In the season two premiere of Controllers Classified, host Erik Zhou welcomes Matt Didden, Controller at NexHealth. The conversation begins with a recount of how Matt landed in accounting after graduating in the 2007-2008 financial crisis and realizing that the world would always need accountants. It then highlights his transition from consulting/audit to client side, and the broadening of his scope from pure financial reporting to handling a myriad of complex business challenges. 

The episode then turns to its primary focus: accounting considerations in highly regulated industries. Matt points to specific examples - like the anonymization of patient information in line with HIPAA before bringing it into an ERP system - where he’s had to marry accounting best practices and standards with broader industry regulation and requirements. 

The episode concludes with discussion around communicating and working effectively with executives and cross-functional partners. Matt shares specific cross-functional project examples related to equity award grants for employees and product launches, and the role that accounting played in each. And as always, the episode closes out with Matt sharing a funny accounting anecdote from his earlier days in audit. 

Key Quotes

• On the role of a controller: “It's not all debits and credits every day. You're really able to step in and be an advisor for the business. And it's a really great path that I feel like I've taken my career down.”
• On operating in a regulated environment: “We've had this before where we invoice our customers and they say ‘wait, is any of this information going to be on our invoice or in statements?’ And we can confidently and quickly tell them to not worry. We've separated our systems. None of the HIPAA protected data is going to be in our system here. It really helps your customers know that this is a big focus of yours. Because it's certainly a focus of theirs.”
• On communicating with execs: “I think about two things, what is the question they're trying to answer? And when they get that answer, what are they going to do with it?  I think those two things in parallel are really important.”

Time Stamps

• (00:51) Intro
• (07:21) Being a strategic partner to the business
• (10:30) Accounting in highly regulated industries
• (23:08) Engaging cross-functional partners on projects
• (43:01) Controllers are fun too

Links

• Connect with Matt
• Learn more about NexHealth
• Connect with Erik
• Visit Brex