***First posted on Tanya’s Bookkeepers Bootcamp Facebook page and Transcribed for our blog
Tanya : Alright, hey everybody out in the Facebook world. We are restarting our Facebook live because apparently there were issues with the sound. So, my apologies. Hopefully, this is all working great this time. All I got to say is, tech is awesome until it's not. Anyway, we are here today with Christian from PlanGuru, and we are at QBC in Vegas. Very exciting because it's the first Connect since COVID. It's so exciting to see people have gotten here already. So Christian, for those who have not heard about PlanGuru, tell us about it.
Christian : Yeah, thanks Tanya for having me. So we do budgeting, forecasting, and business analytics. But our sweet spot is in the budgeting and forecasting side of things. Doing forward-looking financial modeling is part art, part science. It's a challenging thing for a lot of folks, and we make a solution that makes it as easy as it can be. So, we provide a number of really turnkey methodologies to forecast the future. We automatically solve cash and retained earnings on the balance sheet. We automatically extrapolate the statement of cash flows. So all the user has to do is import the accounts out of QuickBooks, choose their forecasting methods, set their assumptions, and it's a real turnkey easy solution to use. But also, very critically, we're very flexible, so when you need to get down into the weeds and forecast product by product, or region by region, simply growing something 5% isn't going to work. We provide the user with a lot of flexibility to go in, and build custom schedules, to support their forecasted assumptions. And then on the back end, again we do all the budget versus actual comparisons, and all the back-end analytics to facilitate a regular budgeting and forecasting cadence.
Tanya : That's awesome. And we were talking earlier, that I really do not work well with budgeting and forecasting simply because of the fact that I was raised very old school by my grandfather. I mean he had a mortgage for one day. That's the only credit he ever had. Otherwise, if you can't pay cash, you don't buy it. So I'm kind of old school like that. So Leanne works with that. And I'm trying to really wrap my head around the whole proper budgeting and forecasting. Obviously the logistics around it and what we should do, but I have that internal fight. But I think it's even more important now going into this recession, and hopefully, it's not that bad, to be able to work with our clients. And I love the fact that you've said that you've got that customization you can build in. Because I think right now, with the future being so uncertain still coming in of COVID still going into this potential recession, that there's a lot more that we need to look at to try to plan, to be able to be proactive and come out the other end with all of our clients still having their businesses intact. That's the goal anyway.
Christian : Absolutely, when we say budget, we're talking about a comprehensive set of goals of what the business hopes to achieve. But you can't just set a budget, and save your Excel file, and not look at it till next year when you're ready to budget again. It's about assigning accountability. It's your job to make sure we don't spend more than this. It's your job to make sure we sell this much. And then the regular review process, so you set a budget, and then you show up and you hold people accountable every month, and guess what? That changes their behavior. When they know that you're coming in as the fractional CFO, gonna ask them a whole bunch of tough questions every month. People pay closer attention to what they're doing and it's an accountability structure. Forecasting is about, whereas budgets may be aspirational, what you hope to achieve, forecasting is that sober, practical, tactical assessment.
Tanya : More reasonable.
Christian : And again, as businesses get bigger, budgeting becomes more valuable because of the ownership structure needs. They've got a lot of managers that they need to hold accountable. But any business can benefit from forecasting and to harken back to your point, now that we're entering potentially uncertain times, just breaking out that forecast once a month, close the books, import the actual results, and roll forward your forecast. Sometimes it's just literally 10-15 minutes a month to just to yeah, this looks good. This looks good. But doing that act, not only is it good, stirs up discussions that wouldn't otherwise happen, but if something really bad happens, you're not scrambling to put together a giant set of projections for the bank. You are ready to go. You're ready to walk into the bank the next day and knock their socks off with how I didn't just do this as a hoop to jump through for you. I do this every month. This is how I run my business. And bankers respond very well to that, believe it or not. They're pretty shocked if you're, you know, two-three million dollar business walks in with comprehensive budgets and forecasts. It gives them confidence and the kind of confidence you need to navigate through those challenging times.
Tanya : Yeah, absolutely. I think our industry, we've been talking about advisory services for years and if you're not doing it, now you really need to do it. And it was funny. Well, not funny, I guess kind of ironic because I had heard from so many of the apps, advisory, this is it. And I didn't really realize I was doing advisory. I kept thinking oh, advisory is this using this app, because this app said so. Advisory is not just that. The apps are tools that we can use. And yes, you've got to look at that and be able to find one that you can use and get those customizations in. But advisory is just really holding your client's hand and helping them through, being their partner through this. And through COVID, I had a full-on breakdown on day three of our lockdown up in Canada and I backtracked, woke up the very next day, and said, you know what? I can't do this, and I was proactive with my clients and we did not lose one client over COVID. We strategically over the last year fired 10 clients, and we've got our first one now who was great through COVID. She's feeling it from going into the recession. She's real estate, so they tend to be hitting it first. But this is when it's most important to be working with PlanGuru to be able to get into that and really help our clients through. Because that's the only way that we can guarantee our future, and our survival is by helping our clients as much as we can and knowing the numbers, knowing the sober reality versus where they hope to be, and having those regular meetings and the accountability. And I love that you said that because that makes the difference instead of just, "Yep. Here's a report email to you once a month," that accountability and passing it down is huge.
