Welcome to the Escaping the Accountants Trap podcast. It's a podcast to help accountants, CPAs and bookkeepers escape what we call the accountants trap. It's where accountants are not getting paid for their value and are forced to work long hours with high, demanding clients with little pay. Well, how do you escape the trap? And one way is the topic of today's episode.

And that's by changing more lives, by spending less time on compliance tasks. To help me with the discussion, I've invited Vipul Sheth, the founder of Advanced Track Ecom and Offshoring Accounting Company that exist so that accountants can spend less time on compliance tasks and more time on giving value to their clients. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Adam.

It's lovely to meet you today. Yes. Same here. I'm really excited to dive in because, you know, the the idea of escaping the account as trap is by being able to charge more. Well, how can you charge more? And the answer is by giving more value. Well, how can you give more value if you have all these compliance, task and transactional tasks that are on your your desk?

So I love your tagline. You say that a accountants change lives, but not by producing a set of accounts. Tell us what you mean by that. Okay. Oh, thank you so much, Adam. I guess, it kind of goes back to when I was a teenager, that this, idea kind of came to mind. And even.

Why? Just for background, I'm a chartered accountant. Worked for a regional firm before joining EOI and KPMG. But why did I become an accountant? Well, I'm not sure. My mum knew that I was going to be one. I was going to go into business. Was, what I announced to the 15 and 17. My mum said, this lad's not going to make anything of himself, probably.

So he got David, her accountant, to get me to spend some time in his office one summer. And, she'd always told me, you know, David, whenever she goes to see David in his office, he has the, you know, feet on the desk, phone attached to his ear. And, of course, you're a skeptical teenager. And, but after a couple of days in David's office sat opposite him, I realized that's exactly what he did.

And, so I went and knocked on his door and said, David, you know, I've been sat here for a couple of days and just observing, I don't see you doing accounts. And he said, close the door. Most of the accountants offices back then would have had a half pint of half glass. Take arrangement. And he just said, see all those people out there?

That's what I pay them to do. What I do is change lives. And my, you know, the nine year old people, this has a much better life because David recognized that his job was not to give report history, but to actually help the business owners. And he was one of those people probably way ahead of his time. Made it a point using his Rolodex where every day he would come in and just ring the next person on that list.

So he made it a pattern that every day he would come in ring 2030 of his clients and just talk to them. And as a result, what he did was they would tell them all their problems. Wow. Okay, so so let's dive into that. Let me ask this first question. Why? Why did he, decide on this philosophy, this this way of doing business?

Compared to all the other accountants out there? They're doing it the traditional way. They're they're focused on compliance and transactional. Why did David do it this way? The thing for David was he recognized that by talking to his clients each and every day, he found a problem that he could solve. Okay. As a result of being able to solve that, he got paid more than doing a set of accounts.

And that translates it into the financial results that his firm achieved. Number one. And but most importantly for him. And I, I even now I'm in touch with him today, 30 years after he retired. But what he recognized is his clients being more successful. One gave him, a great feel good factor. Yeah, but two, they paid more.

They absolutely paid more. And just to give you an example. My mum phoned him up and said, my uncle dad's brother wanted to buy a business. He talked to the business around multiple banks. Couldn't get the finance. She phoned him up and said, David, can you help Mr. Chef's brother? He's looking to buy a business. He came over.

Ten minutes later, he phoned the bank, arranged all the finance. He didn't charge for ten minutes. He charged for the fact that he had secured the finance, allowed him to buy that first business. Today, my uncle has multiple business interests, both here and in the US, but more importantly, his two kids. Yeah. Professionals. The younger one is on his third dental practice.

Wow. In North America. So, you know, so does an accountant change lives? Well, my uncle was a laborer, and today his two kids are professionals living a great life. Well, how if that doesn't change your lives, I don't know what is. Yeah. And I think, you know, I want to highlight what you said, that it's you're, you know, David was essentially building relationships with people.

