Issue #34 - Firm Owner by Day, Turntables by Night
meet the DJ who fixes bookkeepers' ops + what you need to get your tech stack in order
Welcome to "Get Work Done," where we discuss the complexities of efficiently running accounting and bookkeeping firms. Brought to you by Financial Cents and delivered to your inbox every 2 weeks.
Small Change, Big Results
Imagine trying to cook a five-star meal in a kitchen crammed with unused cookware, mismatched utensils, and multiple variations of the same pans.
Would you feel calm, focused, and in control, or overwhelmed and inefficient? I hope Gordon Ramsey isn't in that kitchen, or you might just get kicked out (just kidding).
That’s how your tech stack can either make or break your accounting or bookkeeping practice.
Here's where things get interesting, and maybe a bit counterintuitive. Have you noticed that the firms that seem to run most smoothly aren't necessarily the ones with the most cutting-edge tools? They're often the ones who have made deliberate choices about what they use and, more importantly, what they don't use.
Kellie Parks, CPB, explains it this way:
"Rationalizing your tech stack means reducing the number of apps you use, particularly those that overlap. You do not need six different apps doing essentially the same thing."
It's an approach that goes against our natural instinct to solve problems by adding more solutions.
Sometimes, the smallest adjustments can create the biggest transformations. Take that cluttered kitchen, for example, you don't need to renovate the entire space. Often, it's as simple as clearing out duplicate tools and organizing what remains.
The same principle applies to your tech stack.
Kellie suggests focusing on four core areas: document management, accounting platform, payment processing, and practice management. The small change? Ensuring each category has one primary tool that integrates well with the others, rather than multiple competing solutions.
Community 🫶
Booming Bookkeeping Business by Bill Von Fumetti, CPA
If you want to learn how to start and grow the bookkeeping business of your dreams, this community might be a good place to start.
Founded by Bill Von Fumetti, CPA, this community gives you access to exclusive training and the latest marketing strategies to attract all the bookkeeping clients you can handle.
Women in Accounting & Finance by Erin Gardner Haas
This forum is a space for all women pursuing or exploring careers in accounting and finance, a place to stay informed in an ever-evolving industry while gaining the skills that drive professional growth.
Here, you can turn your passion into a fulfilling career, connect with mentors who will guide you on your journey, or inspire others by mentoring yourself.
You’ll also have access to leadership training that strengthens your ability to lead confidently, and be part of a vibrant community of driven professionals who share knowledge, opportunities, and support every step of the way.
H🔥t today
32% of Accountants Can't Recognize AI-Generated Fake Receipts
It turns out, robots make pretty convincing paperwork.
AP solutions provider Medius recently surveyed 1,000 finance professionals in the U.S. and U.K. and found 30% are already reporting a rise in fake receipts since the beginning of last year, with 32% saying they wouldn't be able to recognize a fake receipt from an AI image generator if they came across one.
The poll also found that 42% of finance professionals have suspected a colleague of submitting a fake or altered receipt, while 34% say they've been pressured to approve an expense that didn't seem legitimate. When asked about some of these questionable expenses, respondents named things such as a diamond ring, a luxury car, fees for a Japanese school, and even expenses for a strip club.
With the release of ChatGPT 5.0, Gary Hall, chief product officer at Medius, felt this issue would become even more dire.
"We're at a tipping point," he said. "GPT-5.0 promises even more realism, more precision, and more ease for the user. That's great for innovation, but also a gift to fraudsters.”
Burnout Crisis Hits CPA Firms Hard
When firms lack a strong talent pipeline, as many do because of the worsening accountant shortage, they rely heavily on their most experienced staff to carry the load daily. Meanwhile, evolving tax laws, shifting regulatory requirements, and ongoing technology changes are putting additional strain on already-lean teams expected to do more, faster, and with fewer resources.
In this CPA Practice Advisor article, Steve Saah, the executive director of permanent placement at Robert Half, shared that uncertainty is another key contributor to employee burnout. As clients’ needs evolve and economic conditions remain in flux, finance and accounting professionals are under constant pressure to adapt quickly, shift priorities, and maintain high performance without missing a beat.
That sustained urgency, with little time to pause or recover between peak periods, can easily drain employees’ energy, morale, and focus.
Burnout has long been a hazard in deadline-driven professions, but for today’s CPA firms, the pressure points have multiplied.
Swipe this workflow template
Swipe this Tax Rep Non-Filer Case Checklist Template by Eric Green
Get more templates from firm owners like you in our community template library.
Meme
Relatable?😀
Events
📍Automate Your Client Onboarding with Financial Cents + Ignition (ft Dawn Brolin, CPA, CFE) - August 20, 2025 (Virtual)
If you're tired of the manual chaos between proposals and project kickoff, Dawn Brolin will walk you through how to instantly launch workflows in Financial Cents after a proposal is accepted in Ignition, auto-assign tasks to team members, sync client data and services between both platforms, and so much more.
📍 CPB Ignite 2025 – September 9 - 12, 2025 (Calgary)
CPB Ignite is an annual conference organized by the Certified Professional Bookkeepers of Canada, a professional body that certifies bookkeepers in Canada. The event allows bookkeeping, accounting, and finance professionals to network, learn, and grow.
Noteworthy
Who Wants to Be An Accounting Millionaire - EP 05
Can Tom Zehentner win $1,000 for charity?
You're about to find out.
In this episode of Who Wants To Be An Accounting Millionaire, we meet Tom Zehentner, who leads Product & Growth at FinOptimal, and he's playing for something bigger than himself. If he wins, he’s donating the entire $1,000 prize to charity.
Tom will take on 10 accounting and finance questions for a shot at the $1,000 prize, each tougher than the last, in a high-stakes trivia game tailored for accountants.
Think you could do better? Play along and test your knowledge in real-time.
This Firm Owner Needs A Lot of Noise to Get Work Done
It's always interesting to see how ADHD plays out in people's lives, and Sarah Elledge's story is one for the books.
Rewind three decades, and you’d find a little girl desperately trying to make sense of a brain that worked differently. A child who alphabetized her CD collection while other kids played outside. Who begged for calendars every Christmas and played “school” for fun when she got home from actual school.
She’s now a successful accountant who’s finally figured out why her brain craves chaos to find calm, why time seems to slip through her fingers like water, and why the traditional 9-to-5 workday felt like wearing shoes three sizes too small.
Sarah took this discovery even further. She learned to DJ and now creates her own mixes of dubstep and drum & bass music.
When impostor syndrome strikes or work gets overwhelming, she puts on one of her creations.
What Are Your Thoughts?
Share your POV in the comments.
You can also join the FC Reddit community here.
Until Next Time,
