The Accounting Technology Lab

Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA: Welcome
to the Accounting Technology

Lab, brought to you by CPA
Practice Advisor, with your host

Randy Johnston and Brian
Tankersley.

Randy Johnston: Welcome to the
Accounting Technology Lab. I'm

Randy Johnston, with co-host
Brian Tankersley, and we want

you to be quite aware that next
generation document management

is breaking through, and this is
a big deal. I've done document

management for 30 plus years,
and I want you to be prepared

for what's coming, and we're
going to try to summarize that

in fairly short order for you,
so you know, kind of the first

major point is what has been
changing and why our old filing

systems are failing, because in
effect we have a lot of manual

naming conventions and
misfilings, and we can't really

index the documents. The
documents are often scanned in,

and we don't have the OCR turned
on, and we've got folder

structures. There's all sorts of
things that are a problem, and

trying to access these systems
from a mobile device is tough,

and there's lots of other
problems. I could identify them,

but think about why they don't
work, and what we know is

getting is happening, not
getting ready to happen. Is AI

is being applied to these new
document management workflow and

portal systems, and in effect,
the AI technology is able to

extract data from the forms and
invoices, so you don't have to

retype, and the search
capability is better, and you

don't waste, you know, any
valuable time on data entry, you

know, for years you've heard us
talk about, you know, if an

accountant is keen data, you've
got a broken process. So,

there's a lot of these products
that have pretty intelligence

rowdy. So, let's kind of set it
up a little bit further with you

and define the modern DMS. Now,
Brian, I know that you have had

discussions this week on some of
these new AI filing tools, and

we know in another accounting
technology lab we discussed the

Deadpool, some of the products
that are well in the past, and

we have a bunch of document
management systems that are

getting ready to be in the past
for many of you, for example,

Filecam CS as a Thompson shop is
one that's a problem for you,

because it's got a deadline of
december 31 of 27 but it won't

be the last

Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA: one,
and I will say fundamentally,

when we start looking at
integrating workflow and

document management and document
intake and document output slash

portal, you know, it's that's
not a place where you can bolt

in enough AI to make it work.
It's almost like you have to do

a re architecting, because it's
very much, you know, in my mind

it's not like turning a car into
a hybrid, it's much more like

comparing an electric car versus
a gas car versus say a

motorcycle, you know, we're
just, they're different

technologies, and you can't
really put enough AI in the

legacy platforms to make them do
what they need to do,

Randy Johnston: and you know,
we've been watching this and

participating in this for a long
time, because with products like

Docket or CCH document or Go
File Room or Smart Vault, and I

could keep naming products.
We've seen a lot of great

technology and a lot of great
ideas, and even with Smart

Vault's introduction of the
Smart to CCA agents inside

Access document or Thompson
Reuters inside Gofoul room.

Thompson Of a has absolutely
built their system this way.

Picture what would happen if
those legacy systems could

leverage Teams and SharePoint,
and you could co-edit. We know

that Carbon has built their
document management system in

Listio is building their system
this way. Trust is building

their system this way. See, all
of these newer platforms that

have caught the vision say, you
know what? Not only can we lay

all this over the top of
Microsoft 365 we can lay it over

the top of Google Workspace too,
and so once they build this out,

yes, it's a different feature
set in the Microsoft world than

the Google world, but can you
get the vision with me that

we've got a new way of storing
documents, and it's kind of the

old way where we had the major
document storage from players

like Google or Microsoft, but
now we don't have to worry about

folder structures, naming
conventions, and so forth. We

just search for it and we find
it. So, Brian, parting thoughts

on this one.

Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA: Well,
I think it's, you know, I think

it's like we were talking about
earlier. I think the thing

that's happening here
realistically is that we have to

really change out the power
train underneath this car that

is the document handling systems
of the of the accounting firm

and you know at the end of the
day the problem is that is that

we we can't bolt enough
supplemental things on you know

imagine if you know imagine how
frustrating it would be to you

if when you wanted to start the
when you want to start the air

conditioner in your car, you had
to get out and pull a handle,

like you do on your lawnmower,
to start an engine on it, or if

you needed lights on, you had to
go out and pull a handle to

start a generator to generate
the electricity for the lights

on your car. Okay, the problem
is we can't integrate enough

with these things, and so we're
having to do this, and honestly,

the technology has got better,
faster, cheaper, and we can use

the same processors that we use
on servers now to also gather

all this extra information with
the new software technologies

that we have, so it's a very
exciting time, long way from

doing this crap on paper with
pencils,

Randy Johnston: it is, so Brian,
one little final thought, and I

don't think I've ever said this
to our listeners or to you. Most

people don't know that I lived
across the alley from my

grandparents, and my grandfather
was a mechanic, and I used to

repair Model Ts with him. So,
when you were talking about

getting out and crank, I've
actually cranked a Model T to

start it, and of course, his
warning was it's you got to

watch it, because that crank can
kick back and break your arm.

It's like, oh, okay, I get

Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA: it.
That's a bad day.

Randy Johnston: That's a bad
day, but see, many of us are

still cranking Model T's. That's
what a lot of our document

management systems are. We're
making it work, and you know it

was transportation, but you know
we're trying to get you into

this modern.. well, what do you
want there, Brian? A electric

motorcycle to go fast? I don't
know, but you get the..

Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA: it's..
it's interesting times. It's..

it's a very exciting time in the
profession, anyway. With that,

we hope you all have a wonderful
week, and we will be back with

you next week with another
Accounting Technology Lab

episode.

Randy Johnston: Good day, all.

Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA: Thank
you for sharing your time with

us. We'll be back next Saturday
with a new episode of the

Technology Lab from CPA Practice
Advisor. Have a great week.