S2: E8, From Trash to Casino - Journeys of Accountancy

Brayden’s background Hello, I'm Joanne. Speaker 2 Wood and I'm Mark Cowan, welcome to Journeys of Accountancy. Speaker 1 Today we speak with Brayden Norris, Vice President of Finance and Operations at Connectify, a software tech company. Brayden, thank you for joining us today. Speaker 3 Hey, thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Speaker 2 So let's start by having you tell us about your background. Where did you grow up and what led you ultimately to study accounting at BYU Idaho? Speaker 3 So I'd like to just answer that with a a short little story. So I grew up in Arizona and that's where I claim home. I did move around a bit, but now Idaho is home, or as they say, Idaho. So enjoy it. I enjoy it and love it here. After high school, I took a break for two years and served a mission for my church. And then when I got back, I. Speaker 2 Where was where was the mission? Speaker 3 So I served, so it was for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and that was in Mexico. Speaker 2 Mexico. Speaker 3 So specifically the Cuernavaca Morelos Mission, which is about an hour and a half southwest of Mexico City. Speaker 2 Are you still fluent in Spanish? Speaker 3 I am. I just went on a a company trip to Mexico and my Spanish came in handy. So that that worked out pretty good. Dividends are still paying. Like I, like I was saying earlier, I, so I grew up in Arizona after high school, took the two year break and when I came back, I needed to go to school somewhere. So I ended up choosing BYU Idaho, which is in Eastern Idaho. And the reason why I chose that was really for three reasons. One, it was in budget. It's a private school, so it's relatively cheaper and they have a great campus, great programs, and I had friends and colleagues there, so that's really what drew me there. Speaker 2 It. Speaker 3 Wasn't the weather. It wasn't. It wasn't the weather, which when when you meet friends from the Boise area that are going to school in Rexburg, ID, and they tell you Rexburg's cold, you know it's cold 'cause I thought all of Idaho was cold. But Nope, Rexburg's its own beast in itself. Speaker 1 It's the only place I've ever lived where you could walk outside and your nose hairs would freeze instantly. Speaker 3 That is a fact. So, so I so when I got to BYU Idaho, I actually was a psychology major, but quickly learned that psychology wasn't for me. I, I enjoyed some aspects, but learned that I was better suited in the business realm. And so I changed my major to business with an emphasis in marketing. Or, said another way, I didn't know what I wanted to do, just something in business. Speaker 2 We all have our youthful indiscretion. Speaker 3 And so as I was, you know, wandering through the wilderness, so to speak, I, you know, I had to take a couple of accounting courses. And so someone told me, hey, those are going to be your hardest courses. And I said, OK, well, I'd like to just get my hardest courses out of the way. So I took the intro accounting to finance did well. And then the next semester I took managerial. And so while I was taking the managerial class, the the tests were actually take home open book, but they were timed so you couldn't flip through the pages for days. And so the first Test I took, I ended up scoring a perfect score and I surprised myself. And then the next day the professor was he asked me to, to see him in his office. And so the first thing I said to him was I didn't cheat. I, I, I just tried my hardest and I got a good score. And he's like, no, no, no, that's not why I called you in here. He's like, I actually called you in here to ask you if you've ever thought about changing your major from business to the county. And I said, no, that had not crossed my mind. And so he's, he explained to me a little bit more about the profession and some of the benefits and things like that. And he made a good case, obviously. And then I said here, tell you what, if I get an A in your class at the end of semester, I'll, you know, change my major to accounting. So Fast forward did well in his class and ended up switching majors to to accounting. Speaker 2 And he got his Commission for converting another one. He. Speaker 3 He he did. Speaker 1 I want to know what value that Commission has. Speaker 2 It's a, it's a, it's an intangible. Speaker 1 Yeah, it's very intangible. Speaker 3 Very intangible. Speaker 1 I love that you said from another university that, you know, it was open book, it was time, but I kind of give the same exam where, you know, it's, you've got anything you want to put on a note page, go ahead. But it's timed. And it's crazy to me how much students put stuff on their note paper and it doesn't make any sense to them. And then they still just do really bad. So I love that you used your resources and you knew where they were and you were ready to go. Speaker 3 That's right, yeah. Time was of the essence in those tests, so. Speaker 2 So you, you studied accounting, we're successful at it. Career And then you, you started your career. So why don't you take us through your career, EY and private industry and talk about some of the roles you played in accounting? Speaker 3 Yeah, so one theme just to kind of share for me, and I know this is cliche, 'cause I feel like it's talked about everywhere, but the reason it is, is because it's so important is just networking. And so when I was at BYU Idaho, one