Practice Success Podcast

Bianca Ferguson on Empowering Growth Through Technology

• Canopy • Season 2 • Episode 10

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Bianca Ferguson shares her journey from teen tax preparer to city CFO and private practice leader, serving over 1,500 clients. She highlights the importance of leveraging technology to optimize workflows and attracting new talent to the accounting field. 

KC Brothers:

Welcome to another episode of Canopy Practice Success. I am here today with Bianca Ferguson, who has one of the most impressive resumes. And beautiful smiles. Thank you. Um, that I've ever seen. Um, Bianca, why don't you walk us through a little bit of your experience in accounting, um, and how you got to where you're at today. Okay.

Bianca Ferguson:

Definitely. I started accounting at a very young age, specifically in tax preparation. When I was about 14 or 15 years old, I used to go to the library with my mom and get tax forms because she used to do them by hand, right? You left that out. I didn't know that. I left that out. I don't know if I said that, but, um, she used to do them by hand and, I would assist her in preparation by writing it up and prepping it for her before her clients came in, and that gave me an affinity for tax preparation. And it also allowed me to understand, like, the 1040 and how all the schedules flowing to that fast forward. I was about 16 or 17 years old in the 11th grade and we were slated to graduate early because we had more than enough credits and it was a group of us. So our future business leaders of America teacher asked us if we wanted to be partnered with a local business and go to work. And then we trade that off by going to school half a day and working a half a day. So I was paired with the accountant. CFO at City Hall. His name was Raymond Harris and he played a pivotal role in my life. He ended up becoming my mentor. So, um, I'll get deep down into that story. But what happened was I worked there for two year years, then went off to college. But going to college, I thought I was gonna be a social worker. I was in freshman seminar, right? And so in freshman seminar, they was like, as a social worker, you can make$28,800 a year. And I was like, no. That won't be my life. I'm not. I couldn't imagine making 28, 800 a year. Right. And, um, this was 1998. So I already had this life plan for myself where it included making 28, 000. So I called Raymond. Um, the. Then CFO and I asked him, I was like, Hey, you know, how much do accountants made, how, how much am I slated to make? And at that time he was like about 70, 000. You may start off at 55, 000, 60. I was like, okay, that's more like it. I went down to the registrar's office, changed my major immediately. I thought I wanted to be a social worker because of my passion for people. Right. I love people. I want everybody to be okay. And I'm naturally an empath. So I thought that. I thought that was my way in, but I really, I can't help them if I'm poor. Like I just, I just can't help them if I'm poor. Right. And so then, um, really breezed through school in accounting, ended up graduating in, uh, with a bachelor's science in accounting and business management. Then subsequently later on, I ended up getting an MBA and a master's of science in accounting. But, uh, When I graduated from college, I went to visit Raymond at City Hall and ask him what he was doing and he was like, Hey, I'm running for mayor. Do you want to come work for me? And I'm like, sure. And I went in and I went to work for the budget, as the budget manager, already familiar with the systems and the processes, because if you're familiar with The late 90s in the early 2000s, we had mass 90, right? So mass 90, our system wasn't integrated. So the general ledger was a standalone ledger where we had to get information from the tax department, the water department, fees and fines, and then put them in a GL. So we had these large green tabular spreadsheets that we put all the cash in and everything calculated and then input it in the general ledger. But what I didn't realize what's happening there that it really prepared me for theory and application meeting, right? So it allowed me to understand what's the theory of accounting and how do I apply to real world situations and all of that stuff. And I think that's missing now because everything's so integrated, but it wasn't back then. And, you know, all of these systems that we have now wasn't really that popular in the late 90s. Yeah. So then, um, he ran for mayor. He won. He asked me at 24 years old to be his CFO. I told him absolutely not. I'm way too young. This is politics. And I didn't believe that I was prepared for it. But after a couple city council's meeting, didn't understand how actually prepared I really was by, you know, answering all of the questions, supporting the gentlemen that got into that role. And then one of the council members, they told Raymond, they was like, She's really sharp. You know, we should really consider her in that position. So then about a year later, I took the position as, you know, the youngest CFO to hold that position and held it for about six years. And, you know, really, um, Raymond to like believing in me and seeing me and not looking at me as an individual that was just young, but someone that was very capable of doing the job. So, you know, I just think him so much. And so that role as a CFO at that young define my career after that. So, you know, I had the opportunity to move on to a bigger city, become budget manager. Went on to AIG and was able to work on an accounting team that actually was outsourced. And I used to travel to India to teach the accountants process flows and SOPs and all of that stuff. Then, um, later on, I went work for this healthcare company and became the controller there. And my last corporate job was Rice University, where I helped them process map their workflow flow. So that Banner met Oracle next week and they could have got rid of their antiquated accounting system. So in a nutshell, that was my corporate career and going from just a young person like helping out, helping her mom out to working with the mayor, the CFO, then mayor, and then just really had an amazing career in accounting all while I actually had clients on the side that I did books for, right? bookkeeping, my family and friends taxes. Uh, before I took it really, really serious, I used to do about 70 tax returns a year and probably had about 10 monthly clients and then on my own within one year, I went from 70 tax returns to 260 tax returns. And then I went from 10 monthly clients to 75 monthly clients. And I was like, wait, hold up. I need help. That all happened in one year. Right. Yeah. And each year since 2020, I have doubled the amount of tax returns that I do. My client roster is well over 1500 people at this point. And it's just that go ahead. Then just finish your sentence. It's just that I just believe that if I build it and I show up as myself and authentic and give people what I know that I needed and what I believe that they needed, that they would see the value in what I was providing.

