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Contact Kaiser Mock:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaiser-mock/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:00)Adam Larson: (00:05) Welcome back to "Count Me In". Thanks for joining us at IMA as we bring you the latest perspectives and learnings on all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is Adam Larson and with me as always is my co-host Mitch Roshong. Today's episode we will get into an area of accounting, not often discussed - the importance of relationships with non-financial individuals. Our guest for today's conversation came to us from the MillerCoors Brewery in Golden, Colorado. And with that I'd like to ask our listeners to send us a note letting us know where you're listening from. We'd be happy to share some of the unique locations and let everyone know what kind of global reach "Count Me In" and IMA has. But now back to today's episode. Mitch, how was it speaking with Kaiser Mock?Mitch Roshong: (00:50) Our conversation was great. Kaiser is a Financial Analyst for Brewery Operations at MillerCoors. He monitors the brewing process and provides assistance with costing, variances and overall manufacturing processes. He is also a former IMA Young Professional Leadership Experience winner and remains very active with IMA as he strives to share his experiences and talks about the opportunities within accounting. The underlying theme for today's episode is the importance of relationship building for accountants. Automation has happened before and will continue to change their roles as new technologies emerge. But accountants of the future must be able to communicate effectively and work with individuals across all functions to add value to their organizations. Kaiser shared how he's worked alongside and built relationships with non-finance individuals to help drive efficiencies. And I think our listeners will be able to learn a lot from this episode. So let's listen in.Music: (01:43)Mitch Roshong: (01:48) So, tell me. What are the trends you've seen with accounting and automation? I know we tend to think about trends being these big dramatic changes but are we seeing changes right now that maybe are impacting business and accounting you know, slowly and steadily and a big future implication?Kaiser Mock: (02:09) Yeah, you know, Mitch. I think it's such an interesting topic with this because there's a lot of concern and a lot of hype out there right now about where accounting is going and what role accounting is going to play in the future. But I think if you look at what the profession has done over the past 10, 15, you know, you go back 50 years, accounting today is dramatically different than it was then. And you look at the horizon in technology and what, you know, even computers and automated reports have done for us. Automation is not something that's new to the field. It has been happening for a very long time now. And I think that what you see today is there might be an increase in the speed of the change, but the change is all the same. And I think what the biggest topic that I think when people are concerned about where accounting is going I think what people really should be asking themselves is, you know, what, what am I doing today to add value and are the changes that are coming and whether it be automation or you know, other changes to the accounting field. Are they replacing the role that I do or, or, or are they going to emphasize the impact that I'm having on my business? Because if it's simply replacing the role and replacing the responsibilities, that one has an accompany. I think that begs a better question about whether or not one is utilizing their skills and utilizing the abilities that they have for the business. And if it's more of how is it going to change my role within the company, I think that's a better question for us to say. How can we eliminate non value added tasks? How can we eliminate inefficiencies within our own jobs to increase what we are doing and the information we are providing overall to, to our companies, to the business world, to whoever our ultimate state quarter's stake holders are that we, that we support.Mitch Roshong: (04:12) And how about the overall scope of the profession? How are these impacts, you know, not just changing the role of the accountant and the way the finance function operates, but what kind of changes do you see the finance professionals realizing with the relationships with non-finance functions across the organization?Kaiser Mock: (04:36) Yeah. You know, I think it's funny because a lot of times, at least for myself, and I'm sure a lot of the listeners can relate to this, when you tell people that you work in finance, or you work in accounting or whatever it may be, you'll typically get a response for individuals outside of the profession that say, Oh, I couldn't, I couldn't ever do that. I'm not good with numbers. I'm not good with math. And to me that completely misses the point of what we do or what we should be doing. Because, you know, we get the stereotype of number crunchers, whatever that may be. But really what we're doing is we are storytellers and we are individuals that analyze information and convey that to our stakeholders, whether it's within the finance industry or outside of it, at our businesses that help them better understand what is going on and help them make better strategic decisions. So what I look at, the changes in the industry are ones that if we are truly, truly doing what our roles are and truly you know, as I said earlier, maximizing what our potential is. And what our skill set is, all that that does is it creates a better relationship with individuals that might not be accounting or finance per se, because it allows us to spend more time on the analytical, allows us to understand better about what is going on within, within our, our roles so that that information can be more useful to, to the outside world. You know, as an example, even here at my business, I work at MillerCoors here in Golden, Colorado. When I'm able to eliminate the need to run reports manually or to manipulate reports, what that does is it allows me to convey information to individuals here at the brewery about what exactly is going on in their field and whether it is helping them understand labor variance reports. So instead of spending hours computing it myself, I can simply have a report produced for me that I can then analyze and give them information or maintenance spend. It's something that allows me to spend more time giving them useful information instead of just giving them data.Mitch Roshong: (06:52) Let's talk a little bit more about that because I'm kind of interested as you're putting together these variants reports and you have a lot of financial data but as you said, you're trying to communicate it to people who may not fully understand. How do you go about really telling the true story behind the numbers and making sure everyone in the organization understands exactly what it is that you're trying to add value to or improve?Kaiser Mock: (07:15) Yeah, I think one of the most important things for that process, and at least for myself, what I've found is it's kind of the idea of instead of taking a top down approach, taking a more of a bottom up approach. And what I mean by that is I find myself very frequently caught in the idea that okay, I have reports or I have information and I need to, I need to get this information out to other individuals. And then they are going to follow up with ...

