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IMA: https://www.imanet.org/CMA: https://www.imanet.org/cma-certificationExam Changes: https://www.imanet.org/cma-certification/getting-started/cma-2020-exam-changesUpdate for CMA Candidates: https://www.imanet.org/cma-certification/getting-started/cma-noticeCoronavirus Update from IMA: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/jeff-thomson-on-the-coronavirusFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:00) Welcome back to Count Me In. IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson, and I'm happy to bring you another bonus episode with, IMA's Senior Vice President of Certifications Exam and Constant Integration, Dennis Whitney. Last December, I had the chance to sit down with Dennis and he talked about the changes to the CMA exam. This time around Dennis spoke with Mitch and they discussed how IMA and CMAs can make a difference through this time of need. Dennis also shared updates on CMA testing centers, exam windows  and pass rates. Keep listening to hear what IMA has been doing to support its candidates and the value CMAs have had for their organizations.   Mitch: (00:52) So thank you for joining us again, Dennis. I know last we spoke, you spoke with Adam and gave us a nice overview of the CMA exam, the certification, some of the changes that were coming up in January earlier this year. But obviously there were quite a few challenges and some changes to what's going on with the CMA. So if you wouldn't mind just starting off kind of sharing some of those challenges and obstacles that we went through earlier this year.   Dennis: (01:20) Yeah. Hi, Mitch. It's good to be with the, the program again. I appreciate you having me on. So yes, it's been a very difficult year of, in many respects in January, we introduced the new CMA content specification outline, and that went well in January and February, but then we were, toward the end of February, beginning of March, as everyone knows, we were hit with this terrible pandemic. At first it looked like it was only going to be something that was a major problem in China, and we were focused on making arrangements to change our Chinese language exam date, but then of course it spread to become a worldwide pandemic. The first impact we had was for our CSCA exam, which is the strategy certification for CMAs, and we give that exam, two windows, March and September. Unfortunately the March window, I think maybe for less than one week, some candidates were able to take the exam and then Prometric had to close all their testing centers. So that was a disappointment for us, and of course for the CSCA candidates. For the CMA exam, our testing windows don't start, you know, there's January, February, then there's May and June, and then there's September, October. So it didn't impact us or the candidates until May. Fortunately, Prometric started opening their testing sites in may, in the beginning of May, but not throughout the world. And we've seen, you know, as of now, actually all just about all testing sites, not all, but just about all Prometric testing sites are up and running and candidates are able to talk, take the exam. And, we could talk a little more about that later if you'd like, how under what conditions candidates are taking the exam, but so far, candidates are able to continue their pursuit of the certification, unfortunately, during a very difficult time.   Mitch: (03:41) So as you mentioned, this really kind of hit globally, after a couple of months, and even though the testing windows weren't effected, obviously many businesses were. So from your perspective, why have CMAs remained so essential to their workforce and why have they been able to assist their companies so much through this ongoing global pandemic?   Dennis: (04:02) Yeah, that's a great question, Mitch, and of course there, there are different categories of essential workers, including of course our frontline medical workers who have been true heroes during this pandemic. CMAs are also essential. They're essential in an economic sense. And in fact, accountants in general are critically important for the smooth functioning of businesses. They ensure that there's enough cash on hand to pay bills, to make payroll, to also ensure that processing of financial transactions are done and that managers have the results that they need to manage the business. Now, CMAs in particular, they can help companies not only survive, but they also help companies rebuild and grow. So that of course helps our economies, which are hurting during this, pandemic induced recession. And, our economies need to go rebuild and our companies need to rebuild. So this in turn, when CMAs help companies in this way, this protects jobs and it also adds jobs. So, so that workers could provide for their families. First of all, you know, from the survival perspective during the pandemic, companies need to be able to do the best to survive, to keep as many jobs as they can to meet customer demand and keep their companies in business. So that's where the risk management, cost management, and cash forecasting skills come into play. But CMAs can also use their value creation skills to help the companies not only survive, but also prosper. CMAs you know, the exam is really focused. It's a strong focused on planning analysis and decision support, and they can use these skills to help senior decision makers identify growth opportunities, which will help companies prosper, not only now, but well into the future because when the pandemic ends, and you probably reading about this, now in the business press, many companies are going to realize that they need to innovate their business models and revise their long term business strategy. So CMAs can be the trusted business advisors that they need to help guide the way in doing that.   Mitch: (06:47) I think there's a pretty good connection also to, you know, the last time you did an episode with us, you discussed the updated learning outcome statements and the different changes that went into the CMA exam, you know, incorporating a lot of the technology & analytics. So how have some of those, you know, refined skills and the different things that you're now assessing really equipped CMAs as well, and what does that look like as far as moving forward to changing these business models like you just mentioned.   Dennis: (07:20) Well, CMAs, even before this new content specification outline, CMAs, in my opinion, are well equipped to support organizations during this difficult time. But of course the profession does change as it evolves and becomes more sophisticated, more advanced, and that's reflected in the new content specification outline with a stronger emphasis on technology and analytics and decision making. And, you know, so skills like AI, RPA, data analytics, those are tools that can help CMAs provide a faster and more accurate forecast for example. Mining data, performing advanced, predictive, prescriptive analytics. These are new topics on the CMA exam, and adding these topics to actually it's part one of the content specification outline that helps the CMAs, that helps their companies, whether this pandemic. And also, it will help companies prosper while into the future because they have now the skills to better...