Yeah. Which means that if you build a relationship with somebody, you're going to get they're going to know, like, and trust you, which means you will automatically be set apart from all the other accountants or bookkeepers out there that are not developing relationships. Because, let's face it, most people don't really know what an accountant does. They're supposed to do.

They don't know the different really good accountant or bad accountant. But if they like you, you could be the worst accountant in the world. Yeah. And they will pay you more if they like you. And they'll stick with you longer if they like you. And that all is predicated on a relationship. Totally. And just to put that in context.

The first 15 years of my parents business career, David was their accountant. He chose to retire at the age of 55. And I don't say this in a joking way. My sister and I are both, qualified chartered accountants, and the only other accountant that my mother has ever cried over was the day when he said, I'm retiring.

Wow. And and that's because every major decision that they had made as business owners had been done with the support of David. And that is invaluable. And it comes from being that trusted friend. And that came from that relationship. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and that's the key, if you can be that trusted friend. And before that and the pressure we've you're talking about, you use the term professional friend, which I thought was fascinating because you, your professional friend, are paying you.

But at the end of the day, they want if you can communicate that you are a friend, you are a confidant. You do care. Yeah. Then they will. They will trust you and they will value you. And they will pay what you command. They will pay what you ask. They will stick with you for a long time. And that's powerful, especially considering there's thousands of accountants, CPAs, chartered accountants, bookkeepers that are all selling.

Yeah. I mean, let's face it, a commodity type service. They're selling transactional work, bookkeeping. Yeah. You know, reporting, doing the books, whatever that means. Yes. Yeah. And that's falling on deaf ears. And the way it is to to to be found and known and to command the high dollars by being this professional friend. I love that term. Yeah.

Yep. Totally. And and the reality is, they were recommended as life was certainly back then and perhaps even today by the bank manager. And but he had built that relationship even at a relatively early stage in his professional career as a partner. Yeah. He became known as the go to guy. But the firm did as well.

And, even the firm as it exists today is an incredibly successful firm. But it comes from that cultural piece where this is what we do as a, as a business and as a group of, people. So, so going back to David for a moment, and this is something this is sort of a softball question, because I know what you do now.

How did David afford to be able to spend all his time on the phone with the client? Because all these accountants and bookkeepers today, they're out there. They're inundated with a pile of bookkeeping work and a pile of taxes that they have to do. Yeah. Like, I don't have time to get on the phone with my client all day.

So how how was David able to do that? He had built a really good group of people, that looked after the compliance piece. And that is an absolutely critical part. He recognized that that's what pays the bills week in, week out and and that paid the salaries, etc.. But it's what keeps your clients out of jail.

Yeah. It doesn't transform their businesses. It doesn't change the lives of them, their employees, their families. So what David understood was actually, when you have a problem. So your mum's out. Yeah. You're planning estate planning? Yeah. If you're not talking to them, guess what? They'll find somebody else. But if you're phoning them once a month, once every six weeks, let's say,

Because that's when you get round to it on the Rolodex. Yeah. What happens is, I know who to ring David, because he'll know about these things. And even if it's not him, he'll know the right person. Yeah. And and that, to me, is the key. So, as I said, my uncle when he was looking to finance that business.

Yeah, it wasn't my uncle who actually rang. It was my mum. And and that's the point. Whether it's somebody yourself or within your immediate circle of friends or family. What will happen is you automatically get that referral and he got that referral and that as a result, got my uncle as a client as well. So who wins? The client wins first and foremost.

Yeah. In that instance, my uncle got the business, but longer term him and the firm won because they got the fee for raising the finance, and they got the ongoing work and advice that inevitably comes from them becoming more successful as individuals and as business people. Wow. Yeah. So, I mean, all of that was predicated on the fact that David was able to spend time with the client.

