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WBCSD resources:WBCSD COSO Applying Enterprise Risk Management to Environmental, Social and Governance-related Risks Guidance on improving the quality of ESG infoEnhancing the credibility of non-financial information: the investor perspectiveHow to respond to assurance needs on non-financial informationIMA resources:https://www.imanet.org/insights-and-trends/external-reporting-and-disclosure-management/coso-framework-and-sustainabilityhttps://www.cpajournal.com/2019/07/29/the-coso-internal-control-framework-and-sustainability-reporting/https://www.imanet.org/insights-and-trends/external-reporting-and-disclosure-management/sustainability-cfo-the-cfo-of-the-futurehttps://blogs.thomsonreuters.com/sustainability/2018/08/09/executive-perspective-the-reasonable-millennial-investor/Contact our guests:Shari Littan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shari-littan-58bb40114/Mario Abela - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mario-abela-75a95957/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:00)Hello again and welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. We have a unique episode for you today as both Mitch and I facilitated a conversation with two guests to provide multiple perspectives on the topic of sustainability. We spoke with Shari Litton, IMA's manager of corporate reporting and technical activities and Mario Abela, a director for redefining value at the world business council for sustainable development. Let's head over to the in depth conversation held about topics relating to sustainability such as ESG and integrated reporting.  Mitch: (00:36)There have been many articles and publications for guidance on sustainability. So to start things off, what is sustainability and why are organizations so concerned about it?  Mario: (00:53)Thanks. There are many definitions of sustainability from the very narrow, it's just about the environment through to the inter-generational legacy that we leave for future generations to be able to kind of enjoy the same, lifestyles and the same resources that we've been at today. So the term doesn't really have any fixed meaning and it continues to evolve at the WBCSD when we talk about sustainability, we really looking at the sustainability of the business model. Can the business continue to operate as it's currently doing? Can it sustain those operations into the future?  Shari: (01:47)No, I just want to recall that for me, when I first became fascinated by what we'll call accounting for sustainability or sustainability or integrated reporting. I always recall my reaction to the first photos that the astronauts sent back. One of the famous photos is called Earthrise and you can actually see the earth rising from the surface of the moon. And many people say that the modern environmental movement started with that photo because all of humanity reflected back on what a small planet that we have. And to me, coming with an accounting background, I think of one of the primary goals of why we have accounting to begin with, which is we have limited resources. And that picture coming back is a stark reminder that limb resources here on earth are limited. So we have to be a little bit broader or maybe evolve what account for how we're using those resources. How are we all allocating our precious resources, what are we doing with them? So for me, that one photo ties back to accounting. And when I am thinking about sustainability and business, for me personally, that's where I come.  Adam: (03:23)So then what kind of relevant data is available for sustainability and how are businesses reporting this information? In other words, what is the current challenge?  Mario: (03:33)The problem is that the, the relevant data is a really good so there's been a number of surveys done by the CFA Institute and other investor bodies that have demonstrated that there is actually no shortage of data and to some extent information, but that information is not particularly relevant to the sorts of decisions that investors and other stakeholders need to make. So if a board would ask management about the reliability, a lot of sustainability metrics reported today a lot of CEOs would struggle to really put their hand on their heart and commit to the credibility of the data. And in fact, PWC in its CEO survey looked at what are the sort of key decisions that CEOs, Nate, about their company, what sort of information are they getting and to what extent do I have confidence in that information? And for a number of data points where these things are absolutely critical to the business and its value creation, in fact, they either don't get very data or the data that I get I have very little confidence in and we have to remember that a lot of this data is not subject internal assurance. So often it's not, there are reviews done by internal audit and it's also not subject to external verification either. And, and the other point is that companies now report as you know in many different through many different channels. So the 10K is just one form of reporting that companies report, you know, every minute through social media.and then there are news outlets and others who are also providing information about companies. And we did some work last year where we went around the world and, and spoke to investors about ESG information. And one of the things that I told us was that at the moment, because there's the lack of standards or at least a single standard because there are, many frameworks, many standards of sorts of we've identified at the WBCSD. In fact, we have countered at least 200 frameworks with over 5,000 indicators. The problem for investors is comparability. They've, they've got no idea how to compare one number against another number because the basis upon which those numbers are calculated are often very different. And so what happens in practice is that companies use a mix of measures from existing frameworks and then often adapt them to their own requirements. So we have the entities spe...

Contact Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithlewiscma/Keith's website: https://www.keithericlewis.comFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Adam: (00:05)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 this is episode 35 of our series. In a moment you will hear Keith Lewis, management accountant and an international speaker share his big picture thoughts on how individuals can utilize best practices and develop the skills needed to set them apart when looking to build their own brand in today's competitive accounting market. Keep listening now for more details in his full conversation with me.  Mitch: (00:39)What steps does one need to take in order to really quantify their skills on a resume?  Keith: (00:45)Well, Mitch that's a great question and one of the things that you need to focus on is three key things that you want to focus on is how many, how often, and how much, how many people have you interacted with? Did they span across different business units on a horizontal level? Did you go up to the higher ups, the C level executives on a vertical basis, and how many individuals were you able to touch in terms of your reach within your position? The second key thing that you want to focus on is how it walked in. Was this a daily task or the weekly, monthly Semi-annually, or annually and then finally how much, how much were you able to save the company or make the company by the process that you were taken in order to get results driven action? How I take it back to an experience that I had and a couple of the positions that I've worked in, I created standard operating procedures, which is also known as SOPs. These things were put in place for our new hires and assisted with the in the onboarding process. This save time during the time that they were being on onboarding and it helped the employees to be come more productive sooner than normal.  Mitch: (02:08)So what strategy goes into how you want to be perceived by the employers once you're able to quantify this on your resume?  Keith: (02:17)Another great question. The dots for your brand will be connected via the combination of your resume and your social media platforms. Somebody has checked your platform, your LinkedIn, your GlassDoor to see the connections that you have and how is it aligned to the resume that you're presenting. You need to stop viewing yourself as a company of one. You're here to provide a service for a company either via W2, 1099, or direct B2B if you're a business owner. Finally, you are a sales consultant and the best product that you have and everybody wants is you. You just need to know how to actually quantify your skills, know what your value proposition and presented to the individuals.  Mitch: (03:04)That's a great point. And now once you're able to quantify your skills and you kind of have this perception that you're looking to display, what is the best way for you to utilize something like LinkedIn when it comes to building your brand and further establishing who you are?  