Resilience in the Face of Change

Attention: This is a machine-generated transcript. As such, there may be spelling, grammar, and accuracy errors throughout. Thank you for your understanding!

Alicia Katz Pollock: Welcome, everybody, to this week's edition of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. I'm really excited because I have a very special guest with me today, Miss Allison Ball of b.al consulting. I'm actually wearing my I love QBO t shirt that she sent to me, gosh, a dozen years ago. I've known Allison since the moment [00:00:30] that I kind of landed on the scene. I'll tell my story in a minute. But, Allison, let me bring you up. How are you doing?

Alison Ball: Oh, so good to be you and to be here with you. Alicia and I saw your t shirt, and I thought, oh, I remember those. Yeah, they're fun, aren't they? We actually got in trouble for doing the cube like that because it had. Brandon said that you can't have we called it the meatball, right. And you can't have the meatball on its own without having somewhere Intuit QuickBooks. [00:01:00]

Alicia Katz Pollock: Oh, interesting.

Alison Ball: So those those shirts are actually off brand. It's yeah, we got, we got in trouble. But they're so great right there. So great shirts that. Yeah, it's lovely to see. But when did we meet. Because I don't have a very good.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I've got the story for you. Yeah.

Alison Ball: What year was that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. So so just because there's some people listening and not seeing the t shirt that I'm wearing is like, remember the the old I love New York shirts, the I heart, I heart. So it's an eye with a green heart and then a really old vintage QBO logo. So that's the shirt that [00:01:30] the meatball.

Alison Ball: That was the off brand, the off brand meatball.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. So you can see it if you tune into our YouTube channel. All right, so I met Allison. Here's the story of how I met Allison. We were at my second QuickBooks connect and I had just published my first, my first book, my QuickBooks online from setup to Desk time book. So this is 2015. So it's been 11 years and I wanted to join the trainer writer network, [00:02:00] and I met Seth David and, um, and Eric Greenspan and they said, you need to go find Alison Ball. And I'm like, well, how am I going to find this woman, Alison Ball? How am I going to find her? And so I'm literally spending my entire QuickBooks connect looking for you. Like, literally, like asking people. Who is she? Where do I find her? And no. No luck. I sit down at one of the main stages, and there's this woman in the row in front of me who [00:02:30] is vigorously tweeting every single thing happening on main stage, and I'm like, oh my God, she's on rails. She's just going and going and going, and it's kind of looking over your shoulder. And I saw Alison Ball on your screen. I'm like, no, no, no, she's sitting in front of me. Oh my God, this is her. And so as soon as the main stage is over, I tapped you on the shoulder, introduced myself, asked to join the trainer writer network, and I think I was. You've told me that I'm one of the only people who [00:03:00] never actually interviewed for it because like, I didn't have an audition because I just handed you my book and you're like.

Alison Ball: Okay, yeah. And the kids were there. I do remember now. And the little fun fact about the 2015, um, is that I was, I underneath, I was wearing a wig when you met me. I was wearing a wig because I had been treated for early stage breast cancer and so much earlier in the year, but my hair had not grown back yet. So at the 2015, I was wearing that fabulous [00:03:30] wig that I got so many compliments on. I never got compliments on my regular hair ever, ever. And that was the one with Oprah. So Oprah was the was the main stage. So yeah, you know, you got to tweet Oprah, right? Yeah. So you were right behind me.

Alicia Katz Pollock: You had this like beautiful auburn hair and.

Alison Ball: Yeah, well, that was my natural color. And anyways, now, yeah. Anyway, so I, I, yeah, so long story. We won't talk about my hair, but that was just a little moment in time where, like, it was a very 2015 [00:04:00] was a very wonderful experience for me because not only did I get to meet Oprah, but it was, it was I had made it through all the treatments. So yeah, it was good. Yeah. And then I met you in your book and then you were admitted in and you just went from strength to strength. So yeah, yeah, yeah, you were a good addition.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Oh, good. Thank you very much. Yeah. So the Intuit Trainer writer network back in the day was a group of educators [00:04:30] and essentially influencers who would just share what they knew about QuickBooks, share their expertise, teach out, talk about how the software worked, answer people's questions online. And that's essentially how I developed my career. If it wasn't for the Intuit Trainer Writer Network, I don't know that I would be doing what I'm doing.

Alison Ball: You would. You'd just be doing it very differently. It would just be a different path. And that's that's what's so interesting. It was a moment that the ten was [00:05:00] a moment of in time, where every person in there. And it was a long moment because I think we started it in Al Polizzi, and I started it in late 2000, early 2005.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Oh, wow.

