Chaz Prezident, as the name suggests, doesn’t conform to the stereotype of a “conservative” accountant. The founder of Australia’s largest crowdfunding platform, crowdfunding.com.au, a nominee for 2019 Young Australian of the Year, and the winner of the 2019 Accountants Daily Thought Leader award, Prezident has become a marketing powerhouse.

The 32-year-old chartered accountant brings his flair to his four-person firm, the Gold Coast-based Whitehouse Private Wealth.

“Accountants have this stereotype about who they are and what they look like. I’m about empowering accountants to use their skill set to work with clients. I’m big on setting personal and professional goals, and understanding the underlying purpose of our clients,” says Prezident.

“There are plenty of clients who don’t want to become a publicly listed company; they want to improve their own lives.”

Whitehouse is heavily into using technology to measure a client’s current performance and cash position. The practice makes technology recommendations that fit its clients’ goals.

Putting data to work

One of its clients – a large employer with offices across Australia – wanted to understand its staff productivity. By doing so, it could then figure out how productivity measured to cash flow, and analyse good months versus bad months.

Whitehouse recommended rostering and time management app Deputy to record employees’ time, monitor projects and uncover workflow. The client could then review performance on a daily basis without micromanaging.

“There’s nothing worse than having a team meeting every day to find out where everyone is up to,” says Prezident. “We’re a big believer in using data. This is where accountants can have a lot of impact – by giving insightful analysis.”

“We’re a big believer in using data. This is where accountants can have a lot of impact – by giving insightful analysis.”

The shift from accounting software on the desktop to the cloud gave business owners the ability to access financial data in real time. But while many accountants are now preparing management reports, Prezident says they’re still prepared under tax principles.

“I think that’s fundamentally flawed when you’re using that information for decision-making,” he says.

Prezident has resisted plunging his own firm into the smorgasbord of accounting technology. Whitehouse only works with Xero software, even though some of its clients use different packages (the firm copies the accounting data from other software to Xero Ledger).

“When you start to build efficiencies, you can’t be great with everything,” he explains. “When you try to be across more technology, you become very bad at it. We try to become masters at the technology we use.”

“When you try to be across more technology, you become very bad at it. We try to become masters at the technology we use.”

Whitehouse Private Wealth’s tech stack

Email marketing
Mailchimp

Email communications
G Suite

Productivity
G Suite, Microsoft 365

Video conferencing
Google Meet

Client accounting
Xero

Reporting
Spotlight

Payroll
Deputy

Expense management
Receipt Bank

Phone system
Exetel Banter

Internal chat
Facebook for Business

Practice management
Xero Practice Manager

Scheduling appointments
Calendly

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