The accounting profession is evolving rapidly. AI, automation, and changing client expectations are transforming the role of accountants, shifting the focus beyond compliance and toward trusted advisory services.
In this episode, The Connected Accountant producer Anthony Pearl is joined by Wayne Findlay of The Back Room, Talila Croy of Emple, and Ian Aldridge of Progressive Legal to explore why strategic partnerships are becoming one of the greatest competitive advantages for accounting firms.
The discussion highlights how strong partnerships with legal professionals, technology providers, offshore teams, and other trusted advisers enable firms to deliver greater value to clients while creating capacity for sustainable growth. The panel also examines the impact of AI on the profession, the growing importance of trust in an increasingly automated world, and practical ways accountants can strengthen their position as their clients' most trusted advisers.
Whether you're looking to grow your firm, enhance client relationships, or prepare for the future of accounting, this episode offers valuable insights into what it truly means to become a connected accountant.
Transcript
ANTHONY: Partnerships are the future of accounting, building trust, growth, and freedom in an AI era. Welcome to the Connected Accountant, the podcast where we explore how strategic partnerships can transform your accounting practice. I'm your co-host, Anthony Perl, and today we're going to get into why partnerships aren't just nice to have, they're essential for thriving in today's rapidly changing accounting landscape.
TALILA: You can be quite strategic about acquiring amazing partners. The more you give, we found...
IAN: the more you get.
WAYNE: So, it's not about having hundreds of partners, it's about having good ones.
ANTHONY: Joining me today are our three regular panelists who bring incredible expertise to the show. Talila Kroy from Emple, Wayne Findley from the backroom, and Ian Aldridge from Progressive Legal. So, let's get into what will make you the connected accountant. Well, hello everyone and welcome to the first episode of the connected accountant and I am absolutely delighted to have the three panelists that are going to be regular part of this podcast joining us. So first of all to Talila, Wayne and Ian, welcome to the podcast.
ANTHONY, WAYNE, TALILA : Good evening.
ANTHONY: So firstly, what we've got to do is actually introduce everybody to the audience. And so Talila, you've been central to helping kick this thing off in the first place. So why don't you introduce yourself to everyone?
TALILA: Absolutely. So for a podcast that's about partnerships and accountants doing partnerships together, this itself is a joint venture partnership. And one of the things I do is build partnerships. So my name is Talila. I'm from Emple and we build sales engines and also partner engines for visionary fast growing businesses. We help those founders of businesses to realize their vision by not only systemizing their sales but surrounding them with partners that serve the ideal client better.
ANTHONY: Excellent. Well, I think we're going to come back to a lot of these introductions in a bit because some of the underlying reasons as to why we're all here today is incredibly important. But let's go around and Wayne, do you want to introduce yourself to everyone?
WAYNE: Yeah, I'm from the back room which is an offshoring business in the Philippines and that's where I am right now. And so we focus on accountants and we focus on accountants is because I am an accountant. So back in the day I had an accounting firm in New Zealand with my brother Scott and we got into offshoring pretty early and that's why I am here now in the Philippines.
ANTHONY: Fantastic. And what about you Ian?
IAN: Hi, I'm Ian Aldridge from Progressive Legal. I founded the business founded the firm 10 years ago. I had 10 years before that working for other firms small, medium and large. But more recently in the last 10 years I wanted to help small business and yeah growth startups and growing coz all businesses and we work closely with accountants to help with but the conjunction of the both legal and financial advice to make sure that the businesses are protected.
ANTHONY: Excellent. Well, look, I think we're going to get into some of the discussion that's going to reveal a lot about why we're here and a lot of things that are going to be of huge value to accountants as we move through. And Talila, I just come to you first and say because you and I started the conversation about bringing this all together and I think it's an important one for people to understand the real at a high level the value of partnerships and why accountants.
TALILA: Yeah. Well, a number of our clients and also partners are accountants and we know that in the accounting world at the moment and not just the accounting world, AI is really impacting everyone like to say we're in a trust recession because people are no longer believing all the stuff that's happening particularly with marketing. There's so much noise and we're also finding that a lot of accountants are being displaced from their usual comfort zone of compliance by all the automation and so on and indeed their futures are being redefined. And I feel like for the accountants that I know and the ones I know of, they're struggling to see a clear path forward that will secure their business and give their clients the best result. And to us, it's all about going back to being the connected accountant and getting connected to those other providers for the same client that are going to not only provide you with a lot of work, but also give the client a fantastic experience and do what no AI can do, which is that Human to human support.
ANTHONY: It's a very important facet that we are going to come and focus on quite a bit. And I think Wayne, it's important to talk to you a little bit about your journey. you touched on it a little bit about how you're an accountant originally and you've created the offshoring company and it's part of the reason why we're here as well because what you have seen is this level of I guess exhaustion that happens in the marketplace the need for more support but talk to me a little bit about your journey in going from one to the other in the first place because I think that context is really important.