Keith: (03:26)I like to use LinkedIn as my canvas. I remember at one point in order to reach out to the decision makers within a company, you have to cold call the company, act as if you weren't who you were in order to get a contact. Just to be able to reach out to him. Put your best foot forward. Now you have tools like LinkedIn where you're able to wait the decision makers within the company that you may want to go to or get interesting information from companies that you've seen information about. I think that this is very important that you have a consistent message on your LinkedIn that is really cohesive to what you are representing on your resume. You want to create posts that helpful that to provide insights to individuals and give them actionable items that can better their situation no matter what position they're in currently. Mitch: (04:23)How can we further differentiate ourselves from all of the other applications though? What's another tip that I could do to separate myself from others during the interview process?  Keith: (04:36)Well, this is a great thing and I'm a true believer that one of the best ways to separate yourself, there's a thank you card. I've been able to position myself in a lot of great opportunities based off the fact that I did a thank you card. It seems to be very rare, but the one thing that people don't take into consideration is that when you're asking the questions at the end that every interviewer asked you if you have, you have two purposes. One is to further build that common ground, which with whoever you're interviewing during that time and two, you want to provide the basis for your thank you cards. So when I crossed my handwritten thank you cards, I specifically make an effort not to discuss the position at all. All I want to do is thank them for the opportunity that they'd provided and taking the time out to actually meet with me. I focus on common ground building items during the interview instead. An example of that is one of the thank you caused that I've crafted during one of the interviews at a company I interview for, I found out that they had young children through my questioning and I mentioned to them that there was a guy that was based out of Philadelphia named grandpa bubbles that hosts different free events in the parks in the surrounding area. Now totally it was something that she may be interested in and even provided the website for. She really appreciated that because it wasn't about, the interview wasn't about the position. It was really about just building that genuine connection and that's what you're able to do through a thank you card.  Mitch: (06:13)Just as a quick follow-up to that question, what is the benefit of a handwritten thank you card as opposed to, you know, the more traditional email today?  Keith: (06:25)Well, I think that a handwritten thank you card, it shows the efforts. It's very easy to go online and just write some type of email that you send out to somebody. It seems very generic and is not very personable. I feel that the handwritten, especially if you're doing a handwritten thank you card, it shows the time and the effort and the genuine interest of this person to actually want to reach out to you and thanks. Good.  Mitch: (06:53)I think that's a great piece of advice and you've been able to share some of your personal experiences. So I'm just kind of curious, what do you think has been the number one marketing tool that you've been able to use when approaching other companies?  Keith: (07:08)I think that's also another excellent question. I think that there's a number of things that I've used and been able to do that helped me and my upward mobility within the different companies that I worked for. I would say obtaining the CMA certification has probably been the number one marketing tool that I've had up til this point in my career. Expertise and understanding that I have been able to gain from the breath is knowledge that's contain...

Brian Kush: https://www.intend2lead.com/brian-kush/ Top 10 Books for Accountants: https://www.intend2lead.com/top-ten-books/ Intend2Lead: www.intend2lead.com FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:00)This is episode 34 of Count me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson, and I'd like to welcome you back for another great perspective on the skills needed to succeed in today's accounting industry. For this episode, Mitch spoke to Brian Kush and executive leadership coach and the co-founder of intend to lead. Brian explains the importance of strong leadership and personal development when trying to create a sustainable accounting career. Let's go to the conversation to hear more.  Mitch: (00:36)One of the central competencies for our accounting and finance audience revolves around leadership. What natural leadership and coaching skills do accountants commonly possess? And tell us a little bit about what you do to support that skill set.  Brian: (00:58)Right, Mitch? So I always think of maybe an overused term in our industry, in the accounting industry is the idea of adding value. however, I feel like accountants are really good at that. I feel like they bring a value added mindset to everything that they do. And so some of the natural leadership qualities that they possess or that I find in a lot of accountants are, they're very good and open about sharing with each other and learning from each other, different in newer ways on how did you do things, you know, it might even just be, Hey here, allergy and, you know, here's what our firm or here's what our organization does. And, and, and being very good about sharing it with others, you know, and trying to learn from each other, whether it's you're in public accounting or if you're an internal audit shop, it's like how can we learn from other entities that are out there and really having that learning mindset in a way where they're sharing well with each other there. They're building upon each other. In some cases. It's brainstorming. I've done a lot of facilitated facilitated work or I've been here, well work with accounts even at different companies or firms. And it's just amazing and it's inspiring to me how well they are, are good. They are an open that they are about sharing new ideas and ways to improve and just really supporting each other in that way. So it's cool for me to be able to see that. I think that's something that accountants naturally do. I think accountants are also very good goal setters. You know, we have to be, and a lot of the, the work that we do, we have to set milestones. So how many of the projects that we're tasked with doing are not easy. They are complex and you have to set multiple milestones. So accounts are good at that when they're somewhat forced to do that and intend to lead. We're, you know, we're a leadership development company and we do a lot of coaching with, with accountants and one of the things we like to do is we like to really work off of that off of the idea of the learning mindset. How can you uncover, you know, what's really important you, how can you learn from each other? And coaching is really about helping someone to learn more about themselves and to move their acts just forward in their life. And so we like to tap into their learning mindset. And figuring out ways that they can progress in it, they can improve. And we like to also tap into that goal setting mindset where it's like, Hey, where do you want to go in your life? What's important to you? And how do we create a road map on how to get there? And that's what coaching is about. It's about, you know, where do you want to go? What are you now, what's the gap, you know? And as a coach, I'm going to help you to create a roadmap and an intentional way for you to move your learning and your actions for us that we can get to where you want to go. And by doing that, you can grow your skills as a leader and grow your influence of others.  Mitch: (03:50)Now that's the perfect segue to my next question because I'm curious, you know, kind of being a former accountant now, working with many accountants, what are some of the common goals that you've come across from these accounting leaders? What are they typically attempting to reach and what kind of roadmaps are you putting together for them?  Brian: (04:09)Yeah, Mitch. I think one of the most common goals that they have, it's really a, there's a big emotional part of this, but there's so many accountants out there where they, they want to, they want to feel bold enough to be able to create the life that they want in the future that they want and they want to feel like they have enough power to carve their job around what they want instead of, and let me compare that to sometimes how they feel. And it's usually fear based. It's usually all about struggle. A lot of times they feel like, wow, I've got this job and I've got to carve the rest of my life around my job because everything in my job comes first. And this is the way I've seen my peers do it. Or this is the way I've seen the people that have come before me do it. You know, job comes first. What I need to do comes first and the rest of my life is around that and what I love is we've worked with a lot of people with a lot of big hearts and they want to be bold and they want to create that future as they want it. Not always as how they've seen it. And so what they do is they want to have the boldness to say, Hey, can I visualize the future that I want? If I want to make partner in accounting farmer or if I want to be the CFO, can I become a CFO at this organization in a way where I can create the life I want? And the job of CFO or the job of partner fits into that. And, and so it can be the life I want sort of a life of someone else's or another type of model that's been created for me by somebody else. And that's really challenging for them and that's really, I think at the heart of what their bigger goals are, which is that life that they want and making everything and helping everything to fit into what is it they want. And.  