Contact Dr. Sean Stein Smith:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-sean-stein-smith-dba-cpa-63307444/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:00)                   Mitch Roshong: (00:05) Hey everybody. Welcome back to IMA's podcast, "Count Me In". I'm your host, Mitch Roshong and I'm joined by my regular co-host, Adam Larson. Today we are going to listen to another bonus episode as we hear the remainder of the conversation we had with Dr. Sean Stein Smith. Adam, you and I both asked Sean a variety of questions about the impact of various technologies on accounting and finance. What are some of the takeaways you had from what Sean had to offer?Adam Larson: (00:32) Sean had a lot to share with us. If you recall, Sean recently received the New Jersey society of CPAs, 2019 ovation award in innovation and as an expert in technology, blockchain and data analytics. Throughout our conversation he discussed how the role of the management accountant has changed because of technology, talked to us about global business opportunities, referenced some cybersecurity issues, and even made some future predictions for us. Without giving too much away, let's listen to the rest of our conversation.Music: (00:32)                   Adam Larson: (00:59) You are clearly well versed in the emergence of technologies in accounting and have had great exposure to how they've made an impact on the industry. So I'm curious from your personal experience, how have blockchain, AI, RPA, and anything else you've come across begun to change the role of the management accountant and the accounting profession?Dr. Stein Smith: (01:25) So, I'd say probably the biggest, biggest change that I've seen is that really all of us have been talking for years on how to transform ourselves to be a business partner or a trusted advisor. Right? And that really now these tools and these processes are actually here to help us do that. Right? Because a audit is, is great, right? It's the core of how companies publish data out to the marketplace. Tax returns are important from a compliance point of view and all the rest. But really those don't add too much value to firms on a ongoing basis. I would, I would challenge you to find a CFO or a board who would argue that their audit team adds actual value going forward. Now again, the audit function and the tax function are cornerstones of what we do. But our true, I think future is to be more forward looking and to be those business advisers. Right? Right. Cause who knows data better than we do. Nobody. Now there are a whole bunch of of new firms out there, new job roles out there, data science, data analysis, all the rest. But all of those fields and firms and individuals lack the foundational knowledge that all of us have on how a company actually works, right? From a financial point of view and they operational point of view, right? Operations, drive, finance, drive data, and then all of that drives to forward-looking choices. And so that's where I've seen that that shift and that transition happen, right? From a compliance or, or a backward looking role or a team or a firm to a to a forward looking field and a team and the individuals working there. Every conference that I go to, every article that I read, every, every book I pick up, podcast, a webinar, all the rest -- This, this whole conversation on all of these tools, right, are just that tools, right? And it's up to us to be able to understand those tools. You'll harness the power of these tools and then most importantly do something with them, right? Because knowledge is is fantastic, but the application of that knowledge is even better. And so that's really where I've seen people in firms really, I mean grow exponentially, right? Individuals who are able to be proactive to humble themselves that you learn new tools, ideas and concepts and, and to then take the time to think, to analyze and to then point out where these new tools and ideas can actually be be put to use. And, and that's really the overall message that I have and the overall theme I've seen, right? You can be a CPA, CMA, any, any of of the alphabet soup, right? But it's that idea of, of harnessing these tools finally, right? The tools and the processes are our, at our hands to help us sort of transition from always having to focus on just doing the work, getting it done and having it out the door to having those tools automate parts of that work for us. And then that frees us up to be able to actually talk to our clients, offer them advice, to help them better understand how their firms are actually doing, and then help them take that understanding and then chart a better course forward. And that's really the, the key value. And it can be AI, it can be RPA, can be blockchain and I'm sure in five years there'll be some new buzz words out there, right? But, but it's that underlying theme, right, that our roles are changing, our jobs are changing and our field is already changing and that it is changing for the better, right? There's always going to be some anxiety and, and angst out there, but it's important to really take a step back to analyze what's happening, to be able to understand which trends are, are coming anyway, like automation technology overall, and to then harness those trends, right? To understand them, to learn them and to then take those to specific processes both inside your firm and outside your firm, have those conversations at both places and then use those conversations as a springboard or as a jumping off point to really help you in your firm evolve transition, have a better handle on your data and current processes and then that frees you up to focus on new business opportunities going forward.Adam Larson: (05:53) As far as news business opportunities in the expansion of transactional, how do you think these emerging technologies fit into the global business economy?Dr. Stein Smith: (06:02) On a global scale, I mean we're probably in the first in it, right? The first day and first quarter, first, first pitch tip off, whatever analogy works best, right? And we are just at the very beginning of this transition and it's important to to also note that that our conversation here as comprehensive as it is talking on AI, RPA and on blockchain is only about this much of a much broader change going on, right? Companies are going digital all, all across the world and to that data is really where all of that power is going to be going forward, right? Because the power and the information and the business opportunities are in that data, right? There are all kinds of opportunities out there for firms who are able to, to really analyze that data, go through it, find it patterns, and to then use those patterns to then see opportunities going forward in the marketplace. Now, hedge fund and PE firms have been doing this for years, right? You're mining information to build out trading patterns and all the rest, but now those exact same tools are out there in the marketplace for us as accounting people, to actually use ourselves, right? And to be able to help us analyze it, that data, and I always come back to that data, right? Because companies are built on, driven by and are governed by the information both, both produced internally and then gathered externally. And so we are people who understand data right? At the core of our work and our education, we are people who understand information. And so all of...

Brian's Work:https://www.apqc.org/resource-library/resource-listing/how-cfos-forecast-and-plan-futurehttps://www.apqc.org/resource-library/resource-listing/challenges-and-opportunities-financial-planning-and-analysis-fpahttps://www.apqc.org/resource-library/resource-listing/transformation-financial-planning-and-analysis-fpahttps://www.digitalistmag.com/finance/2018/05/01/finance-transformation-how-organizations-can-adapt-to-change-06143131https://info.sapdigital.com/1650_IFPA-CFO-White-Paper_OAP.htmlContact Brian:LinkedIn - http://bit.ly/2hoZavsTwitter - @FpandaBTK FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:04)Adam Larson: (00:05) Welcome to “Count Me In”. Thanks for coming back and listening to another engaging and insightful accounting conversation with us here at IMA. I am Adam Larson and I think you're really going to enjoy today's episode, as, in a minute we will listen to my co-host Mitch Roshong talk with Principal and Founder of Kalish Consulting, Brian Kalish. At the end, please take a moment and write a review and let us know what you think. Tell us how we're doing and what you think about the series either on this episode or by sending us a message with some feedback. So as I understand it, the theme of your conversation, Mitch, was why and how FP&A should embrace big data and technology. Tell us a little bit about Brian and some of his interesting points.Mitch Roshong: (00:46) Sure thing. Brian is an avid baseball fan, a history buff, and an extremely successful FP&A, a professional. For our conversation. He was able to explain how the emergence of big data is an asset to financial planning and analysis and that technology is not necessarily disruptive. One of my favorite quotes from the conversation was, the science of today is merely the technology of tomorrow. And Brian does an excellent job shaping the conversation around the opportunities created in FP&A. This was a really well rounded and interesting discussion. So let's listen now.Music: (01:26)Mitch Roshong: (01:28) Brian, what kind of impact have you seen big data have on FP&A?.Brian Kalish: (01:33) Well, I'd say Mitchell off the bed. You know, my, my gut answer is a huge impact. You know, in FP&A, we're really in the process of developing an analytics based culture of data driven decision making. And certainly utilizing big data is one of the components of that evolution. It's just incredible the amount of data that just exists today. I always like learning new things. And one of the things that I've learned recently is that we are now operating in a world of Bronto. So B-R-O-N-T-O-B-Y-T-E-S bytes of data, which is 10 to the 27th power. So, you know, we're now just, you know, given all the conductivity that that just exists in the world today. We just have so much data available to us. And what's, you know, kind of what's really changed is that we now have tools and infrastructure that permit us to actually analyze all this data in a useful, timely and, and cost efficient way. And so if you think about what the whole purpose of FP&A is, which is to help the organization make better, faster, smarter decisions, big data really flows into that. So as organizations begin to utilize big data, what's important from my perspective is really kind of the persona that FP&A has within the organization. So for most FP&A groups, you know, the aspiration