of the classes that I enjoyed was the accounting information Systems or AIS class. And I ended up becoming the the tutor or assistant for the professor. And while I was doing that job on campus, which was nice because not only did you get to work on campus, if there was no students, you got paid to study your own material. So it was a, it's a great way to earn, earn money while while being a student. And so when EY, Ernst and Young came to our campus to recruit, they were recruiting for a specific group underneath the tax umbrella. And that group was tax technology and data analytics. So this group piqued my interest because it wasn't necessarily core audit or core tax. It was on that analytical side and with data that and that really interests me. And so with EY being there on campus, I ended up applying and because of the teacher that ITA D for, he had a reputation. And that reputation was if you got along with him or if you did well with him or if you worked with him that said something about you. And so the hiring manager was impressed that I would that I worked for that professor and that helped me get my foot in the door. So my relationship with my professor helped me get a job at this accounting firm. And so while I was at EY in that group, I kind of jumped around between the Kansas City office and then I went down to Houston. And while I was working my first year in Houston, I got married to a lovely girl from from Arizona. And that's where I was from. That's where I grew up. And I always told myself that I knew I didn't want to be in public accounting forever, but if there was something that came up that, you know, was too good to pass up, that I would take it. And so. Speaker 2 So before we before we go there, can you just tell us because the role you're describing at EY and I've I've heard of their, their, their Kansas City operations for this analytics in tax. What does the role of an Analytics in Tax professional look like? You kind of describe like what you did day-to-day. Yeah, just because it's not a traditional. Yeah, it's preparing tax return type job. Speaker 3 Right. So to give an example, you know, one project that we worked on was helping calculate depreciation, right. So depreciation's you know, a one line item right on on your P&L. But to get to that number it could be, you know, a lot of it could be a lot of work, right, depending on what type of company you have. And so for some companies they have they had tons of assets and so to calculate the depreciation and just the impacts from a tax perspective, it was pretty tedious to do. And so we would create tools to help automate that process for our clients and cut down the time. So essentially, it was we would create those tools to cut down on, on, on labor. And that was 1 instance. And then on another instance in our group, we created a, it was essentially A SharePoint site, but it was a global tax dashboard that we created for a company that was international. And so thinking of all of the tax regulations within different countries. And I mean, everyone knows that that that can get hairy real fast. And so we created kind of like a dashboard for them. So then that way they had all of their deadlines and all of the important documents and things that needed to be handled for that company. So that was something we built from ground up for them and that was that was a unique project that wasn't necessarily in normal, normal tax, I guess you'd say. Speaker 1 And I like that you've talked about this because people need that knowledge of the accounting language to be able to make these programs, to make the process go faster. And that is a huge need. So just because maybe you don't want to be an accounting major, it still really helps to be an accounting minor and have those ITM skills for those AIS skills to go with it. And it gives you another job point. And that is a very needed profession even as AI is becoming prevalent in our world. Speaker 3 Oh, absolutely. And, and I would say accounting, you know, back in school was not a major that came easy to me. I had to work at it and I had to study and I had to set aside the time. It's not like a, you know, an English paper in college that you could put off to the last night and kind of wing it and put something together and get a, you know, maybe a a, a good B or an A minus. But with accounting, you really got to put the effort in advance. Otherwise you show up on the day of the test and you don't know what you don't know. If you put in the time and effort, it's it's definitely like you said, a degree and and a major that is applicable across the board. Speaker 2 OK. So you had an interesting time doing interesting things at EY and then you wanted to go back to Arizona. Speaker 3 Yeah. So it wasn't planned. And so I wasn't at UI for a long time. VBA I think with my internships and my full time, it was just under two years that I was with UI with all of the skills that I learned being at UI such as Excel, VBA, SQL. Speaker 1 And what does VBA stand for? Speaker 3 The Visual Basic application or it's the, the background coding in Excel, right And so for those that are familiar, right, you can either record a macro and let Excel generate the code for you or if you're really savvy, you can custom customize and code it yourself. So that came in handy and when when I was at UIA friend from Republic Services who had gone to BYU Idaho with, he got promoted and posted his role and