Viewing posts for the category Wave Pro Network

Yup, it’s almost that time of year again! Conference season is just around the corner, and the Wave Accounting team will be out in full force sharing our story and helping accountants, bookkeepers and small business owners kick their shoeboxes to the curb!

Here’s a rundown of when and where we’ll be over the next 6 months:

• May 2-3: 2012 Accounting Technology New York Show & Conference
• May 16-17: 2012 New Jersey Accounting, Business & Technology Show
• June 4-5: California Accounting & Business Show & Conference
• June 11-13: AICPA TECH+ Conference – Las Vegas, NV
• August 21-22: Midwest Accounting & Finance Show – Rosemont, IL
• September 20-23: Canadian Bookkeeping Conference and Exposition – Vancouver, BC
• October: Accounting Technology Seminar Series – 14 cities across Canada
• October 22-24: The Sleeter Group Accounting Solutions Conference – Anaheim, CA

It’s definitely shaping up to be a busy conference season, but that’s just fine with us: We love meeting our customers and prospects. Some might say it’s even better than a shot of frosting!

 

This past month has been busy with lots of travel, booth setup and teardown, presentations and hand shaking. We participated in several shows and events, including the SOHO|SME Conference, Enterprise TO, the Financial Technology Show, the Accounting Technology Seminar and the Sleeter Accounting Solutions Conference. And, as any entrepreneur knows, having cool swag helps generate buzz at a show. Our catchy Wave T-shirts became quit a hit!

Given that my role has been to develop the Wave Pro Network, I thought I would share some of the key learnings and takeaways from meeting with thousands of accounting and bookkeeping professionals over the last several weeks.

1. There's an appetite for cloud accounting.

Accountants and bookkeepers are embracing cloud computing in a big way because they are realizing the benefits it provides, especially how easy it makes collaborating with others. No more emailing big data files back and forth and worrying about version control! Of course, there are plenty of perks to using the cloud, including working from anywhere on any device. (Yes, Macs and iPads included!)

2. The shoebox prevails!

We've seen data that suggests as many as 60% of small business owners don't use accounting software. That means they're tossing receipts in a shoebox (or in some cases, a grocery bag) and handing the whole mess to an accountant or bookkeeper, or maybe they're attempting to manage their business in a spreadsheet. Every accountant and bookkeeper that I spoke with seems to have a handful of these clients, and in most cases these business owners are struggling to get organized, and are craving better insight into their businesses. Without this insight, entrepreneurs are forced to make daily decisions without data.

For 19 years now, Alan Salmon of K2 Enterprises has been hosting a cross-Canada tour for accounting professionals. The tour stops in 14 cities, and each stop is a one-day session designed to provide accounting professionals with a thorough overview of all that’s new in the area of accounting & tax technology.

I personally have been involved in this tour in my previous life, and racked up many frequent flier points along the way as we traveled to 14 cities, sometimes 3 times per year. In these journeys over the years, I had the privilege and good fortune of meeting many accountants, bookkeepers and software consultants and forged some strong relationships that have stood the test of time.

I’m very happy that Wave Accounting will be participating in this fall’s tour, and am excited to recruit new professionals into our Wave Pro Network. This is an important event for the Canadian accounting community, and we’re serious about making Waves in Canada! :)

The Accounting Technology Shows take place between October 11 and November 5. To learn more, check out the site.

Accountants and bookkeepers, your home at Wave is ready! My mission (as I mentioned in an earlier blog post) is to build the community of public practice accounting and bookkeeping professionals at Wave. We’re calling this the Wave Pro Network.

The Pro Network is open to any accountant, bookkeeper or accounting consultant in public practice. In other words, you are in the business of helping small businesses. If this is you, and you like what you see in Wave Accounting, then I invite you to join.

Join now!

The first step is to check out the free introductory webinar. You'll find up-to-date info on the Wave Pro Network page.

Get the badge

We've made some progress since I last reached out: First of all, we now have a badge for those who wish to show that they're members of the Wave Pro Network. (Click here to get it.) Placing the badge on your website, blog, business card and so on will identify you as a service provider who can help Wave's customers with their business. And since we now have customers in 180+ countries, that can mean a great boost to your practice.

(Jump to webinar registration)

I have a confession to make: I have a soft spot for accountants and bookkeepers.

It all began about 14 years ago when I landed a position with a software company called Accpac (which was eventually acquired by Sage). My job was to build a network of accounting and bookkeeping professionals specifically for their flagship small business product known as Simply Accounting.

I learned a lot in those days. I learned that accountants and bookkeepers play a very important role in helping small business owners choose the tools that will run their businesses. I learned that business is personal, built on relationships. And I learned that accountants and bookkeepers like to let their hair down and party once in a while, but we’ll save those stories for another day.