Ideas in Motion: Lessons Learned from Linda Stone
By Scott H. Cytron, ABC
The “Ideas in Motion” series for AS411.com focuses on best practices among CPAs and accountants who are doing interesting work in technology, and most of the time, I find that it’s quite by accident when I stumble on a real gem – a CPA who not only practices what he or she preaches, but is truly representative of what it means to be a trusted advisor who is tops in technology.
Meet Linda J. Stone, CPA, president of Cadré, Inc., in Edmond, Okla. just north of Oklahoma City. Linda is a Microsoft Certified Professional and Microsoft Business Solutions Certified Master Implementer, and Cadré is a Certified Partner with Microsoft Business Solutions and a Reseller for the Great Plains series of products. Along with this series of certifications comes enhanced knowledge to stay current with the latest technology in order to provide the best services to the firm’s clients.
“Although its low-end products are packaged as a complete solution, the Standard and Professional versions of Great Plains are sold by the module; therefore we have to have an in-depth understanding of the client’s business, as well as the knowledge of what’s available to make a recommendation as to the particular modules that the client should consider,” says Linda. “We are often asked to assist with providing a solution to a particular need that is not a standard, core accounting feature. This requires that we have a greater understanding than just what the software can and cannot do. As a result, we must do extensive research to find the right solution to satisfy a particular need.”
Every day, Linda uses technology and related processes in her client work – and one tool that has helped automate and expedite her work, as well as save money, is the ability to work remotely.
“I had a client that needed to process payroll, but encountered a system failure and was unable to complete the process. This particular client is a 45-minute drive from my office so I merely started up a remote session, reviewed the problem and had it fixed within 10 minutes. They were able to meet their payroll deadline, but this would not have been possible without the technology we have today.”
What about other applications in technology? One particular bone of contention is the almighty backup, to which Linda has coined a saying, “Blessed are the pessimists because they have made backups.”
“It’s amazing how many clients think that they have good backups only to discover that they don’t have one when they need it and have to deal with corrupt or damaged data,” she says. “We need to not only try to prevent this from happening by assisting our clients with finding solutions for this, but then we have to get their accounting application functioning again.”
In the case of trying to keep a client running, Linda’s team must be creative and inventive. For example, one idea was to use external hard drives that plug into a USB port.
“He created scheduled tasks in the operating system to automatically run backups every day, then copy the backup to the external drive. The user has two portable hard drives that are then swapped out on a routine basis, providing easy off-site backup. This is not only faster than backing up to a tape, but the client doesn’t have to worry about trying to find a tape drive that will read the tape should the drive fail or not be available if a devastating event occurs, such as the floods caused by the recent hurricane.”
Linda’s background is colorful, extremely varied and very entrepreneurial. She is the second oldest of 12 children, with seven brothers and four sisters. Ten of the children have had their own businesses and six have technology-related professions. Her second to youngest sister has co-authored two technology related books and is currently a senior technical analyst and co-owner (with one of the brothers) in a Web-based goal setting company called mygoals.com.
“None of us grew up with computers, but as you can see, several of us sort of drifted in that direction!” she says.
Linda likes to think of her positions in college and afterwards as “lessons learned;” she literally walked away from each job with some kind of inspiration for the long-term. While in college, her first job was with a department store where she reconciled cash registers, prepared daily cash reports and sales journals, and worked in payroll.
“This dates me, but I have a good understanding of payroll because in those days, it was all done by hand. I had a calculator and a Circular E to calculate payroll, an ink pen and addressograph to print the checks, and a columnar pad and index cards to record the information needed for the quarterly reports and employee benefits. Because of this experience, I’ve always had a particular interest in payroll and it has become a focus point for my company, especially at year end. The busiest time of the year for most accountants is tax season, but mine is year end. I start the day after Christmas and stay booked until the end of February assisting clients with W-2s, 1099s and year-end closing procedures.”
Linda’s next position was as a draftsman for Oklahoma Oil Maps, Inc., a small, family owned business where one of her brothers worked. This was the beginning of many years in which she worked with and around her brothers.
“The owner taught us two important things: it’s better to ask a question if you didn’t know the answer and it’s very important to pay attention to detail,” she says. “The best way to get on his bad side was to spot a well in the wrong section. That was just not acceptable!”
Linda went on to work in an administrative position for a computer store that another one of her brothers worked for at the time. It was in this position she began to learn computers and their importance in the business sector.
“I did the purchasing, maintained the sales and purchasing journals, did the payroll, and whatever else was needed in the office; they taught me how to run a computer, how to take one apart and even how to blow one up,” she says. “The only problem here was that computers were becoming a commodity and the store was struggling. They decided to merge with another store and my days were numbered, since the other store already had three employees in the office that did the same tasks that I was doing.”
Time passed until she and her two brothers talked about forming a family owned business.
“Our original idea was to computerize the information that was manually tracked on the maps we made at Oklahoma Oil Maps and create computer generated maps using CAD (Computer Aided Design). Since our family name is of French decent, the guys came up with the name ‘Cadré.’”