he was recruiting for it and it was in the external reporting or accounting department at Republic Services and their headquarters is based out of Scottsdale, AZ. And he was looking for someone that had accounting and those technical skills. And so I applied for it and was lucky enough to get the job. And so my wife and I moved back to Arizona and was with Republic for about six years in the accounting department and hopped around a couple other departments as well, people. Speaker 2 Probably know, but what business is was, is Republican? Speaker 3 Right. So Republic Services is trash, recycling and environmental services, publicly traded, publicly traded Fortune 300. And most people call us Waste Management. But Waste Management, you know, they're lucky enough to take the name of an industry which is, which is smart. But for us, Republic Services is, you know where it was, It's the second biggest trash company in the nation when I was there. Speaker 2 So, and you are an external reporting role, so does that mean that you were involved in reporting to the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission? Speaker 3 Yeah. So I, I worked with the the chief, the Chief accounting Officer and so I would help him in terms of preparing the the quarterly and annual reporting packages. And then I also helped out with the corporate department budgeting and then a couple of other ad hoc projects that fell within the accounting accounting purview. Speaker 2 So that sounds like that. That is like serious financial accounting work. So you went from analytics to serious financial accounting work? How did you transition from analytics to financial accounting? But you got hired for that job because you had this, the analytics and the computer skills. Speaker 3 That's right. Speaker 1 So they must have been doing some changes in programming during that time or they needed some additional knowledge. Speaker 3 Yeah. And one and one of the so, so in the trash realm, there is, you know, with, you know, in accounting, you've got, you know, depreciation, you got amortization and then you've got depletion, which is for natural resources. And within the trash, you know, and, and trash and recycling, you have landfills and landfills are depleted over, you know, respective, you know, whatever their life is. And that's a whole another accounting rabbit hole in itself. And so we had at the time, complex Excel financial models that were very robust. And when you open them, sometimes they just, you know, break down your computer or just cause Excel to shut down. So they were big and they needed someone to have the skill sets to maintain those and update those as needed since like I said, there is a lot of complex just excel formulas and whatnot. Speaker 2 You actually have to go out to the landfills to see if your depletion calculations are accurate or if it was depleting too much or. Speaker 3 That, that, that wasn't, that wasn't part of my role. But yes, they do. They do certain way, there's certain ways to to to check those. One way is to do a fly over and they fly over a landfill and they look at the the capacity. So really we need the. Speaker 2 Drones now, right? Speaker 3 I I would hope so. It'd be cheaper than flying somebody. Speaker 1 That is fascinating, right? Once again, we need accountants for all types of things, even if it's garbage garbage. Speaker 3 Garbage. Yeah, exactly. Speaker 1 Which every student that's listening to this has garbage in their life. Speaker 3 Exactly right. Speaker 2 OK, so that was Republic. Connectify Yeah. So you currently work for a software company that services casino industries. Tell us about that industry and how accounting is unique. Speaker 2 Trash to casinos. Speaker 3 That's right. So with with Connectify, so I'm there, I'm, I'm over there finance and operations. And so just to give a quick background of what connectify does right now, we specialize in a software that casinos anti money laundering departments, or I'll say AML for short for anti money laundering. Those departments have a lot of regulations that they need to follow to be able to analyze the players or the people, you know, that go and and place bets in their casinos to make sure there's no money being laundered. And so a lot of those casinos are doing it a very manual, manual way or hybrid with some type of software and doing it in Excel. And our software at Connectify automates all of that for them. And so we sell our service to those compliance departments at the casinos and help Dr. productivity on their end. Speaker 1 So if you're a student headed off for some fun in a casino, you know there's a casino 4 hours from here. Speaker 3 That's right. Speaker 1 You need to know that people are watching you and you need to be smart and they're running out of Linux on you. Speaker 3 That's right. And so and some casinos keep your data, you know your player data, right? Whatever you give them for, for for multiple years. So. Speaker 1 So they can track you from one casino to the next, is it that? Speaker 3 Interwoven yet? Oh no, no, no, I don't. I'm not there yet, but in the future I could see that being a possibility. But I wouldn't say I'd say that take longer than five, five years, maybe 10 years. So and so within this industry because we're a software company. Sales Tax So you know, we deal with you know probably similar accounting issues like another software company would. And for us kind of the three