After Action Review
AccountingWeb Live Summit
Do you do an after-action review with your clients?
You’d be surprised what can come out of these.
I send a satisfaction survey at the 3 and 6-month timeframe with new clients and at the fiscal year-end for all of them.
Try my survey out and give a few different answers to the “are we continuing our engagement” to see the multiple endings.
::Shameless plug::
I’m going to talk about this process in a future blog so stay tuned.
What I want to chat about today though, is what transpired at AccountingWeb Live Summit last week.
My AWLS AAR if you will.
I’ll start with it was fabulous! Despite having to wear real pants with a zipper and mascara…
The conference, the networking, the conversations, the location, and my experience as a speaker.
There is nowhere else that I am so gigged out on conversations as when I am with other accounting professionals, live and in person.
A group of us had a very cool conversation about cash vs accrual accounting and I learned that the United States handles it very differently. In Canada cash-based accounting is very rare and is only for a few industries.
I don’t have those over Zoom pop up randomly and I certainly don’t have them with my non-accounting friends.
I was blown away by what future thinking accounting professionals are doing for their firms, their team and their clients. And how they want to share their successes and failures so they can help other APs who may be behind them on innovation and experience!
If you can swing it at all, go to a live event soon. Here’s a list of upcoming conferences.
I think my biggest takeaway from the AWLS conference was that I need to think about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion much, much more.
You didn’t see that coming as the most important thing that I got out of an accounting conference, did ya?
In talking with my AWLS friends I would say this was universally the biggest, most thought-provoking thing we have all come away with. There were a few sessions on DE&I but the organic conversations that have come after have been deep and meaningful.
My favourite 12 yo, 6’2” accountant, Andrew Wall, CPA,* asked about un-conscious bias during a session at the conference and a Twitter thread started by Rachel Fisch that followed has left me really thinking hard about mine.
I haven’t actually responded to the Twitter tag for a few reasons. But I have been thinking mightily about it.
For starters, I need to noodle through what unconscious vs conscious bias means.
And I’m not proud of some of my conscious ones. I am really thinking about why I have them. I did talk openly about a few of mine in the Roundtable Lab** session this week. And I mention them below.
Eeeek - this is vulnerable stuff for me - discussing, out loud, my failings as a socially responsible human.
But as Rachel and Andrew mentioned, talking about them is important. Sharing them, surfacing them can only make us understand why we have them and hopefully help to stamp them out.
I’m a pretty decent person. I am not racist, I am not sexist, I’m really not anything “ist” - I’m a live-and-let-live kinda gal. I have lived a life story of diversity, equity & inclusion so it’s natural for me not to be “ist”.
But not being racist/sexist/religionist/nationalityist - whatever other “ists” - doesn’t mean I don’t have biases. These are 2 different things.
I think “ists” are very conscious and ugly choices to think of others as not equally valued humans. It’s shocking and it confounds me every time that one human can deem other humans as inferior (I’m struggling for a strong enough word here) because of their race, religion, who they love, their sex… “Ists” often involve actions - hateful, violent and otherwise.
I think biases are feelings we have that come into play situationally. They don’t usually involve action but rather thoughts. Do these thoughts promote “ists”? This a question I have been asking of myself.
I found a better summary of the differences.
Prejudice: Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience
Bias: Prejudice (preconceived opinion) in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.
Discrimination: The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
Racism: The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.
Some of my biases are silly and not even related to humans.
I have a bias against German Shepherds. I’ve never been accosted by one and rational Kellie knows that they are actually great dogs.
But I’ll cross the street if one is approaching.
One is fear-based.
I have a bias towards a ^^group^^ of late teen/early 20s dressed in hoodies, caps on sideways, with heavy jewelry and pants slung low. It’s not a male-female or race-related thing: it’s their age-in-a-group-dressed-a-certain-way that raises a bias in me.
Another is ridiculous given my life story.
Seeing tall, fit Black men driving high-end cars my first thought is “what type of professional athlete are they?”.
