Roman Discusses Transformation with Right Networks CEO, Joel Hughes

Transform your firm

Watch Right Networks CEO, Joel Hughes and Roman Kepczyk, Director of Firm Technology Strategy for Right Networks discuss how accounting solutions in the cloud can help firms automate their systems and increase their productivity. Increased automation is allowing firms to change their business model to so they can offer more strategic and business advisory services.

Joel Hughes: So at Right Networks, we’ve been focused on building an applications ecosystem that’s enabled by data transfer. Today, an example would be just to get data into your QuickBooks solution, generally is done largely manually. People are typing it in. They may have it in spreadsheets. It may be in other applications, but increasingly what we’ve been doing is investing in technology that automates that for people. So using Transaction Pro as an example, they can import Excel spreadsheets data, or CSV data directly into their QuickBooks software.

Transaction Pro

The beauty of Transaction Pro is pretty much every application will dump your data in a CSV. So if you’re typing data in from any application, you could be doing that with Transaction pro more rapidly, save yourself time. That being said, you still have to do the work, or you’ve got an export from application X. You’ve got to find the CSV. You’ve got to import it to QuickBooks using Transaction Pro, it’s still a big savings over manual.

AutoFi

However, most of what’s happening is data’s being taken out of applications that needs to be in QuickBooks. And what AutoFi does is provide APIs that allow these application developers to automatically synchronize their data directly to QuickBooks. So the user doesn’t have to do anything. For example, Expensify is a time and expense management application a lot of people use. A lot of those same people are using QuickBooks. They like to have that data just transfer from the person who was in the field, putting their expenses in. I’m in Salt Lake right now, I’m putting my expenses in while I’m on the road. I want that data in QuickBooks, back at the HQ automatically. It shouldn’t have to be put into a file and import it.

So AutoFi allows the application developer, in this case, Expensify, immediately deliver data into the QuickBooks file, for Right Networks. So really all that manual process and even the human interaction, or human intervention necessary to make that happen disappears, and the applications talk to each other seamlessly. And what that means for our clients, their data can be synchronized 24/7. So QuickBooks to all their third party applications, hundreds of applications. And to the independent software vendors who wrote those applications, it allows them to lower their costs to support QuickBooks Desktop users in our cloud.

Roman Kepczyk: What do you see as the challenges that firms are facing out there today?

Joel Hughes: I think we see firms looking at two things for their transition toward consultative services. One is changing to some extent their business model, which I think is not something we get involved in too much directly with Right Networks. But I’d say it has to be supported by technology, which is where we come into play. And I think that means that automation has to happen throughout their business, so they can free up time to deliver new services, not do as many transactional services. Deliver planning and business advisory services.

Roman Kepczyk:: So Joel, as we talk about this transformation of our profession from being compliance-oriented, to more consultative as a trusted advisor, what’s Right Network’s doing to help our clients?

Joel Hughes:: We’re investing in products, I think, that we can put into our cloud that drive automation. So Transaction Pro and AutoFi are good examples of those, allowing data transfer to happen. And in general, enabling a platform, a cloud platform, which gives data rapidly to the users so they can put their brain power behind it. And it’s not just delivering reports, but it’s really enabling data availability, first for the rear view mirror and in the future, looking forward.