It Takes a Village
I am extremely grateful to Intuit for letting me share my cloud fintech experiences. On a wide scale, this allows me to help others enjoy being in the client accounting services business as much as I do. The memo has gone out how much I love the work I do and the technology that powers it. And a for a few years now at #QBConnect, I have been invited to deliver a boatload of content that I hope excited and propelled other acct’g professionals in their online voyage.
Everyone has a group of people behind them that have guided them to their moments in time. And I’m appreciative of my early encouragers.
I’d already been a long-time branding business owner, so marketing, business organization, project planning and managing team efforts were in my skill wheelhouse. But I had taken to enjoying doing the bookkeeping for my company.
Of course, I was a mediocre bookkeeper in the beginning. Running your own books is only a start to becoming someone who can effectively steer other businesses clearly in the financial world. So I got patient training from someone I admired, Elaine Rendle.
Melanie Spencer showed me that “cloud accounting” started with simply hosting files on virtual sites, and this was my gateway into the online world!
And then, I was helped further along the way with the early adoption of “true” cloud accounting technology. Like many of us, in the beginning, I struggled, and Kelly Williams showed me tips & tricks that turned my “like” of QBO into a “love.”
In 2014 at the CPB Ignite Conference I made a friend - Mike Widdis of Upside Accounting. We gelled right away and he contracted me to work on some really cool client files. It was interesting work, and I learned a ton from Mike. He also became my contingency partner (for when I win the lottery so big that I just take off into the world of travel) and for that I felt great peace of mind. There was time that we chatted so often, before Mike had 3 babies in 5 years, that we joked we would be the ones letting each other’s spouses know if something happened to us.
So I was off and running. I took courses, embraced CPB Canada to certify and up my bookkeeping skillset and then met a cool, engaging fella from Intuit. Chris Fudge convinced me I needed to attend an early Quickbooks conference (back in the “Thrive” days).
Boom! Between the CPB Canada and Intuit conferences & events, I was hooked on collaboration with like-minded professionals. And what a group I’ve been blessed to grow and collaborate with these last 6 or 7 years!
I now have quite a tribe of APIAs* that I am gigging on engaging with. Whether it’s through lively accounting and fintech discussions or cutting the rug at events - I love “hanging” with them on the regular!
So here I am, eagerly delivering my messages of cloud financial technology efficiency and optimization. All thanks to those people who guided me along the way. Hopefully, I can help others realize the joyful relationship with accounting in the cloud that I have as a tribute to my early advocates.
Simply yours, Kellie :-}
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I sell cloud accounting templates, standard operating process handbooks and client guides.
*Accounting Professionals I Admire
