CAS Tech Stack Selection

Here is how I select apps for my advisery firm

Author

Luke Templin
March 01, 2023

Read Time: 2:13 minutes

✋Welcome to The CAS Cache, a newsletter designed to help accounting firms grow their CAS offerings. Each issue will feature my insights on a topic.

In addition, perspectives from gurus on the topic that I am listening to 👂, reading 📚, or watching 👀 and one thing I am talking 🗣 to my clients about in my firm newsletter. Please feel free to R&D (rip off and duplicate) the Client Cache.

Disclaimer: Some of the links below support me in writing this newsletter, and some give you a deal too.

I could run my fractional CFO firm with only Microsoft 365. Kidding, but many people get hung up on tech stacks in accounting firms.

Clients are not paying you for your tech stack. Instead, they pay you to save them hours, make more informed business decisions, and help them grow their businesses.

Communication is vital to achieving these results. So much so that I half-jokingly posted this on Twitter.

Tech, to me, is the cherry on the top that makes us more attractive to the prospective client and prevents us from banging our heads on the wall. And this is coming from a guy that owns a SaaS app called FinDaily.io.

I get a lot of questions about what I use in my firm, but in this issue, I want to talk about my selection process. The next issue I will discuss is my tech stack. Followed by a third issue on a few real-world use cases on my process.

Old me was hampered by analysis paralysis. I wanted the perfect app and tech stack. Unfortunately, I have discovered that it does not exist even if you create it from scratch.

I used to create elaborate spreadsheets that analyzed 10+ features of five different apps in a specific category. Do demos on each one. Then, add another feature or two I saw in a demo.

I would spend weeks going back and forth, trying to decide. Talk about exhausting.

Issue Sponsor 😎

Check out 👇 the FinDaily demo by Jason Staats. FinDaily.io automates your clients' habit of checking their bank balances daily. Plus, it can send them other key financial data on their business and make you look like the hero with white labeling.

Now, I focus on 3-5 needs. First, I check out sites like GetApp or accounting software marketplaces to find an app that meets my needs.

Then, I find people in one of my communities who can show me how they use the app and tell me what they like and do not like.

Finally, I start playing around with the app. I found that using apps is the best way to determine what works.

I know switching apps sucks. I have switched forecasting and reporting apps three times in seven years and am eyeing a fourth now. I have also switched project management software three times in one CPA firm in three years.

However, you are better at executing than finding the perfect solution.

So, next time you are looking at an app, ping people you know or drop a message in the #CASTwitter Community.

Choose Your Own Adventure 🚶‍♂️🗺

What do you want to learn about next?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

🙏 Thanks again, Erik Ordal, Amy Walker, Jeff Lang, Casey Galanti, John Sanchez, and Charlie Scott, for your feedback.

Guru Cache 👂📚👀

📚Not a fan of my selection process? Then, check out Fathom's & Hubdoc's Accounting App Evaluation Checklist by clicking here. It was created with insights from Jennie Moore, Kenji Kuramoto, Jeremy Allen, Randy Jentzsch, Juliet Aurora, and Stacy Kidal.

Client Cache 🗣

📈 👂The labor shortages are not going away anytime soon. Therefore, looking for ways to automate processes will be critical to future business success. The podcast Automation Town is an entertaining way to spark ideas around potential automation.

Start with season two. Click here to check out the podcast Automation Town.

On the subject of automation, any business creating content needs to be aware of ChatGPT by OpenAI. Companies will be integrating ChatGPT into their tech stacks and products in 2023. This will create advantages for the companies using it.

Click here to check out some use cases with ChatGPT.

Thanks for reading, Luke Templin!

P.S. There are 3 ways I can help you grow your CAS offerings when you are ready:

  1. Mini courses on CAS

  2. Book a 1-hour CAS consulting call