Alison Ball: So it had already been like ten years. And Joe Woodard was t w remember number one, Bonnie Nakayama, um, Laura Madeira, you know, some Michelle Long, the early ones. And, um, it was designed to take people who were experts in QuickBooks. And [00:05:30] in the beginning it was desktop. And then of course, it quickly morphed to the QBO, you know, to the cloud and then all the ancillary things. So you could, you could be in if you loved the payroll or if you were really good at payroll, but you also had to have the ability to teach and speak or credibly create beautiful training materials like you did. So that was but you could also teach and speak. So you were like that. You were like the triple threat because you could do it. All right. So when I and I, and I got very good at knowing what the it [00:06:00] factor was, and I could meet people and know immediately whether they were going to work or not. And so some people did get fast tracked in. And then as, as the demand grew and everything, we did get a more rigorous. And I realized that the best people to evaluate TWN members were existing twin members. Mhm. So I took myself out of the equation because I always see the best in everybody and I want everybody to be to come in. And, you know, I would just kind of almost say yes to any, but not, not yes to anybody [00:06:30] because you had to be, you had to meet my bar. And my bar was fairly high.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah.

Alison Ball: But once you met my bar, then maybe there was some other things where I would say, oh no, it'll work out, but the TWN members were really good because they would audition. So we started doing auditions at all the major conferences.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah.

Alison Ball: So you may have sat, I don't know, you may have sat on an audit on an audition panel. And did you ever sit on an audition panel and know? Okay, so interesting. You had a really interesting experience because most of the others did. I was like, okay, I need some people. And people [00:07:00] would raise their hands. Yeah, I know Don Brolin and yeah, yeah. Carla Caldwell they did a lot. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And what I loved about the TWN was the, the, the network. I mean, it's really how I got to meet people. And when the, when the TWM was disbanded, I mean, I.

Alison Ball: Heartbroken.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It brought tears.

Alison Ball: I was I think I think many people were they were like, wait, what, what what? Yeah. I don't understand that decision. Actually. I will go on record saying that I don't understand why [00:07:30] that was done. Um, probably it was a resourcing issue or something, I don't know. But I do think that it's a shame.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I don't think until it realized what the impact that it actually had on public perception. I think that that was an insight that they didn't have, because we really were the people out there being the cheerleaders and the influencers and, and, and you guys would help dispel.

Alison Ball: And if there was any, any false news out there, you would help correct and clarify [00:08:00] because a lot of times people react to something, they don't have the full picture. And that was why it was so like, you'll see, for example, Kim go on and correct things, right? And if you have the full picture, you're like, oh, okay, I understand. Right. But if you don't have the full picture and you're just looking at it from your lens, it's very easy to misinterpret, right? Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Providing context, I think is a lot of context, like, okay, here's a change. Nobody likes change. [00:08:30] It's instantly frustrating. But why is the change? And when I would say and when I would give an explanation or the background or the bigger picture, people are like, oh, okay, I can get my head around that. Yeah. I mean, so, you know, we all know that that community was a really special group of people. They are my dearest friends to this day, and so I'm really grateful, not just from the impact that it had on the on people's practices and on [00:09:00] Intuit, but on all of our lives and careers as well. So the TWN um, disintegrated and you were 1 in 1 of the rounds of layoffs.

Alison Ball: And yeah, I was laid off before the TWN was disbanded. But yeah, two, uh, 2020 was when I was laid off. So it's been six. It's been six years. In fact, I think it might almost be six years to the day that I got the news. Um, now one thing about one thing I think I want to go [00:09:30] have people understand about the way that Intuit does these big layoffs is that they're very sensitively done for the employees. And so as an employee and I had been laid off from other tech companies where you literally go in and you find out you're gone that day and you, you can't even go and fill a prescription or get your eyeglasses or like you're like, you're out. Right? So they don't do that. And Tua doesn't do that. What they do is they give you two months, and that first month you play this thing called pitcher catcher. At least that's what we used to call it. So for [00:10:00] example, TWNI handed it off to Mindy. Mhm. Right. Mindy king yeah. And so I was able to give her all the information and make sure she knew where to find everything and make sure she knew what was, what was going on. Um, so I was the pitcher. Mindy was the catcher. So that's your first month. Then the second month, you're still on salary, but you're allowed to interview internally or externally. And so I ultimately chose to leave Intuit at the end of those two months because there were opportunities [00:10:30] for me internally.