Mitch: (06:04)What are some of the challenges that you typically encounter when trying to lead these accounting professionals through this plan that you develop or, you know, down this road? You know, the, the, the challenge is first kind of separating that emotional piece as you said, but once you're kind of on track, what typically happens?  Brian: (06:24)Yeah, it's unfortunate, but we've worked with a lot of accountants where they feel overwhelmed a big part of the time. And so they might ask, how do I take care of myself so that I don't burn out even when I'm really busy? You know, and you know, how can I work with my stress? How can I be proactive with my stress? You know, and this is to me in a lot of ways is a foundational challenge because whatever other challenges I made share with you are very common in our industry. This one is going to affect it, you know, so how do I manage my stress? How do I manage my anxiety and all that? And if I can do that well it's going to help me with so many of my other goals and so much of my vision and where I want to go. You know? And, and we always say, Hey, you know what, in order to do that, you have to be able to have a plan. You have to be intentional ...

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Welcome back to episode 33 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson. And today we are going to hear from Jordan Savage, a successful CFO who quickly climbed the traditional corporate ladder to get where he is today. And his conversation with Mitch, he explains the risks he took and the opportunities he recognized to overcome some challenges and obtain the skills needed to progress in our accounting industry. Let's keep listening to hear Jordan talk about today CFO.  Mitch: (00:41)So it kind of looks like you followed a pretty linear career path as far as the different roles and responsibilities you've had. Can you talk to us a little bit about the different roles and kind of how each time things have changed as far as your responsibilities and the value that you offered to the position?  Jordan: (00:58)Sure. So when I first started my career, I started kind of with an entry level position as a project accountant. And what I learned early on is you know, you just have to do the best you can in the role that you're in. And once you prove yourself and you do a good job, you have good internal and external opportunities for growth. And in my case I've had a lot of good internal growth and so I went from a project accountant to a senior financial analyst with one company. And what you find as far as responsibilities, how they change is you really have to you understand the lower levels and so as you grow your personal responsibilities will increase every time you move up the ladder. And so you become responsible not only for your work but the work of the entire team and that's the biggest change as you work your way up up the ladder.  Mitch: (01:57)How about just the industry as a whole? I mean, I know you talked about how your roles change, but what have you seen as far as accounting and what do you feel has really affected those changes the most?  Jordan: (02:09)I think the biggest change within the accounting industry is long gone are the days where an accountant comes in, books a transaction and just keeps up with the daily record keeping. now the role of the accountant is much more value driven. You know, there, there's not a lot of value with day to day record keeping because most of our ERP systems are starting to catch up and allow us to book transactions that are routine or simple, you know, automatically. And so the role of the accountant has changed significantly. I think you have to possess more skills that relate to technology, you know, how to interpret and work with data. I think the IMA has done a fantastic job of kind of highlighting these changes with their you got to earn it campaign. I think we've all seen the commercials where, you know, there's the robot that's walking through the office and I think that's starting to occur. It hasn't hit every industry yet, but that, that change will certainly come. And so the value that we have to provide as accountants is just different in today's day and age.  Mitch: (03:17)In what position did you personally realize these changes? When did you see the technology and the automation really start to take some of your responsibilities away?  Jordan: (03:28)I think when I was a senior financial analyst, you know, when, when we first started, our systems weren't very robust. And so we had to do a lot of data manipulation before we could get to what we really wanted to study or, or look at. And over time as our systems became more robust and, and as they were able to handle more routine transactions and so forth, we were able to get better data out. And so we were able to spend more of our time doing the analysis and so forth. And so I think, you know, any of those entry level or you know, kind of second level above entry level positions will start to feel that transition the most.  Mitch: (04:12)Kind of going along this ladder that we're climbing here, you start to realize these different transitions in the role. I'm assuming that you've probably come across some new challenges also. Right? So can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges you have faced in some of these higher positions?  Jordan: (04:28)Sure. Well, and I think I'd first say, you know, in my opinion, the technical accounting skills, you know, those come with time and experience. And so from a challenge perspective you know, I kind of list it into three different areas. For me personally you know, with my role as a CFO now the first would be sourcing capital for our organization. The second would be managing the operations. And then the third is people management. And so in the, in the real estate and construction industry, good access to capital is absolutely necessary to achieve growth. We work a lot with our banking relationships to increase the amount of capital that they're willing to deploy with our group. And it's a constant challenge for us because we've got a tremendous amount of good projects but limited and constrained resources. So for us, that's a huge challenge. How do we increase the amount of capital that our banking partners are willing to spend with us? second, you know, for us it's, you know, our operations, which is, you know, processes, procedures, allowing us to scale. We've got three main operations at the challenger group. We do single family homes kind of traditional home building. And then we do commercial development, which would be mostly apartment complexes. And then we've just started modular manufacturing facility and of these companies, most of them are less than two years old. We've, we've got a lot of startups that we're doing. And what's interesting about, you know, our environment and our challenges you know, some people work on one startup and it's hectic and crazy. And in our case we're working at about or working on about seven of them all at the same time in various stages. So finding ways to streamline the processes and procedures and to make sure that the lessons we learn in one company are applied to our other startups I mean is very important for us. And it really does present a lot of unique challenges as we try to grow. And then the third, as you grow in your career you know, people management becomes incredibly vital. We talked a lot about servant leadership at the IMA and, and that's important. And I think in most cases the most important asset that a company has is not their intellectual property or the way they do certain things or the product itself. It's absolutely the people that they employ. So one of the missions of the challenge of group is making life better. And that goes for our customers, trade partners and employees. And I love that if we're actually servant leaders, we can have a positive impact, not only on our businesses that we operate, but also the lives of the people that would come in contact with. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges we face is how do we manage people, you know, customers, trade partners coworkers, you know, the list goes on and on. And I found that that people management to be the most rewarding and difficult endeavors that I face. there's a great book called the outward mindset that I'd recommend the listeners to read. one of the things I took from that book was that people aren't just simply objects to help us achieve what we're trying to achieve. Each individual has needs, ob...

