Automata Practice Development

Ready for some beach vibes at the CalCPA Member’s Club Summit. I will be with the awesome Rafael Casas at QuickFee where we will be speaking in a pre-event think tank for the CalCPA MAP Committee discussing Use Cases, prompting and other topics around #AI, #automation and #tech. Looking forward to it.

Been awhile so strap in for a long demo. 7 minutes and 33 seconds to show our newest initiative, Mini Automations. Mini Automations are different from Automata's managed automation service. Our managed service is where we dive deep with our clients to seek out and streamline entire processes such as sales pipeline or data management. The automations are tailored from beginning to end to a firm's unique needs. The Mini Automations are designed to provide small automations that solve big pain points. Firms can slot in these Mini Automations to improve their existing procedures. They are built to handle one specific task as efficiently as possible. This Mini Automation will read through a folder of organizer PDFs and output Excel lists in different structures based on selected options. Couple use cases: 1. Get the lists in a format that users can manipulate more easily 2. E-mail merge the lists to send to your clients 3. Add the document list to your workpapers as a condensed document checklist Importantly with these Mini Automations, I am going to keep pricing as simple as possible when I can. For example, I plan to price this specific Mini Automation as one fee, unlimited uses, unlimited organizers for the year. Not priced per organizer or priced per user. (Organizer change yearly so we need to make changes based on the changes of the tax software, hence, good for that year). Let me know if you have any questions or are interested in the Demo version once I have it ready.

Doing a new thing. I joined CalCPA and have become a sponsor for the ABC Networking Mixer. Thanks Rafael Casas for suggesting I look into CalCPA Los Angeles chapter. I am even all swanky with my logo on the flyer. Link to the event: https://lnkd.in/gTduq8vt

If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. I’m starting a new position as Automation Engineer at Automata Practice Development!

Some fun things from the AI Panel: Attendee: Have you ever seen QuickBooks done by a non-accountant? Me: Yes.?I will raise my hand as a non-accountant doing my own QBO. I already messed up my own books once and my father-in-law (who is a CPA) helped me fix them. I think AI will help reduce mistakes but will not create perfect books. And I guarantee that I will probably mess them up again. Attendee: There still were lamplighters in East Orange NJ in the 60's (!) believe it or not... Me: I believe it. Attendee: FYI, Google was far from the first search engine... Me: I remember some of the old one.?Ask Jeeves, Altavista.?I think there was one call Lycos that had a dog as a mascot, but I might be misremembering. Attendee: If AGI does come to light, how are all of us going to survive!!!! Me: Turn it off, I hope. Funnily, so much of our power infrastructure still uses old tech.?We have all heard about power plants are still run on floppy disks. Everyone gets a magnet and hopefully we will be safe. Attendee: Why not get some input from people who are old enough to have used "audit software" in the 1970's and Visicalc? We were the "early adopters" then. Me: There was a podcast from NPR where the interview the inventor/programmer of Visicalc. I found it fascinating. It would be interesting to talk to those people and how much it disrupted the field. Attendee: Have you guys noticed with chatgpt4, the ai makes mistakes with some simple calculations (ive noticed it having issues with orders of operations in just basic math computations)? Me: Yes.?Chat GPT is a LLM or Large Language Model so that is where it is focused. Like many things, the right tool for the right job. Attendee: Could AI replace our bosses? Me: I plan on being a boss soon. Am I replacing myself? I think I am about to have an existential moment. What is my purpose??

I have been writing for the AICPA Journal of Accountancy for the last year answering questions in the Technology Q and A. A recent question was a great use case for Power Automate to update data in every client in Intuit Lacerte. Check out the article here: https://bit.ly/41SMyCK

The next question that was upvoted at the AI summit highly was: "Are there any certificates or programs that are focused on AI? Any good strategies to help "future proof" the accounting role?". There were a few other questions about skills training in on generative AI as well as the impact on those that cannot upskill so I will group them all together. To start, I have not heard directly of an AI certification program. That isn't to say there are none. A search on Udemy yields almost 4,000 courses on Chat GPT and this is only one year of Chat GPT existing. I think with these AI programs being freely available, the best training is to get started with using it. I was saying during the session to open a free account with Chat GPT and start by asking it to build an AI usage policy for accountants. After you get the initial output, review it closely and then ask some follow up questions or give it additional guidance. Sometimes, you need to stop reading about it, and take a leap; I went skydiving for the first time in 2022. Before I did it, I spent some time reading about tandem jumping and learned what I can on how it works, but there is a certain point where you just need to take that step and try something to better understand it. Back to AI. Once you have started using AI and are getting output, you still want to compare it to a search on Google to double check it. AI is far from perfect and will make mistakes or omit information. The important thing is to explore this tool and keep using it to gain skill and proficiency. After a little bit of testing, then ask the AI “How can I write good prompts for generative AI?”. It sounds a bit silly but there is no silly question to AI and every prompt is a valid prompt. For future proofing, I think that this tool should be treated the same as when internet search became available. Whenever we have a piece of knowledge we want to look up, we reach for a search engine. I think it should be the same here. Generative AI will be a tool we use to augment our daily work but just like search, we verify the accuracy of the output. Regarding the impact on individuals being unable to upskill, I think that everyone can upskill into using these tools to varying degrees. I think everyone can become familiar, but not everyone needs to become a master. I believe those people can still impart wisdom and knowledge that should be relied upon. In the end, these are tools meant to help a person. I think having patience and kindness in moving forward with every person is what will truly elevate a firm’s people to the next level.

Earlier this month I was part of a panel hosted by Accounting Today on AI. Unfortunately, there were many questions in the chat that we were unable to get to because of time. I want to address some of those questions here over the next few days. One question upvoted a lot was: “Once again - it may not be a threat to our JOBS, but our work finding reliable evidence in audit is threated with ChatGPT for creation of fake documents, Firefly for photoshopping images, and Auditbox (META) and others in soundshopping audio?” This is interesting because instead of the idea that AI will make accounting more efficient, this question asks if accounting will be more difficult due to the introduction of bogus data that can be generated quickly and with little effort. I think this is where other technologies can come into play to help: specifically, blockchain comes to mind. Blockchain can help keep data accurate since it is designed to be immutable. Additionally, where data gets sourced from is also something to be aware of and having other methods of verification. This is a question that is not going to have a silver bullet answer. Every time there is a new technology that comes out, there are those that will try to use it maliciously. I think the best course of action is to become comfortable with new technologies so we are aware of its capabilities for both good and bad so we can adapt to the new challenges. Awareness and knowledge are what is going to best help navigate any new frontier.