is the move from being a reporter to a commentator, to an advisor. And I'd say kind of at a truly visionary standpoint becoming a strategist and why this matters and how big data plays into it is it really can help us answer the questions that the organization has for us. So whether you're at the corporate level, you're embedded in a business unit you're helping marketing or HR by utilizing big data, we can move from just answering the question of what happened to where did it happen. And then where it really becomes important is why did it happen, what might happen? And again, kind of at that top level is, you know, having the impact to actually make something happen. So you're looking at another way of dictated will move us up the maturity curve from just providing hindsight to what I hear most business partners asked for today, which is insight and I, you know, I'm a little bit further out the curve. I really think FP&A can actually begin providing foresight to the organization. So if you think about the level of analytics that we can use, you know, we can move from just providing descriptive to diagnostic to predictive and then ultimately to prescriptive. And certainly big data is one of the pieces that can help us get there.Mitch Roshong: (04:36) Sure. So as this big data flows into FP&A, and I love how you talked about the, the value maturity curve. As we kind of move along that curve, what are the challenges that are presented because of big data and the amount of it that you previously mentioned?Brian Kalish: (04:54) Sure. So, for me, I kind of have four pillars of what FP&A is built out of and they're certainly, you can always find challenges within any of the pillars. So, you know, what are we talking about as people, technology, process and culture. You know, you have to have a culture that wants to consume business new level of analytics. I was recently with an organization engaged with them and basically their management doesn't want it, like they're not interested in it. It's hard to implement it if you don't have a consumer. So you have to be in a proper culture that is willing to embrace it and utilize it and, you know, spend the resources to make it happen. But you also have your, you have to have the right processes in place because obviously as we're introducing new data sources, it's important to have from both a data governance perspective, but also from a decision making perspective. Do you have the proper governance in place? Do the people have the right skills? And then I think where we spend a lot of our time with big data is, is the technology. So it's great that we have access to this incredibly large database of structured and unstructured data, internal, external. But do we have the proper technology to do the analysis? And do we have systems that are actually powerful enough in place? I mean, these things all exist today. I mean, there are organizations that are certainly leveraging big data and utilizing even in artificial intelligence. But for individual organizations, do they have the proper technology in place? And one of the things that's I think has been fascinating is that we've really, and I'm not trying to get too wonky too soon but just the infrastructure, you know, we've been dealing with for the last 30 years, what's kind of known as an ETL, which is extract, transform load environment, which is, you know, data warehouses and we've very familiar with that. But what's really incredible, and I think what really poses a lot of tremendous op...

Kirstie's Resources:Tax Transformation Guide - https://www.bdo.com/thought-leadership/tax-transformation-guide Digital Transformation Survey - https://www.bdo.com/thought-leadership/digital-transformation-surveyInsight First Innovation - https://www.bdo.com/insights/business-financial-advisory/strategy,-technology-transformation/insight-first-innovation FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05) Hello and welcome back to another episode of Count Me In, IMA’s podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson and today we're going to hear my cohost Mitch Roshong's conversation with the managing director in BDOs Chicago office, Kirstie Tiernan. First. As a reminder, if you're enjoying what you hear on, count me in, please make sure to subscribe, download rate and review all podcasts. Feel free to share your comments with us in the review section of the episodes or just send us an email now, Mitch, learning that Kristie has over 15 years of experience in data analytics and it advisory, what was she able to share during your conversation? Mitch: (00:43) Kirstie is a certified fraud examiner and an Oracle certified associate. She is experienced in managing fraud detection and prevention analysis projects and was able to share a lot of real life examples about some of her work with her clients. As you said, she has a strong background in IT, so she is a big proponent of researching and implementing technology to enhance various accounting services. We talked about how these advancements have improved the services she's able to provide as well as how it's changed the investigative work she needs to do with her clients. At the end of the conversation, Kirstie adds an intriguing prediction about what is next for the future of accounting. She's an engaging speaker and established and extremely successful professional. And someone I really enjoyed speaking with. Have a listen for yourself as we'll now go to the conversation. Mitch: (01:30) From your experience with digital forensics and eDiscovery services in the recent years, what kind of impact has this technology, the AIRPA had on fraud in the accounting industry? Kirstie: (01:50) Well, for forensic accountants in the increasing role of data that we have in business and in everyday of our lives and how much data is being created, that really just creates such a scope of potentially relevant evidence for investigations around and digital forensics need discovery. So I think the fact that the data is growing so exponentially so quickly, that's probably for forensic accountants, one of the biggest issues and one of the biggest impacts of technology is really had. With that though goes all of these new tools and all of these new ways and methodologies and using AI and machine learning, all these different things that we can utilize to call that data town. So where in the past for an eDiscovery project where we were looking at a lot more data, now we're using analytics, predictive coding, a lot of different tools to really narrow down on exactly what those relevant documents are and how we can review those most efficiently. So from my experience and going in digital forensics and you just go around that side, I'd say the impact that technology has really had been that and allowing us to review those very large sets of data very quickly and it's made it a little bit more difficult now that we have those tools for fraudsters to do the same old tricks. Right? So it, it does create a bit of a deterrent for the same fraud. You know, that's been created time and time again. However, with that also comes the risk that AI and some of these algorithms are allowing fraudsters to also develop their schemes. So it's technology, the impacted in both directions and we just hope that we can keep up, you know, with, with the way that the fraudsters are using it by detecting and quicker and using all these different new tools, statistic tools and analysis to really be able to identify these anomalies that are being created by fraudsters and new schemes. Mitch: (03:54) And how about with these tools, through your investigations, what kind of positive results have you recognized because of these different advancements and capabilities? In other words, what type of key business decisions or conclusions have you kind of been able to lead your clients to? Um, because of these accelerated processes. Kirstie: (04:13) So we have a lot of clients that maybe they know about a fraud that's going on and the typical issue is, okay, we're going to go investigate that. But our concern is what else is going on that we didn't know about? Right. And now we've got a ton of email data. We've got accounting system data, we've got POS data, we've got all this, this data that exists that we could search for where things could be happening that we're not even thinking about looking for yet. And so I think what AI has really allowed us to do is when a client comes to us and says, yeah, go investigate this, but what else is going on? We're now able to use those tools and that technology to go through those large sets of data. And so we have a, we had a client on too long ago where they came to us and that was this exact issue and they said what else could be going on? They said, just take a peek at the data and take a high level view of it somehow and tell us what else we should be looking at. So we ran a, through some of our, in an anomaly, we have a fraud detection algorithm we use and we look at it at the GL data. So the journal entry data by account. And we assess the risk by account using this algorithm. And what it's able to do is bubble up the top these transactions that look different than others, right? So you have all these transactions hitting revenue for instance, and then all of a sudden see something differently when you're talking about a client that has 10 million journal entries a month, it's impossible to run a round dollar analysis or show me all the payments on the weekends, that kind of stuff. To find this fraud, you need something bigger and something that can handle a lot more of the data sets that we're dealing with. So when we had that client come to us and give us three years of data and 2 million journal entries month, we were able to push it through that algorithm. The algorithm came back and it highlighted certain accounts of high risks year over year. And so we, what we did is we went back to the client and I said, okay, here are the top 10 high risk accounts that our tool is seeing. And one of the top one was a liquor tax and they had never had liquor tax in their review items. So that account kind of popped to the top and it was something that allowed us to further investigate, but something that they hadn't initially really reviewed in their typical internal audit process. Mitch: (06:36) And how about something that may not be fraud related? What are some of the positive results that you've been able to, you know, advise clients? Again, maybe something like process efficiency or you know, something where a tech has been able to just improve overall business functions. Kirstie: (06:54) Yeah, I'd say the biggest area for our clients right now is focused on tax transformation and tax automation. So within a lot of our clients tax teams, there's nev...

