Editor's Note: This is another installment in our ongoing series highlighting this year's Insightful Accountant's Top 100 ProAdvisors. We will continue to introduce you to our winners—checking in on their insights regarding a wide range of topics, including what it is like to be a leader in their profession, how to stay on top and what the future holds.
For Jim Wells, it was all about the leap of faith. After working at Deloitte for several years, and then a long stint as a controller for a large company, he admittedly wasn't satisfied working for large businesses.
So, when the Intuit QuickBooks ProAdvisor program came along in the early 2000s, he jumped on it—taking what he now calls a leap of faith. The move was a springboard for a newfound career in consulting with small- to mid-sized (SMB) businesses.
A Certified QuickBooks® ProAdvisor with 20-plus years of accounting experience, Jim continues to work on developing his craft. As the owner of LedgerFix, he helps entrepreneurs alleviate the drudgery and complexity often associated with financial accounting. LedgerFix's mission is to provide cost-effective and reliable accounting assistance to small businesses that use QuickBooks® as their financial accounting software.
In addition, four years ago, he invested in an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) company to further align my interests in software automation for the SMB market.
We sat down with Jim to get his thoughts on being one of the leaders in his profession, as well as what he sees in the space moving forward.
Give us a snapshot of your business.
After working at Deloitte for several years, and then a long stint as a controller for a large company, I was never really satisfied working with large businesses. When the Intuit QuickBooks ProAdvisor program came along in the early 2000s, I took a leap of faith that it would provide an excellent launch pad for a consulting practice that focuses on small to mid-sized businesses.
I also joined the QuickBooks Solution Provider (QSP) program when it was introduced to further align my practice with all the Intuit product offerings. Twenty years later, I’m happy to report I made the right choice with both programs.
Additionally, about four years ago I invested in an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) company to further align my interests in software automation for the SMB market.
How does the award fit into your overall business mission statement?
Because we deal exclusively with small- to mid-sized businesses, it aligns perfectly with our overall mission of helping these organizations reach their true potential without getting overwhelmed with the back-office accounting processes that exist today.
How will you leverage the honor in your continued success?
Being a past recipient of the Top 100 award, I have included that designation in many areas of our marketing plan like websites, social media, email signatures and other branding. It is a very important part of our name recognition with clients.
What are some of your strategies/initiatives for 2022? Business? Personal?
With our iPaaS technology, we are focusing our software solution to eliminate double entry accounting between SAAS based systems like QuickBooks Online and other cloud-based solutions (like POS or CRM systems) that need more functionality than just import/export workflow.
We also are finding many in the franchise space that are looking to integrate multiple systems to their back office and our technology allows them to keep their existing technology stack yet still have everything talk to each other. A bonus is our customizable reporting that allows for top-down visibility into their franchise operations with multiple layers of permissions for both franchisee and franchisor.
I personally feel our place in the market is timed well for the next few years.
Being a past recipient of the Top 100 award, I have included that designation in many areas of our marketing plan like websites, social media, email signatures and other branding. It is a very important part of our name recognition with clients.
What are some of the biggest issues/trends impacting the accounting space today?
With any accounting focused business (especially in the accounting technology space) I think automation of workflow is top of mind for everyone. We have all these amazing cloud-based solutions now and business owners are much more comfortable with having their data in a cloud environment, but bottlenecks remain, so eliminating those will be in high demand for years to come.
What is the biggest item on your to-do list right now?
We currently have a major automation project going on for a large franchise network, so in addition to handling our consulting practice for existing clients we are laser focused on getting that integration completed so individual franchisees can use our automated solution.
What are your expectations for 2022 and beyond?
As noted before, I expect the trend to continue with automation and AI plays a big part in making that a reality. We use AI in our platform today in order to help with common mistakes during the integration process, so our client’s accounting processes get smarter the more they use it.
What is the best piece of advice you can offer your clients today?
Automate as much as you can so you can focus on the “why” of your business.
What was the best advice you ever received?
Help others achieve their goals and you will realize yours.
Is there a story/anecdote you can share that really sums up the work you do for your clients?
We have had some nice wins this past year that have proven our concept to be valuable to the SMB space. Recently, we created a complete workflow automation tool for a franchisor with thousands of franchisees that use both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online as their back-office accounting system.
With a few clicks these franchisees can onboard themselves with our platform and have their entire technology stack communicating and updating one another automatically.
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