Alison Ball: But I thought, you know what? I have been here now for almost 16 years. What is out there? And so I was able to go. I met Chris Farrell from Lycia. Joe Woodard introduced me. So this is again, the power of the network, right? And I fell in love. Absolutely. With that problem that Licio solved. You know, of giving your clients a great experience and, and helping to get, you know, documents much faster and knowing exactly where everything was. And [00:11:00] then and then after three years left to go to Bookkeep because I fell in love with that problem. So there's been and then now and then Bookkeep had a kind of an odd reorg. And, and I laid off again. So it was like, all right. So then I had a lifestyle move and moved back up to Canada. And so been there for a couple of years and it's been really wonderful. And, um, and I wanted just to tell everybody I've just become a grandmother. So I know, so my joy is, is really interesting. [00:11:30] But yeah, these, these layoffs and this big one that they just had, you know, they, um, that one, I think I was a bit shocked. It's 3000 people. It was a lot of a lot of people, a lot of people. So, um, I, yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, I find it reassuring in any case that that Intuit is taking good care of the employees and that there, there's an opportunity for continuity. Um, and that they support everybody in not just being dropped on their head. [00:12:00]

Alison Ball: You're not, you're not. And, and they all got really decent packages. I think they got a similar one, at least from what I can tell from the news. You know, you get a certain number of base weeks pay as your severance, and then you get an additional couple of weeks for per year of service. So for folks that have been there 15 years, it's a pretty big package.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So we actually have a, an episode that came out a couple of weeks ago with, um, where Dan DeLong and Matthew Fulton and I sit down and talk about the, [00:12:30] the whole layoff, um, scenario. So if anybody wants to hear kind of our deep dive into the packages and the scenario and all of that, um, I'll definitely check out that episode and the link will be in the show notes. So the fact that you've gone from Intuit to Licio to bookkeeper and now you have started your own consulting, I mean, you're one of those people that when I need my head clear, you're one of my favorite people to call. Um, and so you've become this, this [00:13:00] trusted sounding board, both for tech companies, product teams and individual practitioners. Um, so like, what are some of the common mistakes that accounting tech companies make when they're designing products for accountants?

Alison Ball: Oh, well, the median big one is not to involve accountants really early on. Right. Accountants and bookkeepers. I think of it as one word accountants and bookkeepers. Yeah. Um accounting professionals. Right. Really need to [00:13:30] involve the people who are going to use the product and really understand it. And then the other thing I think, and this just comes from Intuit is, You know, I can't remember who it was who said this. Was it Albert Einstein or it was somebody really famous. Said, if I had an hour, I'd spend 55 minutes deeply understanding the problem and five minutes on the solution. Somebody, somebody will know who, who, who that famous person was. But I really think that that's the right, the right thing. And what a lot of companies [00:14:00] do is founders will have an idea, they create it and then they're like, okay, if I, if we build it, they will come and they might be missing some key things, key things that people need that when they, they love the idea. They're like, oh, I love the idea. Sure, I'll give it a try. But when you think of all the tech that accountants and bookkeepers have to worry, have to deal with all the different things that they need. And I'm not even talking industry specializations yet because that blows it out into another whole. You [00:14:30] know, dimension. Um, if you don't involve the accountants and bookkeepers early. You are. I think you're signing your own. You'll be lucky. You'll be lucky. You'll be lucky if. You. If you. If you succeed.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, right now there's such a proliferation of apps and we only have so many hours in a day. And so one of the things that I'm personally struggling with is that there's a lot of cool solutions out there that might really transform my practice, but [00:15:00] I don't have time to go vet them all. I don't have time to try them all. And, you know, like you, you introduced me to worthy WURTHY. They actually sponsored one of one of our episodes a little bit back, and the solution looks absolutely amazing. And I can see where there's going to be value for it. But like, my team is like, well, when am I going to get in there?

Alison Ball: When, when do we have time? So Blake, Blake Oliver had, I just, I had some breakthrough. Um, there [00:15:30] was a very recently a, um, a client hub had a summit and I was one of the speakers on it. And Blake Oliver was the keynote. And he said, how do you how do you think about. I don't think he'd mind me quoting him here. Um, how do we think about AI in our practices? He said, well, you don't point AI when you're first beginning. You don't point AI at getting data in faster, because what happens is that data comes in faster, and then it hits a [00:16:00] bottleneck and all you're doing is throwing more stuff at the bottleneck, but the bottleneck doesn't get the bottleneck isn't solved. So he said the first place you point AI is that your bottleneck.

Alicia Katz Pollock: But the bottleneck is me.