Contact Mason Brady:https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonbrady/https://www.hgofarms.com/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:00) Mitch: (00:05) Welcome to Count Me In. If you're joining us for the first time and you're interested in staying up to date with the latest perspectives on all things accounting and finance, please make sure you subscribe to our series, download rate and review all your favorite episodes as we keep you informed on what the experts are saying in the industry. And this week's episode, my co host, here Adam talks with Mason Brady, director of finance and supply chain for homegrown organic farms out in California. Now, Adam, you talked a lot about the finance function in a smaller enterprise. What did Mason have to say about it? Adam: (00:38) You know, Mitch, his passion for finance and operational efficiencies truly came through as he shared some of his insight into how one can lead strategic initiatives for smaller companies. Just like homegrown organic farms. Mason is a CMA with a finance and entrepreneurship focus MBA. He has a motivating perspective on improving the finance function for smaller businesses. So let's hear about Mason's current role and some of the rewards and challenges he's most familiar with.Music: (01:02) Adam: (01:04) Mason, you currently serve as the director of finance and supply chain for homegrown organic farms. Can you tell us a little bit about the rewards and challenges of serving as a CFO or finance director for a small enterprise? Mason: (01:23) You know, it kind of goes hand in hand as a reward and a challenge, but it's just the idea that you wear a lot of hats. So you know, it, you go online and you look up what does the CFO do for, and oftentimes you get a response FOR what a CFO does for a large corporation. And that usually involves capital management and procuring capital for projects and expansion plans and growth for the company. And it also involves a flavor of investor relations and having relationships with banks, et cetera, et cetera. And so that is a part of my job, but I also directly oversee the accounting functions. I do have a controller, an accounting manager in place, but very much so. Still involved in the accounting and, and building standard operating procedures and I'm really involved in the operations of our business and the operations of our accounting department as well. And so while I am tasked with doing a particular settings that a CFO or finance director, and usually it's known for when you work for a small enterprise that's just a sliver or a fraction of the entire pie of what you do. And so you know finding capital and procuring capital for growth for our company, that makes up maybe 10% of my time, while FPA makes up anywhere from 15 20% of my time. Overseeing accounting makes up another 30% of my time. And then in addition, I oversee the quality control functions and the procurement functions of materials, of packaging materials for our company. And so, yeah, it's just overall, it's the idea that you wear a lot of hats, which it's a lot of fun and it's really rewarding because you really understand the business as a whole better. But it is a challenge in ensuring that you are delegating appropriately, that you're not creating a bottleneck that you yourself are not becoming a bottleneck and ensuring that you're, you know, the operations of your business can flows smoothly without you having to be involved in absolutely everything or habit saying everything. And so yeah, it's finding that appropriate balance between the idea that you really get to see what's happening in your business. And so you can guide your accounting and your financing functions to ensure that they're meeting the needs of the business appropriately. But you really have to learn how to delegate and balance things as well. Adam: (03:47) So what comes with the oversight of accounting and FP&A in your organization? Mason: (03:52) Well you know a regular week looks like I have an accounting meeting with both my controller and accounting manager. Our County manager handles the AP and the grower accounting and then our controller you know, kind of, he provides a, we really have a part-time controller and he provides a higher level financial reporting perspective. And then also oversees our AR and our invoicing. And so the oversight there is really me engaging with them in those weekly meetings and reviewing our financials as a team together and ensuring that I'm able to spot out things or I'm able to ask questions and see how things are going and identifying where we may need a revised procedure and working with them directly to ultimately go implement a revised procedure. So if there is something related to AR invoicing, I would work, you know directly with my controller and go, you know, talk through what I understand and what they understand and try to come up with a common solution or, you know, I work with our accounting manager and talk to our AP and say, Hey, you know, how we're going with this. It doesn't seem to, it doesn't seem to align properly with the cruel standards. Maybe, maybe we need to make an adjustment like this and try to find the, a more simple way to do it. And so that's really what the oversight of accounting looks like. On the other hand, FP&A FP&A really resides in me And I, it's just the, it's just the fact that I have to you know, control the budgeting. I'm in charge of the forecasting, but I'm really the one with the financial modeling Excel skills to do that. And yeah, those are skills that, especially in a small enterprise are difficult to hire because you do have to pay good amounts of dollars for people who do have those skills in within small enterprises. That may not be something you can necessarily find the budget for. And so those functions really reside in me and really working directly with our CEO to provide forecasts and budgets as necessary. But I'm really pulling the data from our accounting team and our controller accounting manager and making sure that we all agree that what is being presented and in the financial reports looks appropriate. So then I can use that information and then forecast with it. So, in a way it's nice because from an FP&A perspective, I have my hand in the accounting, so I really no how to forecast something appropriately because I really understand the transaction. But I, yeah, I wish I could say that there's an oversight of FP&A, but really it's just me doing FP&A and well I do have a project coordinator that does handle a lot of KPI dashboards, produces a lot of KPI dashboards for me. It's still very much so me guiding that function me saying this is, this is how we're going to do it. And then laying out the plan of how we're going to do it. Adam: (06:45) That's great. That's a great kind of description of where you are. You know, so you were mentioning, you know, budgets and getting the right people involved. You know, a common story we hear is that small businesses can't take advantage of emerging technologies and software advancements because of their budgets. So what is your experience been with that? And do you have any best practices you can share to overcome the troubles with software design and implementation? Mason: (07:10) Oh, man. Yeah, this is probably the toughest question I have. It's, you know, it's very hard to replace the functionality and the flexibility of Excel. And I suggest whether somebody is in a smaller enterprise o...