big ones right now is because of our growth is just sales tax. So being mindful of which states our clients are in if we need to collect and remit sales tax to the respective state. And then also some of our clients are in Canada. So we deal with that with with the foreign currency in the foreign transactions and all of the associated risks and implications that come with working with clients across the border. Speaker 1 So that's interesting that you're talking about sales tax. I teach a little bit about sales tax in one of my classes, just really touch basic on it for some journal entries. And as we were talking about that, I've learned the fastest way to get a bunch of students to argue is to ask who is from California. And they'll raise their hand and then I'll ask them what their sales taxes was. And they'll all spit out a different number, even though they're from the same state. And then they start to argue, no, I don't think you've been to California for a while. The sales tax is this. And I let that go on for a minute before I stopped to them and explained that different zip codes or counties or jurisdiction can have different tax rates because in the state of Idaho, we all have a set tax rate. And so we don't realize that. And so that's kind of just a fun conversation to know why sales tax matters. Speaker 2 Well, nationwide there's like thousands and thousands of sales tax jurisdictions because a lot of states do have local, including school district, and they all might have different rules about what's taxable and what's not. Speaker 1 I used to work with sales tax in California. That's why I pick on California. Speaker 3 Hey, no, when I lived in Arizona, you would notice that I'd go to, you know, 1 store in one part of town and buy something. And if I needed to return it, sometimes I'd go to another one and be in a different ZIP code. And then I got, you know, I got different amount back right on, on, on the reimbursement. So you're right, it just varies. Speaker 1 It sounds like they need to start a regulation system for watching sales tax returns and it's like casinos. Speaker 3 And so, yeah, And so with us, my favorite clients are the ones where those states don't collect sales tax on consulting fees or software as a service. Those are my favorite clients it. Speaker 2 Sounds like you're, if I'm understanding correctly, you kind of your role now with, with the casino software company is sort of a combination of your prior 2 roles because you did a lot of technology type of stuff, building software, automating things at EY that were not automated. What is your role at Casino Software And then you went on to do financial accounting, external reporting. And now you're at this company where you're kind of sounds like you're kind of responsible for both. Speaker 3 Yeah. I mean the definitely our product and engineering team and and our CEO who helps build out the the road map for the product. But for me as a, you know, fiduciary of the company, I'll go and I'll have the, the software be demoed to me that way I understand what we're selling and you know, and if there's, you know, any things we, anything that we catch while it's in beta before it goes live, right, We can catch those little errors and fix them. And then but also from you know from the financial accounting standpoint being over the finance accounting and operations and by operations I mean? Legal and and HR and payroll and all those things. But when you're a startup, the the breadth is wide right, with the amount of things you do and the amount of hats you wear, but the depth is relatively shallow in most of these areas. And so my experience with Republic Services, before I came from Republic Services over to Connectify, I was a controller. And so a lot of what I did there translates to the accounting side of what I'm doing here. So a lot of carryover and a lot of similar items, but then there's obviously the unique aspects of this role being within Connectify in this industry itself, so. Speaker 1 So for small business owners, that's an interesting thought because a lot of students are entrepreneurship majors and they just think, oh, I need to know how to manage a business. But getting that accounting degree has given you enough confidence and knowledge to let you work in contracts, are legal and work in HR and have enough knowledge that you're still OK without major training. And I think that's important thing to understand that you do get all that experience as you learn about a company through the accounting role. Speaker 3 Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I definitely rely on our, our legal team or external legal team when there's, you know, big questions at hand for little things. But I can, you know, reach out to one of my colleagues and we can work through it and say, hey, if this makes sense and this is something that, you know, the customer agrees to and it benefits both of us, then we move forward with it, right? Speaker 2 So almost sounds like you're kind of getting an MBA even though you're not getting a degree. Learning and Growing in the Role Master's business administration. But your, your role kind of forces you to be in all kinds of areas from from from legal to HR to strategy. So how like, how do you feel? Do you feel like you're learning and growing in this role? Do you see it? Like where do you see the future going? Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, there's, I, I mean, the future is there's a lot of possibilities. One thing I'll say this, when I was at EY, one of my goals then was to get my CPA license. But because I left public accounting and went to private, I didn't need it. So I pushed it off and it wasn't something that I was sincerely interested in, in wanting to get. And so, but now in my current role, I feel like it's, it's almost like at least to myself, it's an obligation to have that. So I'm actually picking that up and studying that again, which is good because it's like, obviously, you know, studying is equivalent to taking a bunch of CPE credits, right, but harder. And so that's one way I'm staying in front of and on top of my accounting knowledge. But then two, definitely with just the different hats I'm wearing, you definitely end up getting exposed to a lot of different areas, right? And definitely on on the payroll side, right? That, you know, that in itself makes sense why there's companies that just have a whole dedicated department to just payroll because especially if you have employees across the country and, and, and and outside of the country, that makes things complicated real quick. Speaker 1 So as you're talking about employees all over the country, connectify located in Boise or is it located somewhere else? Where is Connectify’s headquarters? Where is its headquarters? Speaker 3 No, good question. So you know, our headquarters, I say that in air quotes is in Las Vegas and you know, we're based out of Vegas. That's where our legal entity is, as you know, that's where our business licenses. But we're a remote company. So we've got employees across the country. We hire contractors internationally. So half of our, well, most of our engineering team is actually based out of Mexico with some in even in South America. And so being remote just opens that range of your talent pool, right. And so it's really you got Internet. Great. You know, we, we, we can take you on as an employee. Speaker 1 Do they ever tap into your Spanish skills to help with the international engineers? Speaker 3 Yeah, they're, they are all relatively good at, at their English, but you know, when they hear me speak in Spanish, then that's when they really open up. So it definitely helps from a team building and just that team morale being able to communicate with them in their native language. I feel like that's how you really get to know your team. Speaker 2 So if you, if you continue with this company and it sounds like it's got a product that's gonna really be useful so it'll grow at some point you might get pulled in two different directions. I, I can kind of see that happening right where there's one is, hey, do you want to be in charge of accounting? And that's what we need you to do is accounting or or you might get pulled on more into the operational side. Have you kind of thought about that fork in the road ahead or? Speaker 3 I mean, I the accounting side, I feel, I feel like they're both exciting. If I had to choose, I feel like I would now go more towards the, the financial accounting side. I just feel like with the company's trajectory, there's a lot of opportunities and there's going to be a lot of things, a lot of opportunities that are tied closely just from the, on the financial team. And I feel like on the operations and the accounting, obviously those are both departments that are needed, right, in order to administer and, and have the company function. But I feel like with pursuing the CPA and with my experience now, I feel like, you know, the accounting, it was hard back when I was in school, but now it's becoming more fluent in my mind. And now that it's becoming more fluent, it makes it more fun. And I, you know, compare, you know, running a business on the accounting and finance side with all of the rules and the regulations, whether it's gap or it's dealing with tax law and regulations, I feel like it's playing a giant board game. And in order to win or be successful, you got to, you know, play within those, within those boundaries and those rules. And so on the accounting side, I feel like there's a lot more challenge. And that's something that I've, I feel like I've been consistently drawn to is what's what's more challenging. So. The Rules of Success So as you're playing this board game and you're following the rules, it's pretty normal for small businesses to not be successful. So what are some of the rules that you've put in place for your company to make sure that a small that your small business or this small business is successful? Speaker 3 I mean, you know, obviously for any big, for any small company, you know that one of the big things is just is cash flow, right. And so although, you know, we're accrual based accounting and our company, we'd probably stare more at the at, at the cash flow statement because cash is king, right? And so for us, I mean, it's just a matter of, you know, being wise with, with our funds and our revenue and making sure that, you know, we're not buying things as needed. And so I'm sometimes the, the guy that, you know, call it, you know, put the damper on the party. I'm saying, sorry, guys, we can't spend that right. We got to wait or kick the can on that. And so one thing I learned recently that I like is I just learned this from my CEO and I thought this was a great idea from an incentive standpoint is when you set your revenue target for the company, you include an extra buffer in there