Such a dick bias… I need a hot second to shake my head at myself and move on to wondering what professional success they may have as a business person or otherwise.
Alternatively, some biases move thinking forward.
Women of any colour driving a cool car; I wonder what profession they are succeeding in.
Immigrant bravery; any chance I have to meet an immigrant is exciting for me.
I want to know all about their incredible stories of leaving family, friends and comfort (or the devil they know) behind to start anew in a foreign land.
Same-sex and mixed-race couples’ inspiration; to go through what they do and stick it out as a couple is awe-inspiring.
The ^^group^^ thing, that part, is important to me. Because many biases are towards the collective vs the individual. I think at some level we all have biases towards a collective. Here are a few common ones to get you started thinking about yours.
Accountants do taxes; bookkeepers do data entry.
And the whole lot of them loathe people, love math and are dull as dishwater.
Boomers don’t embrace tech or change; the under 40 crowd lives for it.
Skinny people eat lettuce and are obsessed with exercise; overweight people are lazy and eat too much.
Attractive, rich or famous people, who are not easy to engage with, think they are above the average person; outgoing, extroverts don’t need alone time, regardless of their fame, wealth or attractiveness...
To be super clear, these are not my biases, but they are many folks.
I’m not a social activist - thank goodness they exist though.
Coincidentally, this week, I had the great pleasure of being in a one-on-one Zoom with a cool, charming accountant who is a social activist.
But this topic has really got me thinking about how can I overcome my negative biases and become a better human.
I hope this blog gets you thinking about yours.
Word of the week
Exactly what biases are not.
Tech Tip - Dext, Hubdoc
Uber receipts often come in twice to a doc management app and can be hard to match in the bank feed. You will know which one to post by colour.
Blue background, this is the original receipt
The green background, this is the final one with the tip included
So hang tight for a few days on publishing Uber receipts in case the tip one comes in, and avoid duplicating an expense in the GL program.
Sociable
- said in your head in a loud sing-songy voice
In case you didn’t catch the link above here it is again, the Twitter bias conversation started by Rachel and built up by Andrew. Be brave, be vulnerable and share your biases to move the conversation forward.
I started a post when I received a bill with no instructions to pay it and no phone number to call. How is this even a thing now a days?
I’m the co-host of a webbie I’m pretty excited about.
Shahram, CEO of Financial Cents (the project management app I use in my bookkeeping biz) and I will be building out checklists live so anyone who joins in walks away with workflows. We aren’t just yackity-yacking about them, we are crafting them up.
May 26, 2022
1:00 - 2:00 pm EST
I sell Financial Cents templates. You can get 25% off by using the discount code FCEVENTS.
There’s a free, very comprehensive Getting Started in FC workflow on my site too.
What’s Cooking?
Pesto is super easy to make if you don’t overthink it.
And super yummy…
Grab a mini food processor or immersion blender
Sauté pine nuts (outrageously expensive but ah-mazing) or walnuts till slightly browned
Put in a few garlic cloves and whir until smooth
Add in basil leaves or spinach (2 or 3 big handfuls per garlic clove) and whir till ground up
Add really good olive oil (don’t use cheap stuff, it will ruin the flavour) until it’s the consistency you like
Add parmesan cheeses until it has the texture and cheesiness you like
Don’t skimp on the salt!
The oil and the parm will be a bit of an add a little more of each, alternating them until you get the pesto to the consistency & texture you love.
Pesto is great as a last-minute dollop to a pasta sauce or soup (especially red pepper or tomato), standalone on hot pasta with a little cream, stuffed in chicken…
Simply yours, Kellie :-}
::Shameless Call To Action::
I sell bookkeeping templates, standard operating process handbooks and client guides.
*As you can see from the photo (Connect Toronto 2017) Andrew and I can get a little childish but Andrew loves toys and eats like a 12 yo, so I’ve coined him as that.
**What happens in The Roundtable Labs stays in the RTLs.