Contact Robert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwleonard/The Investors Network Podcast: www.theinvestorspodcast.com IMA Life-Robert Leonard: https://sfmagazine.com/post-entry/july-2019-ima-life-adding-impact/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Mitch: (00:00)This is Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I am Mitch Roshong and I'd like to welcome you back for episode 32 with corporate finance manager Robert Leonard. In this episode, Robert talks to us about climbing the ladder in today's industry and why accounting skills are so valuable. So now let's head over to his conversation with Adam  Adam: (00:26)So Robert, what advice do you have for students or recent graduates hoping to break into accounting and finance fields?  Robert: (00:40)I think one of the biggest things is don't be afraid to take a position that isn't perfect or doesn't pay the most. I think you need to think longterm and you know, ideally look for opportunities where you'll have a mentor.  Adam: (00:58)So how do they find that mentor?  Robert: (01:01)I think it's through the interview process. Usually when you go to interview, you'll have three or four different people that you'll be meeting with in general and see if any of those people seem like they might be be great mentors for you. And I recently made a job change actually, but within the last six months or so and I was in a position where I was very, very happy. I didn't want to leave the organization that I was at, but the new company, the the gentleman that was going to be hiring me had those characteristics that I was looking for in a mentor. Yeah, I thought he was going to be a great mentor and that was one of the big things that really swayed me there and, and I think you should interview even if you're not a hundred percent certain on the position, you can learn a lot in the interview and that can really help you determine if there's opportunities that might not be present in the job description. I've interviewed for positions before in the past that weren't necessarily right up my alley, but it ended up being a great opportunity for me that I really enjoyed. And I think other ways you can break into the accounting and finance field, they're learning outside the classroom. I think that's so big these days. Well, a lot of people are still going to college and there is great value in college. I think learning outside the classroom is critical and specifically skills outside of like a normal college. So Excel or just how to professionally write emails and professional communications that can be taught in school. When I, back when I was in college, probably the best course I took throughout my entire college career was my professional communications course and that's helped me in various ways that I never would've expected in my career. And I think it's those skills that are more tailored for outside the classroom that can really help [inaudible] break into an accounting and finance field. And just one more thing that I think you can do these days is published content on LinkedIn and it should be tailored to the type of job that you want to get. So if you want to get in accounting and finance, post content about accounting and finance on LinkedIn and that should be able to help you get in front of either recruiters or just prove your knowledge too, potential employers. So you've got a mentor, you've got those first few jobs, you've gone on interviews and then you know, you start your first job. You know, what does it take to kind of climb that corporate ladder in today's accounting industry? I think what's so interesting about climbing the corporate ladder today is that it doesn't just take time anymore. You know, decades ago you could just kind of do the same thing and day in and day out and eventually you would follow the path and you gradually climb the corporate ladder. And I don't really think that's the case anymore. I think what you need to do to climb the corporate ladder is you need to work really hard and do things above and beyond so that you're the first person that a company thinks of when they have an opening. I think there's a lot of turnover these days in companies and so it's almost eminent that there's going to be an opening and when that opening does happen, you want to be the first person that your boss or their boss thinks of when that opening come so that they choose you to go into that new position. And I think that just comes from going above and beyond taking on additional projects that maybe no fit your job description perfectly, but you know the company needs pure hard work. Just be the first one in the office and the last one to leave and if you don't know how to do something, find a way to do it. If you take on additional projects area, there's additional projects that you want to take on and you might not know how to do it. You can, there's so many free resources out there these days to learn what you may need to know to get that project completed. So I just say find a way to do it. And I think the other, I live my career, bye. Three things and it's really helped me advance my career. And that's humility, a dedication to lifelong learning and hard work. Humility allows you to realize that you don't know everything and that you still have a lot to learn. But by being dedicated to learning, you can learn the things that you don't know and then apply it through hard work. And I think, I honestly think what those three things, anything is possible. And I'm still relatively early on in my career myself, but I've scaled my career pretty quickly by those three things. And I think those are really the three critical things that you need to climb the corporate ladder in today's accounting industry. And another aspect of it that I think is relatively uncommon to be talked about, especially when we're talking about work, we're talking about climbing the corporate ladder, right? So what does, what does personal finance have to do climbing the corporate ladder in an accounting industry? Well, I think it has a big role and I think what we'll see play out over the next few years and I think it'll be an increasingly important role. And the reason I say that is because if you can get your personal finances in order, you're able to take risks with your career that will play out over the long term, better for you but might not be as helpful in the short term. Right? So if you are in a financial position with your personal finances where you're a little bit tight on money and okay, you might need to take a the next job that you want to take and you might have to go to the job that has the highest salary even though it might be short term, highest salary and not a lot of opportunities for growth. Sure you could switch companies and you know, kind of do the job hopping thing. But in general that's not a great strategy. Whereas if you have your personal finances in order and you're coming from a really strong background of, of your finances, you can take us a little bit of a short term hit maybe that that next job isn't as big of an increase in pay as you want, but you're getting a great mentor, you have huge opportunities for growth. And over the next three to five years you could double your salary or you know even more, you know, I think, but if you don't come from a position of financial strength where you have that abi...

