Collaborative Accounting with FreshBooks

Today, our guest is Laura Crean. Laura is Partner Program and Education Manager for FreshBooks’ Accounting Partner Program. That’s a mouthful, but she does a lot. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Laura and we’ve run into each other a couple of different times at conferences this year. Laura and FreshBooks will be at the Bridging the Gap Conference, which is coming up July 22nd, which is two weeks from when this will be released. Looking forward to seeing her again there. And just wanted to say, before we jump into this, FreshBooks is also our Diamond Sponsor at the conference. Very excited to have them there. Laura and I were talking a little beforehand and it’s their big coming out year with new software and new programs and everything. So that’s a little bit what we’re going to talk about today. That being said, Laura, welcome to The Unique CPA. 

Thank you so much, Randy. Yes, again, we have run into each other at every single city in the US so far since the conference circuit started, but thank you so much for having us on and being able to talk about where FreshBooks is at, where it’s come from, and what we’re doing at Bridging, which we’re very excited to be coming to. 

We’re very excited about that too. So before we even do that, let’s just, I gave you a quick intro. You want to give us a little more, maybe background on you and what you’re doing? 

I will indeed, yes. Uh, hailing from Ireland, I moved over to Canada about seven years ago. I trained with EY, I did the long hours, I was in financial services, and I just thought there was a bit more that I could do as an accountant from that side, especially from the small business side. I moved on over to Canada in 2017, thought I found my dream job as a project accountant in a renewable energy company. Got that job, found out it wasn’t my dream job and who comes in like a knight in shining armor, but it was on a white horse, it was FreshBooks and they were having an opening for people who wanted to work in their support team and they needed people with accounting experience. So me as a chartered accountant jumped at that spot. 

So in the last three and a half years, I’ve been at FreshBooks, I have gone from a support specialist to the partner program manager. And so I’ve seen it all. I’ve been on the front line. I’ve talked to people, I’ve heard about their issues, I’ve heard about their business’ issues, and now FreshBooks, after going the Accounting Partner Program, we are now helping our accountants. We are definitely, 2024 is our coming out year for many, many reasons, but we’re excited to be here. 

Yeah, it’s, I honestly can’t imagine you sitting at a desk working long hours in a—

Why not? 

You’ve got way too much energy. I can’t, I know I can’t do it. I did it for a while. I know it’s, it wasn’t for me. And it doesn’t have to be that way in our profession either, but I just don’t, I don’t see it for you.

I think for a lot of people, it’s like, it’s people say there’s something you have to go through. You have to go through busy season. I had to, I was in audit for financial services. We had the January 31st deadline,  the February 28th deadline, and then the April 30th deadline, so I – they knew my coffee order. They had my coffee order ready at 7am every morning when I went in. But I think for a lot of accountants, it doesn’t have to be that way, you don’t have to train that way. Think like, I say, I like that I have, I know that there’s another side to accounting and that side, and I was very happy in there to be so immersed in what was going on, but I know right now as a person, who is now, that was nine years ago, and I hope when I got qualified and I got my exams, but I certainly would not be able to do the same, but maybe I’ve gotten better organization, maybe fitting a lot more in. And as for the energy thing, I gave up coffee. 

I was gonna say! Alright!

So I don’t know. I gave up coffee about seven years ago when I moved to Canada and now I’m on two cups of tea a day. That’s it. I think it’s like getting the energy. I don’t know about you, but there’s some joy about, I don’t spring out of bed every morning and go, yeah, let’s do some debits and credits! But I do get a lot of energy at like conferences like Bridging the Gap, when I talk to people, when I talk to our advisory council in FreshBooks or it’s called Freshback. When we talk to other accountants. I think working in this Accounting Partner Program or any Accounting Partner Program, when you speak to accountants, they know they’re not speaking at you, but with you. And that’s what we’re trying to do in partner programs. And I see a lot of vendors, a lot of tech vendors do the same. But I am energized by somebody else’s energy. I get excited when they say, this is what I want to do. I’m looking for an alternative software. I’m looking to do advisory. So I can’t help that people like you and other people bring out my energetic side!