for a team event or reward, right? So then that way it's inherently baked in. And then when you, when you accomplish that goal, you automatically have enough funds there to appropriately reward your team and you're not, you know, eating into your margins, so to speak, so. Speaker 2 So what's an example of one of those treats? Speaker 3 Well, the company that gave us that example was they were going on a company trip to the warmer part of California and they were taking their whole company. How to build incentives for your team And so we said, oh, that's a good idea. We recently did a team gathering as well. And so that's a great way I think to motivate folks and and definitely bring the team together. Speaker 2 And isn't that even more important in a company like yours, which is remote, where you're working people all over the place, you get a chance to finally be in the same room. Speaker 3 Oh, absolutely. I mean, I've been with the company now for coming up. It'll, it'll be a year this May or this June, sorry. And so just this past month was the first time I got to meet everybody in person. So it was great. Absolutely. Speaker 1 I like that you've, you've thought about building incentives in and you've thought about your margins and more important that you know about your margins. That's one of the biggest things that small businesses struggle with is they just have a product and they want to open a business and they don't think about all those little things, the margins, the expenses, and they spend too much money. They're not paying attention to their cash flow and then it puts them out of business. So. Oh. Speaker 3 Absolutely. Speaker 1 Yeah, great points. If someone is in Business School and they're taking their first or second accounting class and they think they like it, what would you tell them to do? Speaker 3 So here's what someone told me once and I, I, I think this still rings true is that, you know, like I said, I first was a business major and then went to accounting, right? And I feel like now what I know is an accounting major can do both an accounting job and a business job, right? Or a job that requires a business group. But a, a business major can't necessarily do a role that requires an accounting degree, right? So I feel like there's more opportunities, more flexibility on the accounting side versus business. And so whether you're going on that entrepreneur side, I mean, you can still study, you can still major or even like you said, minor in accounting and still be an entrepreneur. And I feel like just the opportunities that accounting opens to you, just, you know, in the end is just going to be better for you because sometimes the job markets are tight and you don't really ever see a lot of accounting roles getting laid off on the business side. You know, sometimes there's more, there's more fluff there. And those are those could be more jobs that get cut just depending on the nature of the businesses that you know. Speaker 1 I agree with you. I told my class the other day that if their plan was to take my class and never talk accounting again, they might be in trouble because it's hard to find an accountant right now. Yeah, So I've tried to promote the accounting is OK even if it's a minor. Speaker 3 Yeah. And, and I think too, just, you know, with finding a job, when I came to the first meet the firms last year here when I was with my previous employer, I, I think I even heard of like some freshmen having a job offer, you know, or like an internship or something. And I was like, wow, I got to get at the back of the line in order to be able to find a, a worthy student, you know, to be able to, to be able to hire. So it's a great, it's, it's a great market. It's a great major to have and, and, and you know, with the job market. What keeps you busy outside of work? So accounting is great, but we're not all about accounting. So maybe tell us about what keeps you busy outside of work. Speaker 3 You know, I've, I've, I feel like life's definitely gotten a lot busier this past year. So, so I'm married, I've got 3 kiddos, almost five year old, a three-year old and a one year old. So they themselves keep me busy up until 7:00 PM and then they go to bed. But after that it's, you know, just spending time with family. I like, you know, we live here in the Boise Treasure Valley, so being outdoors when it's warm is one of my favorite things to do. And you know, we've got the beautiful Boise River coming through campus and downtown. And so I enjoy taking the E bikes out or our electric bikes and then riding up and down the Greenbelt. So, and then right now in the morning, you know, you said life's not all about accountancy, but in the morning right now before work, I am studying for, for accounting. So it right now there's a little bit more accounting than than than my than my daily schedule will be in the in the next year. Speaker 1 But you understand that those sacrifices are going to get you somewhere, so it's a good. Speaker 3 Sacrifice. Oh, absolutely. Speaker 1 It's your hobby, right? Speaker 3 Now plus it's more fun studying because it's like, oh hey, I just I I actually have this problem at work and now I have the a clear answer so. Speaker 1 Well, thanks again for joining us today, Braden. Speaker 3 Thanks for having me and it was great talking to you guys. Speaker 2 For journeys of accountancy, I'm Mark Cowan. Speaker 1 And I'm Joanne Wood, join us for our next episode.