17th June, 2019
Our new series highlights the work of our tireless accounting and bookkeeping partners. In this inaugural edition, we discuss all things accounting with Emma Maycock, practice manager for CSCG.
Welcome to the first instalment of our new Partner Spotlight, which features insights from MYOB’s network of accountants, bookkeepers and advisors from across Australia and New Zealand.
First cab off the rank is Emma Maycock, practice manager for the Werribee-based CSCG – a business with a history spanning more than three decades and supporting over 30 employees. Emma herself can claim almost 15 years in the accounting and bookkeeping field.
To find out some more about this business, and her perspectives on the industry, we asked Emma a series of questions that, along with her responses, has been published below in full.
What are the positives and negatives of your job?
The positives are the people I work alongside. They’re all amazing and so driven. We all support each other. Also, the variety of work; no day is the same for us. We have clients from every industry you can think of and, as you can imagine, they all have unique requirements.
The negative I’m guessing would be the standard answer for all firms: time. There’s simply never enough time in the day to tick off all them to-do items. Who doesn’t want to leave for the day knowing they accomplished everything they set out to achieve? The reality in our field is that this rarely happens. But when it does, it’s amazing!
How would you describe your job in a single tweet?
Cappuccino, P&L, latté, client meeting, macchiato, KPIs, piccolo, Skype call, espresso, espresso, espresso!
What does an average day look like?
To be honest, every day is quite different, but I suppose an average day would consist of having two-thirds of our team working on scheduled compliance, management and bookkeeping matters, while the other third would work on an ad hoc basis, resolving urgent issues and assisting our clients to make important decisions for their businesses.
Tell us something surprising about your job that people may not know about?
Accountants are people, too! No, in all honesty I really don’t think many people outside our field realise the work that goes into our job and the impact a good accountant has on the health of a business. The saying: “Behind every good business is a great accountant” is completely true.
Has your client base decreased, increased or remained steady over the past 12 months?
We have seen an increase in our business advisory client base over the last 15 years while the other areas have remained steady. In the bookkeeping area, the introduction of the suite of MYOB products means that we are meeting more of our clients’ needs.
It is interesting that all the new clients we have engaged recently are from outside a 30-kilometre radius of our office. Technology has substantially reduced the inconvenience of distance.
Does your business provide advisory and, if so, do you have any learnings?
Yes that is a big area in our firm with a department completely dedicated to this area covering:
One of our mottos is ‘Plan for the Unplanned’.
What new technologies is your business using and trialling to stay efficient, client focussed and relevant?
We have just launched our client portal, which enables our clients to receive documents and sign them electronically, which has been a game changer for us and for them. We also recently implemented Fusedocs, which is an automated process to collate, format and send documents (via our portal) to clients in a single click.
To stay relevant and really help keep our clients informed, we are constantly publishing blogs via Facebook, LinkedIn and on our website.
Are there any finance/accounting memberships that really add value to your business or career?
Yes it goes without saying that CPA is a minimum requirement in our industry, but we also have memberships with NTAA, Taxation Institute of Australia, Association of Taxation & Management Accountants and Australian Institute of Company Directors, just to name a few.
What prompted you to join the MYOB Partner Program?
We really pride ourselves on being leaders in the technology world and also offering the best cloud solutions for our clients, so a partnership with MYOB just made good business sense.
What advice do you have for new members on how they can maximise their membership value?
We recently ran a series of seminars for our clients and the local community that would be impacted by the roll out of Single Touch Payroll and MYOB were extremely helpful. MYOB provided a trainer, merchandise and marketing assistance for us to really make the event a success. MYOB have offered to assist in in future events also, which really is a win-win scenario and just another benefit of being a MYOB Partner.
How do you stay abreast of legislative and technological changes within the industry?
We run several internal training sessions monthly for our staff and we have ‘staff champions’ in specialty areas that are responsible for ensuring their knowledge is up to date and are responsible for educating other staff members in their area of expertise.
What are some of the opportunities and threats facing your industry?
A clear opportunity lies in the demand for business advisory service having never been so high. On the other hand, price competitiveness in the industry for compliance-only clients has also never been so fierce.
How have you found hiring and retaining staff over the last 12 months?
Finding good candidates has always been difficult in our industry, but I now find the recruiting area sliding into interesting territory with LinkedIn becoming more and more dominant in this area.
We have a staff retention strategy in place and that seems to work 90 percent of the time. Our core values support our vision, shape our culture and really reflect our identity, which is ingrained in our hiring and retention strategies.
We find it an integral part of the hiring process to ensure the candidate’s values are in line with ours.
I also am a big believer in the fact that if someone wants to leave it’s usually for the best, we really only want people working here that want to be here. A happy employee is a good employee and vice versa.
Is there something you’ve learned that you wish someone had told you 10 years ago?
As a female in the business world, don’t be nervous to share your ambitions and always recognise the value you add.
What does success look like to you?
No more timesheets!
Personally, I think respect equals success in the business world. To have your colleagues look to you for guidance and be able to help others on their journey equals success.
What’s one accounting/business buzzword you’re sick of hearing?
I’m sick of hearing how the accounting world as we know it is dying. Changing, yes, but dying? No! Tell me any industry where there have been no changes in the service/product it produces. Without evolution where would we be? Without Netflix that’s for sure.
The clients are demanding more, and we are more than ready to do that, whether it’s in business compliance, advisory or bookkeeping.
This is the time where we can strengthen how our profession is seen and valued in society. We are excited for the new accounting world.
Bring it on!
If you could have a special power what would it be?
Being able to see the future.
Got any good accountant jokes?
Why did the accountant cross the road? Because he looked in the files and did what they did last year.
Are you an accounting or bookkeeping professional wondering how to best expand your business, drive business efficiency and manage your clients better than ever? Sign up to join the MYOB Partner Program in Australia or New Zealand and take your business to the next level.