No, and I agree completely because Bridging the Gap Conference wouldn’t exist without all the ideas and energy I’ve gotten from everybody else. One of the big concepts of this conference was, I get to talk to people on the podcast, and I get to learn all this really cool stuff, and seeing the innovative things people are doing, and the amazing ways they’re trying to change the profession. And I’m like, we need to highlight this. Let’s make a conference that’s going to go show all this. And so for me, that was a key thing. 

Yeah, it’s great. It’s great that you’ve given people, even when you talk about the different things that’s going on, I mean, learning about FreshBooks, and I know for this conference circle, and certainly it’s not, it’s going to happen again, it’s like, where has FreshBooks evolved from? A lot of people may not know this, but FreshBooks has been around for about 20 years. And people are like, what? What? From an accounting perspective, we were around as an invoicing platform first, and it did everything for business owners. It did their estimates, it did recurring expenses, it did their invoicing, which is, again, an invoicing platform.

However, accounting professionals probably didn’t love it as much as business owners because, and I hate saying this, it was a single entry system. But let’s put this in the past, leave it in the past, because that’s where it is now. Because ever since 2016 we evolved, we became a double entry system on that side. And throughout the last few years, when it came to up until 2023, and I’ll pause there because our new innovation came out in 2023, but up until there, we’ve been adding it. 

We wanted FreshBooks to be a software that business owners and accounting professionals both loved. We’ve been spending the last few years building up from there, becoming a full GL, adding those features in on that side. And then when that happens, when both of them were in there together, we didn’t want to take away the software from business owners and just have accountants in there. We wanted them to work together. And that started the evolution from the invoicing platform to a full GL to the concept of Collaborative Accounting. So that was our big launch. I see your face right now. You’re just like, I know that word!

Collaborative Accounting. Yes. I’ve heard that a few times. You mentioned the evolution was going on until the big, basically, release party or event, what was it, last March or something? 

It was, uh, it’s October 3rd. 2023. 

Wow! It was the fall, wasn’t it? 

Yeah. It was a super, super thing. And we’ll talk in a second of why Randy knows what went on in that day as well. But yeah, October 3rd, we came together. So what happened, and I will give a shout out right now, the Collaborative Accounting Framework, at least the idea came from [inaudible]. And then she brought it to me to help write a certification on that side and also build our FreshBooks Academy. So the launch itself wasn’t a new feature, new software. It was just a new way of working together, the accounting partner and their clients working together in one software to make things better, to make things more efficient, in order to make their lives better, to get more efficient in their workflows and for accountants to do what they want to do, which is maybe advisory, maybe interpreting data, and maybe not the data entry side, which we think the business owners can do.

That’s what happened on October 3rd in 2023. We launched Collaborative Accounting Framework. We launched FreshBooks Academy, which is our learning management system, which will house everything from our certifications, our webinars, our video library and everything like that. But it definitely was as FreshBooks grew ever since back in 2003, that’s why when we said that 2024 is our coming out year. Coming up with a concept like that, seeing what’s happening in the accounting industry, everything from issues hiring, everything from wanting to go into advisory, wanting to go into CAS services. These are things that are coming up hard and strong, and we wanted to bring an alternative solution or a solution we think works best for everyone and that being the Collaborative Accounting Framework. Collaborative Accounting is not a new feature in FreshBooks. It honestly brings together technology and workflows to make it best in class and the best client experience and user experience for you as an accounting professional and their clients. 

Okay. So Collaborative Accounting. And you know, when I heard the word, I’m like, okay, what does this mean? Because I was part of that. I was watching that big event on October 3rd. I can’t believe I thought it was March. Man! But I was watching that event and it sounded, now you said it’s not a new feature, but is there new tools within the program that like, allows you to match this back and forth? Okay, I just put this in, I don’t know if I put it in the right spot. Ask your accountant this. Is there something like that facilitates the collaboration? 