Contact Chris Wymbs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-wymbs-b4b4b789/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back for episode 79 of Count Me In IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Mitch Roshong and today we will be hearing from Chris Wymbs, the Executive Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer for AMC networks. Chris has significant leadership experience at a Fortune 50 company and as a finance executive with a proven record of success and extensive background in all aspects of finance. In this episode, he speaks with my cohost Adam about the leadership qualities needed to succeed in your career and how one can effectively lead change and innovation in their organization. Keep listening to hear an insightful episode about leadership, innovation and business transformation.   Adam: (00:54) So, Chris, can you tell us a little bit about your career journey and how you got where you are?   Chris: (01:02) Yeah, sure Adam, be happy to. So, it has definitely been a journey it's a good way to depict it. So if I think of the start foundationally, it was early days at Ernst and Young progressing up through the ranks there. Was in the audit realm as well as a support in the advisory services side, worked in a lot of different industries, and I deem that to be foundational to my, as I mentioned to my career progression. From there, I moved on to a little company known as GE at the time, and to an internal audit role, in their corporate audit group, which was exciting and fun and leverage the skills I had from my audit baseline, if you will, or foundation. And then moved into a, at the time a controller role, a global controller role of one of their, financial services businesses, GE Consumer Finance. And there, I really kind of cut my teeth if you will in the operational expertise realm. We were very inquisitive. We had a lot of deals internationally and I got to travel quite a bit, see different cultures, even though I was based domestically and really built out, I'd say kind of the foundation of my leadership skills and more of the executive level, as well as just some financial skills that I really hadn't gotten involved in in my days at Ernst and Young and really owning aspects of the finance organization and building out a team which was exciting and fun. And from there, I progressed into a company, American Express, and took a controller role there. And soon thereafter, less than a year, I moved into more of an operational role. So I was in the FP&A role for a few years. I was in various segment CFO roles over the years, three or four of them. And as I progressed in those roles, it gave me an opportunity to, to steepen and the realms of operational finance, not only from a controllership perspective, but from an FP&A perspective, a corporate finance perspective, and really just continue to build out my financial tool set. And then that brings me to the current role as  I'm EVP of finance and chief accounting officer at AMC networks. And I operate in both the controllership realm as well as the operational finance realm and have a myriad of responsibilities. And as I think of the journey I've gone through, it really has set me up to, to excel in the role I'm in today. And it's, it's comprehensive and it's wide ranging across the finance spectrum. And, and I lead a reasonably sized team and I enjoy that and I am an extrovert by nature. So, being in the leadership role is exciting and fun to me, and it does get me out of bed in the morning, although these days getting out of the bed means just walking downstairs and not getting on a train. So that's kind of in a nutshell, hopefully that covers the question.   Adam: (03:52) So thinking about that journey, could you describe what leadership characteristics have enabled you to get where you are today?   Chris: (04:03) Yeah, another  great question. So leadership, it could mean different things to different people and means different things in different cultures and different companies. And as I mentioned, I've worked in a few different companies, but to me, leadership, there's just some foundational things that are absolutely, you know, core given definitions of what leadership is. And for me, it starts with kind of consistent values, and some of those, if I were to just dispel some of those fundamental values, first and foremost, it's integrity. And, everything I do and everything in the bedrock of my leadership is integrity. So my actions will match the words I speak. I, you know, I will always take the higher road whether, you know, whatever issues it might create. And, you know, if you don't have your integrity, then it's really questionable as to what leader you are. And I don't think you can have the right fabrics of a leader without the key bedrock of integrity. And then from there, it kind of builds out and you can kind of go different ways. And for me, if I were to think about the feedback I've gotten over the years from people who've worked for me, they talk about me being an empowering leader. So giving them the ability to go out and do things on their own without my direct oversight, but still providing them enough oversight and guidance to help them succeed. So that's hard as a leader to balance empowering people, but at the same time supporting people. And I think that's foundational to my leadership approach. And then around that, it's how do you develop people? And that's giving people an empowerment, but also how do you continue to develop them and build their skillset and give them confidence and create a safety net around them at some level, although you do need to let people fail at times, and that's how we often learn the best, but, you know, just giving them an ability to continue to develop and supporting them in that development, whether it be getting additional training, having conversations with them in tough areas, and as they develop and progress and become leaders of people, that's a whole different dynamic there's leadership in the entity, as far as driving things forward, but then there's leadership of your team and those mean different things and helping people develop skill sets and both project and people leadership, you know, it takes some effort and some support to do.   Adam: (06:30) So what counts as innovation in your organization? How would you define it, and what does innovation mean to your employees?   Chris: (06:39) Yeah, innovation, a tough question. Not unlike leadership. How do you define it? It's defined quite different people define it different ways. The way I think about innovation is kind of through a three-pronged definition, if you will, firstly, there's technological innovation, that's we all know what that is, right? It's the next generation of the, whether it be the app or, you know, the platform where using the next generation of, you know, Oracle so on, so forth or SAP for that matter. There's also process innovations. So that to me could be evolving and driving more efficiency and effectiveness in a process, technology unchanged. And then thirdly there's, and this is where I think most people define innovation. It's the new thing. It's the new app that didn't exist before. It's the, you know, it's the Uber, it's the, you know, however you want to define it as the Priceline if you go way back that just didn't exist previously in the travel realm. It's the ideation of something that didn't exist and that at its core is kind of foundationally innovation, but for finance organizations, it's kind of hard to focus and operate in the ideation realm of innovation. So where I tend to hone my team and more is how do we ...

Contact Heather Bain: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-bain-31223320/Small Business Planning During COVID-19: https://www.imanet.org/insights-and-trends/risk--management/small-business-planning-during-covid19FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Adam: (00:05) Welcome back for episode 78 of Count Me In IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson, and today you will hear my cohost Rouba talk with Heather Bain, owner of Bain CPA Business strategies, and IMA a Small Business Committee Chair. Heather has experience in numerous industries, including oil and gas, real estate and computer technologies among others. In this episode, she discusses a white paper she authored with IMA Small Business Committee on small business planning during COVID-19 the report provides insights to help small, to medium sized businesses, weather the storm, and develop strategies for survival. For another timely episode relating to today's business environment, keep listening and hear from Heather Bain now. Rouba: (00:54) I've been reading, you know, the paper that you published and that you were the lead author on, which was Small Business Planning During COVID-19. This was a white paper that was authored by IMA's small business committee, which you chair, and it was published by IMA. So it's been a really interesting subject to read up on. This paper outlines the key steps that small businesses should undertake in order to minimize the impact of the coronavirus on business operations. When publicizing this report, you noted that SMEs are very vulnerable and in dire need of support with emergency response and recovery plans. Why is that? Is there, is there a need for more resilient financial capabilities within the SME segment? Does this actually point out that these may not be at the level that they should be at present?   Heather: (01:46) Yes, that is always a concern. because small businesses don't have the same resources that large companies have. Larger organizations have many departments and they also have greater financial resources to be able to respond to the lagging in the financial markets and those sort of things. They can allocate more personnel toward different projects that might help them. For instance, you're probably familiar that data mining is very popular and it helps larger companies identify their core competencies and the needs of their  customer base, and smaller companies don't necessarily have that sort of access to know what the broader market is to be able to shift over and offer services on a broader level. They also don't have the same resources to create the technology, but the smaller businesses have the advantage of being a little bit more nimble in the market and able to respond faster because they don't have to shift a large organization. So there are pros and cons, but the smaller businesses are more vulnerable, because many times the owners of the business are dependent on that, the income directly, and they don't have the same financial resources.   