Why CPAs can’t wait on automation tools

What do accounting firms waiting on others to develop AI, automation, and data analytics tools have in common with a baseball fan sitting in a stadium filling with water at an exponential rate? The answer could determine your firm’s fate. Find out more in this podcast with Dan Griffiths, CPA, CGMA, a partner with Tanner LLC and head of the firm’s client accounting services business, Tanalytics.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• How machine learning and automation helped cut one business’s costs for transaction coding and bank reconciliations from $1,000 per new store location to $100.
• The perils of ignoring the speed of change (the baseball stadium analogy).
• The basic continuum of automation from Excel macros to Commander Data and where accounting firms should be operating today.
• A few specific tools that CPAs should know and how much they cost (and, yes, some are in the price range for small and midsize firms).
• How to structure and price an automation project so that the firm makes money even if the automation doesn’t work as planned.
• Why you should not include a technology charge in your pricing.

Play the episode below:

To comment on this podcast or to suggest an idea for another podcast, contact Jeff Drew, a JofA senior editor, at Jeff.Drew@aicpa-cima.com.