Aggregator, information from many sources, for one coherent presentation.

“It is not my job to do this, I was not there when it happened, besides I told them guys; what is it that you are talking about?”. My mentor at the nuclear power plant, as a quality control engineer, said I would hear every time something went bad. 50 years later, he was right 100s of times.

Just as an example. While auditing a County, all their equipment on a depreciation schedule was maintained in one Excel spreadsheet on one personal computer. Inquired about how she added assets, and verified the process.? Then asked how she removed assets. “That is not my job to do that.” She did not know whose job it was. Nor how they would make adjustments to the only spreadsheet, only on her computer, which no one else had access to. Nor did she know if the total of her spreadsheet agreed or not, to the financial statements. It was not her job, not to remove assets, not to tell anyone it was not happening. And this had gone on for 10 years, with no one questioning this, including the State Auditor, till I showed up. And they said the millions of dollars of adjustments to remove assets long gone, was “de minimus” and did not require disclosure. And I was never offered employment thereafter.

Looking back, every mistake that I have made was a “stupid mistake”, just like this was. But why bring all this up?

Every time you add one more person, another entity, to the process you always get more “that is not my job”; and the needed solution falls to no one in between. The very purpose of limited liability companies. Think about accounting for transactions. Two people, exchange money for bread. No excuses. Now, the City meters water, hires a contract biller to send the bill, and another to collect money, they present? that information on the City’s website maintained by yet another contractor, no one at the city does anything but monitor. A billing aggregator (another vendor that contracted with the city, Billgo, via their contract billing service) organizes the bills by due date, presents the invoice, and pays bills for customers, based on the customer’s use of Quicken so that all information is shown on the customer’s screen without looking at vendor’s websites. And that is shown along with all vendors payments due with projections of when the money will run out at the bank. Quicken/Billgo pays vendors, by accessing the banks directly. The bank mails the check, or electronically as they determine. Or the company takes the money from the bank, without customer’s action. There are dozens of ways to pay, and that changes, and no one ever knows the chain of transactions, with over 100 permutations of possible ways for each transaction. And therefore 100 times as many “That is not my job.” The City insists that it does not work with “Quicken”, because Billgo is never disclosed by Quicken nor the City, and Billgo says the City is only 40% compliant with the agreement the City’s vendor entered into on their behalf. Or like Xample Cable does not know that when they toggle a customer for security purposes, it also stops the Billgo process and they cannot be paid according to the contract they agreed to. Yet penalizes the customer for not paying. They say, “That is not their job”. And they don’t even know whose job it is, because no employees are trained on this now very complex process. Or Royalty Medical Insurance who signed up for the Billgo process, and never even attempted to implement it, 0% compliant Billgo says. Or SNOOTYbank decides Quicken is irrelevant and chose not to communicate data with them.

Note that vendor fundamental thinking is that the vendor and customer are transacting like 200 years ago. Two hundred years ago high noon was literally the sun’s highest point in every city in the world. When that did not work they changed to time zones, a common protocol. If you fly airplanes even that does not work so you use one time, GMT. The faster we move the more we must comply with standard protocols. But for financial matters those should never be centralized on the vendor, but on the human when it comes to accounting for money.

Think of the recent evolutions where Apple would not talk to Google, and then did. Where electronic outlets talk to Apple or other vendors products, but not each other, and they adapted “Matter” as a common protocol that made all of them work with each other, as the human chose. I can turn on the water irrigation 10 miles away, when the plants look dry on my camera, and turn down the heat because no one was there, but would turn on when a human entered. All this on my phone, because of common protocols. Why? because someone told them it was their job to do that.?

The future of accounting could already be, but has not because of all parties to what has become extremely complex and evolving process say, “It is not my job”. Each vendor only believes they owe communication with their “customer” as they chose to communicate, with Egyptian hieroglyphics or typhoons of ads on screen . To exist in this complex world we must have a computer that aggregates transactions from many and all sources. Simply this: accounting used to be historical, posted by a human, when that completed transaction information became available. The internet moves information at the speed of light. Aggregating it remains largely the human bottleneck. A failing concept, like those promoted by Billgo or bankrupt Prism, needs to be understood and adapted by consumers.

When it works properly, I can see all the transactions from the past as accounting has done, by downloading from banks. What you have been doing for years. However, additionally, I can see what is in the mail, or in transit, but not yet posted to the bank, and I can see that the vendor has received it before the bank processes it, and I can see everything that is committed to for the next six months or two years into the future. All without going to any vendor’s website. Without going to multiple banks. All this without being subject to fraudulent communication to take my money, because my activity uses finger print, watch verification, facial identification, all of which is on my computer processor, not in the internet process.

Accounting is extremely critical to any successful life. And the foundation of accounting has always been dependent on integrity, and safety of money. The internet and the artificial intelligence have no real fundamental security for the human. In fact all vendors will take advantage of the human when the legal system cannot understand that. Isolated computer software dedicated solely to that human’s best interest is what is needed. Think “ChatCPA” as loyal only to you, with complete knowledge of all your financial affairs, provided by independent programers who are “professionals”; in the sense that they profess a system of ethics designed to protect and enhance the individual human; and avoid the influence of others outside of that human’s financial affairs. Think of ChatCPA who projects the results (wealth, financial security, credit ratings) of what you are presently doing, a week, year, decades out. Think of ChatCPA as your financial advisor illustrating financial plans, and alternatives based on the decisions you make today, with complete historical information. Think of ChatCPA who surveys the markets, interest rates, banking, your historical discipline to complete past suggestions, and revises recommendations as you the human progresses in age and health.

What is failing is a system where large entities are subservient to protocols designed for individual humans’ safety, security, decision making, and most important the frailties of humans themselves. We humans can never beat the computer at its own game, especially when that game is designed to take advantage of human limitations. The future of accounting will be the aggregation of transactions from all sources so that the human can read and understand in a commonly understood format, without having to translate 1,000s of changing websites information as it does now. And with the assistance of AI designed for the human, to be better than just human.?

https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/169680-43#overview for explanation of Billgo a failing aggregator.