Yeah. Okay. So the way I kind of break it down for people is like, let’s start at the pain point and where we ended up. So we noticed that we still have our features, we’re in accounting, we’re full GL software now on this side. We know that the work you do as an accounting professional, so you have your bookkeeping, you have tax prep and tax planning. These all ladder up to advisory, but there is challenges, challenges chasing down your client for inputs. Like I have seen, Randy, I have seen what client portals look like. I can see the requests that go through. They are clear. They’re asking them for an event in time and, but the client maybe misses this. They might turn around and say, I don’t know what to do. They may be unable to set up the accounting software, they may be afraid to do the work, and then they leave it and leave it, which causes us accountants quite a scare when it comes to January until March, oh sorry, until April next year, and it’s just like, how can we make this better?

So, the way we kind of approached it is a problem shared is a problem halved on that side. So that’s where Collaborative Accounting came from. Now I know we’re on a podcast right now, but you can’t really see what I’m doing, but imagine the face of a clock. What you have is we’ve split it in, all the features that we have in FreshBooks, and all the tasks as well. We suggest or recommend that the business owner does the pre-accounting tasks. So they do estimates and proposals. They do their projects. They track time for payroll. They do the invoicing and collections or payments. And they also make sure that their expenses are coming in. Why do we say this? They know their business best, to send out the proposals and to collect, you know, they want to build the relationships with their customers. So they should be sending the invoices. They know their team best. So that’s why they can make sure that it’s their responsibility to look after time tracking, things that need to be rebuilt, things that need to go in for payroll, and all on that side. 

And on the other side of the clock is our accounting tasks. So once they’re finished those tasks, the pre-accounting tasks, that’s when you come in, or accounting professionals, looking after what happens at the end. So this is everything from reviewing the bank rec, making some changes with journal entries, interpreting financial results, and then turning those results into advisory, turning them into more meaningful results on that side. So that’s what the Collaborative Accounting Framework is. It’s giving responsibility to both the business owner and also to the accounting as well. It empowers the business owner to know what’s going on in their business, to feel like it’s not something that they have to step outside and be like, listen, I just want to know what’s happening today in my business. Can I apply for that loan? Can I, do I need to cut costs? Can I hire contractors? And what it does for the accountant is that they don’t have to worry about adding that back entry. They can go in there. They know everything’s in on time, again, because the business owner’s empowered to do so. So they’d be able to take on those high value advisory tasks.

You don’t have to go fully into advisory, but you have that option. Again, it leads to efficiency. It leads to less stress on that side. And you know, every time you go into FreshBooks or to accounting software that you have real data on that side. So to bring it back to your question on that side, it’s like, what is it itself? The Collaborative Accounting Framework is about setting up from the start, who’s responsible for what tasks, how much work they’re going to take on, or you’re going to take on, and it’s communication. So clarity and communication, and that’s what essence it is. 

And so what it starts off with is the education part, getting certified, becoming an Accounting Partner Program with FreshBooks. You get the training in our modules, in our certification, so that is about three hours in length. You get CPE as well. FreshBooks is a CPE, is a NASBA sponsor. You go in there, you learn about the product, you learn about the workflows, and then you got all this takeaway resources and materials for your clients as well. So this could be anything from your client’s onboarding pack, which you can weave into your own client portal. Things like you would pass over in the first meeting of onboarding with the client say, this is what you will be doing. This is how you do it. We give them checklists. We also give them a handover document, which is they’ve done all their tasks, the pre-accounting tasks. And what they say is like, this is done. I didn’t know about what I should do with that loan. And then they pass it over to the accountant. And then what happens at the end is once you’re done your work as the accounting professional, you go back and have a meeting with them with, listen, this is what I saw this month, this quarter, this period. This is how we can make it better. And then the cycle goes around again, leading to better insights. 

Yeah. And it facilitates the advisory end of things, which is the, I was gonna say buzzword, it’s not, it is the way we should be looking at this. It’s not necessarily a buzzword, but it is the way that clients want us working with them, was from an advisory standpoint. They don’t want us to be reporters. They want us to be advisors and affecting what’s happening. And so I think that helps facilitate that. That’s one reason I was really excited when I heard this being discussed. And with just the fact that we can’t, our profession and a lot of professions are not getting all the people that we want to get in. We’re a little shorthanded. Working collaboratively with our clients, collaboratively with our clients helps. That’s a really hard word. Collaboratively. Is it a word? I have no idea. 