KC Brothers:

Yeah. Um, okay. So you've doubled. Um, but does that also mean that you're spending double amount of time? Cause I know you're passionate about technology and being efficient.

Bianca Ferguson:

Yes. So how canopy came into play because I doubled and I wasn't ready. Right. It was so quick that, you know, I started off Keeping my clients on spreadsheets and everybody had a Google drive, a Google folder where they would, I would share the information with them. They would put it in there and then send me an email notifying me that it was there. Then I also started using another software when I thought that when I brought employees on that, I could track tasks in that software, but that proved to be. Inefficient because we weren't able to really talk to each other in the software and make notes on their accounts. And, you know, when my administrative assistant, someone would call, there was nowhere to document the call without sending multiple emails and spreadsheets. And even if we did that, it wasn't connected to the client, right? Okay. So after doing research and software, best accounting software for practices, then Canopy came into play. I've been using Canopy for, since 2020. And I've literally grown with Canopy, like all of the changes and everything to see them come to fruition and to increase efficiency, I feel like that's the only way that I've been able to scale the way I have is because, um, Having canopy as a central hub where I can collect information, retrieve information and pass on information to my clients all at one time without having to send multiple emails and multiple requests and keeping the task recurrent allowed me to, you know, grow efficiently as well.

KC Brothers:

Yeah. Um, and not that we need to make this about canopy by any means. We, I appreciate all of your glowing remarks, um, but it does make me think. So. Something that I have done in my career, but I don't do it that often. And I think accountants do it even less often than I do it. And that is evaluating software. Um, I even did it recently, um, and made myself a Google sheet, put all the vendors that I was evaluating, tried to put some semblance of capabilities together so that I could track who did what and who did what better and who I was going to like and so on and so forth. But it got really easy to blur who was who and, and try and make the best decision. And, um, what advice do you have to accountants, especially those who, I mean, we, at least our, our sales reps at Canopy do run into people who have not evaluated software for 10 to 15 years.

Bianca Ferguson:

No, I constantly evaluate software and have evaluated software, and that's why I feel like I can make informed decisions. And I know this is not about Canopy, but Canopy has really changed the way I've done business. And I've also became a resource for other accountants because I felt like, I feel like I did all of this for them. So that you all don't have to go through the things that I've gone through. So I'm telling you why canopy is superior to others. You know, if you name a software out there, I've tested because I'm pro technology. Right. And I feel like we can spend a lot of time thinking and being analytical by letting software and technology do those redundant tasks and create efficiency so that I can give my clients more of me. And I feel like the software, Allows you to do that when you have a software that's in tune with what you're doing. Now I would say the biggest challenge for a growing accountant is to understand your workflow, understand your tasks. What are your offering? Because you can have a software as amazing as. Canopy or you can have a tax home or any of these practice management by Intuit any of these other software. But if you don't have your processes in place and you have not process map your processes, then no software would work. But what I do like in this software that I use often is the prebuilt templates, right? And that gives a new accountant or a novice person that really don't understand and just want to start off small on, Hey. They may not have the corporate experience as I have to put all of these things together, but at least they have a roadmap on when I get a client, this is where I start from. So I feel like the education part built, built in that allows people to have a leg up as well.