Alison Ball: Well, all right, but what are you doing? So then you have to peel the onion, right? You have to peel the onion. And what are you specifically doing? So this is where like my talk was like about decisions, right? Like how many decisions are you are landing on your desk? Do they need to be there? And then Terrell [00:16:30] Turner had this fantastic thing about you create a decision list. So you say decisions of this level have to go to me. Have to have to have to have to go to me. Everything else goes to different people. And so you create. So what you start to do is you start to create this autonomy where things can not be bottlenecked all at you. But in your case, if you're, if you're, if you're the one who has to do all the review and all the QA. And then the other thing, I have one more tip because [00:17:00] and this, this is so relevant for this podcast, because people will be listening and they're listening to you because of your expertise, right? And all the different people that you bring on, you have to talk to fellow peers and find out what's working for them. So where do you do that? You do that at a conference, right? You clear your calendar. You don't do any client work that week. Any, none. No client work. Nobody. You talk to. You talk to no one other than the people at the conference. You go in [00:17:30] with specific questions, specific things you want to solve and you find how to do those things. So you talk to people, you talk to people.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, so I mean, with do you think the profession is becoming more collaborative or more fragmented as these apps emerge?

Alison Ball: That is such a great question. Um. Uh, it is a very interesting. That's I think the jury is out on [00:18:00] that one. Alicia, what do you think? I mean, because because as I think about it, it's it would be very easy for a person with a single, let's say, let's say solo solo, you know, solo practice. It would be very easy to silo and just set up a bunch of AI agents and just, just be it yourself. But I don't think that that person's human needs would be met by that. So that's where that collaboration is really important. Right.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. That, you know, as you're, as you're doing your [00:18:30] work, the AI tools are allowing you to get more done and focus your work in more meaningful ways. But one of the things that I hear from the members of the Royal Wise Owls community is that what they value most about their membership is not the access to all my trainings, it's the access to each other and the meetings that we have where we all just get together. And they that, you know, my ask Alisha anything sessions are when they get to ask me questions and I [00:19:00] try and sit back and let each other answer and let them answer each other's questions and just try and just, um, foster the conversation instead of me being the authority. Because when I created my whole community, it was about delivering content and it was giving them as much QuickBooks deep training as it possibly could. And so that was my intention. But like you said, it's, it's listening to your listening to your members or your potential folks that [00:19:30] we've shifted over these years. And so whereas for me, it was originally all about content, content, content. Now it's definitely becoming more community, community, community. And so the fact that we have been able to make that shift according to what people are asking for, we actually just got an award from the BDO Alliance for Growth Strategy. And that's, you know, part part of it is me knowing that I [00:20:00] need to listen to people and like, that's not comfortable for me. The not not the not listening, the community element of it. I'm an introvert. It wasn't what I originally thought that Royal was was going to be. But I love what it's become.

Alison Ball: And it's so interesting because because originally Facebook was was not a photo sharing app.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm.

Alison Ball: And then it became a photo sharing app. [00:20:30] And everybody's like, okay, well, what do we do? Right. Well, you run with that, right? You, um, Scott Cook used to call that saving the surprise. So what you found with your, with your, um, what you have found with your community is that first of all, you don't have to solve it all yourself, right? There's really smart, incredible people that are going to step in. Secondly, they want to, they want to step in and they want to help others. And then and then the other [00:21:00] thing I was thinking, as you were telling the story, is that I never spend an hour with a group of accountants and bookkeepers, accountants and bookkeepers, accountants and bookkeepers, accountants or bookkeepers, whatever. You know, I never spend an hour with those folks without learning something really profound. And it does require listening. And so you have to go in being willing to say, well, I don't, I don't know, but I bet you all of us together do somehow, right?

Alicia Katz Pollock: One of the reasons that I [00:21:30] take that approach in those classes, you know, as a trainer, this is like kind of kind of meta metacognitive in thinking about it. But I want other people to answer each other's questions so that they can experience their own level of expertise and stand in what they bring to the table and not feel like they're there for me. They're there to develop themselves. I mean, the best way of learning something yourself is to teach it. And by sharing your knowledge, I'm elevating everybody in the group.

Alison Ball: There's actual science behind [00:22:00] that because we used to call that Intuit, learn, teach, learn.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm.

Alison Ball: You learn something, you teach it to someone else. And in doing so, you learn it a bit better and you learn more. Yeah. Learn, teach. Learn. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Now, I've got another question for you. So you're Canadian and you dual. You're dual citizenship.

Alison Ball: I'm actually triple. I'm actually hilariously, I actually have three citizenships. Really? Wow. Well, I was born in the UK. Okay. And then, uh, raised in Canada. Naturalized Canadian [00:22:30] citizen and then moved to the States. And because my career was there, my whole, whole professional career, um, I became a citizen. And, um, and then life kind of changed and I moved up here, but I, yeah, I, I can, my fun fact used to be that I could, um, legally work in 31 countries because, but Brexit, Brexit cut it down to three. So yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Um, have you experienced a difference between the Canadian [00:23:00] and us? Um, either the QuickBooks communities or just the, the accounting communities in general?