(*EXTENDED EPISODE* Conclusion of Episode 4 from 6/24/19)#YAADS #datapossible https://www.theorylane.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-smith-data-scientist/https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/acid-just-sweet-80s-jeans-datapossible-daniel-smith/ https://github.com/thedanindangerFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:00) Adam: (00:04) Hey everybody. Welcome to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things effecting the accounting and finance world. I'm Adam Larson here with Mitch Roshong and this week we cover the topic of data analytics and emerging technologies in accounting and finance. We have an extended bonus episode for you where we will cover multiple areas within this topic and conclude a previously recorded conversation. Mitch, can you tell us more about it? Mitch: (00:28) Thanks Adam. As you may remember a while ago I spoke with Dan Smith at length about all these technology and data related topics. Again, Dan is the head of innovation and the founder of theory lane integration solutions and he offers a very unique perspective on how these ideas relate to accounting, finance. Our talk got even more interesting as it went on, so I'm really excited for you to hear the remainder of our conversation.Music: (00:54) Mitch: (00:56) How can senior management accountants who may have limited knowledge when it comes to data analytics gain a deeper knowledge or a better understanding so they can enable themselves and their organization to kind of face these new challenges that are presented or new opportunities as we've said to work with technological tools. Dan: (01:18) Absolutely. We have this conversation almost every day. The easiest answer for me would be to check out the the IMA's analytics competency framework cause I've done a lot of advising with you guys on that. Absolutely right. Quick plug!, A longer answer is that I mentioned in a previous response the idea we're starting to break down the barriers of traditional business structure. There was a famous statement made over half a century ago by I believe he was a doctor, Dr. Conway. It's called Conway's law. It comes up in software development all the time. Conway stated, "any communication system designed in a business is going to model the structure of that business." In a modern context, it means that any solution, any application that's designed to solve a business problem is going to model the structure of that business. Now we've created a whole new set of ways we can current problems with the new paradigm of it's actually the internet. It's digital data. It's not just analytics, it's because now we can have information move in a completely different way. We have a business structure that is set up with a pencil and paper type of data in mind. Up until the past 10 or 20 years, we've just used computers to accelerate what was otherwise a written form of communication. Now we have to have these cross functional competencies because information is no longer constrained to a specific department. Those cross functional competencies are what we've been calling data science. That's the intersection of data statistics and business application of data and statistics. In my general competency framework, not the one that's just for accountants management accountants. I replaced statistics with machine learning simply because machine learning to me is the application of statistics through computer programs as opposed to a more traditional statistical approach. I don't think in many cases now for financial accountants you do because you guys are heavy in math, but in most cases you don't actually need to know that much statistics. It's abstracted away in most of the models you just need to know if it's right or wrong. So management accountants are a little bit of an exception, but otherwise in terms of data, the competency, if you know the lower level competencies, so you know how data moves in an organization, where does it live? How, how was it created, what are basic data structures and do you know how to use the data to create analysis in such a way that it benefits the business? Those are the low level competencies. I'm going to get more into those later so I don't want to dwell too much on them. fundamentally though it's the difference between understanding the competencies, understanding the low level reasoning behind what you're doing versus thinking about what tools should I use or what program should I use to solve this problem? Understanding what that tool is doing to solve the problem as opposed to what type of tool should I use. Mitch: (06:03) Once we have that foundational knowledge, those low level competencies, how do we, how do we move up? You know, how do we get these skills, these competencies? How do we learn the tools that are available so that we can make more effective decisions? Dan: (06:20) Yes. Perfect segue. There's a slide that I use all the time and you can probably find it on a webinar or on LinkedIn or somewhere where I talked about the idea of concepts versus tools versus technology. I use the analogy of building a house. When you first want to build a house, you talk to an architect. That architect uses the concepts of material design, of calculus, of structural engineering, all these ways in which he or she knows where to place a wall, to build a house, to put the foundation in, to put up the roof, et cetera. What you don't ask that architect is what type of hammer do they want to use for, or what type of CAD software are they are they using to create these images? It's irrelevant. and an architect certainly wouldn't start learning architecture by going to the hardware store and picking out, sitting there, evaluating what's the best hammer for the job. They would figure out what the concepts are and they would realize that, you know, a hammer might not even be what they need. They might need a screwdriver, they might need a pneumatic press. I look at learning a specific tool in the same way. Some concepts and some knowledge and tools translates very easily into other ones. I tend to recommend a bottom up approach with the caveat that you want to be able to apply that knowledge as quickly as possible. So you feel like your doing something, it's easy to get discouraged if you just feel like you're taking classes all the time. a nice mix of that is Python and Python, Jupiter notebooks or the various notebooks, solutions that you can find easily. If you know, if you know Python or if you can, you can't, you can't know. You can't know a programming language. First off, that's, that's a that's a common misconception. You can be capable of solving problems using that programming language, but you will never learn all of the programming languages. It's impossible. It'd be like learning English. People still study English all the time, but you can reach a level of functional competency with it. With, with Python, you can understand what's going on behind the scenes. You can do some basic programming, but it abstracts enough so that you're not bogged down in defining every single thing and working through all this obscure knowledge with that knowledge, with understanding basic programming competencies, you can move into a lower level language like a Java or a C plus or a C sharp. you can also easily move up into a into a more visual tool lik...