KC Brothers:

Yeah. And you're so right. Um, to encourage people to reflect, be more introspective on their business, the way they conduct business, the way they interact with each other is affirmed upon how many four members there are before maybe even evaluating software because you can Get lost. And I say this because I've done it myself in how a product looks or in a feature that you're like, I have to have that. Um, but when you step back and you're saying, okay, well, this is what I'm trying to accomplish. These are the steps I need to follow, or here's how I can even, um, tighten things up and rework my processes before getting a new software kind of helps you to, especially if you're, you already do have. Some sort of software in place takes you out of the, um, specific specifics of how that software functions to help you get what you are getting done and more in a position to have and puts you more in a position to have the software work for you instead of you working for the software.

Bianca Ferguson:

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's software. Yes, but technology too, right? Cause I found myself at a crossroad earlier this year where I, uh, Literally ask Chad GPT. I gave them all of my statistics, my demographics. I was like, Hey, I'm an accounting, I'm in an accounting firm in Paraland, Texas. I make revenue of X amount of dollars. I have X amount of clients and I have X amount of employees. How could I create a lean and efficient accounting firm and what positions I need? To make sure that I'm running the firm efficiently and how much I pay those people rude awakening, right? When I tell you When I tell you That it spit out the best the best Structure that I could have imagined and then clearly like being someone who ran, you know, accounting departments and understand like the workflow. I immediately saw my holes. I immediately saw where my backlog was happening at. Why everything ended up on my desk because what I didn't create was a high option. Hierarchical structure. I had created a flat structure right where I had these accountants and I had these tax people, but I didn't have, you know, that tax manager and that controller and that extra layer of things to stop before it gets to me or even that position. Something as like having a firm administrator that. It's all they do all day long because we receive so much email is direct the flow of traffic and canopy, creating engagements and make sure the accountants and tax preparers have what they need. So that includes triaging the inbox, right? Attaching this to a task, making sure that it flows correctly, um, notifying an individual that, Hey, you know, these people have uploaded this. This is ready to go. Maybe changing the status on a workflow and. It changed the amount of hours that I spent in the business because I'm every day I was literally doing about 14 hours a day because if no one Yeah,

KC Brothers:

it's just not sustainable, no matter who you are, what your other life, um, obligations are, I guess if you really, really love it, but still like there's so many things that Other parts of life to love and participate in that. You don't need to. And being 2024, you don't need to. Yeah, you just don't need to. Yeah. If you want

Bianca Ferguson:

tshirt,

KC Brothers:

go ahead,

Bianca Ferguson:

No, no. Lemme tell you, Mondays, I don't work on a Monday I'm actually like reading emails and managing my week on a Monday, and on a Friday I'm closing things, right? Mm-Hmm. So now I, it's so much easier for me by using. AI and technology and actually seen the due dates and what I have to do versus guessing or doing it on a, um, a task tablet or something like that. So I'm just. I love where I'm at right now in my practice, especially with the new branding and a transition and all of that. I just feel good about going into next tax season for the first time with not a whole bunch of backlog like I would normally have. So yeah, it's great. And the, what's unique about my firm is that we don't close in April. We don't close in September. It's year round and we literally prepare taxes. all year long and it doesn't stop for us until November 30th when the IRS closes their e file system down and then third week in January, I'm back at it. So I've been blessed, but at the same time, I needed a way to rein in all of the success and make sure that, um, I got control of it because growing too quickly could be definitely harmful.

KC Brothers:

Yeah. Yeah. Because then you can lose, um, The understanding of what's going on, um, making sure that you're refining processes and scaling appropriately. Growing pains are tough. Um, but to your point, technology can alleviate a lot of that. Um, you, you have also talked to me, um, about your passion for attracting, um, people into accounting. Um, I know we mentioned this, um, in a separate conversation, but you mentioned, and I bring it up because we're talking so much about utilizing software technology advancements, period, to be efficient. Um, but you have a worry with that, don't you, with incoming talent.

Bianca Ferguson:

