An Accountant’s Manifesto: David Boyar’s Journey to Transform the Profession

Summary of the interview:

Acquisition of ChangeGPS by Access Group.

• Major acquisition in the accounting industry,  surprise revealed.
• How ChangeGPS helps accounting firms automate advice reports and communicate with clients, resulting in more love, time, and profit.

Accounting career, CFO association, and industry insights.

• David Boyer’s father ran a small accounting practice for 42 years (inspiring David to become an accountant).
• His early ambitions (he was going to be CEO of Coca-Cola!)
• David’s sister shared a quote about his father’s impact on their family and community, highlighting his dedication to providing for others.
• Reflected on their decision to found an association of CFOs and their experience working in practices before that.

Becoming a well-known CFO and influencing the accounting profession.

• Insights on transforming accounting functions into profit growth centres, influencing the accounting profession, and personal journey as a vocal and influential CFO in Australia.
• On becoming one of Australia’s most well-known vocal and influential CFOs.

Career goals, scaling, and joining a tech business.

• About breaking free from their father’s accounting firm and achieving financial independence, intellectual independence, and genuine freedom.
• Praising the way Sharon McClafferty talks with such clarity about how accounting businesses can scale and solve that scaling problem.
• Joined ChangeGPS due to the scalability issues with their CFO advisory work and the desire to scale their services.
• ChangeGPS and their impressive leadership and aligned values (with Timothy Munro) in transforming accounting firms. An opportunity to learn from them and grow their business.

Accounting industry insights and tech company data.

• Emphasising the importance of understanding the customer when selling to accountants and sharing their experience of creating a successful product by embracing their unique perspective.
• “If you’re going to sell to accountants, and you’re going to position yourself as I’m an escaped accountant you’re saying to your customer I got sick of what you’re doing. I look down on you. I’m doing something different. I mean, it’s ridiculous. It’s just ridiculous.”
• Tech companies often have valuable data on the accounting industry, which can be leveraged to inform product development and better serve accountants.
• “The data that sits inside these companies is impressive. And the senior people should understand the right insights from them and come up with the right marketing messages. But for a long time, we had a situation where, to quote my friend, Paul, fear-selling worked; you have to change, or else you know the death of this stuff works as clickbait, but it created a negative culture in the accounting mindset.”

The future of accounting and marketing strategies.

• Regarding the importance of understanding the different segments in the accounting market and how Fathom’s data set shows that advisory firms are thriving while traditional accounting firms are struggling.
• Working with accountants on their marketing, highlighting the importance of having a company that listens to accountants in their marketing efforts.
• Experience with a change management project, highlighting the importance of having a clear vision and aligned teams.
• On software delivering on its promised ROI, and notes that few tech companies deliver on their claims.

Accounting tech, client experience, and wealth transfer.

• Asset protection, estate planning for clients, and the opportunity for accountants to play a key role in this process.
• Highlighting the importance of client experience in the next decade, emphasising the need for standardised and consistently good service delivery.

Client experience and tax planning in Australia.

• The relevance of client experience and balancing it with technology, citing his passion for helping Australians and his desire to provide automated tax planning solutions.