John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejohngarrett/Meet John: https://therecoveringcpa.com/meet-john/What's Your "And"? Podcast: https://therecoveringcpa.com/episode-200-whats-your-and/The Recovering CPA: https://therecoveringcpa.com/John's Message: https://youtu.be/YNs0BS0pjCcFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:00) Adam: (00:04) Welcome back to count me in. IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm Adam Larsen and with me as always is my cohost Mitch Roshong. Today I know you can count on another great episode. We were joined by the host of the, what's your and podcast keynote speaker and MC John Garrett. John is an engaging motivator who looks to shatter accounting stereotypes and encourages everyone to develop stronger relationships with colleagues and clients. Tell us, Mitch, what was John's message throughout your conversation? Mitch: (00:35) John is referred to as the CPA turned catalysts for culture change and his message is all about the future of professionalism. He has done extensive research on how people's hobbies and passions impact their careers and in turn create a stronger workplace culture. On his podcast, he talks to accountants, consultants, lawyers, and other professionals about all the things they do outside the office. His emphasis is on identifying how these interests positively impact the work they do for our podcast. He shared some of his background and gave us a few interesting examples from his former guests to help explain the value of recognizing and calling on an individual's passion.With an accounting background and a unique perspective on workplace relationships. John explains how and why organizations can and should create cultures that attract and retain top talent.   Music: (01:31) Mitch: (01:33) I want to hear a little bit about your journey and how did you become, what you call the recovering CPA? John: (01:38) Yeah, so I, graduated from the university of Notre Dame and then started at a PriceWaterhouseCoopersand I did that for three and a half, almost four years. And then in the meantime, I was at a training? One of my first trainings was in LA, and so I took a, there were four or five of us that every way was like a three or four week training. And, we would drive down on Thursdays to the improv in Hollywood and watch whose line is in any way would tape in the studio and then they would come to the improv and do an uncensored show, in the middle of standup comedians before and after. And it was amazing. You're hanging out with Drew Carey and Collin Mockery and Ryan Styles and all these, and then comedians, Adam Stanley would drop in. And, you know, It was just like nuts. And and so, you know, you see these standups in Hollywood and you're like, well, I can be as funny as some of these people. And yeah. And so I just started to do stand up for fun, just as a hobby. It was clearly the exact opposite of, doing internal audit and mergers and acquisition work. And it was, you know, just a creative outlet. And, yeah. And then over time, I accidentally got really good and you know, I started to take vacation to go, do it. And then I left public accounting and went into industry, so that then I could, you know, have a little more of a regular schedule and, yeah, I just kept pursuing it. And then in may of 2005 left altogether to do a stand up full time, although I don't ever advocate that anyone does anything that ridiculous. Like it's insane. It's insane. Don't quit your job, keep it as a hobby. Like it's nuts and, yeah. And then about four or five years ago, kind of married those two lives together and bringing some engagement and a unique thought to corporate events. you know, all staff meetings, partner retreats, executive, new manager training type things or even just as an emcee and hosting panels. Because let's face it, I've been in the audience for a lot of these and, they are not, stimulating, I guess is the nicest way to say it. Mitch: (03:45) Very fair. Well, a definitely an interesting journey, you know, not one you hear too often from, from an accountant. But yeah, out there though, man. They're out there. They're, we're cool. Don't tell anybody. No, no, no. I, I really enjoy the stories. So yeah. Where are you are now how you married everything together? I guess in a nutshell, kinda tell me, you know, what, what's your vision? What's your goal? What are you doing here to help companies kind of recognize why their culture matters and, and what do you have to offer them? John: (04:13) Yeah. Well, the ultimate goal is that when a teacher asks a kid, Hey, what do you want to be when you grow it up? They say, I want to be an accountant. And instead of astronaut or fireman or whatever ridiculous other job, no, I'm just kidding, they're not ridiculous obviously, but, but yeah, I mean it would be just so cool if people just quit looking at us, and we quit looking at ourselves in this way and so I'm out there just shattering the stereotype of what people and, and the saddest thing to me is that I think the people that believe the stereotype the most are accountants themselves. And it's just trying to get them to see that, we all have a unique skill set and a unique talent that we bring to the office and that expertise isn't always in our degrees and letters after our name with certifications, sometimes this expertise is, outside of work passions and interests that we have, makes us better at our job. You know, it gives us unique skill and or, and makes us human and relatable to, good coworkers to people in other departments. And, and so it's been fascinating and about four years of research now that I've put in and just, just finding all kinds of examples, and , interviewing 'em over 200 people, and of all kinds and , just just finding out that, you know, hey, the stereotype is upside down. Actually the stereotypical professional is someone who has multiple dimensions to them and the sooner that, organizations accept this and celebrate this and shine a light on that, the better it is going to be for everyone, including your bottom lines. So, that's basically what I'm out there doing is yeah, just working that, shattering that stereotype. Mitch: (05:57) Well, I know here at IMA we've released our competency framework recently, you know, enhanced it with a couple revisions to it and one of the, you know, central elements is our leadership domain. So, you know, in talking with you a lot that you are sharing with organizations, I feel kind of fit into those competencies, you know, are very relevant to, the industry even though it is a little bit off kilter. You know, it's a little bit different perspective, but you know, how can you provide some highlights for our listeners on how important, you know, motivation, inspiring a lot of the key attributes of leadership apply to understanding who they are outside of the office. John: (06:37) Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I mean, because you can't really develop trust, with people if you're trying to be super manager, super accountant, super technical expertise person No one believes you. No one trusts you. That's very ...

Contact Rhondalynn:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/imagineering/Rhondalynn's Work & Recognition:http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/11/prweb13878827.htmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb2rqTL4QW8&feature=youtu.behttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3rRoQUxb5g&feature=youtu.beFinalist - Best Digital Start Up - 23rd annual AMY AwardsTop 3 Finalist - Female Fintech Leader of the Year, Excellence in Data and Artificial IntelligenceTop 10 Cloud Accounting Apps of 2016Top 10 Small Business Apps of 2016FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:00) Mitch: (00:05) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Count Me In as we bring you the latest perspectives on all things affecting the accounting and finance world. If there are other topics relating to accounting and finance that you're interested in hearing about or if you have questions from the industry that you'd like answered, please let us know by leaving a review and a comment or dropping us an email at podcast@imanet.org I am your host, Mitch Roshong and I'm joined by my cohost, Adam Larson. This week's featured guests joined us all the way from Melbourne, Australia and talked to you, Adam, about optimizing advisory services and client value. Tell us a little bit more about your conversation. Adam: (00:44) That's right. Mitch. Rhondalynn was kind enough to join us from Australia and discussed how our accounting background has helped her become a successful business professional with a unique teaching methodology. She helps individuals Excel in their careers by adapting to the evolving industry and future proofing themselves. Later parts of our discussion we'll tie in said that same idea as she discusses how these skills can be applied to positively effect small businesses and help others to also teach accountants. Rhondalynn is a well rounded accounting and finance professional with experience in tax, business development, operations and business coaching in addition to legal knowledge. It was a fascinating conversation that will span two episodes. So let's listen to part one now.   