Contact Monisha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monishadequadros/Sparkbox Group: www.sparkboxgrp.com FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Hey everyone. Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Adam Larson and this is episode 31 of count me in for today's episode. We're going to hear Mitchell's conversation with Monisha de Quadros, a former CFO in both the public and nonprofit sector and now founder of her own outsource CFO firm. Let's listen to Mona. Just take on the role of today's CFO. Mitch: (00:44)What are the main differences in the finance function between public organizations and the nonprofit sector?  Monisha: (00:44)So yeah, that's a really good question. there are very few nonprofits today that have a proper finance function. Many times what happens in a nonprofit organization is that the accounting team subsidizes and doubles up as a finance team. And unfortunately the skills required for an optimal finance function is actually quite different than the skills needed for accounting. So nonprofits can certainly train their teams for financial modeling skills, critical thinking and analysis. But it's challenging because the two functions actually a wired differently. And then the hiring process is also a bit of a catch 22 because it's difficult to recruit finance talent in the nonprofit sector and yet it is critical to the success of these organizations. So having the right financial support and the nonprofits helps drive profitability, grow revenue, stretch and maximize each dollar expense, deliver valuable insights, and then also create long term sustainable strategies.  Mitch: (01:40)Now with a perspective, from, you know, both sides of that conversation, what is the greatest challenge you faced as a CFO with today's changing finance function? Particularly with, technology and digital age?  Monisha: (01:55)Yeah. You know I think it's two fold. Like one of the biggest challenges the CFO faces today is transforming the finance function from a cost center to a value creation center. The second challenge subsequently is the evolution of the CFO role itself. So both the finance team and the CFO are gatekeepers of critical data required to support decisions and strategic plans as they chart their journey through the digital age, the success of one becomes more intrinsic in the success of the other. So let's talk about the value creation center first. So it's safe to say our environment is changing at a rapid rate and this is probably the slowest pace we will see in our lifetime. So the speed at which change is happening, it's forcing businesses to evolve and transform at quicker intervals in order to stay relevant and competitive. So factors such as disruption, innovation, technology, consumer behavior, and globalization are all contributing to this space of change. Without the right data and financial insights, businesses will have a tough time making intelligent business decisions compete in this environment. and as a result it becomes increasingly critical for the finance function to step up and equip the business with the right financial insights for better decisions. So we need to evolve into value centers. And what I mean by value centers as I'm preparing to choose thoughtful analysis, predictive analytics strategies, and most importantly actionable insights with respect to the CFO. What's really interesting is that the rule is actually sitting at the center of the digital transformation. So we're seeing a greater need for real time data enabled decision support to meet that need. The CFO is moving away from the traditional activities like transactions. And reports to a more strategic role. So they're driving business decisions and preparing the business for the future. CFOs are being asked to be leaders within this evolution, taking on advisory roles to the CEO leadership team and the board. And the speed at which digital transformation is happening is also producing a greater appetite for business risk. And in turn, the CFO will need to be more resilient and proactive in their strategies to innovate. We're also seeing trends where the CFO is taking on additional responsibilities like taking over the operations functions and the it and technology functions. And some would argue that the role is expanding and becoming increasingly more challenging. And I would, I would actually agree, but I would also say it's becoming more interesting. So the CFO has a wide perspective with visibility across all business functions. They can act as the bridge connecting and driving the business in a cohesive manner. And then they have this ability now at this point and the structure to influence leadership, to be change agents and impact long term growth within the business. And lastly, they're in this unique position to actually define their own path. In this digital age.  Mitch: (04:48)Now let's go back to step one for just a second. What are some ways the finance function can actually transition from this cost center to this new value center that you mentioned?  Monisha: (04:58)Yeah, so I think we're the hardest, but probably most needed task is to develop an agile analytical mindset within the department. So agile is the ability to learn fast, adapt quickly, and iterate. Often one of the ways CFOs can adopt an agile mindset within their teams is to foster more creativity and curiosity. It's about creating an environment where it's okay to innovate, embrace risk, and sometimes even fail on the process. So just remember to have a feedback loop in place for lessons learned when you actually implement this process. Cause that's very, that's a critical step. Some of the practical approaches implemented today have been to create special projects with small teams or rotate job functions within the department. And of course offer continuous learning. Agile requires a different set of skills and talents that I think the CFO is going to have to either train or hire for. And these skills include digital competency, predictive analytics, agility, and even the human skills such as empathy and decision making capabilities. Another equally important step in creating this value center is to to emphasize collaboration across functional departments. You know, interestingly enough, recent studies have shown that there's a direct correlation between effective collaboration and the rate of revenue growth. So in order for businesses to make better decisions, there needs to be greater collaboration and the continuous flow of information back and forth between the functions. One can foster collaboration by developing a platform, a mutual trust. And by this I mean a space where both parties feel safe to share and constructively challenge each other with the common goal to increase customer value. Lastly, spend the time and resources to optimize current systems and improve integrations like the long term savings and efficiency and agility the business will see from doing these initiatives are well worth the effort and costs upfront. And I cannot stress that enough. Like the goal was optimization is to transfer data seamlessly between systems like the ERP system and the CRM and the finance system and enables finance function to pull clean and accurate information on a timely basis. In today's environment, finance team spent an inordinate amou...

