On March 8th, as an International Women’s Day recognition, Practice Ignition awarded Flow’s founder partner Natasha McLaren-Doerr recognition in their “Top 50 Women In Accounting 2017” list. This was an unexpected but well deserved award, that makes us all at Flow CPA very proud of our team and specially honoured to have Natasha as one of our leading female accountants.
This is what Practice Ignition had to say:
Natasha McLaren-Doerr
Founding Partner at Flow CPA
Please provide an example of how you have helped the industry, and the people working in it, progress and change for the better.
I believe that by through the adoption of innovation in accounting, not only through technology but also in the expansion of the advisory services that we can provide, we can truly add value to our clients and their businesses. Together with the help of my business partner, we have started an accounting firm where this is our core value.
What do you love most about what you do?
Working with the clients. Helping them to understand the financial aspects of their companies and watching their business grow and achieve their goals
What has been your biggest professional accomplishment to date?
Joining together with like minded colleagues to create an accounting firm of the future, where innovation in technology and service to our clients is our core value.
In your opinion, what is the current biggest challenge/barrier the industry needs to overcome and why?
Eliminate hourly billing altogether. As stated by my favorite thought leaders and podcasters Ron Baker and Ed Kless (The Soul of Enterprise), not only is this practice unprofessional but it is unhealthy for the culture of the accounting industry. I have witnessed the flaws in hourly billing throughout my career and have found that it fosters terrible client relationships because customers absolutely dread the surprise at the end of the engagement. Secondly, it is a team culture destroyer in accounting firms who use it as an indicator of their employees performance. Finally, only for the firms who have gotten rid of hourly billing altogether, get to see just how much time and money was spent to administering it.
Who is your mentor and why?
Way ahead of her time, my mentor was one of the first partners I had worked for at BDO. She taught me that the value of an accountant was not in the preparation of tax returns and post mortem number crunching, but in our role as educators and advisors helping our clients understand their finances and help them set the tasks needed to achieve their business and life goals.
We congratulate Natasha and the other 49 women that were granted such an amazing recognition. You can learn more about all the other amazing women in accounting here and about our incredible packages here.