It is a word, because you have to take your time with it, Randy. It’s a word that needs to be, you need to hear it, you need to sound it out, and you can certainly not say it twice in one sentence because I always trip over it too.

No, I have trouble with that, I have trouble with, I think I got past entrepreneurial, I think I say it right now, there’s a few others that I can’t think of right now that I used to have problems with. But we’re going to go, collaboratively working together helps facilitate that whole relationship part of the process too, because, when we talk about pricing, there’s a big, again, I was going to say buzzword, but words out there about relationship pricing. And that, I think, helps facilitate that, because you’re now doing more of the advisor. So I love what you’re doing. Yeah, go ahead. 

100%. Like we, I know from my day in Ernst and Young, I remember every week doing my time, putting it in, the hours of day I’ve done always trying to push in as much hours as possible to look at the value we’re getting from it. Look how efficient they are. They don’t know that you’re working, still working in the wee hours of the morning, and still working on that side. But I do believe like moving to a value based pricing structure is great. I think that certainly with the world that it is today, people looking for their work-life balance, which we should always be looking for, both for your clients and both for yourself as well, I think you get a lot more done. You enjoy work a lot more. Again, we, when we go back to Collaborative Accounting, it’s all about working better, better working relationship with you, with your staff. We want people who are unsure about coming into the accounting industry, knowing that it’s not just a scary place for you to work 80 hours a week and things like that. It’s about going to help small businesses or to help any business, which is why I like doing it. It is about turning data into information. It’s about doing what you love. We’re fine with, I’m okay with working in an Excel spreadsheet or punching in some data, but I like when it comes to helping people, like fostering growth, helping people grow their business on that side. 

And a lot of people look like, FreshBooks is for small and medium sized businesses and for whatever accounting professionals serve them on that side. You’re in there because you’re probably the only person they work with. And they’re not working with a massive team or a Big Four or anything side. They’re working with you, someone who’s closer to the business, someone who can get really into the numbers. Someone that can help their business grow. And I think that’s so important.

Yep. Let’s talk about that then or expand on that a little bit because there are other accounting platforms out there that have been around a while as well. Why FreshBooks? What’s the difference? Who’s it for? Why don’t you give us a little, I don’t know if it’s a comparison or who is the best fit for FreshBooks?

FreshBooks is—I know what I always say about FreshBooks and people come to us. FreshBooks itself is an all-in-one solution for service based or project based businesses. Because like I said before, client experience, so crucial to have in there. It has proposals, invoices, payment platform, time tracking, payroll, accounting reports, you name it. And what it helps do is helps business owners, so in those service based, project based businesses to do the work that they need to do, and then the accounting professional that comes in looks after these businesses. 

Let’s think of some examples. We look after trades and contractors. We look after accounting firms because of the features we have there. We have creatives, digital agencies. And what the big thing here, and I think this is another misconception when it comes to FreshBooks, FreshBooks is just for invoicing. Myth. Or FreshBooks is just for freelancers or part timers. Myth. It is for a full business. So let’s for take, for example, you could be at any stage of your life cycle. You could be a part timer, but you could be a scaling business that’s over 200K in revenue as well. And even more, we definitely have business owners and companies on here that are quite large and that size in the small business realm. 

I know at this time that people may be looking for alternative platforms, alternative GL softwares and FreshBooks, like I said before, 2023, we did spend a lot of time building the team internally, getting everything from in the Accounting Partner Program from product, to community, to sales, to support on that side. And 2024 is our coming out year, which I think arrived just at the best time ever. However, some people might be afraid to move. It is a lot of work moving to a GL. You got all this historic data. You’re used to doing a workflow and in one way or the other. And you’re just like, I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to look at another way to do it. 

And we try to make it as easy as possible for people. We do have data migration to bring in historical data. We do have a team here, you get appointed a partner consultant, to help you every point of the way. We do have a dedicated accounting, support team, and what I mean by that is that, that’s where I started off, um, everybody in our accounting support team knows accounting. We talk the debits, we talk the credits, we talk the workflows, and we certainly work with them on that side. 

