support sleep rather than ...
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    44 分
  • EP547: Lara Manton - Bookkeeping Isn't Dead: How to evolve and add real client value
    2026/09/01
    See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now → Lara Manton has a gift for reframing panic as possibility. The founder of ACE-XL Ltd and a 15-year UK bookkeeping veteran, Lara delivered a talk at Accountex titled I've Watched Bookkeeping Die 3 Times — and in this episode she brings that same clear-eyed optimism to Michael Palmer. If you've been anxious about AI or wondering whether your role still matters, this conversation will shift your thinking. Chapters [00:00] Opening quote on client value[01:18] Welcome and guest introduction[03:30] The provocative LinkedIn article[06:30] Defining what bookkeeping really is[10:00] Three times bookkeeping 'died'[15:00] AI as shepherd, not replacement[18:30] Who thrived through each shift[23:00] Evaluating tech without chasing shiny objects[27:30] Rising professionalism and community[31:30] Biggest opportunity the profession must not miss Three "Deaths" That Were Actually Rebirths Lara's three moments of supposed bookkeeping extinction track neatly with major industry shifts: the cloud and OCR revolution, COVID forcing everyone to work remotely, and now the rise of AI agents. Each time, the prediction was the same — software will replace the bookkeeper. Each time, the profession adapted and came out doing more meaningful work. "Every time the software changes," Lara says, "it changes what bookkeepers do. It changes the nature of bookkeeping, maybe not what we do, but how we do it." The Core Job Has Never Changed Strip away the tools and the underlying mission is the same it has always been: get accurate data to help businesses make decisions. Lara argues that AI and automation simply speed up the data-gathering part, which frees bookkeepers to spend more time on the part that actually matters to clients. "The rewarding thing isn't entering data," she says. "The rewarding thing is understanding a business and helping a business owner. And that bit doesn't change." Humanity Is the Competitive Advantage The bookkeepers who thrived through every disruption shared one trait: they stayed curious about their clients. Lara makes the case that asking the right questions — specific to each business, not generic ones — is where the real value lives. "You can learn to ask the right questions, not the questions that everyone asks, but the right questions for that business. And then that's where you can start to add value. Because unless you actually relate those numbers back to the business itself and what they're trying to achieve, those numbers are gonna mean nothing to them." She warns that if you communicate like a robot, AI will eventually be able to replace you — but the innately human skills of listening, pattern recognition, and relationship-building are much harder to replicate. Thinking Clearly About AI Tools Lara draws a sharp line between AI accounting tools and accounting tools with AI built in. The former often lack foundational accounting knowledge; the latter layer intelligence on top of proven principles. She shared a real example: a client ran their VAT return through Claude and came back with a list of confused questions — because the AI didn't understand international reverse charge VAT. "It's about shepherding that information and reviewing the information rather than necessarily doing the data entry, but being aware of the other things that matter to a business owner." The lesson: use AI to augment your expertise, not to bypass the need for it. A Rising Tide for the Whole Profession Lara sees bookkeeping's public profile improving — driven partly by institutional efforts in the UK to bring bookkeeping into university curricula, and partly by accountants increasingly recognising bookkeepers as collaborative partners rather than a cheaper alternative. She also points to the bookkeeping community's culture of sharing as a quiet competitive strength. "Bookkeepers talk to one another. We don't gatekeep in the same way. We share information quite freely." That generosity of knowledge, she believes, is one of the things that will carry the profession forward — and attract software companies who want to build better products with practitioner input. Links Mentioned Lara Manton on LinkedIn — connect with Lara directlyACE-XL Ltd — Lara's finance process consultancy for larger businessesLJM Bookkeeping — Lara's UK bookkeeping practicePureBookkeeping.com — episode sponsor, proven system for growing your bookkeeping businessthesuccessfulbookkeeper.com — free business-building resources About the Guest Lara Manton is the founder of ACE-XL Ltd and runs LJM Bookkeeping, a UK-based practice working with limited companies and service-based businesses. A two-time Xero Award winner — including Xero's first UK Bookkeeper / Small Firm of the Year — Lara sits on the ICB's Advisory Board and chairs their Tech Board. She has spoken at every major UK accounting event, including Accountex, and works with approximately 50 clients ...