Alison Ball: Well, the funny thing is, is you guys know a lot of the Canadians that I know, right? Because they're at the conference, right. So, um, so, you know, a lot of them, um, I think that Canada is a different, very different regulatory environment. So they have to deal with, um, you know, the GST system is essentially that's the tax like sales tax. It's essentially like VAT, right? [00:23:30] So it's like like VAT. So it's embedded in the price of the item. Most of the time like for goods and services. So you either like when I go to my massage therapist, you know, it's $120. But what will happen is I pay 120. But then I see that she only gets like 109. Like she has to back it out. Mhm. Whereas if you go to a store, you pay that amount plus the GST and the PST. So so the taxation is very different. Um the regulatory system is very different.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um [00:24:00] there is no cash accrual. Everybody's accrual.

Alison Ball: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's one there's one way. Um. So it's, it's simpler. It's much simpler. Um, I think, I think it's simpler in that aspect, but there's some things that are a lot more complicated. Like my first year here, I was like, wait, what, what what what? Huh? Really? Yeah. Yeah. It's a bit of a bit of even though I'm totally 100% Canadian, it was, it was a bit of a jarring, um, bumpy, bumpy entry. Um, but once you [00:24:30] kind of get that through your system, but I think the other thing about the Canadians is that they're incredibly open. And if they can help you, they will help you. And if there's, if they, they will, they'll just help. And so that's where you see a lot of people, you know, I'm just thinking of like, um, you know, Ryan Lazanis and I'm thinking of, you know, Tanya. Tanya Hills and Sherry Lee Mathers. And there's just so many really awesome Canadian leaders. Brian Clare there's so many, uh, [00:25:00] Rachel Fish, Jenny Moore, you know, these are all big people, right? That you, that you think about and you go, oh, yeah, these are all leaders. Um, the country is smaller, so there's fewer because it's a smaller country. Um, I mean, population wise, it's bigger, bigger geographically. But yeah, Massive geographically.

Alicia Katz Pollock: My son is is heading to college and he actually is applying to the University of Alberta in Edmonton. And, you [00:25:30] know, I was like, well, why don't you just go to college here in the US? And his, um, during Covid, his social circle became a discord group. And most of the people on the discord group were Canadian. And he discovered that like, Canadians are just nice, nicer people.

Alison Ball: Very nice. Very, very nice. Yes. And also, I would say very inclusive. Um, we are very, you know, gender and, um, you know, Lgbtqia [00:26:00] friendly, we're very racially, we're, we're in some, in some areas of the country, we're very, very racially integrated, uh, very diverse. Um, it's just as I said, it's just a very different. It's just a very different system. Um.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Assuming he gets into it, he gets into school and this is happening. He'll be there in the fall, which means that I'm going to get to go to Canada for my first time.

Alison Ball: And there.

Alicia Katz Pollock: You go. I even have like, this, this fantasy, like, maybe I can do a training tour across the [00:26:30] country or.

Alison Ball: Never say never.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah.

Alison Ball: Never say never.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. So, you know, and if any of you think that that would be a good idea, let me know in the comments. Because if this is something that we should put together, we, I would definitely love to do something.

Alison Ball: I hope you'll make a stop in Victoria, where I live.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Definitely.

Alison Ball: It's a little odd because you'd have to like dog leg out to the island and then, you know.

Alicia Katz Pollock: But that's, that's one of the places that's been on my bucket list.

Alison Ball: You'd start there. I think you'd start there and then work your way. Work [00:27:00] your way east. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Um, so, you know, because you do all this advisory both for the, the tech companies and individual practitioners. What's like the one piece of advice that you would give to people, um, trying to mitigate all the industry changes right now.

Alison Ball: So really, we'd probably be talking to about individuals and I have done a fair amount of. Um, so the type of it's, I don't really like the word coaching. Um, [00:27:30] because it sort of seems like I know what I'm. It seems like I know more. Right. Um, you know, than, than I, than I would, than I do, but.

Alicia Katz Pollock: For me, you're a sounding board. Yeah.

Alison Ball: Sounding board. Yeah. And encouraging people. Right. Um, so, so I think for me, the thing that the, the first thing is meet your feelings where they are. You gotta, you gotta understand what your feelings are. Name them, name your feelings. Right. How are you feeling? Like, what is it? Name it. Let's talk about that. Let's get that named. Because everybody's different, [00:28:00] right? Everyone has different feelings. And then I think the second thing is I love, for example, if we're going to talk about AI Blake, Oliver's okay, let's identify your bottlenecks. Where is it that you specifically are having a bottleneck and let's figure out what the. And sometimes I will help them connect them with a tech expert or whatever. Okay. This is a person that can help you. Um, but mostly the type of strategic encouragement that I do for individuals is they have a specific goal and they don't quite know how to get from here to there. And [00:28:30] so we'll talk about the different ways and things. And I may help, I may say, well, this, you might want to talk to this person. So I might connect them with somebody or here's a, here's a, here's an author or a writer or a speaker that I think you should follow or a thought leader.