Contact Fatima: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatima-mamod-ca-sa-cia-60837876/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Hey everyone. Welcome back for episode 30 of Count Me In. I'm your host, Adam Larson and our featured expert guests for today's conversation is Fatima Mamod. Fatima is a chartered accountant, entrepreneur and a business coach from Johannesburg, South Africa who joined Mitch for a conversation on what she calls the business savvy accountant. Let's tune in now to learn more.  Mitch: (00:31)In your opinion, what skills are most necessary for an accountant to be successful in today's business environment?  Fatima: (00:38)Okay, so I think the most important thing, I mean we are accountants by profession is definitely the technical skills. I think that goes without saying. But on top of that is to have a very important elements I think. And the second one is business acumen. And when I say business acumen, you know, I really mean where you can tie in your technical skills with helping the business achieve what that moods to. So it's not just knowing or understanding how the business works, what's the dentist process? It's actually tying in your technical skills with what the business needs. And I'll use the data's process as an example. So we all know you need to do a data's check in the beginning. You need to ensure that they have a credit limit. You've done the credit fitting, etc. Now as the accountant, you know that what I've realized is simple things like this, sometimes within the company, people don't understand the importance of it until you're way down the line and you're not getting the money from your datas. So what I find is communicate, talk and let your sales people know why it's so important and how this impact and fix them. And that's a difference between understanding the business and business acumen which is really important. and then the third thing that too, we are never taught as accountants I would say, is communication skills. We understand numbers. We never thought how to present those numbers through a story that business leaders can actually understand. I mean, how many meetings have we been in where the accountant is just asked to then present the numbers as he or she is going through it. No one's actively engaging. They either busy with something else because we don't present our numbers in a way that tells a story of the business. And I find it really useful and what has helped me a lot and I get very great feedback, is when I present with telling a story and I do that by talking to my colleagues beforehand saying, hey, I see our sales that actually up this month. That's great. What was the reason behind the, it's how did it go? Was it customer A and tying that in. So when you're presenting the people you've spoken to actually feel like they part of your presentation, they feel like you're presenting a part of this story. And that's really key.  Mitch: (03:01)Now, how do these different skills change or adapt when you're looking to be an entrepreneur?  Fatima: (03:08)So what are the three realized and running three, four businesses of my own and then successfully selling them off my technical skills. As much as I thought they would either be center around my entrepreneurship journey, they were not. And I think that's a big common mistake that we make as accountants. We feel that because you know, I'm a charted accountant, I know what I need to do with the technical skills at the center know I find that your business acumen, your business knowledge is the most important thing when you start your entrepreneurship journey. They, you know who you do business with, the client you get into, they don't really care whether you're a charted accountant video to qualify the content by proficient, they have a problem and they need to understand that you as a person have the skillset to solve that problem for them. And they may not even realize that it's an accounting problem. So you need to be able to, again, the business actually meant to show them that the skillset that you have actually matches, and this goes with any business where they use starting their retail businesses as well. Customers and consumers will come in with a certain need and you have to be able to identify and resolve it for them. The second thing that I find is really important is on the leadership side, we learn accounting, learn everything on that but none of us had really thought leadership skills. So in that post communication, networking, networking is, you know, a baby that everyone uses. Attend networking sessions. Why don't you meet with this one? But how do you it yet? What do you go and what do you want to get out of attending things? Because time is key on skins, 50% of your time attending different events and you don't get any leads from me. So it's your leadership, your communication. When you attend these sessions, who are you targeting? Who are you going to meet? How are you going to start the conversation with them? Need to think all these things through before you go in. And the last bit is you need to identify within your mentors who's the right people to help you unlock the path that you need forward. Because an entrepreneurship journey can get very lonely and you cannot really resolve everything on your own. So you need to understand that it's certain points you will need help. And who are the people you can turn to for help. I remember when I started my practice the first three months I had not one client, not one lead. And that was really because I sat and I said, you know, I'm qualified to offer service. This is what I'm worth and I'm not willing to talk, negotiate or even understand what's happening in the market. And three months with not a client and then realize, you know what, entrepreneurship doesn't work like this.  Mitch: (06:03)So you've used the word business acumen a few times now, but in preparing for our call, I know you referenced business savvy quite a few times, so I'm curious, what does an accountant who is business savvy actually look like?  Fatima: (06:17)So I could find an accountant who is business savvy, what do they look like? That's the person who has a seat at every table with business decisions that are being made with strategies in discuss. Your opinions are actually in us and you have people who make these decisions within the organization come through and saying, Hey, this is what we're thinking. we heard your presentation or you really helped us on this exercise. What are your thoughts around this? How do you think we should approach this new contract that we are looking at signing with this customer? Do you want to join him in the meeting? And then when you join in, in the meeting, it's having a voice on the table that's actually hurt. And that's when you realize that your business acumen has translated to becoming business savvy. People now know what you bring to the table and people can see you as beyond just being the accountant in the business.  Mitch: (07:16)Many of our listeners are more corporate accountants. So I'm curious, how does a business savvy accountant function in the corporate world as opposed to the entrepreneurial environment?  Fatima: (07:29)So the key difference in the key item that's different in the two, and I've had seats on both sides. ...

Connect with Laura:https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-landmark/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbedHQf3GYH46-QoqMODU3ghttps://www.mantleanalytics.com/blogSoftware:https://www.bizviewsystems.com/bizview365https://onestopreporting.com/https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Hey everyone. 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 today we're going to hear episode 29 of our series. Our featured expert guests for today is Laura Landmark, who spoke to Mitch from Norway about business performance management for a concept that everyone may not be too familiar with. Laura does a great job making important connections for accountants. So let's go ahead and listen to what she has to say.  Mitch: (00:37)What is business performance management? Why is it important and why is it so hard?  Laura: (00:44)That's a great question. Business performance management is actually a set of processes really that enables the, you know, the managers to to keep track on whether they're actually heading towards achieving their goals or not. I think that many people these days call it financial planning and analytics and you know, so there are, there are different words for it, but the reason why it's important is that without keeping focused on how the company's performing, there's a very good chance that you're not going to end up where you want to be. And especially with these days, things moving at the rate of knots, you know, moving so quickly, it's important to be fully on the ball and keep a track month by month, week by week, day by day, whichever is the relevant time-span on, on how you're performing against the goals and the targets for the company. And the reason why this is so hard is basically because there are so many moving parts, so it's not easy to, you know, to basically capture the actuals that are in the economy system and match them up potentially with the time registration that's going on in the time system. And then the project transactions that are in the project system and the whole ecosystem of, of different applications that exist in an organization make it very difficult to actually do unless you've got good systems in place of course. Mitch: (02:15)Now our main audience is the management accountants and you referenced financial planning and analysis. So from FP&A or business performance management, what is your view on the budgeting and the forecast that accountants are typically responsible for?  