Christian : As a business advisor, you work with dozens of customers, or hundreds of customers, or whatever, and you see what their trials and tribulations are. And there's so much of a wealth of knowledge in your head that any one of your clients doesn't have. And reviewing historicals is important, it's part of what we're talking about. But there's something about projecting the future that extracts those recommendations from you, because you're saying, "OK, what's going to happen here?" And the client goes, I don't know. How much are you spending on this? And then you remember that other client. So again, there's something about sitting down and projecting the future that just naturally extracts that advice and those recommendations that you have locked away in your head. But again, sometimes don't always get it pulled out because we're just looking at historical numbers.
Tanya : Absolutely, and that's how we differentiate ourselves these days by, getting in and doing that. And it's funny, well again, not funny, but a lot of bookkeepers feel that we can't do that, that it's only the accountants that do that. No, as you said, we have the knowledge, and now we have the tool. Let's put it together, we have the knowledge and the clients already, grab the tool, put it together, have those meetings, and it's magic.
Christian : Yeah, and the other thing, we're actually launching something this week called Advisor Partnership program, because a lot of the folks who come to QuickBooks Connect, they have this tremendous understanding of not just QuickBooks Online, but all these apps that talk to it. Because the prerequisite for any budgeting and forecasting process is accurate, timely, sufficiently detailed financials. You have clients that have that, but at the same time, if you're good at this Quickbook stuff, you've got so much work. So we, especially when we come to QuickBooks Connect, Scaling New Heights, there's a lot of advisors that are trepidatious about getting into this stuff. So, on our website, we're launching this partnership program because we work with a lot of fractional CFOs who don't want to touch QuickBooks. And there's really no sort of cannibalization between those. So, besides our software, we're really leaning into helping advisors who have complementary skill sets get together. Obviously, there are a lot of accounting firms out there that are offering the full spectrum, everything from QuickBooks implementation to a complete budgeting and forecasting process. But that's just not feasible for a lot of the smaller firms, especially the folks at this show. So, getting them partnered up with someone from B2B CFO or one of these dedicated Fractional CFOs, is a way that they can bring these services to their clients in a way that they can't do on their own. So that's something we're really excited about.
Tanya : That's great. I absolutely love that. So yeah, go by their booth, they are here. We don't have their booth number right now, but look for them, if you can't find them, our whole team, and of course, we're going to be wearing the Bootcamp shirts, we will know where they are. So if you can't find them, you can find one of us. We will take you over there. So don't worry about that. We got your back on that, but definitely check that out because this is again, in today's uncertain climate so much more important, and this is how we can make that difference to help everybody come out of this, and survive, and thrive.
Christian : Absolutely.
Tanya : We also have some pups, so they are sponsors of the pups as well. So again, either our team or the booth will know where the pups are, we'll be sorting that out later. But because they have sponsored the pups, all of their social media is on here. So $50 from each one of the pups, so I think we're around $1500 total is going to be donated to Beagle Freedom Project. So thank you very much for that. And again, we're limited to the pups and I know I've already had people contact me going, "You've brought pups with you, right?" Yes, the pups are here. So thank you very much. Check out PlanGuru. I absolutely love your new partnership program. That's something that I just might be looking into because again, I know where I'm not strong and that's great that you're gonna partner people who have a strength with that, and that's beautiful. So thank you so much. And just as we wrap it up, is there any last-minute things you want the audience to know?
Christian : If you do want to get into these services on your own, we do offer unlimited budgeting analyst assistance on your first two clients. So, that doesn't mean we're going to build the whole model, but we will guide you through design. That's the hardest part of this, how detailed should my budget be? So again, we offer unlimited budgeting analyst assistance on your first two clients to help you navigate through what we feel are the most difficult challenges to getting into doing this work.
Tanya : And you know what? I'm just going to say real quick, and I know I'm being told to wrap it up here. That is so important, that support, because there are so many times where we go, and we sign up for an app, we get really excited and you sign up, and you don't have the support, and you're not using it properly because you don't have the support, and you just end up going, well that didn't work, and then you end up churning. So to have that support is huge.
Christian : And we pick up the phone. Because when you're dialed into this work, and you're deep in a financial model, and your brain's fully immersed in it, the worst thing you can have to do is put it down, so we pick up the phone and if we don't, just leave a message. We'll call you back in 5 minutes or so.
Tanya : Well, that's awesome. I'm so glad you threw that in because I know that is very important to me as to who I choose to work with. There are certain things, and customer service in the support that I get is huge. I might not need a lot once I know what I'm doing. That's great, but I'd like to know that you've got my back.
Christian : And most of the time it's a 2-minute discussion. What do I do right here? Boom, you keep moving.
Tanya : Awesome, thank you so much for being here, Christian.
Christian : Thank you.
Tanya : And again, look for them. If you can't find them, look for one of us. We'll get you over there. And for those of you online, again, they're part of this online scavenger hunt. So if you're not here, make sure you go in because you can win, amongst many prizes an iPad, so make sure you go in and check that out. And yeah, hop on to their website and see what goodies we want you to find for them. Have a great conference, everybody. Take care, bye.
Christian : Thank you.
Until next time,
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