Rouba: (03:32) The question was also to look at, for example, the actual skill level of financial capabilities, like not every single one of them has the opportunity to hire a CFO.   Heather: (03:42) That, that's absolutely true. They often are. They're wearing all the hats at the officer level, or they have one or two key people that they're relying on. And frankly, many of them don't have any plan in place in the event that one of the key persons is taken out by a COVID virus or is unavailable because of the restrictions in quarantine and that sort of thing. If they're taking care of a loved one during this crisis, and they're not available as much as they were before many small businesses don't have the resources to respond.   Rouba: (04:27) Would you  in such an instance, is it maybe a potentially as a kind of support that they could outsource at a time like this, where they desperately needed it in order for their business to be, to survive. Would they need this kind of input from third parties potentially?   Heather: (04:46) Yes. They definitely need to hire a team of experts as much as possible. They need to consult, experienced accountants, attorneys, anyone that that would know how to put a plan in place and then help them have accountability for implementing that plan.   Rouba: (05:09) The report also provides some major insights on you know, to help SMEs weather the storm and the hope of a quicker recovery post COVID-19. And it's structured around three key steps. Can you, can you tell us a little bit about these steps?   Heather: (05:24) Yes. Well, the first step is, A: assess the situation.  Taking a completely comprehensive overview of the scenario that each individual business  organization is facing is crucial. So many businesses overlook certain details as they're just in a reactive mode. So there's a financial crunch. Cashflow doesn't look good, so they just react. They start cutting employees, but then that may have unintended consequences for being able to service the customer or they, the small business owner may, may not even be aware that that their rent is not going to be forgiven or there won't be an exception for certain customer contracts. So they need to look at all of the components of their business in order to see what areas they may have weakness so that they can identify potential problems and be proactive rather than reactive in the market. So we advise that cashflow is the most important thing to focus on in the assessment, but also looking at your human capital and looking at the relationships with customers and vendors because supply chain issues have certainly been a major concern. So we say, look at your  legal issues, your financial issues, your human resources issues. I'm looking at the whole picture, your communication and technology piece with your operations and pulling an entire plan together, which is what step two is all about building the plan and you'll need the expertise of people outside of your business. Most likely if you're a small business, since most likely you don't have those resources within your organization. Having a finance expert, having an accountant, an attorney, human resource advice. Sometimes, if you work with government grants, you'll need someone who specializes in government grant contracts. Those sorts of experts can help you pull a plan together so that you, as the person business owner or leader, are able to move forward confident that you're, even though your plan will change, and it is dynamic, you'll still have a total proactive plan in place rather than just responding on the fly as we say. So the third, is the third step is to communicate clearly and calmly. And that is another area that small businesses can be a bit weak in it because the leader and leaders tend to keep many  of these plans and they're in their own heads, rather than communicating effectively to their entire team. There can be a lot of miscommunication and people acting on their own instincts or their own judgment rather than sticking to the plan. And also in this time of crisis, a lot of employees are panicked and there's a lot of fear. And so keeping calm, clear communication, making sure that everyone understands what they need to do and what the end goal is will help to hold the organization together and to still present a cohesive brand to the customer and to clearly identify any issues that might be coming up. For instance, if ...

Contact Ron Guymon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-guymon-369b1710/Ron Guymon at U of Illinois: https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/profile/ronald-guymonIMA Data Analytics & Visualization Fundamentals Certificate®: https://bit.ly/38Iy90lU of Illinois and IMA - Beyond the Basics: Data Analytics and Visualization for Accounting Professionals: https://giesbusiness-ima.thinkific.com/courses/btb-davapRon's Articles Published:The Effect of Task Interdependence and Type of Incentive Contract on Group Performance: https://meridian.allenpress.com/jmar/issue/20/s1Controls and the Asymmetric Stickiness of Norms: https://meridian.allenpress.com/accounting-horizons/article-abstract/33/4/119/427557/Controls-and-the-Asymmetric-Stickiness-of-NormsFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Adam: (00:00)Welcome back for episode 77 of Count Me In. IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson and today's conversation revolves around the future of accounting education. For this episode, Mitch sat with Ron Guymon, Senior Lecturer at University of Illinois. There, he teaches data analytics to online master of accountancy students. Ron also has experience helping small to midsize companies assemble, analyze, and visualize data to find actionable insights. In his conversation with Mitch, Ron discusses, what he has already seen in accounting education as universities seek to prepare the future of our profession and share what he believes to be the most valuable skills for students going forward. So without further ado, let's get over to their conversation now.Mitch: (00:58)What has your role been in accounting education and how have you seen the curriculum or the required components change along your journey? Ron: (01:07)  I had been in academics for a while and there had been a growing awareness in  academics, at least since about 2010 of the need to teach students more data analytics skills. Most of it was in Excel at the time. Because my academic background, I had some data analytics skills with SAS that I learned for academic research purposes, but those skills and some relationships led to an opportunity for me to leave academics and join a small, but growing business intelligence company called New Metric. And it was a risky decision at the time, but I knew the analytics were important. And I thought that if anything, this would give me some good experience that I could eventually use in class. I was also motivated by some family reasons. So, anyway, there was that side of things, but it turned out to be a great learning experience. And, you know, some things I learned have benefited me in the classroom as I had hoped, I guess. I learned how to use some proprietary data visualization software, and I also learned how to use R. So I had used SAS a lot for academics, but I learned about some other  skill or, analysis technique. And when I looked at, when I researched about it, I found a lot of references to R and so, that's what got me into R. So my academic training was really helpful and it gave me a leg up on the statistical concepts, however, I think I can relate to many business professionals who have primarily relied on Excel and they're worried about the learning curve associated with learning a data analytic language. So, anyway, so I've come back into academics with, some experience using data analytics software that has been very helpful. Mitch: (03:03)So you touched on it just now and you said, it may be difficult for some business professionals to run either, maybe want to pursue learning this new language as you put it, or the fear of being able to. So what is your perspective or what have you seen as far as particularly accounting and finance professionals really interested in this sophisticated data analytic competencies and, you know, even going back to students. Are they aware of this growing need and the fact that it will benefit them in the future? Ron: (03:40)I think the professionals are aware of it, and I think that's because data is seeping into every part of an organization. And so I think they're becoming aware of it, or at least the need to be able to process more data and a desire to do that. They may not know that a data analytic language is, a tremendous way to help process more data. I know there are other tools available like Tableau for visualizing data, and some other tools for automating processes. But, I've definitely seen a need for, pretty much everyone in an organization, at least in my opinion, could benefit from learning a data analytic language. Cause you can just automate things. Students, I think are less aware of that at least undergraduate studentsk and, and so it's a little bit harder for them, but MBA students and masters students, I think they're, they're more aware of it cause they're a lot of them are working professionals as well, and so they've realized the limitations that come with point and click software, the benefits as well as the limitations, and so I think they're aware of the need to learn about it. But, yeah, the way, you know, it's kinda tough to transition from Excel or a Google sheets to a data analytical language. So that's the part that I think a lot of people are trying to navigate right now and it's not easy cause it takes time and people are working, they have families, and, and how do you learn something that's a pretty dense topic and, it takes a while to really be proficient at, but, anyway, so I think, I hope that's what I'm helping people do now as a professor at the University of Illinois, so anyway. Mitch: (05:33)No, that's great, and you know, I'm sure you have your own preferences, but for our listeners here, if you could just offer up some kind of recommendation for those who are interested in pursuing more of this deep dive education, whether they are in the classroom, looking for some outside resources, professionals looking for some continuing education, where do you start and how do you really get feet into learning this new language? Ron: (06:00)Yeah, that's a great question. There are so many resources out there. You could probably find a bunch on Yo...