Laura: (02:32)Yeah, that's, well that's another good question. I can resonate with your audience cause I'm also a chartered management accountant. So I took my exams in London, well many years ago, I think about 20 years ago now. And I have spent an entire career trying to look at the future of companies, the different companies that I worked with or worked for because that's what we're trying to do. You know, as management accountants, we're to take data and to utilize it for reporting, forecasting and prediction. Budgeting and forecasting are extremely important. I would say forecasting more so than budgeting because it says it's live information. Really, when I talk about forecasting, I'm talking about rolling forecasts. So every month that goes by is another month of history and an extended month on the end of the forecast, whether it be a 12 month rolling forecast or an 18 month rolling forecast. You know, in reality, we've used these for all of our customers for quite some years now that we've been working in this way. And I've had many stories of customers that have been able to use the rolling forecast for effectively managing their businesses and also avoiding potential fools and, and threats. So one particular customer that I worked with, she was very proactive. This was a few years ago now, and she wanted to build a very detailed cashflow forecast because I think she could detect that they were potentially troubles ahead. So I worked with her for a while and actually understanding her business, I'm putting together a driver base full cost for her, which would roll forwards and it rolled forwards for 18 months. So every month that went by, she could look forwards and see 18 months into the future. And what she could see that in month 16, there was this big cashflow Dip and for a number of different reasons, it meant that she needed to go and renegotiate some, covenants with the bank. Now, what we found and what I found is that if you can go to the bank with a full cost and with a set of financial statements that show, you know, your, profit and loss, your balance sheet, your cashflow forecast in, you know, a period of say 12 to 18 months, they love it. And it's so much easier to go to the bank and renegotiate terms when you actually don't need the money. You know, when you get to the stage where, you know, in crisis and you need the money now, then it's very, very difficult to actually work, you know, with the banks. Naturally they see the risk of lending the money or extending the times. So I would say, although full costs, you know, they, they can't tell you the future, nobody can tell you the future. And the goal of forecasting is not actually to predict the future, to tell you what might happen and to allow you to do that scenario planning. So what if this, what if that, and as I say every month that goes by as new information allows you to, to adjust the forecast, it allows you to play with the figures and to create a future before the future happens.  Mitch: (05:46)So many of our previous conversations have been around data analytics and how there is technology available to really enhance this efficiency that you were talking about, you know, enable our management accountants to offer more foresight as opposed to insight into what's currently going on. So I'm curious what kind of technology you know, you are accustomed to or you know, is available to accountants to really improve in this planning and overall business performance,  Laura: (06:15)Right? Yes. Well we primarily use three tools for this. And when we started all business, we went actually all over Europe looking at different types of tools, different types of software to actually create the kind of environment for our customers that we wanted to be able to create. And what we found is, you know, a range of different great software, you know, so there's a lot of software out there, but for us it was important that it was SQL based because that's what our skillsets are. So what we found a is actually a Scandinavian product, which has recently been bought up by I think an American company actually, but it's called Bizview365. And what happens? Well what happened when we found this product was that it wasn't particularly set up for accountants. Now accountants, you know, we work a lot with accountants and they typically have a portfolio of let's say 300 or 3000 clients. You know, they're often working with many, many, many companies. And this particular product that we found ...

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05)Hey everybody. Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Mitch Roshong. Thank you for joining us again today. You're about to hear the third bonus episode of our IMA focused mini series within Count Me In. We're going to listen to Adam speak with IMA CFO and senior vice president of operations, Doreen Remmen. This episode will be especially relevant as you'll hear Doreen talk about her various responsibilities which really highlight the changing role of the CFO in today's industry. I'll let Doreen and Adam fill you in on the rest. So let's head over to the conversation now.  Doreen: (00:46)So Adam, it's really nice to have you visit me here in my office today.  Adam: (00:50)Glad to be here Doreen. Could you tell us a little bit about your roles and responsibilities here at IMA?  Doreen: (00:56)Sure. Well, as you know, I'm the chief financial officer and I have the traditional role of leading the finance organization. I ensure that our financial reporting and regulatory reporting are timely and accurate. I lead the budgeting process and I work with the external advisors, the accountants and attorneys, who keep us moving in the right direction. And thankfully I have a very professional finance team in place that's led by a highly skilled controller. So I have other responsibilities as well. My title is senior vice president of operations and my role goes beyond finance to include information technology, human resources, customer service and facilities. And here again, luckily I have wonderful teams in place and talented leaders.  Adam: (01:46)So during, I also know you work with the board of directors. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?  Doreen: (01:50)Okay. Well, my favorite part of my job is being the staff liaison to the strategic planning committee of the board of directors. And in this role I ensure that we have a continuous systematic process for refining our strategic plan every year. And that includes collecting input from our stakeholders who could be our members, our staff, our board, our vendors, performing an environmental scan and risk assessment and communicating the strategic priorities.  Adam: (02:22)So we know that there's many changes happening in the accounting industry. So how do your various responsibilities reflect those changes?  Doreen: (02:31)Well, Adam, there's been a lot written about the changing role of the CFO and I think more and more finance leaders are broadening their scope and becoming involved in strategy. And I think this is very true in large companies, where the CFO may have been seen as a functional trusted advisor in the past. That CFO is now being called upon to be a true business partner in strategic decisions. And this requires that we expand beyond a financial reporting and develop those analytical skills that help us predict an influence the future. But I'm asked this question quite often, Adam. And what I've said before is nobody told me at the beginning of my career that I was supposed to just stay in the finance function and I had the opportunity to work as the finance leader in mid size companies typically, but not always privately held. And as the CFO I was always the next person to the CEO in every business decision. So people relied on me to bring my analytical skills to different roles. Uh, in the company that I worked at before IMA I was able to move into a vice president of supply chain role. I also worked as the vice president of sales and marketing for a period of time. Having competent leaders on the teams that reported to me was really important. Having a highly competent controller in place enabled me to trust that she had everything under control. And I could step away from finance when necessary, go on a sales call, close a deal, or visit a supplier's factory and try to understand if they had the quality systems in place that would make them a reliable partner in a supplier managed inventory program. So nobody ever told me I was supposed to stick to finance. If I'd gotten that lesson early in my career, I think my life would have been a lot simpler. But I've enjoyed my career and I've enjoyed being in a lot of different roles and I have a lot of different roles here at IMA as well.  Adam: (04:43)So as you've already mentioned, how your different roles here at IMA kind of spread that and you've become that business partner with, you know, whether it's with the board or helping out with operations and in the finance function as well.  Doreen: (04:58)I'm just naturally curious person. I'm nosy. I like to get involved in different things. And uh, here at IMA I'm passionate about what is going on because I'm an IMA member and I am a, was always a really important, support system in my career. So I'm passionate about making sure that we're doing the strategic things that will serve the profession in the future.  Adam: (05:23)So on that same note, measurements and metrics are obviously very important for the CFO to monitor, as you've already mentioned. So what are a few keys of your key performance indicators or goals as a CFO at IMA? And how or why might they be different from those at a CFO to public organization?  Doreen: (05:41)Okay. So many of our financial metrics are very, very similar. Even though we're not for profit, we operate like a for profit business, in a very disciplined manner. We look at all the traditional indicators of financial that include profitability, cashflow and balance sheet ratios that measure liquidity and stability. Of course we do all of those things, but as a mission based, not for profit organization, not everything we do has dollars attached to it. So we look deeply at measures of member engagement to understand whether we're delivering the value that we should be.  Adam: (06:20)So one of the biggest areas of emphasis in finance and accounting competencies is data analytics. And we had, I may know that a very important and so how heavily, how heavily do you use or rely on data analytics for financial decisions and recommendations?  Doreen: (06:37)Well, we rely very heavily on data to support our decisions. We try to walk the walk here at IMA and we know that data analytics are very important to all of our members. We look at leading indicators in our data such as the number of new candidates for the CMA program. We also look at things like pass rates on the exam by region and it's very important for us to understand the trends as they're developing. My staff has been exploring new technology products such as Tableau and the advanced features in Excel to unlock the secrets and the trends that are showing up in our database. We also look at external data such as the GDP in our target markets and the numbers of students that are graduating from accounting and finance programs at universities.  Adam: (07:27)So how do you think the use of those new tools that they're looking at will help IMA]?  Doreen: (07:3...

