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CPA & Consultant for Accounting Firms
The Frye-Day Dispatch: AI & the Uncomfortable Burn, Accessibility, and Morals
Happy Frye-Day!
Yes, I know today is Saturday, but if any day you read this, it’s Frye-Day! I was “home” in Wyoming last week for my alma mater’s homecoming game. We won! And it was great to see old classmates and hang out on campus. Something about being in Laramie always calms me down. Good memories.
Before I dive in, I want to wish everyone well who is working this weekend and wrapping up 10/15. I still need to file my FBAR and I bought a bottle of champagne as a bribe for myself to finish this weekend.
I decided to extend my 8-hour drive back to SLC by 90 minutes to capture a photo of my lake. What I didn’t realize is that the rest of that route was a forest service road my little car was perhaps not ready for.
AI win of the week
I was blown away by Kick.co after being super frustrated that it didn’t work the way I expected it to. And no, this is not sponsored.
Once I accepted that it wasn’t just a different colored version of Xero or Puzzle, I started using the MCP through Claude. I was blown away by the amount of bookkeeping I was able to do in 3 hours and what the software was able to accomplish.
What’s striking to me is that it was really hard for me to accept how I should be working with Kick. It was uncomfortable. That same uncomfortable burn you get when you are doing a workout that is just past your ability, yet you push through it. The burn was real, the frustration was real, and I almost gave up before realizing I saved 7 hours.
I consider myself on the leading edge of accounting tech, and even I was frustrated when trying to use Kick. I became overwhelmed and almost surrendered on trying the new way of doing things in lieu of what I already knew. Ask yourself this: what is your appetite for feeling uncomfortable in front of a new technology, and what does that say about how you’ll adopt what’s next?
While there are so many new versions of GLs, I still wonder if there’s some sort of economics at play similar to the number of makes of airplanes. The reality is, planes have to be reliable and trackable. So do ledgers. I wonder if we’ll see the same sort of consolidation.
When you’re evaluating software today, testing what “AI native” means is a real task. It changes our entire way of thinking about what software should be. It’s not about knowing where to click and clicking the fastest. It’s about knowing how to ask the right questions to the software and reviewing the results.
For tax firms and processes, I am excited about the GA release of Cowork in Canopy, as well as our integrations with Filed and Juno. I’m watching other contenders in the space like Instead and TaxGPT.
AI & accessibility
I cut my finger this week while slicing bread, which made typing a real challenge. It made me realize how many of these AI advancements are creating opportunities for people with mobility or accessibility challenges. Voice dictation, screen readers that actually work, AI that can interpret and respond to natural language. These tools aren’t just convenient. For a lot of people, they’re game-changing.
Money, morals, and AI
I was catching up on some news this morning, and I watched a great opinion piece on money in politics and AI morality. tl;dr, I think Citizens United should be repealed, but I was encouraged by the fact that Anthropic took the time to create a set of principles.
Particularly fascinating was the discussion of the Pope and humanity as it relates to morals in AI companies. I didn’t know the Pope has a mathematics degree. How relevant in this day and age. Apparently there was a huge discussion at the Vatican on these exact topics, and I’m interested to see where that leads.
Cringe of the week
Behold, the cringiest thing I’ve seen in my email, or anywhere for a long time. Like, gross!
On the mic
My 5-part mini-series with Lera Kooper on Canopy’s Practice Success Podcast wrapped this week with Episode 5: Build Workflows People Actually Follow. Now we’re on to new guests, starting this Wednesday!
Travel coming up
- Dallas, Oct 19–20. I’m heading to Gather by DBA. If you’re nearby, lmk.
- Intuit Connect. I’ll be speaking. I arrive on Sunday and will be there until Wednesday. If you’re going too, please let me know and I’d love to get a drink or play some blackjack!
- Long Island, Nov 4–5. I’m speaking at an event. If you’re in the neighborhood, please join! If you’re in NYC that week, hmu!
- LA area, Nov 12. I’ll also be speaking at a BDO event if you’re more of that kind of person.
—
Luke