Colorado State University - Global: https://csuglobal.edu/CSU - Global's Online Master's Degree in Professional Accounting: https://youtu.be/mLg6UTW0axoContact Nicole Hulet: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolekhulet/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Adam: (00:00)Welcome back to Count Me In IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I am your host, Adam Larson, and I'm happy to bring you another bonus episode of our series. As we focus on IMA's theme of accounting education here in the month of August, Mitch sat down with Nicole Hulet, a graduate student at Colorado State University Global in the professional accounting program. In the conversation Nicole discusses, how she has gone about balancing her graduate coursework, full time accounting work and studying for professional certification. Accounting studies have changed as new skills are needed and finance and accounting professionals are serving in new roles. This episode highlights what students need to do to succeed and differentiate themselves as they enter today's accounting environment. Keep listening as we head over to this impressive conversation. Mitch: (01:02)As an accounting student, what has been the most challenging part of your studies? Nicole: (01:07)I would say the large amount of information I'm trying to learn in a pretty short amount of time. So the structure of my classes right now are eight week semesters basically, and in that we cover one class. And so it's very condensed. It's nice that it's just the one class, but we are having to learn a lot of info really quickly, and then to change topics really quickly as well. And I I'm an international accounting class right now, and I have never done any international accounting or any foreign exchange, you know, currency, and I never worked with any of that. So it's all very new information, but it's so relevant that that's been a challenging, but also really exciting for me as an accounting student. Mitch: (02:00)Now, while you're taking these classes, you know, I know you're obviously doing a number of other things outside of the classroom. So, whether it's something related to school or outside of school, how have you gone about differentiating yourself or, you know, really separating yourself so that you can exceed as an accounting professional in the next stage? Nicole: (02:20)I'd say that partially I work full time. I'm a student full time. I'm just a human being as well. So I do other things in my free time, but I'd say that I try to do, you know, extra. So I'm on the Board of Bovernors for the Colorado uUniversity System. And it's really neat being an accounting student and being on the board of governors, because I think that part partially like that position kind of sets me aside because I think often there's that like stereotype of accountants and accounting students. And so, to, to be in a cool leadership role and people to be able to talk to me about accounting and they always say, I never liked accounting when I was an undergrad or when I was in my business program, I didn't really like accounting. Like how can you do it? And I liked that I'm able to make it enjoyable and also help people understand like why I enjoy it and why I'm doing what I do. And it kind of changes some people's minds on like accounting and how they wish they would have taken it more seriously, but you know, I really pride myself in working on being a professional. I think I'm getting there. I like to consider myself a professional, but being  still in classes I'm, you know, looking forward to having completed my degree. Mitch: (03:49)So you said you're working full time. You're a full time student. You're serving on the, on the board of governors here and now I understand you're also studying for an accounting certification. So with all of this on your plate, you mentioned free time, I suppose, that was in quotes previously. So how do you balance all of that exactly. Nicole: (04:10)I whine. No, I'm just kidding. I have several planners that I of course use, and I have to do a online calendar and then I of course have like a physical calendar and a lot of it is just, you know, time management and allocating, I mean, hour by hour throughout the day, allocating time for me, you know, waking up at a reasonable time, going to bed at a reasonable time. I have to be really focused on, I'd say even each half an hour during the day. So I usually work from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM. And I take between a 30 minute and an hour long lunch. During my lunch, I'm usually I'm either reading my textbook for my class or working on my homework for that week. I'm, you know, utilizing those times, and it's been a one thing that I've really had to learn is how to switch hats very quickly so that I'm able to be efficient. So I do my homework during lunch and then on my drive home, I have about a 30 minute commute. I take that time to listen to my podcasts or catch up on current events  in the car. And then in the evening I come home and allocate time to eat dinner and make dinner, or we, you know, have something premade and then I'll usually try to train for triathlons also. So I try to do some training usually before dinner. And then after dinner, I go back to homework and certification studying, and I'd say my Sundays are full of certification studying and homework. Then Saturdays, I try to really allocate to, you know, enjoying my one weekend day, and try not to do anything work-wise or a school or certification studying wise. So it's just really being intentional with my entire day, every day of the week, and then planning ahead as well and one of my biggest things to is just upfront being communicative, with my boss and letting him know like how my week's looking when I have board meetings and what it will mean if I have a board meeting that I'll need to work from home, you know, for  that Friday afternoon, just really planning things out and having a little bit of, I'd say some patience with myself too. And, you know, if I'm running late for something, just letting people know and  working things out, but for the most part I've had pretty nailed down to a science and just making sure that I'm making time for the stuff that's important to m,. and also realizing that this is, you know, it's going to be a few years, but it's not forever. So I think just pushing through right now with school, with working and my cert, which all kind of go hand in hand too, you know, realizing this isn't forever and that there is an end date and that I'll be getting my certificate and I'll have my  master's degree and I'll continue working so.Mitch: (07:32)Well, that's really impressive and, you know, I think you emphasized a few different times, the importance of communication. I think that cannot be understated when you're juggling so many different things, working with so many different people, you know, you mentioned wearing a whole bunch of different hats. You certainly have a lot on your plate, but you know, there is an end, right. And you just said it. So what is that end? What's your goal? Where do you hope to be professionally, once all of this is done?Nicole: (08:00)Well, my current role on my business card says I'm an accounting professional. So I, my boss is actually my father. So I work in our family business. We're very small, there's only five of us. We have another, accountant and then my dad, we've got, you know, our front desk gal. Well, and then, my mom is the office manager and then myself. So I'd say that's another role that I kind of have to handle kind of diff...