George Azih bio: https://leasequery.com/about-us/leadership/#georgeContact George: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeazihleasesoftware/FULL 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 for this week's episode, Mitch spoke with the CEO and founder of Lease Query George Azih. This conversation focused on ASC842 and how lease accounting software can help businesses enhance their processes when complying with the new lease standards. George also offers a unique perspective on future changes to accounting standards. So let's go to the conversation to find out more.  Mitch: (00:35)I know FASB has issued new standards pertaining to leases recently. What triggered these accounting changes?  George: (00:49)Well, Mitchell, thank you so much for, for having me. Essentially it all begins and ends with transparency, right? essentially the boards FASB and ICB are concerned with making liabilities, which by definition mean obligations to make payments at some future time. Making these liabilities actually be reflected on the balance sheet under current gap and undercurrent for us what we have, most leases are called are classified as operating leases and these leases are no longer reflected on the balance sheet as liabilities are. The boards are trying to increase transparency and make financial statement users understand set transparency. And what they're trying to do is make those obligations to make lease payments be reflected on the balance sheets of companies that are, you know, entering the sunset set at least transactions.  Mitch: (01:51)And what are the biggest challenges with these new rules? How have accountants been working through some of the challenges to make sure they're complying with these new regulations?  George: (02:00)Well, interestingly, there's these three major items, right? One is complexity, the second is time, and the third is completeness. So let's start with complexity. The rules, the new lease accounting standards are 492 pages, right? 492 pages of documentation. Literally these are, I mean it's the fixed stack. So the sheer complexity of the new lease accounting standards is a big challenge. There's also some amorphous or a big use details there, right? Where companies have to, it's not exactly rules-based. So just to predicate this FASB is moving from rules-based accounting. So principles based accounting. Well this means essentially that rather than give you an exact means to explain the way things are supposed to work, they're giving you a general guideline. And what that means essentially is that it's not in black and white, right? So there's a lot of challenges with, first of all, understanding the spirit of what the boards are trying to issue versus the actual way they want you to account for it, right? So the sheer complexity of this standard is a big challenge. The second thing is how much time it takes to comply, right? There's a lot of things that you'll have to go through. Think about a large global corporation or even a small one. Think about the people that are within that organization that need to take part in the requisitions process, which leasing falls under, right? It could be someone in legal, it could be someone in purchasing, it could be someone in supply chain, it could be someone in accounting, right? There's so many people that, that any leasing, any particular lease introduction could could go through. And as such, if you want to capture your entire lease portfolio, these are the individuals that you or the departments, you know, accounts receivable, accounts payable, I'm sorry, not in accounts receivable, but accounts payable. These are the different departments that you have to actually hit. So in a global corporation, it takes a lot of time to coordinate such efforts. Right? The last part is completely it is very difficult for large corporations or even small corporations to determine, okay, what is my actual portfolio of these transactions? Right? It's not just the challenge here is that you don't identify a lease by reading the contract and it says you are leasing this asset, right? There's different things that could be deemed a lease. But in the contractual terms, it never states that it's a lease, right? So companies have this challenge where they have to look at all their contractual obligations to determine, okay, do I have all these, is this the least that should be that should be complied with under topic 842, 842 is the new lease accounting standard, is this a leak that should be followed under 842 or is this a service, a service contract? Right. So, the big three things there are complexity, as I said, time and completeness actually getting a complete look at your, your entire portfolio.  Mitch: (05:23)Now what are your personal experiences with these new lease accounting rules? You know, what specifically triggered your initiative of creating a lease query?  George: (05:36)Oh, that's a great question. And in my previous life, I used to be, I used to work in financial reporting and in accounting research. And that was my main role. Essentially what that meant is I had to look at what the upcoming guidance is. Upcoming guidance from what's called the EITF is called the emerging issues task force from the, which is a subset of the FASB, and figure out, okay, what are the upcoming rules that they're going to make and how do I make sure that the company gets the preferred accounting treatment? Right? So that was my main role. Now in the same company we, the company had the change auditors and they went from one big four firm to another, and the new auditor said, okay, we're going to take a deeper dive into the financials. And what they did was they looked at every single area to be deemed a risk worthy. And one of the areas they looked at were leases while they pet the pen of the least 10 of the leases at 10 out of 10 of them were wrong. They tested another 10 and tell them the tenor or the world. So basically there were batting, you know, zero out of, you know, zero out of 20 which obviously, you know, is below the Medusa line. So essentially what happened there is that they had to go through and figure out, okay, how do we account for leases in a global corporation? And the chief accounting officer tasked me with teaching the different controllers. I said this was a global organization, how to account for leases. Well, the challenge there was this was accounting for leases under the current at the time, current lease lease standard, which was relatively simple, right on the previously standard was it was topic 840, right? The new standards before the two. So this was accounted for under the easier method, which is 840. Now the boards change it obviously it's 842. And in my role as accounting research and, you know, financial reporting, that in that role, I knew that the boards were changing the rules, right? Going from this easy process to the new co, more complex guidelines. And so I figured, well, if as a company they were having challenges applying easy 840, then by God, when the new rules come and change when the new rules change, then it's going to be a huge headache for them. Right. Once again, batting zero out of 20 under current guidelines when it becomes more complex than it'...