Alison Ball: And so sometimes it's just really disconnecting people. But overall, I think if you are feeling afraid, anxious, burned out, worried. I think the first thing is you're not alone. Technology [00:29:00] is changing so, so fast, way faster than we've ever seen it. This is a hurtling speed, hurtling, hurtling, hurtling speed. Um, and ultimately, I think you will get left behind if you don't, if you don't get on the AI train, because what will happen is accountants are not going to be obsolete. Accountants and bookkeepers. You won't, but you will be. There will be people that are using AI and they will eclipse you. So so it's important. It's really important. You should pay attention. It's really important. And people think [00:29:30] that if they're on the older side. Okay, so I'm staying with my with my, my godmother who's in her 80s. She just told me that she's using ChatGPT to help her write a book. She's writing a book about her family and a fantastic story that's been told of a little girl in the 1800s who basically walked out of a northern country with her dog and her family, and they made it. And it's a with a reindeer. And it's a tremendous [00:30:00] story.

Alicia Katz Pollock: With a reindeer.

Alison Ball: Well, they had, they had they were like Lapland reindeer, you know, the reindeer, the reindeer were, I think I think the reindeer were pulling the sleds or something. I mean, it was like, you know, anyways, I just heard about it at dinner last night, but my but my want to say my, the thing about it is, is that here's an 80, 80, 85 year old woman who is using AI and just jumped right in. So, so there's, you will find and you will learn from others. So if you're not a person that likes to go out [00:30:30] and, and figure it out on your own, the great news is you don't have to.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm.

Alison Ball: Right. And so you can find your leaders, you can find your, your gurus and you taught, you listen to them. And again, I keep mentioning Blake because I was just so fascinated with his approach that it just made perfect sense. Don't point AI at getting more data into the system. If you've got big bottlenecks, solve the bottleneck. Then then then you can because you've got to [00:31:00] have throughput, right? So speed up, speed up the throughput, get the arteries flowing, then you can put more in and you can decide. So but by that point you'll have your sea legs, right. So I hope that's helpful. I think I just the other thing is just everybody, everybody's feeling it. So you're not alone.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. If we were to revisit this conversation, let's say three years from now, what changes in the accounting technology do you think will have surprised us the most?

Alison Ball: Oh, okay. Okay. So with any technology, with any tech, it eventually just fades into the background. [00:31:30] So let's think about there'll be people listening to this who are old enough to remember when email came out.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right?

Alison Ball: Okay. I, I'm actually old enough. Do you remember how miraculous that was?

Alicia Katz Pollock: I mean, here's a specific story. I actually remember I was working at Santa Fe Community College, and I was building their database and access and teaching GED. And I needed to, um, talk about the database with somebody in the data administrator and the other part of the building. [00:32:00] And this is pre-email days. And I remember thinking to myself, My God, this would be so much easier if I could just shoot her a note and then have her answer. And then it was literally two weeks later that the announcement came out that there's this new thing called email.

Alison Ball: And you were like, oh my goodness. Yeah. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So of all of the apps that you've seen coming out, either ones that you've worked with in the past or ones that [00:32:30] that you've been hearing about on the horizon, what, what are the kind of apps that you think are going to be the most transformative?

Alison Ball: Well. Oh gosh, that's a terrific it's a terrific question because every, every app that's coming out right now that is embedding AI in it and is or is AI driven a completely driven is going to move the bar forward. I think there's going to be some that just don't quite get there. Um, and, and, [00:33:00] and the ones that don't get there are going to be the ones that don't understand their customer needs well enough. Um, and of course I would never name and shame, but I'm thinking about 1 or 2 that have already kind of a little bit. And if you, if you see an app that suddenly pivots.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm.

Alison Ball: Well we're not going to do this anymore. We're going to do that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm.

Alison Ball: Um, I think you go, oh, okay. Well, they didn't understand their customer base, their customer problem well enough, but I think the transformative ones are going to be the ones that can really disappear into [00:33:30] the background. Okay. And so the cloud, as an example, is a category of, of, of technology that now has just, you just don't even think about it anymore. The only thing you might think about is do I have Wi-Fi?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right. I mean, we have we, we, Jamie has my, my husband Jamie, my business partner. He teaches our Apple classes and he has a t shirt that says there is no cloud. It's just someone else's computer.