Contact Shaila Bettadapur: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettadapur/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Welcome back for episode 76 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Technology had previously changed many roles and forced management accountants to upskill and grow at a rapid rate. Then recent events have caused the accounting and finance profession to evolve even faster than ever, but that only leads us to believe that the future of work will look even more different. In this episode, Mitch talks to Shaila Bettadapur, Corporate Treasurer and VP of Investor Relations at Mohawk Industries. Shaila is a global executive with deep knowledge across multiple disciplines, industries and geographies leading to an informed perspective on what the future of work will look like and what finance leaders need to do in order to best prepare their organizations. So let's head over to the conversation and hear what he has to say now. Mitch: (01:01)So we're at an interesting time now where the future of work really came at us pretty quickly, but I'm just curious if you have any perspective on what the future of work may still evolve into and, you know, what does that really look like in your eyes for the accounting and finance professionals? Shaila: (01:19)I think, even, you know, pre COVID, you were starting to see, changes in the workplace overall. Just as, you know, telecommunications gets better, AI gets better, and so on. And of course yesterday you saw a news article where Facebook and others were talking about certain people working from home or working remotely kind of forever. Right. You know, we'll see if that actually happens. But I think, you know, so even pre COVID, you know, let's dial back the clock a little bit. If you went back, let's say  30 years or even 20 years for that matter, what an accountant might do or what a treasury person might do, is materially different than what they do today. A lot of what people did in those days, which was really, you know, getting the data, you know, recording the data and so on, which is what a lot of data entry , you know, kind of basic stuff is all automated. So for example, as the treasurer I had, we installed a treasury workstation close to eight years ago now, which automated a bunch of these things, and allowed, my people, which, you know, have it fairly lean staff, allow my people to, do higher level analysis and actually stuff that matters, as opposed to just data manipulation and so forth. I think that's true on the accounting side. I think that's true on the legal side, you've been reading a lot of stuff about how, you know, people coming out of law school or having a little bit more trouble finding work, because you know, a lot of stuff is being done by paralegals. A lot of stuff is being done, through AI simulation, right? My computer's right. You don't need to go to a lawyer to do your estate planning anymore and so on and so forth. So I think to a large extent, the middle starts to go away. That led to what I call the middle, being the, you know, where you're not really adding value, but you are, basically doing something that a machine or a computer program can do as software, it gets better as artificial intelligence gets better. That's going to happen more and more. Mitch: (04:11)So that's really interesting perspective because, you know, it leads us nicely into what exactly have you noticed as a finance leader, as far as changes to your, whether it's day to day responsibilities or overall responsibilities because of AI and everything that has changed in the work environment, you know, how have you realized some of these changes before they actually become wholesale changes like you just referenced? Shaila: (04:40)I think, the mistake that people make, is thinking about finance as a numbers oriented exercise. It is true that you need to understand the numbers. That's true. But again, if you dial back the clock, you know, 30 years let's say, a chief financial officer, and by extension everybody who works with the chief financial officer, just focused on the numbers, right? Not so basically, okay, the numbers are this and this X and Y, but less about why those numbers look that way, and what does that mean for the future? Because at the end of the day, the past is only as good as, you know, I mean, it's great for a topic of conversation, but it's only good if it informed you of what will happen in the future and therefore, what kinds of decisions you have to make, going forward. And that I think is the biggest difference. So if you look at the role of a CFO today, it is, it is more around strategy and the decision making process. Yes, you have to obviously, do the, do the accounting work. You have to obviously do the reporting that you have public filings, you have all of these things. These are all necessary things that you have to do, but they are not sufficient, to be a good CFO or a good treasurer or a good controller. It's really about what should I do next? How should I behave next? And that's really the key. And so the extent to which, you know, you are focused on just pulling numbers and putting numbers down on a page, but not being able to translate those numbers to a broader audience, that is a flaw and that will get exposed rather quickly. Mitch: (06:55)I like how you just mentioned, you know, what should I do next? How should I behave? Because from our perspective, you know, the foundation of the management accounting profession is really rooted in ethics. And when you have a number of decisions to be made as a finance leader, and there is so much data at your fingertips and there's AI to be aware of. Ethics becomes a very strong part of your job, I would assume on a day to day basis, especially longterm planning. So, you know, as far as the future of work, your role, what role does ethics play in the behavior of you and your organization? Shaila: (07:33)Well, and so I don't think that this has ever changed why ethics is huge. And I would go so far as to argue that, the rise of the whole Western world, is, is built on, you know, fundamentally on ethics, because in the end, contracts can only protect you to an extent. In the end when you do business with someone, or when you enter into any sort of agreement with someone you are, and you're doing so based on trust, based on your counterpart acting in good faith, and conversely your counterpart is doing that, assuming that you're acting in good faith, at the end of the day, if you don't have that, then it's very difficult to do business. And so, I would argue that ethics, if you want to call that ethics, but being open and transparent and ethical as you put it, is the foundation of doing business well and doing it properly, without which nothing actually works. So from an accounting , you know, you know, treasury and what we report to the banks, what we report, you know, to, you know, the, when we go raise money in the in the bond market, you know, all of those need to be honest, they can't be that you are not going to be, you are not going to do well if you are deceptive, particularly deliberately deceptive, because, because frankly, people aren't going to trust you and people are not going to lend you money. And if they do, they're going to charge you a premium, and so all it does was raised the cost of everything and that in the end, doesn't help you. Mitch: (09:38)So with everything we've talked about so far, I'd like to kind of wrap things up by offering some kind of advice, or, you know, your perspective on this, going into the future of work, the changing role of finance and finance leaders, and again, rooted in ethics. How do you go about prepar...

Contact Linda Devonish-Mills: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-devonish-mills-cma-cpa-cae-mba-88534610/Contact Derek Fuzzell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-a-fuzzell-cpa-cma/IMA's D&I Toolkit: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/diversity-and-inclusionFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:04)Welcome back to Count Me In IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Mitch Roshong, and today we have another special bonus episode relating to diversity and inclusion in the workplace during these challenging times. My cohost Adam spoke with IMA's Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Linda Devonish-Mills, and Derek Fuzzell CFO at a Federal Credit Union and Chair of IMA's Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Linda and Derek share their perspectives on recent tragedies. What that means to organizational leaders and its employees, and what IMA is doing to support these initiatives. For genuine and informative dialogue keep listening as we head over to the group's conversation now.Adam: (00:52)The killing of George Floyd has shaken the US and many communities around the world. We are sickened by this tragedy and many peaceful process, as well as riots have happened as a result. Can you share a little of your feelings and how this has affected you? Linda: (01:12)Sure. It's affected me, in so many ways where I shared some thoughts a couple of weeks ago with my, teammate and, you know, I was surprised in terms of how my emotions got the best of me. So, as to say time heals all wounds, so at least I can talk about it now without a whole lot of emotion, but what really upsets me about it is that, you know, when I think about it bad enough that, my parents, as I was growing up would talk to me about their struggles, their personal struggles with racial injustice. And it was like if it was a preparation for what they thought I would go through, and then unfortunately I have my own theories, experiences and yet, no, I think the saving grace for whatever it's worth that, you know, as I've gotten older, you know, to a certain degree, with certain things still, you know, coming into play with personal interactions, I may have with people I have gotten unfortunately accustomed to certain interactions that I've had with people I've gotten, you know, to the point where I've gotten numb over it, where it just doesn't affect me anymore. And just to position that as long as it's just affected me and not my daughters and their generation in  general, I'm good. Whereas when my daughters were growing up, they could not understand since they grew up in a diverse population, in the town of Teaneck, New Jersey and went to schools that have diverse student populations, they could not understand why I seem to be so racially conscious. You know, I was always talking about, racial issueswith them and they just could not understand that. So now what really hurts me is that they're grown young, successful women I may add, and it seems like it's like they're playing catch up now in terms of how it's affecting them. And with my oldest daughter now being the mother of my grandson for her to say to me one time that she is frightened to raise an African American boy in this world. So it just provokes, you know, anger side of me that now is affecting my family and, you know, us to have conversations that we shouldn't even feel the need to have conversations about. So, you know, so that is where it really comes to the core of hurt for me for anger, but again, you know, time does heal all wounds and, you know, the way I'm trying to look at these thing now is what can I do personally to contribute, towards part of a solution and just have the mindset every single day, more so than ever of being hopeful, instead of relying on hopelessness. Derek: (04:45)You know, I would just say my perspective on this, on this question is a bit different. You know, I'm approaching this as a Caucasian male, you know, living in the United States. I understand from experiences of my friends and even some experiences where I've been in situations where I've seen quite frankly, police treat people who are Black or Latino or other race, other ethnicity very differently than they've treated me in that same situation. You know, I'll say it really, it really upset me. I thought we had come a lot further as a country. I had hoped, you know, this reminds me of a lot of the Rodney King issue in the early nineties in LA. And one would hope that we had progressed a little bit from the nineties, and I'll be honest, this and several of the other incidents that have led up to this over the last decade have really told me, no, we haven't progressed as far as I would hope. You know, I think that what I can see and where I do have hope in this situation is that people's response is very different than the Rodney King situation. Rodney King seemed to be very isolated to the Los Angeles area that people seem to pick up the banner and while news coverage picked up what was going on in LA. It wasn't the mass protest that you've seen throughout the United States and elsewhere for that matter. You know, what, what gives me hope in this situation is that there seems to be a shift in mindset of people, both Bllack and White and Latino and Asian who are willing to step in and finally stand up for creating a system of equity within our, in our criminal justice system, which wasn't there before. In the nineties, you didn't see that even six years ago, you didn't see that as events, you know, foiled, out in Ferguson, Missouri, you just didn't see that same kind of response, and so I think I am happy to see that people are taking this a lot  more seriously, but it does disappoint me that we are still having this conversation about police brutality, especially with the African American community in the United States here 30 years later. Adam: (07:04)Thank you both for being open and honest with us, and I'm sure that many people listening to this conversation have very similar feelings and many of them may be even leaders. And if you look at an organization, what can leaders of organizations do at this time to support their workforce and be mindful that people are going through the same, having the same feelings that you guys are feeling even themselves are going through those feelings, what can they do to support their workforce during this time? Derek: (07:34)I think it's important as, as we consider our workforce, you know, not every organization is going to be as racially diverse as others. I happen to work for a very racially diverse organization that has a huge tie to the Hispanic  community, but even within the Hispanic community, you, you do have a Black, Hispanic community and that White Hispanic community. And we have made it a point within our organization to reach out and listen to every single employee. Give them the opportunity to speak to us, to come to us, to talk with us about their frustrations, to understand what may be impacting them. I'll say one point of personal reflection on this was as DC started to impose curfews, and some of the curfews happened pretty early in the evening, and they lasted until pretty late in the morning, comparatively, I was often concerned about, can I get my employees out of the office and back home in time to avoid curfew, to avoid interaction with the police to be, to be blunt. One of my employees is a gentleman from the Dominican Republic who is Black, and my concern really was what will the police interaction be if he's caught out befo...

Contact Shifra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shifrakolsky/ FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Hi, everyone. Welcome back for episode 75 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson, and I'm pleased to introduce you to our featured expert speaker, Shifra Kolsky. Shifra is the Vice President and Assistant Controller and Finance at Discover she is responsible for external reporting, the SOX compliance program, accounting policy, corporate accounting and financial systems. In this episode, Shifra talks about the value of an effective rollout and what all aspects of an RPA implementation look like. Shifra  launched the finance RPA team in 2018. The first RPA team at discover. So to hear firsthand experiences and actual applications, keep listening as we head over to the conversation now. Mitch: (00:56)So Shifra, you know, we've had a lot of episodes here talking about artificial intelligence, RPA, and from your experience and you just, how you answer questions regarding these topics. Can you first start off with telling us how is RPA different from AI? Shifra: (01:13)So RPA is robotic process automation, AI artificial intelligence, and the main difference is that the way I think about it as the bots are a little bit stupid. So AI tools can and learn from, the different data that they're exposed to and they can develop more sophisticated responses over time. Bots can strictly do whatever it is you tell them to do so they just follow instructions, nothing more. Mitch: (01:45)So as far as following instructions, you know, I know you are in finance and accounting, right? VVce President Assistant Controller here at Discover,  and again, your perspective, what are the best type of tasks for these bots to perform? Shifra: (02:00)Bots are great at doing simple, repetitive tasks where you can give exact step by step instructions. Some of the examples in controllership might include things like pulling reports or setting up journal entries based on specific data fields in that report, preparing reconciliations where the bot would  compare data from one source to another source and create a list of exceptions. So again, all simple, basic repetitive tasks, but we have a lot of those in finance and accounting, and so they're very helpful to us. Mitch: (02:38)And being in finance and accounting, you know, a lot of people probably outside the function would look at this as maybe a cost cutting measure, right? It's, it's a way to kind of eliminate some of the human tasks that are out there, but from within the function and the organization as a whole, really, how do you get in to get people to understand the benefits of these bots and RPA? Shifra: (03:04)Yeah. So when we first launched our RPA program, we were not looking at cost cutting, and we were looking at, ways to become more efficient and free up people's time to be able to do more high value work, to kind of critical thinking things that you need a human to do and so when we took on this program, we started by, we asked people to tell us about the things they hated doing, the things that they found, kind of mind numbingly boring. And thought let's take that list and see if we can get a bot to do those things instead. We also made it very clear to people that it was about shifting people to doing the higher value work, the critical thinking, the analytics, so that people weren't focused on the, Oh my goodness, the bot is  going to take my job. Building a foundation of trust that it really was centered around helping people, was really important to get buy in and to get people engaged. We also enlisted one specific team at the start, to be guinea pigs for everyone. So they test it out. They were the first ones to have a process automated, and they were specifically selected because they had two clear qualifications. One, they had a whole bunch of tasks that were repetitive and easy for us to automate the box. But the other thing they had was a sort of general sense of excitement about the program and the possibilities, and so they were able to really carry the message and they were able to help the bot developers understand things quickly. And then they were also able to convey their enthusiasm to other people as they started seeing the results. And so having those natural cheerleaders or business champions was a really effective way for us to build some momentum around the program. Shifra: (05:11)And what were some of the recognizable benefits of implementing this program? How did it ultimately impact your team? Shifra: (05:18)So there are a number of different ways that this has helped our team. You know, on the simplest level, it changed the energy. I mean, it got people excited and really thinking in different ways. Our team has long been focused on continuous improvement, but this is really taking things to a different level and helped folks think more creatively about the things that we can do instead of feeling hampered by the things that we can't do. You know, so that's one element of it on the people's side, but frankly, it's also allowed us over the course of the last two years to redeploy about 10% of our headcount in the controllership team to take on new opportunities within the group. So this furious focus on automation has really enabled us to keep up with the growing needs, that are coming at us from all of our business partners and, and keep up with those demands without increasing head count. Mitch: (06:25)One question that I hear a lot when we start talking about RPA is the length of time it takes actually to implement the program. So are you able to share how long this whole process took from the analysis through identifying what people hate until you were able to recognize the benefits and get these cheerleaders for the program? Shifra: (06:45)Sure. I would say for us, the research we did before we jumped into it probably took longer than getting it moving once we started. So we spent a good couple months really talking to a lot of other companies and understanding, you know, some of the things that worked for them, some of the things they wish they'd done differently. We spent a chunk of time looking at the different tools that were available and deciding what the best tool was for us. And then we invested in, recruiting and training some folks, and we did all internal recruiting. We thought that it was smarter to take people who understood the business and understood the business processes, and teach them how to use the tool rather than taking somebody who knew how to use the tool and try to teach them the business. So we spent a couple of months with all of that kind of upfront research and, and training. And once we got into the training it was fairly quick. So depending on the nature of the process that you're trying to automate, things, can we fairly quick, if you know how to use the software and you understand how some of the different connections work, okay. You can get something going in as little as a week when you're first starting out. You're more likely looking at things taking between eight and 12 weeks for a process. And again, probably depending on the complexity and the number of different, systems the process might touch. But we had our first process in place within about 10 weeks  and built on things from there. And one of the things that we...

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)And we are back with episode 74 of Count Me In. IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I am your host, Adam Larson, and I'll be introducing you to our featured guests, Karim Ghandour. Karim is a succession strategist and the founder of Legacy Line Family Office. He joined my cohost Rouba to talk about the challenges that family businesses are facing during COVID-19 pandemic. Rouba asked Karim to share some of his insights on best practices for business owners, as it relates to cashflow digital transformation and cyber security without further ado, let's bring you to their conversation now. Rouba: (00:47)So Karim, I know that you work with a large family business owners around the world, you know, you have offices in Portugal and Beirut and the UAE. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you do? Karim: (01:05)Yes, as a family succession strategist, I assist family businesses, family offices, organize their estate in order to sustain that legacies. I do that by being the focal point of the family advisory team, being legal, tax, governance, or asset management. We act as the confidant for the families. Rouba: (01:31)It's studied by Deloitte found that 53.7% of first generation family members remain involved in the business. What type of role does governance actually play in such an instance and more specifically crises governance, and do the leaders that you work with consider it essential? Karim: (01:48)Well, it depends on, depends on the, on where is the family business is, is in it’s  journey, it's evolution journey. If the first generation or the founders are relatively young, okay, then governance might not be a focal point of the decision making. They usually founders depend more on the intercoronary instincts. However, if the family business is managed or owned by the second generation or the third generation, then definitely governance becomes more relevant, and actually by the time they reach the third generation, it's a must to have a proper governance system at least. Rouba: (02:37)And perhaps even more so during this time, I mean, it goes without saying that we're going through potentially one of the toughest times in human history, both economically, and from a human standpoint. COVID-19 transformed our lives in every single way. Karim: (02:52)Most of the businesses that not really plan for such an event. So definitely there's a lot of planning will be done in the months to come. Rouba: (03:04)Yeah, and technically, how has the impact been on family businesses in the region and around the world? I mean, you work with them. It'd be great to get your perspective on, on how severe or not the impact has been. Karim: (03:17)It's a bit early to, to evaluate the situation, even in the public company, most of public companies will be publishing results of the second quarter in the first or second week of July. At least that will give us a glimpse of what is the real impact of the situation financially and otherwise. Rouba: (03:44)Fair enough. Middle East Family Business, a survey conducted last year, found that 66% of those interviewed said that they do intend to step up their digital capabilities over the coming two years. But with most companies around the world, reporting at least one cyber attack per year. How aware are family business owners that you work with of the importance of cyber security and the potential threats of financial loss data breach, and in some cases, business continuity and how invested are they in actually securing their companies, especially at a time where most business transactions and communication is actually taking place remotely online? Karim: (04:25)It's striking when you analyze a family businesses. A lot of them, I would say, did not invest in their innovation and technology. And especially, I notice usually I look at the family business and I see who's a dependent, who's managing, look at the leadership of the family business. And usually when we have a leadership which belongs to the X generation or the baby boomers generation, usually they resist the whole concept of digitalization, and therefore they would reject an idea like cyber security fencing and passing on other information. Rouba: (05:11)Have they not been impacted? I mean, did it ever happen that they reported any cases of cyber attack and still they're resistant? Karim: (05:19)Of course, and I mean, we experienced last year they were using their Gmail and Gmail got hacked. Yeah, and there was an event, which after we evaluated the situation, we noticed it was one of the employees was using their Gmail actually, which calls that a hack. But they're not taking it as seriously as they should. And we are  noticing and advisory work, cybersecurity is becoming more relevant. The Big Four are pushing for it. I've seen this in more than one occasion. I witnessed two years ago, a German family who liquidated, who sold their business, 4 billion euros. And one day when one of the Big Four assessed the situation, it was clear, they have a lot of vulnerability in terms of cyber security, and they advise them accordingly. There's a lot of work to be done that there's definitely a lot of work to be done on that front. Karim: (06:40)When we consider, the family business segment, some of these are considered complex multigenerational institutions that have faced and continue to face numerous challenges, be it from the continuity standpoint, succession planning, maintaining relevance, and demand, diversification. Do you think that they are relatively more prone to withstand the difficult times more than say conventional companies and particularly when considering like legacy businesses and the historical changes that they've had to endure across at some 0.4 generations back?(07:18)Generally, and it has been proven family business across continents, family businesses are more resilient than non-family businesses. And the reason for that, because a family businesses plan and think in terms of generation, whereas nonfamily business they think in terms of fiscal year quarters. Moreover, when it comes to the staff and the team, you see more loyalty in family business, than a non family business. Employees specially senior employees have been working with the family for a long time, they feel like they have this extended family feel and that's why they when they do a sacrifice, they know there's somebody watching and that they will take that in consideration, and you don't see that in non-family business. And finally it hasn't been proven that family business, when it comes to the decision-making as owners, as shareholders or on the management, they're faster than nonfamily business and they are more agile. And that's all of that attributes to results. Rouba: (08:34)So can one assume that if they, they have enough reserve to sort of sustain cashflow for another 18 months or so they would be some of those companies that come out of this situation.(08:47)Definitely. Family businesses, one of the issues they face is the lack of capitalization. Unlike the non-family business, which are more capitalized. So it's an issue of cashflow definitely next 12 to 18 months, it's all about cashflow. If they make, they make it, they don't, then that will be a part of the larger statistics, which we hope on the big buck. We right now we might experience one of the worst economic downturn since the 1920s. And with that, we expect family businesses, and non-family businesses to be wiped out. Rouba: (09:33)You know, predictions are predictions, but, the next few months are going to be very indicat...

Mazars USA Links:https://mazarsusa.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/mazars-usa/https://mazarsusa.com/ledger/ https://mazarsusa.com/pandemic-event-preparedness/https://mazarsusa.com/consulting/ppp-services/ https://mazarsusa.com/services/business-financial-sustainability-program/https://mazarsusa.com/paycheck-protection-program-analysis-tool/  Contact Our Featured Speakers:Alisha Jernack - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisha-jernack-69882350/ John Confrey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnconfrey/Ryan Vaughan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanjvaughan/ FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Welcome back for episode 73 of Count Me In, IMA’s  podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I am your host, Adam Larson, and I'm happy to share this very timely conversation held by my cohost Mitch and a small panel from Mazars Business Advisory. He spoke with Alisha Jernack, Ryan Vaughan, and John Confrey about what Mazers has done to help clients with the PPP loan, a proprietary tool to help analyze its client's applications and calculations and the overall business, as it relates to the CARES Act. Our guests also discuss what the recent crisis has done to financial and operational opportunities for sustainability as we enter the new normal and next phase of business. For a highly informative and firsthand experience on this valuable topic. Keep listening as we head over to the conversation now. Mitch: (00:58)So obviously there's been a lot of interest in various discussions around the PPP loan. I know you have done the significant amount of work with this for your clients and tailoring different solutions. So I'm wondering if you can just tell us a little bit about your stance and what you've done for your clients when receiving questions about the loan. John: (01:17)So I would say with the loan and that that's, you know, a lot of moving parts have come about the PPP, you know, at first got introduced rather quickly. I think the bill was, was put out out of necessity, with some speed behind it and with that has come, some fluidity that's been needed as the bill evolves and the guidance evolves, you know, the bill is compounded interim final rules, there's treasury FAQs. So a lot of different things, I think what we've been able to do and it had to do with our clients and be flexible and be nimble, and also having our clients, you know, adapt to the changing environment, which has been an interesting approach for us. Alisha: (01:56)Yeah. We saw from the onset, right with the signing of the CARES Act that there was a, a big rush, upfront to get everybody to apply. I know, I think the bill was signed  late on a Friday, and we had all come through it and we were working literally throughout the weekend to make sure that we were able to understand, you know, what benefits there were within the CARES Act for our clients and then come that Monday, we were ready to roll. And I think, you know, each one of us, we were scheduling, 30 minute calls, you know, over, over two days to make sure that we were having conversations and letting our clients know what the benefits were, and how it applied to them and then, you know, we got hit with a big rush. We were able to develop a tool internally, that we were able to use and help our clients to quickly apply and it ended up being a good thing because soon after the funds quickly ran out, and then some time passed before they, then came out with second round of funding. So it was interesting and it continues to be ever changing, and we're learning every day and adjusting every day. Mitch: (03:09)So you just mentioned a model that you put into place. Can you tell us a little bit about what went into that and really, you know, what made you decide to take on this kind of initiative and pursue this kind of solution? Alisha: (03:21)Sure. So yeah, at Mazars we work with a lot of privately owned businesses. What would be, you know, deemed small businesses as defined by the SBA and, you know, depending on the size of those clients, they don't necessarily have the teams in place to be able to execute quickly, and with this, we knew that time was of the essence. We also knew from going through the CARES Act that there were certain stipulations in there, and credits and benefits that you couldn't take, you know, it was one or the other, you couldn't take both. So we knew that we had to be...