WAYNE: Yeah, with our accounting firm, you know, back in the day, we were early adopters of Zero and that was one of our key partners early on and that was they were great working with us because, you know, one, we had good technology, but two, we got a lot of referrals from Zero and we had a lot of events with Zero to promote Zero and that's how we got our clients. So that was an example of a partnership that we did that set us up for success and we've continued working with zero today as well through our offshoring. So the partners that we have I think are if we go back to the accounting firm has always been partners that are good for our clients. So it's all about client centricity I suppose and making sure that we were the trusted advisor. That way all our clients would come to us and ask for support and that sort of continues on today I suppose because now we're sort of finding that a lot of accounting firms working with us and they see us as you know a support network we can show them what things to do and especially with AI and then again we've come full circle again where I think we're more like a bit of a trusted advisor with some accounting firms as well. So yeah interesting.
ANTHONY: I mean and the amount that AI is playing a role Wayne is is significant. I mean it you know people may outside may think oh accountants surely technology is not a big role but in fact as you pointed out with zero one of the early adopters of technology and it puts a lot of pressure on accounting firms and creates exhaustion creates a drain on resources.
WAYNE: Yeah you know, I think if you talk to zero and from an accountant's perspective, from what I have been talking to accountants around the traps that we see AI as being a tool basically that it is like it's not really a threat as far as it's going to enhance what accountants are doing. And I think Zero's philosophy is the same. They don't see, you know, at least in the near future, and I'm talking 5 years, where Zero will take over the world and will be run by robots. No, I think it's going to be we need that human interaction and I think that's Zero's approach and that's definitely what we're seeing from talking to accountants and I think that's what clients want as well because they want that human touch. They want the trust and they want that trusted advisor.
ANTHONY: And Ian bring you in here because that whole idea of a trusted advisor is something also central to what you do and it's the partnership angle is important to that, isn't it? Because you've got the opportunity to leverage trust.
IAN: Yeah, I think sort of fairly quickly into the journey as a startup and I realized that a lot of my clients were coming to me for advice about experts in other areas and after a while I realized how important accountants were to that and it's actually one of the first questions we ask clients when they come to us, "have you got a good accountant?" because you know we can do all these great legal documents and create structure and protection and all the rest. And I think when people come to you as a trusted, you know, you become that trusted adviser for the business. So they start to ask you questions. Oh, do you know a good this person? You know, I got this person, you're a good this person. And then if you don't have the answers to that, it actually is a little bit of a poor reflection on you because people will come to you as their trust advisor and then expect you to have someone that you work with. They do expect you to have that network and if you don't it's you know you kind of feel bad. But obviously if you're starting to refer work to people, then they tend to refer work back to you because the more you give, we found the more you get.
ANTHONY: Yeah. I think bringing back to what Talila was saying earlier on about the trust recession and we live in a trust economy—I think of that term used as well—and the flip side of that of course is you need to be able to trust the partners are going to deliver because that can also have a poor reflection on you.
TALILA: Yeah. And I think that's many of the partnerships. Every accountant has partners. Do they have all the partners that they need and do they have them acting in the way that they should? That's another story. You can be quite strategic about acquiring amazing partners and the right partners for your clients and your business and protect all parties. And Ian, as you're starting to take that more structured approach, I know that you're seeing differences like the people really know what you do. Accountants are even scared of lawyers and you having to try to change that narrative because you're coming from the heart really wanting to help clients and all the ways that you do that.
WAYNE: Yeah. It's not about the number of partners you have, but the quality of partners. So, it's not about having hundreds of partners. It's about having good ones that you have and making sure that it's structured with them, that you have a formal sort of relationship with them.
IAN: Look, our purpose is to protect the client. We've definitely found that getting involved and everyone involved early so that they get the meeting of the minds and getting the right advice that has both the financial and the legal advice together has helped gain and accelerate the confidence of both accountants and lawyers. Because then the client realizes, "oh great, I've got an accountant and a lawyer that get along." It makes such a massive difference.
WAYNE: That's what the client wants. They want that trust. They don't want to get different advice. If you want to be that person at the center of your clients, you need to be available or you need to have a team available. I think you can get that work life balance right. Go out and have a coffee with someone once a week, but make it structured and so it's a way of making sure that work life balance is right.
TALILA: What partnerships enable accountants to do is give the client a better experience. Why go and try and market cold to people in a trust recession when there are people who already have your clients who are trusted by them? And if you create the right relationship with them and it's based on trust and values and a client comes first, it's easy marketing. Like the door just opens.
ANTHONY: Well, that's all we have time for in this conversation. Next time, we're tackling the headwinds facing accountants, AI, automation, and changing client expectations. It's one you don't want to miss. A reminder also about some exclusive Round tables events for accountants coming up. Visit the show notes for dates and registration details. All contact information for Talila Wayne and Ian is there as well. I'm Anthony Perl reminding you to like, share, comment, and subscribe so you never miss an episode. See you next time on the connected accountant.
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