Interview: Robyn Jacobson - Staying current in the ever changing world of tax

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This week, Paul sat down with Robyn Jacobson, Senior Tax Trainer at Tax Banter, FCA, FCPA, CTA, tax agent, blogger and podcast host at Tax Yak. She's also involved in advocacy and sits on a number of committees. The chat about:

  • How training has changed with new technologies

  • Why face to face training hasn't replaced

  • How to apply legislative changes to real life business cases

  • Using the structure of policy development to your advantage

  • Top 6 tips for micro firms to keep up with the changes in tax

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

Interview: Andrew Watson, ATO Assistant Commissioner - What's new in Online Services for Tax Agents?

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Paul sat down with ATO Assistant Commissioner, Andrew Watson, to chat about how the upcoming tech changes are the changing the way tax agents work. 

The last year has been huge, with transitioning Tax Agents from ELS to PLS, as well as the Agent Portals to the new Online Services for Agents. We look at what's changing, some exciting new features and some practical tips for agents. 

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

103. Three outcomes we want to see from the upcoming election

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Best on Ground

Worst on Ground

Indepth: Three outcomes we want to see from the upcoming election

We lay out our wish list for the upcoming election for the accounting space, whether there is a change in government or not. 

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

102. Being Present: The victim of the work from anywhere culture

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Best on Ground

 

Worst on Ground

Indepth: Being Present - The victim of the work from anywhere culture

Work life balance used to be about the amount of time you spent at work. But with more and more people not really having an ‘’at work’’ mode or place, work is kind of everywhere all the time. This puts pressure on being present.

Now Australia overall doesn't have it that bad, according to the OECD better life index, we rank 30/38 countries for working "very long hours" (50 or more) with just 13.8% of us doing so and the trend is down .2% since 2005.

What impact does this have on: you, your family, staff and clients? This was an issue raised in an earlier FTT episode where we were joined by both Paul and David's FCA fathers - how does this new generation deal with being 'aways on'?

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

Interview: Angus Capel - How does the Federal Budget get made?

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Paul sat with Angus Capel, Xero Small Business Advocate and former adviser to Federal Small Business Ministers, Michael McCormack and Craig Laundy, to get an inside look at how the Federal Budget gets put together. 

They talk about:

  • what was the thinking behind moving the small business definition from $2m to $10m

  • thoughts on the 2019 budget

  • the process of how a small business initiative gets in to the budget

  • how does the budget play out in terms of an upcoming election

  • what does the budget look like if we end up with a minority government

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

101. Budget 2019

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A Budget piece outside the budget news cycle? How dare we! But that is just the point of accountants. We care about the budget even when it doesn't give us clicks. 

With David and Paul sitting on the Xero budget panel and live tweeting the event of the year (we believe that) this show is non stop action.

Best On Ground 

A well balanced piece on how to get ready for the future of work

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffthomson/2018/09/26/automation-organizational-readiness-and-the-need-for-new-skills/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Worst on Ground

Hubdoc and Fathom produced a ''you have to do advisory'' article that missed the mark by so much, they edited it after Paul politely brought it to their attention on Twitter. 

http://go.hubdoc.com/hubfs/Road-to-Advisory/Pre-Advisory-Checklist-Hubdoc-Fathom.pdf 

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

100. 100 Episodes in 2 Years

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Best on Ground

David

Paul:

  • The profitability of Deliveroo. More great work by Jason Andrew: https://sbo.financial/should-my-restaurant-offer-ubereats/

  • Paul’s old mate Gary V - “I’m scared for all the companies these days that are raising money … Many startups today aren’t actual businesses, they’re “financial arbitrage machines” built with the goal of raising the next round of financing.

    And what will happen when all that money dries up (like it eventually will)?

    We need to collectively begin celebrating that are actually making money over companies that are just "fundraising ' - really hope we start having this conversation more in the tech community.”

    We need more honesty in startups: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6513433435393060864


Worst on Ground

In-depth

Celebrating 100 shows David and Paul discuss why they do this, Where to from here and what you can do to better our industry.

They also go off on 100 tangents.

100th show in 2 years

Why we still do what we do?

Paul - Support the industry, add a realistic/practical voice for the industry in a sea of marketing

Our challenges over the 2 years.

  • Time - PM 2 days per week, plus travel to conferences, plus arranging interviews

  • Sponsors (Acast)

  • Events

Where to now

  • Paul

    • Connect more with listeners. Want to include the voice of the people

    • Want to hear more about the UK and the US

  • David

    • We so proud of what people have done based on the show

    • Now it’s time to stop talking and start leading

    • We want you to act on what we say

    • We want you to lead

    • What’s changed in two years? 2 years ago was awareness. I think that at least IPA and CA have listened and i think we need to start engaging and working with the industry.

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

99. Accounting Business Expo

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This week, David is coming straight to you from Accounting Business Expo. He's joined by the biggest and brightest leaders propelling our industry forward for an epic panel discussion.

We are joined by:

Andrew Van De Beek - 2018 Thought Leader of the Year

Lielette Calleja - 2017 Au Firm of the Future Winner and AAT Director

Heather Smith - Literally wrote the book on Xero, Cloud App master mentor and cloud newsletter author

Steph Hinds - One of the first 100% cloud accountants who rivals Paul Meissner for straight talking 

Ron Lesh - The founder of BGL, the tech company who has survived more change than most (and shares amazing insight as an exhibitor at ABE) 

And a special cameo appearance by Sam Rotberg - a recent social media superstar (listen to find out more)

NOTE: Paul couldn't get to Accounting Business Expo but don't worry, he comes up often in this episode!

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

Interview with Joseph Healy, Co-founder at Judo Capital

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Water Cooler Lunch Series - Request your seat to join David and Judo at one of our Melbourne lunches and learn about expanding your network of professionals to include CFO advisers (yes, Sequel CFO works with accountants) and new bank lenders. 

Interview with Joseph Healy

With so much attention on the banking sector both David and Paul are sure that new entrants are going to have an impact. One such entrant is Judo Capital who is going to be able to compete at similar debt pricing to traditional SME lending banks. 

David tracked down Judo Capital's co-founder and joint CEO Joseph Healy for a wide ranging interview. 

The highlight of course, is his envy that bankers don't have the trusted relationship us accountants have with clients.

 

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL. 

98. You don't HAVE to do advisory

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Best on Ground 

Worst on Ground 

Indepth: You don't HAVE to do advisory.

Something grinds our gears. And that something is: 

Generic conversations about accountants having to do advisory, from people who've never done it. 

It comes from this idea that because advanced use of technology means that it takes a lower amount of time to do traditional compliance work. It stems from a line Xero used to tout, 'Compliance is dead, you have to do advisory'. 

What's wrong with the way advisory is being spoken about?

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL.