At UpSide, we believe that small businesses drastically improve communities. That’s why we want to highlight local business leaders in our community. We’re more than accountants; we are business confidants.
Come take a walk on the upside with UpSide Accounting’s founder, Mike Widdis, and have a laugh with us (or at us!) as we talk business.
In the fourth episode of Take a Walk on the UpSide, it’s Battle of the Bookkeepers with Mike Widdis and Kellie Parks from Calmwaters Cloud Accounting. Watch Mike and Kellie battle over who has the most cloud accounting knowledge while walking on the treadmills at Movati Athletic in Guelph!
Learn more about Kellie Parks here.
Transcript
Mike Widdis:
Hi everyone welcome to another episode of Take a Walk on the Upside. Today I’m joined by Kellie Parks from Calmwaters Cloud Accounting and we’re at Movati Athletic here in Guelph. Today we’re going to be doing a treadmill challenge. We’re going to ask each other five questions, but for every one you get wrong the speed goes up. You ready for that?
Kellie Parks:
Game on.
Mike Widdis:
Let’s do it. Before we start, Kellie tell the audience a little bit about yourself.
Kellie Parks:
I’m Kellie Parks and as Mike said I work at Calmwaters Cloud Accounting. I am a certified professional bookkeeper (CPB) with the Institute of Professional Bookkeepers of Canada (IPBC).
Mike Widdis:
Whoa.
Kellie Parks:
I know right. I am an Intuit trainer, writer and I am certified in a whole pile of cloud accounting software apps which I love, the cloud accounting software. So I spend a good amount of time of my day doing bookkeeping. But I spend about two-thirds of my time consulting on cloud accounting and help bookkeepers and accountants on how to get their businesses successfully and effectively into the cloud.
Mike Widdis:
My secret weapon. Now everybody knows, it’s not so secret.
ROUND 1
Mike Widdis:
So trials and tribulations of video marketing. Too loud over there with all the treadmills going on and everything so we’re just going to go over here ask each other some questions. Question number one, true or false. Aussies the dog.
Kellie Parks:
Okay the four legged Aussies?
Mike Widdis:
The four legged Aussies. Do they hail from Australia?
Kellie Parks:
False.
Mike Widdis:
Where do they hail from?
Kellie Parks:
There’s two theories on it. One is Belgium. And one is actually North America.
Mike Widdis:
North America? And why the difference?
Kellie Parks:
I don’t know. I looked up everything there is to know on Aussies. Did you know?
Mike Widdis:
No I didn’t know that.
Kellie Parks:
Did you know that in Quebec they don’t dock the tails of Australian Shepherds.
Mike Widdis:
I did not know that either. I just knew the true or false part of it. That’s it. That’s as far as I go.
Kellie Parks:
Okay there you go. Okay, what country does Receipt Bank hail from?
Mike Widdis:
Country would be England.
Kellie Parks:
Dang, okay. Okay. Do the bonus round. Name one of the co-founders.
Mike Widdis:
Damien Greathead.
Kellie Parks:
No. Name the actual co-founder.
Mike Widdis:
Don’t know, it’s the only one I know.
Kellie Parks:
Oh, really? No Damien is their head of everything guy. Okay, carry on. Alright it’s your turn to ask a question.
ROUND 2
Mike Widdis:
Okay. So what is the difference between cash basis accounting and accrual?
Kellie Parks:
Oh, see I know this. So cash basis is in the moment. So you are essentially recording your expenses in the here and now and you’re recording your AR in the here and now. There essentially is no AR and no AP. Accrual you’re going to carry forward into another period. So you record the sale now, but you’re not going to receive the payment until later for example.
Mike Widdis:
And bonus tip, bonus round sorry.
Kellie Parks:
Oh, dear.
Mike Widdis:
In Canada, who does cash accounting?
Kellie Parks:
Farmers.
Mike Widdis:
And?
Kellie Parks:
Farmers is the big one. Um, cash accounting. I know who behaves like cash accounting but I don’t know who-
Mike Widdis:
Your husband. Well. A fisherman is where I was going with that.
Kellie Parks:
Really? So he could be cash?
Mike Widdis:
Well he’s a guider so no.
Kellie Parks:
No, but fisherman. Okay. So farmers, fisherman. The same, right? They’re things you eat.
Mike Widdis:
Yep. True.
Kellie Parks:
Okay, okay. What’s my favorite band? Not my favorite genre of music, I know you know that.
Mike Widdis:
Yes, that’s easy. It’s always playing in your house every time I go over.
Kellie Parks:
Right.
Mike Widdis:
Band? CCR?
Kellie Parks:
Nope.
Mike Widdis:
Is that one? Is that the good band?
Kellie Parks:
I do like CCR, yeah. What’s not like to like? But no that’s not my favorite band.
Mike Widdis:
What’s your favorite band?
Kellie Parks:
Foo Fighters.
Mike Widdis:
Foo Fighters, good call I like that.
Kellie Parks:
Right? But I thought you weren’t gonna guess that.
ROUND 3
Mike Widdis:
Alright so next question. This is the lightning round. 30 seconds on the clock. Ten benefits of cloud accounting over desktop, go.
Kellie Parks:
Anywhere, anytime access to program. Do I get to talk about, benefits things that work well? Multi-user in the moment. Anybody can be using on it. You have the same data available over multiple devices. Real time data if you’re keeping up with the actual input of the data. Paperless, which is awesome.
Mike Widdis:
There’s five. I don’t know I think that’s been 30 seconds. Judges?
Kellie Parks:
Paperless.
Mike Widdis:
One more, one more. Three, two-
Kellie Parks:
It’s awesome.
Mike Widdis:
I’ll take that, awesome six.
Kellie Parks:
Construction. Big niche industry, lots of people into it as you know I have a couple of construction clients. If you were going to take them off of desktop and do a true construction accounting, name three apps you could possibly use with the cloud accounting program, sort of features.
Mike Widdis:
Corcon, Knowify. Does TSheets count?
Kellie Parks:
Nope.
Mike Widdis:
Another big construction one; Jobber. It depends on what type of construction you’re in. You were thinking of another one though I can tell.
Kellie Parks:
Buildtrend.
Mike Widdis:
See I don’t know that one.
ROUND 4
Mike Widdis:
Alright, so next one. Profit first accounting.
Kellie Parks:
Right. A nightmare to reconcile the bank accounts. That’s my summary of profit first accounting.
Mike Widdis:
Lots of transfers. But they have an equation that’s associated with profit first which is a slight take on the original equation for profit. What’s the difference?
Kellie Parks:
Do I look profit first certified?
Mike Widdis:
Yeah.
Kellie Parks:
Now why don’t you just ask me what the basic premise of profit first is?
Mike Widdis:
Okay, we’ll start with a basic premise and then we’ll move on to the equation.
Kellie Parks:
Okay, pay yourself out of the profit first.
Mike Widdis:
Make profit first, yeah.
Kellie Parks:
Okay. So that’s good enough. I get that one. This is an accounting thing, not a profit first certified session.
Mike Widdis:
Okay, okay.
Kellie Parks:
But go ahead and tell me what it is.
Mike Widdis:
The profit equals sales minus expenses instead of sales equals expenses minus profit. Right, profit first.
Kellie Parks:
Profit first.
Mike Widdis:
Get that profit in there first. And if you can’t support your expenses, your business is screaming at you. It’s not profitable.
Kellie Parks:
Got you. Okay. Okay.
Mike Widdis:
What’s your question.
Kellie Parks:
What are the current CRA mileage rates for Canada?
Mike Widdis:
55 and 49.
Kellie Parks:
55 for how many?
Mike Widdis:
55 for the first 5,000 kilometers, 49 or 48 thereafter.
Kellie Parks:
It’s 49 this year.
Mike Widdis:
Is it 49?
Kellie Parks:
I think it’s 49. Yeah, it’s 49.
Mike Widdis:
One of the benefits of cloud accounting is memorized transactions and automations so that just puts it in there for me.
Kellie Parks:
Yeah you still have to go up a notch on the treadmill.
Mike Widdis:
Okay, I tried. I tried.
ROUND 5
Mike Widdis:
Okay last question. For all the marbles.
Kellie Parks:
Alright.
Mike Widdis:
How or why did you name your business Calmwaters?
Kellie Parks:
Okay, well I love that you’re asking me a question about me because I’m gonna get this right.
Mike Widdis:
Well maybe not. Maybe it’s not what I agree with.
Kellie Parks: O
kay, well whatever, you weren’t around 30 some odd years ago when I named the initial business. They’ve all been named that.
Mike Widdis:
Okay.
Kellie Parks:
As you know I’ve had a number of businesses. And they’ve all been named Calmwaters something.
Mike Widdis:
Right.
Kellie Parks:
Because I’m a water skier.
Mike Widdis:
That’s it? Plain and simple.
Kellie Parks:
Yeah. It’s all about Kellie. I’m a water skier.
Mike Widdis:
I mean it’s your business you get to name it what you want.
Kellie Parks:
We live and die for calmwaters and then it worked out great with my husband having a fly fishing business, although he really likes rapid water. Anyways, yes so I get that one right, right?
Mike Widdis:
Yeah, go ahead. My last one.
Kellie Parks:
Last question. This one is kind of an easy one. Name three Canadian apps that are part of our regular tech stack.
Mike Widdis:
Canadian as they hail from or they were started in Canada?
Kellie Parks:
Yeah.
Mike Widdis:
Let’s call it Hubdoc, Toronto. Plooto, Toronto. Let’s go with Chata AI, Calgary.
Kellie Parks:
Oh, I didn’t have that but that’s true.
Mike Widdis:
That’s one of our regular tech stack now.
Kellie Parks:
Right, that’s an awesome one. I’m digging on Chata AI too. Actually I did a demo-
Mike Widdis:
Check it out if you haven’t seen it.
Kellie Parks:
Yeah. Do a demo. I did a demo it was great.
Mike Widdis:
Fills right into it, yeah.
Kellie Parks:
Okay. Wagepoint.
Mike Widdis:
Wagepoint is another one yeah from Waterloo.
Kellie Parks:
Yeah, is Dryone one from Canada?
Mike Widdis:
It’s from Burlington? Waypay, Burlington.
Kellie Parks:
Waypay, yep.
Mike Widdis:
Rotessa.
Kellie Parks:
I don’t use Rotessa.
Mike Widdis:
I use Rotessa a lot for our income, Winnipeg I believe.
Kellie Parks:
Yeah there’s a ton of them.
Mike Widdis:
Yep, yep. Alright thank you for watching another episode of Take a Walk on the Upside and thank you Kellie for being a great guest. Thank you to Movati Athletic. Beautiful facilities here. If you haven’t been here, check it out. Please like and subscribe to the video and the channel. If you guys want to see something specific, you want to see a challenge, you have an idea for our next guest, put them in the comments below. Thanks guys.