So what is your advice for somebody today listening or watching to this, watching this. And they're thinking, all right, I get it. I know I need to charge for my value, I need to I know I need to become this professional friend. Yeah. What is your advice and the steps that you would have them take today to get out of being the accountant and doing the compliance themselves?

Yeah. I think first and foremost, you've got to look at your internal team. Look at the skill set. Because let's be honest, there are some people who are always going to be those compliance people. Yeah. That mindset is not being the entrepreneur necessarily, but they're a good, solid, safe pair of hands. And we all have them. I have them and I've been good doer.

Yeah. Great doer. And can really get on and look after the client and keep them out of jail. Keep them up. Everything up to date? Look after that piece. What that then does is it means that you've kept. Yeah. You're electric. Yeah. When you look at what does the business need to earn to keep the lights on, so to speak?

Well, it needs that because. Yeah, it's, it allows you to do your day to day. The next part, which is what David understood, was you need to do the value add. And the value add comes from talking to your clients. And actually instead of charging $100 an hour, that work commanded $500 an hour. Yeah. Because and the point is, because you solve the problem.

As I said, my uncle couldn't raise the finance through multiple financial institutions. What happened? David made one phone call ten minutes later. He'd raised all the necessary funds. Yeah. Shortcut. Everything. And I still remember. My dad tells me to this day, when they went into the bank, the bank manager said, you know, did all the nice days to have a cup of tea.

Everything. Sign here. Go and buy the business. And that's the point. Yeah. What? How much value do you assign to the fact that you bought that business? A few days early. And my uncle did moan about the bill for a half a second, and then my dad said, look, just pretend you bought the business two days later.

Because that's the difference. Yeah. What you were able to do? Yeah. As a result of David's help was actually change the life of both yours, your kids, possibly even grandkids today. Their lives are better because David stepped in that day, and helped raise that money. And I think that's an that's invaluable. And we all have that as a profession.

Yeah. You know, I'm a qualified accountant and I imagine if I, you know, I know when I was in practice, that's what got me up was the fact that I met entrepreneurs on a daily basis. And hopefully I made a difference to to what they did. Yeah. I make a difference in a different way today, but that's a different story.

But, you know, as a profession, we have great skill set. But most of all, not only do I have a professional skill set, we have the human skill set. Yeah. As a general in our profession, we're really good at talking to people and drawing out what it is that drives them and makes a difference to that. And if we can do that as a profession, then we won't be easily replaced by technology or AI or software, because at the end of the day, your clients are human as well.

And business owners, entrepreneurs, they're overwhelmed. They're scared, they're isolated, they're lonely, they're afraid, they're insecure, and their ability to run a successful business and they crave someone in their lives that they can trust to tell them what to do. And who better to do that than their accountant and their financial professional, their bookkeeper? They want somebody that already knows and understands the numbers to just be their professional friend.

Yeah. And I mean, we we talk about that all the time in the CFO project, business owners want someone that they could trust to tell them what to do to have a growing, successful business. If you could do that, you'll be able to charge way more than the average accountant or bookkeeper. Yeah. So let me ask you this.

You own a company that does outsourcing, offshoring of accounting services. What is the benefits to offshoring? Smaller outsourcing, accounting help versus hiring on your team? I think the big thing. Yes, there's a cost differential, and we can talk about that. But more than anything else, it's there's clear differentiation between what an onshore team does and what the offshore team does, the offshore team, what they're able to do is just focused on the compliance piece, as I described earlier, David, when he was looking out.

Yeah. From his office, the people outside his office do that. But the big advantage that you then get is if you look and we see this across the clients we work with, the onshore team move up a level. What that means is collectively, the firm earns more. Yeah. And it's no longer just the partner being the professional friend.

It's actually a group of people within your firm that are their professional friends. And that could be the manager senior manager. But equally the the levels below so suddenly, culturally as a firm, what happens is whoever has the relationship with the client now, it could be at the CEO level, but it could be further down as well that actually when the the someone within the business recognizes there's a problem, what happens is they contact their go to person.