We still need people, right? Because you can't take the people factor out of it. My biggest worry is that the mask exited us out of our field because there's a lot of baby boomers are ready to retire and but the entrants that are coming into accounting, it, it's a lot. Outgoing people far outpace how many people that's coming in. I think per year for the next couple of years, there's gonna be like 67, 000 people that's leaving the field a year, but with only about 10 to 17, 000 people coming in. So I are really feel the pains of accounting because Small firms such as myself are now competing with big four because when an accountant got out, you know, they made a salary of 50, 000 now they're paying people 65 75 80, 000 year one accountants that never done anything a day in their life You know, it's coming out with those salaries. So my, my whole thing was, how do we get more people into accounting? We have such a negative status. stigma about the personality of an accountant, right? Nobody thinks it's cool. Nobody thinks it's sexy and great to be an accountant and when most people meet me for the first time. They always tell me, wow, you're in a council with a whole bunch of personality, right? You know, you're not stiff, you're very personable, you're, you're fun, you're lively. And I'm, and I'm like, I think that people don't enter the field because they think that we're linear, right? And so we're linear in terms of making sure that the data gets done. We interpret it, but most of us, both sides of our brain work because from a creative standpoint, I love interior design, you know, and I'm an artist. I paint, you know, I. Decorate houses and all of that stuff. But if we can make our feel more attractive because it's very lucrative, it's very lucrative, right? And get people that have a passion for financials and wealth generation and like really like knowing the numbers and being intuitive enough to know that, you know, accounting is very, um, it evolves, especially when it comes to the tax side of it, that how you have to literally make sure that you're keeping up with the changes in tax law. All the time, right? And I feel like if we can get people to become proud of that and see themselves in those positions by someone that's aiding and assisting in helping somebody that we can. Get more talent in. Right. So, yeah. So what I did in my business is created a training ground for people that's interested in becoming accountants. They can literally come here and intern here and, you know, set with me and I literally helped them out. I had a student that passed the CPA exam. I'm very excited about that. Um, we did his homework together just to make sure that he understood like what it was to be. In the real world and accounts it because what I didn't have was in school was a lot of people that looked like me and that was willing to become an accountant. I just had my mentor who was an absolutely amazing person that saw me and say, Hey, you know, you can do this. Even when I thought, Oh, no, I'm just going to help people. I'm going to make their lives better. So, yeah.

KC Brothers:

Yeah.

Bianca Ferguson:

Yeah. I think. I'm going to say this not to cut you off. I feel like computers and technology and AI will, will not measure up to what a person standing, sitting in front of you and being able to articulate when you don't understand or give real world scenarios. So I am not worried about us being replaced or anything like that. We just need to leverage what we have to create more jobs in accounting.

KC Brothers:

Yes, 100%. I mean, like, it's like if you have People who are working for you who aren't a CPA yet. You're taking on the risk of them doing the work. You have to check it. Same thing with technology, like probably still best practice to check everything, but it saves you the time, right? It does the heavy lifting, um, and, and can really, like we've talked this whole time, increase efficiencies in your firm. Um, I think that too, though, I don't know if this gets talked enough about though, how that mentality, this. passion for software technology efficiency. is a huge attribute of you and your firm that attracts talent. We have a lot of the industry that, um, whether they're in a position where they're like, well, I'm going to retire in a few years anyway. Why should I shake it up? Or, you know, whatever the case may be, or they're like, I'm comfortable with this that works, even though we're frustrated. We can't be here this all the time about some legacy softwares. Why, what is your opinion on, or what would you say to them as to why they should abandon the comfort or, or disregard the fact that they're going to retire soon and saying, no, yesterday was the best day to plan and treat. The next best day is today. So get on your software journey.

Bianca Ferguson:

I think time is the greatest, greatest teacher, right? I've had the opportunity to experience that in real world, when, um, We did the implementation when I was working for the city and how all of the older people was so scared of the computers that they were willing to retire instead of staying there to improve their jobs. And the ones that did stay realize how, you know, easier it made their, their jobs and all of that stuff. So I just feel like, you know, just, I, I'm always of the, The notion and the feeling that I want to leave things better than what I received them as. Right. So if I have to learn something new, because learning something new makes you a better person anyway. Right. So it makes you more knowledgeable, rounded. And so I want to know all the things. Right. And so if I can leverage technology and give people a better situation than I had, I'm definitely going to do that. Now, how do we get everybody to buy in on those things is beyond me. I haven't quite figured that out yet. But. We can, we can start there for sure. Right. And then realizing and showing them how it impacts them specifically. And that could be less hours work, keeping your same salary and just looking at productivity over time when I'm leveraging technology. So basically showing them a picture, taking a snapshot, showing them where they're at now and showing them where they could be.

KC Brothers:

Yeah, and change is never easy, change in any aspect of life, but for the most part when done right and thoughtfully, and even to your point of like, you know, like, like, let's not necessarily make this about software technology. Let's take a step back, look at our firm and our processes, our operations, and then find the best software to, to work with. layer on top. Um, I lost my thought there, but you know, oh, here's where I was going. Um, that change can still, it might still be hard, but not as difficult as it has to be, you know, when you approach it the right way.

Bianca Ferguson:

All right. I totally agree.

KC Brothers:

Yeah. Anyway. Well, thank you, Bianca. It's been a delight chatting with you. Thanks for joining us on the podcast.

Bianca Ferguson:

You're welcome. Anytime.