Music: (01:30) Adam: (01:33) So you have extensive experience in various areas of accounting, business operations, advisory through your time. What skills and resources have proved to be most important in becoming a successful accounting or business professional? Rhondalynn: (01:46) Oh, that's a excellent question because there's probably almost too many to name, but if I had to pick the top ones, this is probably how I would approach it. From the perspective of accounting, the thing about us as accountants, you know, we're numbers people, we love the numbers. You know, cash-flow was either right or it's wrong. So we're all about accuracy and numbers and that's fantastic when you're in an accounting profession or in an accounting job. But if you want to make the transition to helping small businesses or providing advice or coaching them or whatever you want to call that, transition. The thing is, is that we actually need skills that are diametrically opposed to the ones we're good at. So for me it's about figuring out how do we transition from being fantastic at accuracy to the other end of the spectrum which is managing uncertainty. And so I'm all about, you know, how do we make those transitions across? Because most of the things that we require, in my estimation to be really, really good in what accounting has kind of evolved to over the years really involves us relearning and unlearning a whole bunch of stuff that served us well in the past, but doesn't really apply or isn't really applicable to this kind of new job that we find ourselves in. You know, disruption has changed what I believe and what most people believe. It means to be an accountant. It's more now about accountability and it is about the accounting. So I think the biggest skill that I've learned is adaptability. You know, being able to actually unlearn things and relearn things and be flexible and change with the times. Adam: (03:41) So how do you make yourself adaptable? you know, especially for those who are, who have been accounting in accounting for their whole lives and been stuck in one role and then they're suddenly thrust into this other thing where they have to apply their skills in another area and then they're not used to that change. How what advice would you give them? Rhondalynn: (03:59) Well, you can't really learn to swim by reading a book on swimming. So the only way that you can become more adaptable is to basically get pushed into the deep end. You know, you've got to be put in situations where you need to react and you've got to see how you do react. You know, you can take courses. I know a lot of what we do. So I do quite a bit of training with accountants because people ask me this question all the time. And what I found is that sometimes we are not good in judging. We can't. Sometimes we have difficulty frankly in objectively assessing where we're really at. And so one of the things I like to do when I'm working with accountants is to ask them questions, get them to do tasks or put them in situations where they can self assess their level of competency in these types of skills. So it doesn't really do any good to tell people, hey, you're not adaptable because people get their backs up. But if they can see for themselves that, hey, maybe I'm not as adaptable as I'd like to be, it opens the door for them to be in a welcome to have the learnings and coming in with a mindset that they can do it. So I think a lot of it is just, you know, taking courses or putting yourself in situations which are outside of your normal frame of the four corners that you have yourself boxed in and realizing that, hey, it's okay to feel like a fish out of water, but it's about how do we react to that and learn moving forward. I mean, adaptability is something that you will probably always be learning. You know it's not really a destination. You don't say, well, I've mastered adaptability and that's the end of it because there's always going to be a more uncomfortable situation or a more complex or unusual or unpredictable situation that you could be put in. So I think, you know, as we grow more problems and challenges come to us that push us to learn adaptability again and again and again. Adam: (06:12) That's great. And so, you know, with technology constantly advancing and many things changing the accounting industry and just all industries in general, you know, we've already talked about adaptability, but what other skills and strategies do you recommend to help, you know, future proof your career? Rhondalynn: (06:28) Accounting and disruption, it's easy to get carried away and think that this is the first time, right? But it isn't, you know, for anybody who's listening to this, that was old enough to have been around in the 80's when the desktop computer showed up. That was another disruption, a major disruption. And that disruption fundamentally changed the way we as accountants did our jobs because it put our clients in the position of wanting to have stuff at their own desks. You know, back in the olden days, people brought all their things to their a...

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:00) Adam: (00:05)Hey everyone. Welcome back to Count Me In. Thanks for coming back and listening to some new accounting and finance perspectives. If you're enjoying these learnings and don't want to miss out on future episodes, please be sure to subscribe, download, rate, and review. Now this week our episode puts a slight twist on some of the recent conversations we've had as we begin to talk about using data analytics for fraud prevention. Mitch, not many people better to talk to about fraud and forensics and accounting than Danielle Supkis Cheek. What kind of insight did she have to offer?  Mitch: (00:35)Well, as you said, many of our recent episodes have talked about the data transformation happening in accounting, but today's conversation is going to cover how to build a data analytics program for fraud prevention. Danielle is a director at PKF Texas and served as a part time faculty member at Rice University in the Jones graduate school of business. She is a certified public accountant, certified fraud examiner and a certified valuation analyst as she also serves as the chair for the PCPS technical issues committee with AICPA. Five times she was named to the 40 under 40 by the CPA practice advisor and she was recognized four times as one of the most powerful women in accounting by CPA practice advisor and AICPA. Danielle is a true accounting expert and covers a number of topics relating to analytics and fraud for us. So let's start the conversation.  Music: (01:37) Mitch: (01:39) Data analytics has been a hot topic in accounting, but are companies jumping into data analytics too quickly? In your opinion, what should they be aware of and make sure they do first?  Danielle: (01:45)I actually think it's the opposite. I don't think they're jumping in fast enough. You know, you can actually do a data analytics program fairly cheaply and honest. So if you overly invest on the front end before you really understand what you have, it's going to be a very costly process and you have a risk of a lot of sub costs. So I actually think people should take a, you know, a page out of the agile project management methodology and kinda jump first, figure out what they have and then start fine tuning as well as there's actually a fair amount of learning about your data. As you start getting into a program and since the software has become so cheap, it's usually a fairly easy initial investment to figure out what you have.  Mitch: (02:28)So then how do you begin even thinking about what needs to go into this program? How do you build an efficient data analytics program?  Danielle: (02:37)I would say you kind of started a couple of different places. One, of course you have to inventory your data and figure out what you have. Sometimes you know, it's just a matter of, let's see if I can get an export out of my system just so I can start seeing what the data is. Clearly, if you have access to a data dictionary, which is kind of a summary of all the different fields of data behind the system and what it actually means, that's really, I mean best practice and really helpful. It saves a lot of heartache and grief, but a lot of times it's inventory. What you have, you know, sometimes it's as simple as let's start in Excel, let's move on to some of the bigger packages. You know, these days Tableau is so relatively cheap. Power BI is coming with your 365 implementation. So you can start doing a visual exploration of your data and seeing what you have and starting to focus on what are the areas that you think you have risks and really fine tuning it to your risk of your business.  Mitch: (03:30)Well, let's talk about that risk a little bit more now. I know you've referenced in previous conversations with me something about a fraud tree and some of the common risks that you can help identify around your business. So what are some of the examples of fraud that you've seen that maybe, you know, could have been prevented or avoided if there was an effective data analytics program in place?  Danielle: (03:51)Yeah, so the risks of your business really do come with whatever is your industry as well as how you operate. And a lot of companies have a hard time identifying particularly fraud risks of you know, it could never happen to me. And the cost of fraud is so high. So what you end up doing is you can use the association of certified fraud examiners, fraud classification tree. And what they do is they take three major classes of fraud, which is the fraudulent financial statements, so just fudging the numbers in effect, a misappropriation of assets. That's kind of all your thefts of cash. That's inventory expense report type frauds, payroll frauds and classify all those as well as they have a corruption tree. And so it's really useful to actually take this, it actually looks like a little flow chart tree diagram and in three different branches and go through each little box and say, how could this happen to my company? How would the data show this? Because one of the things that your, your financial statement data is always going to be what's getting manipulated when you're trying to cover up a fraud. But what you can find is some operational data, hopefully that, you know, you can hide the numbers potentially if you cover it up. But how do you hide that behavior that's happening operationally to cover it up and that's much more difficult. So starting to use the fraud tree classification tree, that was mainly an academic exercise that ACFE put together and use that as your starting place of what are my risks in my organization for fraud.  Mitch: (05:21)What are some of the other I guess, you know, fraud prevention practices that you could recommend in addition to just kind of looking at the risks, the financial data, the operational data. What else do you see organizations doing to try and prevent this you know, illegal activity?  Danielle: (05:37)Yeah, so I would say the absolute number one best way and ACFE agrees with me is having a whistleblower hotline or a reporting hotline of some sort of the hotlines are so cost effective these days. You get one of these third party systems. By the way, if anyone's listening happens to be a nonprofit, they usually give nonprofits discounts and you can a fair amount of information on those even if they charge by the minute for somebody leaving a tip for you. Cause most fraud is discovered by tip. Even if it's not actually fraud and it's just some kind of waste or abuse that is really valuable information. And even if it's like a dollar a minute, that's still far less than anyone else's hour of investigative work from somebody like me or more my colleagues. So putting that in place gives you a lead and it gives you, especially if you're nonprofit, you get a easier nine 90 checklist item. But for everybody else, it also gives you the ability to get that information, have that corporate culture of reporting and that we're trying to do everything very openly and transparently. And when there is a problem, there's a resource for people to go to and that's really helpful because you can get that data faster and have someplace to go first. And then right after that is that data analytics of proactive data monitoring pro...