Linda says that while looking for a niche to differentiate themselves from computer stores and other consultants, they noticed that although computer stores sold accounting software, they couldn’t support it. At the same time, most accountants didn’t sell accounting software.
“We thought this might be a good niche, so we interviewed the major accounting software vendors and decided hands down to go with Great Plains, which had a local rep in Oklahoma City who was willing to take us by the hand, help us get training and even go on sales calls with us. Although this was not our company’s original direction, supporting accounting software seemed like a perfect fit since by definition, cadré means "a nucleus of trained personnel capable of training and leading others.
“We increased business, received an award for ‘Outstanding New Reseller of the Year’ from Great Plains and were doing well enough that we moved into our own office and added a few employees. Unfortunately, our company took another direction a few years later. Let’s just say that I learned first-hand why they say that you shouldn’t go into business with family.”
Linda continued the business by partnering with other consultants, including other Great Plains Resellers that needed assistance with support, and continued supporting Great Plains. Although she considered quitting and going to work for someone else, she says she just couldn’t let go because she enjoyed the freedom of setting her own schedule and taking care of her customers the way she wanted to without having to be concerned about meeting quotas and someone else’s organizational requirements.
“About this time, a friend of mine told me it was the last year to sit for the CPA exam based on credentials rather than an accounting degree. Since I was anxious to get out of college and changed my major from Accounting to Business Administration so I could graduate two semesters earlier, I looked at this as my opportunity to either do it now or prepare to go back to college. I submitted an application and it was accepted, so on the advice of my CPA friend who had helped me so much when I was getting started with Great Plains, I signed up for the Becker Review course. I was told that the course was intense but if you did everything that they said to do, they guaranteed that you would pass – and that was absolutely correct. The amount of work was tremendous and although I didn’t pass it on the first attempt, I did well enough to qualify to sit again and in May 1997, after having been out of college for 17 years, I am proud to say that my son graduated from high school, my daughter graduated from grammar school and I passed the CPA exam. “
Linda finds she spends a good deal of her time educating her small business clients in the advantages of not only automating processing by using technology, but keeping current on processes, systems and the responsibility that goes along with a small business’s attention to security.
“I believe that education is the key to helping clients understand their systems and we try to do this by having user group meetings,” she says. “Even though we do this as a courtesy to our client’s and it’s free, it’s amazing how few people will actually take the time to attend. I understand that everyone’s busy, but it makes it difficult for us to help them if they won’t make the effort to learn. We’re flooded with so much information in our in-boxes that it can be overwhelming. I look at it as our job to help our clients sort through the volumes of information and ensure that they understand the ramifications of choices that they make or don’t make.”
For example, her team was recently in a client’s office where the people in the shop were using the company’s server as a workstation to surf the Internet and play games. She says the client had no idea how devastating this could have been to their company. In their eyes, they were just letting their people use a computer that nobody else was using.
“We have people that have legacy software and we have to deal with issues when their computer crashes or they want to replace it for a faster, more efficient computer,” she says. “An example of this is our financial reporting tool, FRx, which requires some dll files to be registered, but the security settings in XP sp1 will not allow it. FRx has addressed this issue in the newer version of the software, but the older one is not compatible with XP sp1. Of course, most clients don’t discover this until after they buy the new workstation and it won’t run their software.”
“We’ve seen many changes in accounting software applications in a relatively short period of time and I believe that these periods are getting shorter. Gone are the days when we got a box full of manuals when we purchased an accounting package. We now get a CD containing all the manuals and a training video. This not only saves the cost of freight to ship the product, but instead of having to read the manual, you can do word searches to find the topic that you need. Instead of traveling to various cities for days of training, we can attend on-line training in the comfort of our own office or home and save the traveling for fun things like family vacations. We’re getting accustomed to living in an ‘instantaneous’ world where information is just a click away (or two or three or more if you don’t know how to use it) and technology is what is helping us to achieve this.”
About Author:
Scott H. Cytron, ABC, is an accredited communications and public relations consultant working in the accounting, health care, high-tech and finance industries. He can be reached at scott@cytronandcompany.com or through his Web site, http://www.cytronandcompany.com.
About Column:
Ideas in Motion is a monthly column designed to focus on best practices within CPA firms and organizations involved in providing technology related services.
Comments/Feedback about this column... AS411 is constantly looking for new companies and people to profile in this column so If you feel your organization stands out from the crowd we'd like to hear from you (Feedback Form)
|
|
Sponsor Messags & Links
Red Wing Software
With more than 25 years of experience developing accounting software, Red Wing Software knows businesses. We specialize in providing software at a reasonable price to companies who are outgrowing their current software and need more functionality, especially where inventory is concerned. Red Wing Software offers a complete suite of software products that can integrate and work together, including General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, Order Entry, Purchase Orders, and Payroll. For more information about Red Wing Software products, please call 800-732-9464, or...
Visit Red Wing for more details
AS411 - Software Search Service
Tired of searching for software?
AS411's complimentary software search service will help you locate professionals in your area who can help you with all your software needs. It's simple, easy and only takes a few minutes.
Click Here to learn more
|
|
|