We spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about the importance of moving into new service offerings, trying new technologies, AI, and other innovations, but today we wanted to take a step back and consider the basics. After all, if you don’t get the basics right, should you really be thinking about more advanced or complex strategies?

As we reach the end of the tax year in South Africa, we wanted to revisit some of the most important basic things businesses should have in place to help their clients.

We are joined by Damian Baker, Head of Cloud Accounting at Outsourced CFO - OCFO for short. OCFO provides integrity and professional excellence in financial consulting for ambitious SMEs. Their aim is to help clients rethink, automate and scale their companies in the pursuit of business eminence.

Today we are joined by the Founder and CEO of RTA, Fanie Meades. Fanie has helped countless business owners navigate their numbers through difficult times. We discuss the following:

• A bit about Fanie's journey and how he maintains a positive attitude
• Understanding client needs
• Maintaining client relationships
• Key observations or advice Fanie can provide to clients
• The role of technology in assisting clients
• The skills future accountants will need to build to facilitate strong client relationships

You can find out more about RTA here:https://rta.co.za/

Today, we are speaking to Chris Giannopoulos, a Product Engineer at Syft Analytics, about his experience of moving from data science to working in the product team at an accounting software company.

Some of the topics we cover include:

• The advantages of studying data science
• The experience of moving into product engineering
• The power of collaborating in product engineering - from working with Customer Success to improving the product roadmap alongside Design and the Development team
• How accountants can consider improving their services following similar principles to product engineering
• The fine balancing act of developing a product to meet customer needs and expectations
• The importance of soft skills & Excel skills in the workplace
• The power of saying Yes as a new employee
• The influence of AI on work

As mentioned, Syft Campus has a free Excel course here: campus.syftanalytics.com/p/excel-and-google-sheets-basics-course-outline