Alison Ball: Correct. [00:34:00] Right. It just disappears into the background. So when we get comfortable enough. I think the biggest transformation is not going to be the apps. It's going to be how we think about them and how we approach them and how we think about, okay, right now we might be worried about safety. We might be worried about, um, how does this app talk to that one? Right? There are people, for example, um, you know, some people like Isaac Perdomo that can help you figure out your [00:34:30] workflow, right? Um, there's so, and, and as long as your workflow is enabled to the point where you are doing the things, and you mentioned this before, where you are doing the things where you're really adding the value and you're not doing the things that aren't adding the value. And most people think like the data entry. Well, again, data entry probably. I remember when I first started at Intuit, the concept about data entry was never enter data twice. Ned Ned [00:35:00] two and then it became Ned and I was I was one of those people. I was like, why do we even have to enter it? Why? The bank already knows about everything. Why do we have to enter it? And there was a bunch of us that kept I'm not going to take credit for that because I was just one of those tiny voices, but I just did not understand why. If the bank had the data, why couldn't the accounting system have the data? Right. Well, now of course they do. Right?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, I mean, just as a complete aside, and I don't want to derail [00:35:30] the conversation, but I recently saw a chart in accounting today that was talking about it was like $300 billion or $500 billion is being spent on processing taxes every single year in the for the amount of time it takes the business owners and the individuals. And then, you know, we all submit our taxes and then the government comes back and says, oh, well, you are off by $42. You know, you here's your refund or here's your, here's [00:36:00] your additional money. And it's like, well, if you already knew how much I was supposed to pay, then why are we doing this at all?

Alison Ball: So in the UK, so in the UK, they've had this literally since 2011, because that was when I was in the UK from 2011 to 2013. Like it feels like a hundred years ago now, right? Um, in 2011 they started this thing called MTD making tax digital. And the idea was the system should all talk to each other. So the first step of it was PAYE [00:36:30] pay as you earn. So it was very similar concept to what you have in the States except people and I suppose in Canada as well. So wage earners, people who actually have have not self-employed. Self-employed is totally different animal. But if you're employed and you get a paycheck from an employer, the idea in the UK is they will take out enough so that at the end of the year, you don't owe anything and your tax return is extremely simple. Mhm. And there [00:37:00] are some. If you earn over. At the time it was 800 0 pounds. If you earned more than 80,000, you had to do what was called a self-assessment return. So but for everybody else, they didn't even have to do a tax return and the government would send them. Okay, you know, Alicia, you earned, you know, 72,000 pounds this year and and you paid in this amount and, and, and here's your 15 pound refund. They were always small because they nailed it. They nailed it. Exactly right. So your question is a [00:37:30] very good one. If the government knows, the challenge is that the government doesn't have the government has a massive tech tech, tech, tech debt, a massive tech debt, tech debt, a tech debt. And what that means is their technology has not kept up. And the symptom of that is if you fall into the cracks in the IRS, it's months before you will be able to get anybody. You may. It may be years you. The folks right now that are doing tax preparation are specializing [00:38:00] in the more complex ones. First of all, that very. I just I cannot see an AI handling my tax return.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right?

Alison Ball: Because it's two countries and there's all these complexities, right. It's just so, um, and I had to go how difficult it was. This is a Canadian problem. Um, in Victoria where I live, um, there was one tax firm that would take me on.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Just one.

Alison Ball: And it's Baker Tilly. I have my taxes [00:38:30] done by a top 50 firm. You can imagine how expensive that is, right?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah, yeah.

Alison Ball: I pay through the nose. However, I do know that the humans and in. And so I feel I feel pretty calm having my taxes done by them because I can talk very complex issues with them. So I cannot personally see myself. I would I don't think I would ever do my own taxes. I cannot see that happening, and I can't see the government doing the taxes for me, [00:39:00] but everybody else. If you just had a simple 1040, I don't I think that I think the I think that tax that that sort of tax is going to go away. And TurboTax already pretty much took a lot of it away. Right. Because it's simpler. But even then I don't I hate to say it, but I don't think I don't think TurboTax is going to be TurboTax will be for more complex. But the basic ones, I think is heading the way that the that the U. The UK went.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. I mean, that's that's an industry change that I would love to see happen [00:39:30] because the amount of productivity that's lost, I mean, constant listeners know that every 1099 season I go off on rails about the fact that we lose tons of hours and funds to having to process this compliance so that the IRS can catch people working under the table and they put it on us to do it. I know I don't want to go on that soapbox. Yeah, well.

Alison Ball: I think you.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And you.

Alison Ball: And everybody, you [00:40:00] and everybody and their aunts would be on that same soapbox, wouldn't we? We'd all be on that soapbox. Yes.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. Well, Allison, this was a great conversation, ranging from, you know, your early days in Intuit to what it's like with accounting and tech, to AI to community. And so thank you very much for, for being here. And I hope that, that people got some really good nuggets and some acronyms to take with them.

Alison Ball: Yeah. Ned. Ned.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. [00:40:30] Um.