FreshBooks itself, and I hate making comparisons, but it is important as you consider a new GL or you’re looking to niche into another area like service-based businesses, which are our ideal clients, but you have a dedicated team with you. You’ll have one touchpoint the whole time, and we’ll take you from your onboarding with our certification all the way to ongoing office hours, resources and materials, fresh books, blog, you name it. And me usually talking on a lot of webinars as well. 

So you mentioned this before that you have one, you kind of talked, you mentioned it, but when the Collaborative Accounting release party happened, there was also the certification for Collaborative Accounting. Is that specifically what it is? 

That is, so we used to have our previous certification that I wrote was called the FreshBooks Accounting Partner Program. That was active from 2021 up until 3rd of October in 2023. And that really was, that was a 5 hour certification. You became a product expert after that. But it was quite long in that, and when I went to write this Collaborative Accounting Certification, not to cause any confusion, it’s not specifically, it doesn’t have to be taken specifically for Collaborative Accounting. It is woven into the certification. We like to break down, or what I like to do in the certification was break down each module. Yes, FreshBooks Academy is our LMS system. It houses our FreshBooks Collaborative Accounting Certification. That is a three hour certification which includes both product and the Collaborative Accounting Framework that’s woven through it. Some people, if they’re not ready to adapt or adopt to Collaborative Accounting, it still means you learn about the product itself. You still get your review questions in there. You get to see what FreshBooks is like through an accounting lens. And at the end, you get your CPE as well. And then those who do take it for a Collaborative Accounting purpose, they get all their onboarding materials. So you need in the checklist they have for their clients as well, in order to weave it into their business.

FreshBooks Academy, it also houses our video library. Again, I don’t know what learning style you like, Randy. Do you like the auditory, like we’re here on the podcast? Do you prefer visual? Do you want to do it? I put in all learning styles, in order to approach using FreshBooks for your clients. We’re a video library, to short, bite sized videos of what’s going on in your system through the accounting lens. And you get this afterwards, after you finish the certification and unlock those benefits after you become a certified partner. We also have our webinars. Our webinars are not just about Collaborative Accounting. We take them, everything from any Pink Cloud stuff, which is anything about the state of the industry right now, really down to like choosing your clients for FreshBooks, quality over quantity, whatever, you name it.

We like to provide a lot of different educational topics for our accounting partners because maybe we’re not just doing our month end, we’re looking at running a practice that we love or growing a practice that we love, through many different methods. And this could be anything from the technical side and working on software all the way to running your own business from the marketing side, from the HR side, we want to make sure that you’re growing a practice you love on that side.

Yeah. And that’s, I only have one issue with that is you do all these webinars and I don’t think I’ve been on one of them yet. I do webinars all the time. I’m waiting for this invite. 

You haven’t yet?

No, me as a speaker. Yeah. On the webinars. 

Yeah. What would be your topic of choice? 

My two big things lately have been firm culture, which you saw, right? Or did you not see? I can’t remember. 

I did. I could say that I did see it. I was working one of the booths at a conference that Randy was working at. I was trying to go get a cup of tea. He stopped me in the path, just outside the hotel and said, you better be coming to my—you better be coming to my talk! And I went, I left my booth, left my other person there. I sat and listened to you. It was a beautiful talk on culture. Again, if we come back to the work-life balance, which I’m a big advocate for as well, I’m a big advocate for mental health. I feel like we can be burnt out, especially in this world. I feel like you, especially in your job, and sometimes it’s difficult to see the light sometimes. And I think how you approach culture and how you approach, I think your other topic, what’s your other topic? 

Mental health and burnout, yeah. 

And mental health and that side, I think that would be something we’d have. So I’m gonna book you in for next week.

Alright, there you go. 

Perfect. Although a webinar doesn’t come together so quickly on that side, I think it definitely, you and I have the same things you wanna talk about and I know culture and values that FreshBooks share on that side, from the Accounting Partner Program side, everything that you want your results, but you also want to have transparency and honesty, and also fun as well. And that’s what you’re going to get. I should say now, can I plug my booth for Bridging the Gap? 