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    40 分
  • EP546: Alex Lee - The Future Is Still You: Why AI Makes Bookkeepers More Valuable
    2026/08/25
    See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now → If you've been watching the AI wave roll in and wondering what it means for your bookkeeping practice, this episode is for you. Alex Lee, co-founder and CEO of Truewind, brings a clear-eyed perspective grounded in three and a half years of building AI tools specifically for accountants. His message is direct: the future of accounting has always been about you, and that isn't changing. Chapters [00:00] Opening: Fear and Opportunity[01:18] Alex Lee's Unlikely Path to AI[04:18] The Future Is Still You[08:00] Will AI Replace Bookkeepers?[12:00] Crawl, Walk, Run: Getting Started[16:30] AI Adoption Across the Profession[19:30] Data Privacy and Security Checklist[24:00] Vision for Accounting's Future[27:00] About Truewind The Work That Has Always Mattered Alex draws a useful historical line — from carving debits and credits in limestone, to paper ledgers, to file cabinets, to cloud software, and now AI. "I see AI as the next iteration of technology that may shape how accountants are doing the work," he says. "But ultimately, the work of the accountants is the same." What AI does is create space for bookkeepers to spend more time on the things that are genuinely hard to automate: being a trusted advisor, being a real business partner, and — as Alex puts it — shaking hands and looking someone in the eye. Those things don't disappear no matter how good the models get. The Spreadsheet Comparison Worth Remembering When the fear of replacement comes up — and it does — Alex points to a pattern that has played out before. When spreadsheets arrived, people predicted mass job losses in accounting. Instead, the profession grew. Some small business owners did start managing their own five-line chart of accounts, and some will use AI to handle basic recordkeeping themselves. But that's not your client. "As accountants, it puts you in a very unique position to elevate yourself in terms of your AI skills and demonstrate to businesses, I know how to use this tool exceptionally well." The expertise gap has always been the value. AI doesn't close that gap — it widens it in your favor if you lean in. A Crawl, Walk, Run Framework for Getting Started Alex is practical about adoption. Start by picking one AI tool you've already heard of — maybe tried once — and use it for everyday tasks: drafting a client email, writing a performance review, planning a trip. Get comfortable at that level before adding complexity. Walking looks like connecting your AI to your Slack, email, or call recordings and asking it to synthesize information — summarizing client pain points before a proposal, for example. Running is letting AI handle a meaningful portion of your day-to-day operations. "Just get started," Alex says. "Over time, get more sophisticated, and then over time, let it be the primary operating system for you." Handling Data Privacy the Right Way Financial data demands careful handling, and Alex doesn't gloss over it. His checklist for vetting any AI vendor: confirm they are SOC 2 Type 2 compliant with a reputable auditor (not a quick rubber-stamp), verify that data privacy agreements exist between your vendor and the underlying model providers like OpenAI or Anthropic, and look for a genuine philosophy of data protection — not just a claim on a website. For teams that are still nervous about connecting client data to AI tools, his advice mirrors the crawl-walk-run approach: start by using AI internally with your own team's Slack and shared drives. Build confidence there before expanding to client-facing workflows. A Bigger Demand for Accountants Is Coming Alex's outlook for the next one to five years is genuinely optimistic. He sees AI acting as a catalyst for what he calls a "Cambrian explosion of demand for accounting." As business models shift from billable hours toward fixed-fee engagements and technology enables firms to handle more clients with the same headcount, he expects more businesses — not fewer — to seek out qualified accounting professionals. "Accountants can get more done with less, driving an influx of demand for what accounting firms can provide." The firms positioning themselves now, building AI literacy and deepening client relationships, are the ones that will be ready to capture that demand. Links Mentioned Truewind — Alex's AI-powered accounting platformThe Successful Bookkeeper — show resources and guest informationPureBookkeeping — episode sponsor, proven system to grow your bookkeeping business About the Guest Alex Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Truewind, an AI-powered accounting platform built for accounting firms and corporate finance teams. Before founding Truewind, Alex worked as an aerospace engineer at Boeing, spent time in venture capital, and built a financial planning and analysis company. Truewind launched in the same month as ChatGPT and has spent the past three and a half years building what Alex ...
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