Contact Cate Long:https://www.linkedin.com/in/cate-long-9649412/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMusic: (00:00) Mitch: (00:04)Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA’s podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I am your host, Mitch Roshong and with me is my cohost Adam Larson. Today we are going to hear from a former vice president of services for a fortune 500 software company about all things technology and analytics related. Adam, can you tell us a little more about Cate long and what your conversation was all about?  Adam: (00:29)Thanks Mitch. Absolutely. Cate was also a controller for a mid-sized manufacturing company and is now an investor for various startups. We talked about data visualization, data governance and information systems and how all the different technologies can influence strategy. Let's go to the conversation. Music: (00:51) Adam: (00:54)So let's talk a little bit about your background and how you use data visualization to strategically impact organizational decision making.  Cate: (01:02)Hey, that's a great question. Hey, you know, data visualization never really came to mind to me when I first thought about and entered into my accounting career. I didn't think of that as a strategic thing, but it is top of mind. It's very top strategic tool that you have. It's been a key driver to help me get a point across to show data in an explainable, understandable fashion that really helps point out areas of concern or kudos that were doing something really well to any audience from talking to and when I was in a controller for manufactured people on the floor or leaders of specific departments up to board meetings where I had to really understand and explain any changes in our variables to that group. just any audience that needs the information to drive company strategy, which is to your question which is more the types of questions that I would be and data that I would be showing to management leadership or to board leaders. A couple of examples come to mind that really helped me help employees. One of them was really helping to enhance employee morale, morale that I'll get into that example. And then another one was a strategy on what we should be looking at as far as winning or losing customers. So the first example I worked as a controller for a manufacturing company that was privately held and we had just gone through a remodel of the office. So employees saw a lot of artwork and new furniture and a new video room where I was giving presentations and they were wondering really how that was going to affect their profit sharing plan and we started hearing rumors about it. People were griping about the remodel, which actually the remodel brought in a lot of value bringing in customers or whatnot and making it more comfortable for everybody. But what I was able to do is I generally showed financial information on a quarterly basis to leaders in different, various leaders within the organization. And so I really broke down visually. I'm not just talking about profits and losses and, and our productivity, but pointing out what EBIDTA was or earnings before interests depreciation, Texas and amortization. Because the profit sharing plan was based on sharing, you know, buying equipment artwork and, and furniture design didn't come into play there. So was able to show them that, no, that doesn't affect your profit margin or your profit sharing plan. So don't worry about that. So that was a kind of a unique example for that company. But something else that comes up a lot is how you're going to explain your KPIs and in looking at that and, and too in how businesses change over time, one of the big numbers that software companies look at is their customer retention. So typically software companies can start out selling to smaller companies or they can start up selling to fortune 500's, which is what the company that I worked for did. So they had a pretty higher customer retention, right? These large companies do not change softwares very frequently, so they always had a very high customer retention rate. But as we, as the years went on and we got more competition and we started getting into the middle and small market that number, although still very high, I could start to see some erosion and I made sure that in our data systems that we had fields where we were capturing whether this the company was a small middle or large market customer. And then also that we had reason codes that we were capturing about why customers left. Because the smaller companies of course there's more of those companies fold or they can get out of a contract or they, they changed softwares more frequently than a larger company. So by dividing that data and visually you know, showing it to the board that this is what's happening, then we were able to set new KPIs for those different sizes of companies. So thinking ahead, that's the kind of thing that you wanna think about as your visual, as you're creating your presentations and you're going to talk to different people, especially those top decision makers, you don't want to give them just one number for something and because that could go up or down and cause alarm, you want to make sure that they understand maybe some breakdowns in that information without overloading them with too much information. But showing that within these groups, that these are the goals that we want to look at or this is maybe even making suggestions about how you want to change your key KPIs  Adam: (07:06)In terms of goals and KPIs. Many times we automatically think of data analytics and data governance. So how does data visualization fit in with these when it comes to understanding data?  Cate: (07:20)Fantastic question because data governance data and analytics and visualization are all very intertwined and need to be thought about really as a whole when you're preparing presentations and also designing or having input into information systems. If you can visualize how you're going to present data, when you first think about where you'll get that data, how much detail is available, and how your reporting is formatted and what data is required. that's really getting into the analytics side of things because that's about, you know, how the data is designed what's out there for you. That also gets into spreadsheets and calculating ratios at the basic level, moving into design, reporting and forecasting. And all of those things are things that you probably have to visualize at some point with the data. So you gotta have the analytics behind it. And then with, with governance, it's really how that data is being captured. If it's being required to be captured, is there some kind of procedure that makes sure that it's getting captured the same way across the board by different divisions or different groups? If it's accurate, if it's contained securely, and if it's got integrity. I know you've probably all worked at places where sometimes you pull information from one system and it's a little bit different than from another system of your systems aren't the same. and that is something that, that you have to make sure that you're grabbing the data that is correct. and that it matches between systems. So visualization really a is something that, you know, you would think that's last. You're presenting all this data that's in your systems that you've designed, but you really have to thin...