Yes! Yes. 

I’ll tell you right now, we have the biggest background banner that we actually had to go and ask your lovely team, I think it was Hailey, about if we broke the height restriction on it, so we didn’t, but we’re going to be there, there’s going to be, our product team is going to be there, I’m going to have a representative from sales. There’s going to be somebody from community there. We are front and center, so we can also hear what’s going on in all the sessions as well. I can’t wait to check out some of the sessions that are on this year. You’ve a nice group of people that I recognize, some of them being on our past Freshpack or Advisory Council. Some of them still on it now. I know Kristen Keats is doing something in that side. See Nayo’s there and Kenji and I’m just like, I’m looking forward to seeing them all. 

But what to expect at the booth is we’re going to talk products, we’re going to talk what’s going on your business. We want people to ask us about why FreshBooks, why would they choose to use FreshBooks or if they’re considering, we want to know why you’re considering another GL and what we can offer. Is it from the technical perspective? Is it from another partner program? You let us know. And there’s going to be fun too. 

Yeah. Fun’s important. I go to conferences for fun. Probably more so. You asked what my learning style is? My learning style is hanging out with other people and learning from them. That’s it. So you just taught me today and that’s what I like in conferences. It’s fun just hanging out with the people, getting to know what they’re doing and see the innovative things that are happening in this profession. 

What are you looking forward to in Bridging the Gap this year? I think that just meeting people I’ve met in the road, the conference circuit this year, because this is my first year doing conferences as part of the company. But everybody I’ve met since May of this year, I’ve kept in touch with, and I think a lot of people, I think a running thread is maybe you, Randy, or Bridging the Gap, or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s just, they’re good, the accounting profession is so much fun, there’s so many interesting people there, so many different solutions, and so many angles. 

Gone are the days of calculators. Gone are the days—although my calculator I can see right now on my desk, but gone are the days that we just have to talk about numbers. It’s a whole new—you’re just showing me a calculator right now. Okay, perfect. Mine, I actually have, I’m owning up to this right now. I did “borrow” this from Ernst and Young nine years ago and may have not given it back.

Don’t worry, they don’t listen to my podcast. 

They don’t? Okay. Maybe I’ll call in some favors. Who knows? Who knows? Bridging the Gap is going to be, I know it’s our last conference for the summer season, and I’m just, it’s going to be, I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to talking to people about what they need and solutions. I’m looking forward to talking to all the speakers. And I’m looking forward to just enjoying Chicago and seeing it at its best.  

And we really appreciate you being there. I’m excited. I’m just curious. You have, there’s a lot of conferences out there. There’s a lot you can go to, I guess, just to maybe help my ego a little bit: How did you decide on Bridging the Gap as one of your major sponsorships this year? 

That’s a great question, Randy. Thank you so much for asking it. Bridging the Gap—I don’t know, for people that haven’t signed up yet, you need to go to the website and every conference will state why, what is this conference about? Is it about CPE sessions, education? Is it about that? You state on your website “about,” this is about bringing together the accounting community. It’s about bringing, trying to find solutions in that side, but it’s also about work-life balance as well. And I know this has been a common thread running through it, but FreshBooks wants to partner, and wanted to sponsor, an event where we see ourselves in Bridging the Gap. I don’t know if that sounds too corny or anything like that, but we want to speak to people who are in this industry. They might want to find FreshBooks. We want people who are open minded and willing to listen to alternatives and solutions that may not be the favorite or be the best runner or however, whatever. But we also, the subjects that you talk about and the topics that are up for speaking as well, falls into what we do in the Accounting Partner Program. 