And the beauty with that is and we see it a junior person, let's say, got a phone call within the firm. What he or she is then able to do is go and talk to the senior manager or the partner and say, look, Alice from client X has just called me, says they've got this, that visit or GST or so, you know, some kind of visit from the IRS or the local tax authorities.

Yeah. And as a result, you straight away know they're going to be stressing that these people are coming in. What's our job. It's to go in. Maybe we can say to them, look, do you want a health check. Can I help you? So that when they come in, you're able to sensibly answer all their questions? And if there's a problem, get ahead of it.

And therefore, what you're able to do is put their mind at rest because they're stressed now, that's come through somewhere else within the business, but because culturally you're on your team is only interested in one thing is helping the client, helping the customer have a a sensible relationship with you as a firm. Yeah. But more importantly, they don't hold it up and don't I'll call you the night before.

Yeah. Because when you have a transactional relationship, which is what many, many accounting firms have with their clients, that oh yeah, you want your tax done. Yeah, we'll do that. But actually the fact that you have a 1 to 1 relationship at whatever level it is within the business, yeah, it means that they come and talk to you about their problems way before they get out of hand.

And, and that's always a great place to be. Because you can help solve them. Yeah, I love that. The the essentially what you're saying is that the onshore team, the, your local team, instead of them being burdened with transactional compliance tasks, you're now elevating them all to be professional friends. Correct? Essentially. So everybody is almost getting a promotion in a sense.

Yeah. Which means you'll be able to charge more per, you know, for each client, which means you're your average cost per employee is, you know, dramatically your average earnings per employee is dramatically increased. Yep. And then, you know, the the the offshore team or the outsourced accounting team can focus on what they do best, which is being the professional do or doing the actual transactional compliance work.

And because it's I'm assuming because it's being done by a company like yours, they're they're committed to accuracy. You're going to make sure it's right. Yeah. Which is what the accountant really just cares about anyways. Indeed. Yeah. That piece, that's all that's required. Yeah. Let's be honest. Yeah. To people, businesses like I was. That's what we do.

We focus on delivering high standards of service, high degrees of accuracy, and we'll use technology to enhance, the work that the individual colleagues will do. But actually the the biggest value piece in all of this is the business is much more scalable. So what's happening is you have removed that scale factor, you know, you think an office of seats 20, if you doubled in size, you've got to move offices and everything else that goes with it was actually if you repurpose your on your team.

Yeah. There will still be some people within that group who will manage the on our offshore team. Yeah. You can't get away from that. Because some QC is still required onshore, but it's very much more then it's a bit like a factory then. Yeah. So you've got the supervisor who's looking after the production team and he or she is then making sure that the work that then feeds through to the client facing staff is done on time, accurately, within the professional standards that each firm then requires.

I love that. So the last question somebody listening or watching is thinking to themselves I would like to learn more about offshoring my accounting team so that I can become more of a professional friend. Where do I go? Where can I learn more. Obviously you can always, visit our website. Have, find me on LinkedIn.

Quite easy to find. And I, there's a link on, the website and I think also my LinkedIn profile. Just book yourself. And I'm quite happy to have a chat. That's what I do. You know, I, I, I imagine myself, you know, what David would be doing today. Yeah. Yeah. He'd have a big offshore team with a bigger onshore team doing being that professional friend.

And that's what I try to be in our world, that look, go, come and have a chat. Just because you've had a chat, you know, you won't get me sending you a contract next week unless you desperately want to write. You know, you look, it's a long term relationship. We've been going 20 years now. Yeah. And, come and talk to us.

And, we're always happy to have that conversation. Absolutely. Well, so your website's advanced track.com. It is. We'll put that in the show notes. We'll put your LinkedIn in the show notes as well. Therefore, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you very much for having me today, Adam. And to everyone listening or watching, thank you for spending the last few minutes with us.

As we discussed how to escape the accountant's trap. Bye for now.