When I was first introduced to cloud accounting I confess to saying it would never catch on…how wrong I was. And I’m happy to admit it.
I’d already been working as an accounting software specialist for some years, and honestly thought people would not trust their accounting data to the cloud. But in the past 10 years I have seen more change than I would ever have expected, and most of it has been driven by what businesses demanded, rather than what their accountants thought they needed .
I have been very open over the years about my passion – working with people to ensure they have the best processes in place to manage their finances and then have that data presented with clarity. Most business owners know what their business should be doing and how it should be performing – they don’t need me or any other finance professional to tell them that.
But so often, with traditional set ups the financial and operational software acted as a hindrance, rather than an enabler, so that businesses were functioning in the dark – or at the very least with out of date information.
I have seen countless times that having the best software solution takes the pain and uncertainty away, and gives peace of mind. Decisions can be taken – and even more importantly action taken. And the market has been transformed with the development of cloud accounting technology, with Xero at the forefront of that revolution.
So why Bridge Financials? When I first started working in software I was described by my then boss as the bridge between his software engineers who did the installations, and the finance team who were the users. Quite simply, they spoke different languages. So he trained me in how the software worked, and I was then able to communicate with the users in terms they understood. As simple as that! I’ve had the vision of a business based around that concept for years – and now’s the time.
Coming from a family of teachers I suppose it’s inevitable that my greatest satisfaction comes from developing people’s skills and making them self-sufficient, and whilst it’s hard to choose what is the most rewarding part of my work it definitely includes:
Taking people from knowing nothing, often saying ‘Oh, I’m not an accountant’ in an almost apologetic way, to understanding how to run a finance system – and, even better, enjoying doing it (not something you used to hear in the past, but that’s the Xero difference for you!
Giving business owners the information they always wanted but struggled to get, whenever they need it – and simply at the click of a mouse.
But the accountant in me loves rolling my sleeves up and getting the job done, using technology to automate processes. There’s still huge job satisfaction in a well-prepared and explained set of figures! And as well as working with businesses I love working with other accounting professionals. The relationship between businesses and their accountants is changing, and having worked in practice I understand only too well the challenges faced in taking a traditional business model and transforming it for the digital world.
Of course everything has been thrown into very sharp focus by the Covid-19 pandemic, and we have all been challenged to work in very different ways. We’ll probably never go back to how things were – and there is so much that we can take from the new methods of working which are positive.
So welcome to Bridge Financials. I suspect I’ll be milking the bridge and cloud analogy for all its worth so I’ll start as I mean to go on. We’re here to support you, building the bridges you need to get you to your destination in the cloud, whatever your starting point and whatever the journey you need to make.
#BridgeFinancials #bridgetoskills #bridgetotech #bridgetoinsights
