Xero: Cloud Accounting and the Disruptive Accountants / How Accountants are shifting to innovative cloud accounting technology to better serve their small business clients.

Joe Serrone for Polaris Tax & Accounting writes: When people ask me what I do for a living I often say to them that I strive to be a disruptive accountant, usually these words are met with puzzlement as people try to figure out what in the world disruptive really means. The term disruptive innovation was coined by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen in his groundbreaking book The Innovator’s Dilemma, Christensen’s premise was that shifts in technology can completely transform and shake up the business as usual mentality of a particular field of business. For far too long the Accounting industry has been a very traditional field of work filled with outdated and boring technology, but today the winds of change are finally starting to shift things in a big way for Accountants. 

Many traditional accountants that serve small business across the country are ditching old outdated desktop QuickBooks and Peachtree applications and moving to innovative cloud accounting applications like Xero. Why? Because clients are expecting more of their Accountant, the traditional accountant you only see at the end of the year for tax return preparation, which doesn’t provide proactive advice is quickly disappearing. Clients today want an accountant that provides proactive advice not only in the area of taxation and compliance, but also in managing day to day business operations, advice ranging from Cash Flow issues, creating a Business Budget, Break-Even Analysis, basically how a small business can thrive in a competitive market.

Clients are looking for a partner in their accountants, someone that they can collaborate with in real time to address unique issues that affect their individual small businesses. Old outdated accounting software like QuickBooks and Peachtree Desktop simply do not allow this level of collaboration, since data is not accessible or updated in real-time. Companies like Xero which became a $ 3 Billion company in less than seven years  have now bridge that gap, allowing clients and their accountants to seamlessly collaborate on the same set of accounting records in real-time, without worrying about versions issues, and yearly upgrades. As a result of cloud accounting a new class of disruptive accountants are now taking the lead in our industry, breaking the mold of the stuffy outdated tax guy you only see when filing your tax returns.

For the business owner working with an accountant that is not providing practical proactive advice, it is time to perhaps change and seek someone that does, and for my fellow disruptive accountants out there… Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do “Steve Jobs”.