I mentioned before, we run the FreshBooks Academy. We have not only the certification, but we also do webinars as well. And when it comes to building an Accounting Partner Program in any of these softwares, being an accountant is not just, you have your clients, which again, lifeblood of your business on that side, but being in the accounting industry, and joining an Accounting Partner Program, you want to know that they’re there for you technically, that is, you have support for them, but you’re also getting a full rounded education, getting a full rounded sense of community. So this is why we are partnering with, we wanted to become a main sponsor of Bridging the Gap. It was always on the cards that we’re going to do it, and if anybody is considering going, or hasn’t bought their ticket or registered yet, I thoroughly recommend doing it, for having everything from the technical side and the support side and meeting vendors that have solutions for you, but all the way to meeting people, meeting your peers, having a good time, listening to very interesting talks that are very human and very personal as well, and knowing that we’re all here, we’re all in it together. And let’s do it. Let’s have some fun. 

Yeah. And I agree with the all in it together—I agree with everything you said, but the all in it together, we are, as an accounting profession or as a profession in general, we are very collaborative, to steal your word.

You’re welcome, you can borrow it. 

Thank you! We are. It’s not like we’re going to hide what we’re doing. We want everybody to be successful. There’s so much business out there. Why not elevate everybody together? And so that’s a big part. And then one thing that, just to expand on what you said about the conference: Vulnerability as well. There’s going to be a lot of vulnerability there, which I think it’s, to me, I’m not going to call myself a leader, but a leader’s quality, I think one of the biggest things you can have is vulnerability. And we have a session where we have a panel of people just talking about vulnerability as a strength and that. So those are the types of things. And then in addition, just having two and a half days of a wellness room, available with yoga and mindfulness and meditation that anybody can use anytime? I’m pretty excited about that. So yeah. 

I love that. Is that new for this year? 

No, we had it last year, actually. Same person.

Same person again. It’s such a good idea to have. There’s nothing better than starting your day off with a little stretch. If cats, if it works for cats, it works for us. Yes, I just compared the accounting industry to cats. Not the musical. Maybe the musical, not the movie. No, that’s a fantastic thing. Vulnerability, definitely a superpower. 

Yep. And then Kasidy, who runs the wellness room, she’ll be in there the entire conference, other than she is doing her own session. She was such a hit last year, we actually are going to have her speak on, in a session this year. And hers is The Happy, Healthy, Wealthy Accountant, Wellness Tips for Accountants with Kasidy Kersey. And I am looking forward to her session as well this year. 

Okay. So I won’t be at the booth at that stage. I will be over listening to that because that sounded like I’m going to put that to music. So let Kasidy know that I’m putting that to music before I get there. In two weeks time, two weeks time, it’s happening!

You can do it. Alright. Well, let’s wrap this up. One, because I have a call in three minutes, and two, I just, before we do though, this is something that I ask everybody at the end of the show. Two questions. One, though, we just talked about FreshBooks and everything you’re doing and you’re super excited about it. That comes through, obviously. But when you’re not working and not having so much fun with FreshBooks, what are your outside of work passions? 

I, so I’m a big fan of two things in this world, actually three things in the world. Number one: Movies. And I know people say that’s not a hobby, but I dissect movies. I love it. If anybody knows me, I will quote something very obscure on that side, not to be a hipster or anything like that, but just because I just dissect movies. Secondly: Live shows. The best thing about summer here in Toronto and I’m based here in Toronto is that there’s a show here every night and you get to see everything. I just saw the Pixies a few weeks ago. It was amazing. The last thing is I like to go swimming. I love swimming. I did it when I was younger and I continue to do it. It’s a bit different here compared to Ireland, where I had the Atlantic Ocean, and here I have Lake Ontario. It’s two different things, but you can certainly travel up north to find a good swimming spot.

Nice! Nice. And then lastly, if people want to hear more about what you’re doing, what FreshBooks is doing, obviously they can see you at the conference, but where else would they look?

If you want to learn more about FreshBooks or about the Accounting Partner Program, please check out freshbooks.com/accountant. I myself am hanging out at LinkedIn. I love talking to people on LinkedIn. DM me. We’ll have a message in that thing. I’ll share some of my gavorite movies on that side or talk accounting. I’ll take one or the other. 

Alright! Multi-talented. Laura, thanks again so much for being here and I really look forward to seeing you in a few weeks in Chicago.

I can’t wait too, in the words of the Irish, míle buíochas, which means a thousand thank yous. I’ll talk to you in a few weeks, Randy. 

See you soon.