Alison Ball: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So, Allison, what's going on in your world?

Alison Ball: Oh, lovely. Okay. I think the big news is, is that I, you know, I, I, uh, I've just recently, very recently, a month ago become a grandmother. So yeah, I know, I know, I can't believe it, little girl. Um, of course, you know, I mean, you're just over the moon. Um, my challenge is that I live on an island and they live in. I live in Victoria on Vancouver Island and they live in Vancouver, so there's a ferry involved and so it's not as easy [00:41:00] to visit, um, as I would wish, but I am getting daily photos, so that's wonderful. Um, I did spend the summer, um, speaking at some really interesting conferences. I mentioned the client hub one. Um, I'm, I spoke at scaling new heights, which was amazing. I always enjoy that conference very much. Um, and I had a really fun, um, in May, I had a really fun, um, nonprofit reached out, reach out to me, um, in Victoria. So I'm starting [00:41:30] to develop a local sort of speaking. So it's really fun. And then the clients, because I, because the work I do is very sensitive. I never talk about who I'm working with, with my clients, but I've got some really awesome ones who are, um, real trailblazers in, in, in their way. And everybody's so different that it just makes it very, very interesting. Um, And the other thing is I did get my vegetable garden in. Yay!

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yay! Yay! I love your annual pictures. Your [00:42:00] cornucopia.

Alison Ball: No. Well, I haven't had that for a couple of years. Right. Because I've been moving and my backyard in Victoria has been a beast to tame. And I do mean a beast. It's just we removed it. We removed a couple of vines, um, Persian vines, Persian ivy. And the trunks were as big as my top of my thigh.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Wow.

Alison Ball: Just think that one through. It's a vine where you're where the trunk is this big. I couldn't even believe it. Um, so that was a million, $1 [00:42:30] million and a million truckloads of, of stuff. Yeah. So yeah, so that's pretty much my life right now. And, um, and it's good. And I'm really happy that I'm keeping in touch with everybody, even though I have moved to Canada.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So if any of our listeners want to reach out to you to use you as a sounding board, where would they find you?

Alison Ball: Uh, LinkedIn is probably the best. I'm on LinkedIn. They can. They can DM me. Um, I wish I could say I was on x x still I'm not.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I.

Alison Ball: I [00:43:00] failed. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. All right.

Alison Ball: Or Facebook. I mean, if you're in in the Facebook groups I'm in. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. And so again, it's B dot all consulting.

Alison Ball: Yeah. And I don't actually have I have to confess I don't actually have a website. Um, isn't that interesting? I'm very niche. I'm not for everybody. Right. But I, what I do is I really love to talk to people and see what their issue is. Because if I, if I'm not a good fit, I know immediately and I usually know who to, who can, who to refer to. So that's really fun. I always take the call. [00:43:30]

Alicia Katz Pollock: You are an ultimate connector for sure.

Alison Ball: Yeah. I love to connect people. Yeah. And how about you? What's going on in. What's new in your world?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, we had a great time at scaling new heights. I wore this t shirt in my, um, in my, um, I did a zero QBO thing with Amanda Aguilar, which was which was totally, totally fun. We didn't want it to be a head to head battle. We wanted it to be a conversation about what's happening in the software. Yeah. She's awesome. [00:44:00] She's so. And two to Tuesday was a hoot. You know, seeing all those people in blue tutus everywhere. Um, but what I'm currently working on right now is we are getting ready for our hands on training class. So every year I do a 12 week college style, uh, QuickBooks training class based on the book that I write for Kristeva consultants. And so we, we actually build QuickBooks companies step by step and click by click real world scenarios. [00:44:30] And so that starts in just a couple of weeks. And so it is not too late to sign up and the more the merrier. Um, and so again, you get that not just the deep hands on training, which really makes it real, but you also get the community of learners all in it together. All in it to win it. And so, you know, it's it's 12 weeks. It's twice a week. It's Tuesdays and Thursdays for three hours a day. So it's a huge time commitment. But when you come out, you get a really.

Alison Ball: Really know it, [00:45:00] you know it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: You'll be able to pass your ProAdvisor certification tests and you will be able to serve your clients without having to think about what you're doing. You'll just naturally be able to click the right buttons and know where everything is.

Alison Ball: I think we have to call it your Pro partner certification. Now.

Alicia Katz Pollock: They haven't changed the name yet, but they haven't.

Alison Ball: Yeah, it's coming though isn't it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: At the end of the year Pro partner. Yeah. Um so so that's what I'm up to right now.

Alison Ball: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. All right. Well Allison, it was absolutely delightful to have you on the show. Thank you for [00:45:30] taking the time out to to hang out with me this morning. Um, so thank you everybody, and we will see.

Alison Ball: You next time.