I’d Had Enough With Virtual, Talking Head Sessions
I was still enjoying virtual workshops, open mic, and panel discussions - any session that was meeting format rather than webbie format.
I didn’t love them though, and I am so happy to be back in the live event world.
But a thing happened last week at a virtual conference that I’m not sure could be replicated IRL.
I was invited to host a Meetup (open mic would be a good way to describe this) at the Quickbooks Connect Canada conference.
Thank you, Intuit - I was super honoured.
These Meetups have a loose topic or community group around which they are based. Mine was related to The Workflow Wateringhole and all things process and technology-driven.
I figured there would be around 50 peeps there, and we would all be chatting and contributing. I saw very little involvement for myself except moderating the conversations (and moderating myself for swearing, of course - which I didn’t do - very proud). I had 5 topics noted to start the convos if no one started before me.
Whoa - there were 354 people there at one point. All open mic and live cameras. I couldn’t scroll through all the “face pages” and finally had to give up on monitoring the chat. With that many people, it would have been chaos to keep a live conversation going! A few people jumped in with great Qs, ideas and stories, but for the most part, it fell to me to answer questions and chat about topics that came in, rather than say, “What do you think, Alyx?” or “What would you do, Jess?” or “Tell me a story that relates to this, Riley?”.
::Shameless use of my kids’ names::
I received a copy of the chat doc from a friend-attendee, and it was pretty cool. But then I received the chat doc from the QBConnect Admin of the Meetup, and it was much, much more extensive. I was like, holy shit, everyone is on fire helping each other out, making suggestions, sharing stories - lifting each other up tremendously! This is what the Meetups are all about, but this one was particularly amazing.
I have hosted live Meetups in the past, and they are one of my fav session types. One, in particular, was at the QBConnect Toronto in December 2019. My ever-favourite event to be invited to host. It was at the top of the escalators* in an open lounge where anyone could come & go as they please.
The topic was efficiency tech, but we were allowed to go wherever the discussion went. And it went. I simply started with an intro and a topic overview I thought would be interesting and from there, all I did was make sure the mic was passed from one engaged person to another. A few APIAs, Brian Clare and Andrew Seguin, were the super contributors, ‘cause this is a passionate topic for them. But so many others - whose voices may not have otherwise ever been heard, told the stories and shared their experiences & suggestions.
Back to last week and the virtual Meetup. I can’t see how a real-life event could have brought forth this amount of collaboration with 350 people in one hour, in one place. Live meetups, panels, and workshops are super interactive where many voices get to be heard, but nothing like this chat last week. I wish I could share the chat, but for privacy reasons, I can’t.
I’ll parse out a few highlights, though.
A favourite saying of mine got a shout-out and people loved it - #TheBookkeeperBootyCall, which I hope none of you are heeding
There was a ton of discussion about multiple monitors - if you don’t have at least 2 screens to work from, go get more right now!
You can create an avatar in Zoom now - that’s why we had the cutest bear in attendance (shouts to the ever sweet and bright Jonathan Carter for being so adorbs)
Going paperless is scary for some, and others can’t imagine having any
Accounting professionals love bank recs
I’m not the only person who puts stuff on a list, that has already been done, so it can be checked off :-}
This doesn’t do the chat justice. Who knew a Zoom chat could be so fun and engaging?!
It was not recorded because, again, the privacy. People could be confident speaking and not having the world see it (a very small world given that only acct’g pros would ever look at the recording). And although I was told I imparted some useful info auditorily, I believe the chat was the most engaging part of the Meetup.
The accounting community is an amazing rising tide of humans. It warms me to be a part of it. Last week was such a great example of it. I’m sure I’ll keep this Meetup in the top ranks of sessions I’ve ever been proud to be a part of.
I am so looking forward to a few live events coming up this year, not the least of which is QBConnect, Las Vegas in December.**
If you don’t have plans to attend any events - live or virtual - rethink that. Community is a fabulous way to grow and ours is magnificent.
Tech Tip - QuickBooks Online
- All of my template workflows include details like this, and my Standard Operating Process Guides are start to finish standards for apps and internal processes
Super efficient Quickbooks Online bank feed clearing:
There are many ways to sort and filter the feeds to make coding super quick and accurate. I talked last week about managing them so you have magical reconciliations. This week is about getting through the feeds efficiently and effectively.
I’m going to skip over creating rules. It’s a given that these are amazing for creating accurate coding. But I automate very few of them. In most of my clients’ files, it’s none of them. Auto-adding can be #FeedsGoneWild if there are inconsistent connections, reversals in spent and received, missed date ranges and duplications.
The only file I have ever enabled auto-add was a multi-location, multi-POS bank feed with thousands of deposits/month. I had those automated to transfer to a sales clearing account - that I reconciled weekly - so it never got out of control.***
So how do you get all those transactions posted into the file in minutes?
Sort by date to make sure nothing old has popped back in (exclude if necessary, but clean house after reconciling and delete the exclusions)
Filter by transactions as “Matched” - make sure details actually match, tick off and batch publish
These will come from transactions entered directly or published over previously from an app like Dext and Hubdoc (D&H)
Filter by “Recognized” - make sure details actually match, tick off and batch publish
Search by Vendor - then you can sort further by amount and date
This is especially useful when publishing receipts from D&H, which should always be open while clearing feeds
Use the same filter criteria as QBO to see what can be published as is, what will match with foreign amount when converted to Canadian and such
Once you have published over refresh (F5) the feed - make sure receipts match (filter by transactions as “Matched” again) tick off and batch publish
You may be left with orphan items in the feed now. But for the most part, the items you can deal with will be quickly, consistently and efficiently posted.
How you deal with the orphans is up to you. But next week, I’ll give you a few good suggestions and apps to use.
Template of the Week
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Template of the Week ~~~
15% off discount code: BLOG
Sociable
- said in your head in a loud sing-songy voice
I’m back with Jason Staats, who I had the great pleasure to meet IRL at AWLS 2022 (go to conferences!). I know I post his stuff often, but it’s so stinkin’n good!
Caleb Jenkins posted his #SNHs agenda. Which I thought was lovely. It’s to help first-timers who may be overwhelmed deciding what to join in on.
Join Your Peers Here
- Financial Cents Webbie - Automating Your Accounting Firm
Thursday, June 16, 2022
1:00 PM 2:00 PM
Shahram Zarshenas, CEO of Financial Cents, and I will be hosting a workshop where we will gig out on systems and automation we love.
Join us and learn how you can automate drudge work so you can:
Save time
Reduce human error
Increase your work capacity
This isn’t a Kellie & Shahram yickity-yack session; it’s an actionable workshop where you will leave with a list of quick-to-implement automation and perhaps will have even set a few up!
We will all be cameras on, mics open - this is about you, so let’s hear your voice and see your face!
Simply yours, Kellie :-}
::Shameless Call To Action::
I sell bookkeeping templates, standard operating process handbooks and client guides.
15% off discount code: BLOG
*I have a weird, unfounded loathing of escalators. Anyone else?
** Eeek! One of the keynote speakers is Serena Williams - I watched King Richard on my flight to AWLS 2022 and thought it was an amazing story!
***The balance sheet is not a dumping ground! Reconcile your clearing accounts!
