Riding Out A SVB Hangover While Getting Hammered On ChatGPT-4
Silicone Valley Bank took us on a bender!
By this time last week, a chat group I am in was ablaze with the SVB implosion.
And some of those super smart folks did a live review of what happened. You should watch it. It’s a great rundown on the events and their impacts on the accounting industry; how it affects our technology partners and our clients, and how to support them.
I am intellectually unarmed to have a deep conversation about the American banking system, so I’m not even going to attempt to get all big-headed here on SVB and what happened. But I will tell you that this is a moment in the sun for you with your clients. There are so many teachable moments from this little party that you are positioned to help your clients with - and not one has to do with accounting!
I shipped off a note on Saturday to my clients telling them to hold off on running any new payroll using an app and to hang onto vendor payments until we had an idea of how this would shake down. Obvious, right?
But I also added a section on why this may affect their other cloud data. SVB created an opportunity to remind them of the importance of data location redundancy of all kinds, not just accounting data. I suggested to them to take inventory of what locked-out application data would stymie the running of their business and to get that data exported right smartly.
To name a few:
Calendar/Scheduler
Form Builders
Email
Dropbox/GDrive and the like
Marketing assets and images
CRM
Contracts
Project Management
Blog/Website Content
I took that moment to shine. It never hurts to let them know all the quiet actions you are taking to elevate your level of service to them. I noted the processes we had implemented for their accounting data redundancy. And let them know we would double-check that all processes, connections, and automation were chugging along as planned.
QBO BCC’g sales into Dext
QBO backup reports shipping off to Dext and my storage folder
Dext downloading to a client-controlled storage folder
QBO is being backed up by Rewind
I had a few friends who were non-plussed by the SVP debacle. They are Canadians and not in the weeds of accounting, so it made sense they didn’t understand the implications for them personally. Until I mentioned that this was a hit for the tech sector. I reminded them they have cloud apps they love and that if those apps did not pay the likes of Azure or AWS, they wouldn’t be able to access things like their precious photos or coveted playlists.
Sometimes you need to go to the heart of what matters for individuals - hit our clients and friendies where it hurts - to have impactful conversations :-}
The big lesson here - for every single one of us - BACK YOUR STUFF UP!
The SVB Advils were barely kicking in when ChatGPT-4 & Microsoft CoPilot threw a party.
GPT went from 3 percent alcohol to 4. Seemingly overnight.
The whole AI/ChatGPT/CoPilot thing is another topic I’m intellectually unarmed to go full mode on. The possibilities are making my head spin, frankly.
But we have some industry colleagues and communities, like Jason Staats of Realize, who are drinking in this stuff, and you need to follow and join them if you want to stay informed on how this could be used to our advantage as accounting professionals. And where it may throw us a loop. Watch this Vlog, from The Cloud Accounting Pod with Blake & David, for a starter discussion on it.
I’ve had some fun with it, for sure. I even asked it what the latest version of GPT was. It didn’t really know, which amused me.
But, the answers you get back - like accounting data - are only as good as the information you feed into it.
Let’s hope for fewer parties in the coming weeks. I’m looking forward to Advil having a chance to catch up to my overwhelm! I’m guessing you are as well!
Featured Template
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Featured Template ~~~
I’m throwing a free template your way this week. After all the extra client communications and interaction this week - and possibly some boundaries justifiably being mis-managed due to SVB, I think this may help you out!
What are your boundaries and expectations for client collaboration?
Do you have boundaries and expectations for client collaboration?
This worksheet will help you begin to establish best practices systems, communications & conflict resolution policies. Then you can craft client facing collateral on how and when you are going to communicate & share respectfully with them.
“This is how we do it here.”
Join Your Peers Here
- Financial Cents & Dext Webbie - How to Set up Systems and Processes for Your Virtual Firm
Thursday, June 16, 2022
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
The one&only Nayo Carter-Gray and I will be hosting a webbie where we will gig out on setting up systems and processes for your virtual firm.
Join us and learn how:
Getting started begins with how you want the process to end
Engaging your stakeholders in your systems
Defining the milestones of your systems and processes
Listing your steps and best practices - stop overthinking this!
Optimizing killer tech for killer workflows
This is going to be a lively session all about setting you up for success with great systems and processes!
Sociable
- said in your head in a loud sing-songy voice
We are coming down to the snickers on the Accounting High Bracket Challenge.
You can vote here for a chance to win a trip to Hawaii!
The Workflow Wateringhole, my Facebook Group, was in the running. If it still is by the time you go to vote, I wouldn’t be upset if you threw some love our way :-}
Simply yours, Kellie :-}
::Shameless Call To Action::
I sell bookkeeping templates, standard operating process handbooks and client guides.
App partners: Placement in my blogs and emails are available.
