Karbon Excellence Awards Podcast

⏸
Michelle Felip: We really believe
technology should actually

enhance the connection we're
having with people, not replace it.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: The Karbon Excellence
Awards recognize the accounting firms

that are raising the bar for the industry.

On this podcast, we ask leaders
of the winning firms a series

of questions about how they're
taking their firm's culture, client

experience, technology, and leadership

to the next level.

I'm your host, Twyla Verhelst,
and this is the 2025 Karbon

Excellence Awards podcast.

Since 1999,

Jade Consulting Inc. has built a
reputation for trust, professionalism,

and personalized services for
small businesses across Canada.

As a fully virtual firm, they've
embraced new technology from the

rise of cloud-based technology,
to the more recent surge of AI.

This year, they were recognized
as the 2025 Karbon Excellence

Award Winner for Connectivity.

Today, I'm joined by Partners, Jennifer
Green and Michelle Felip to hear how

they leverage technology to drive
connection and openness in their firm.

Welcome, Jen and Michelle.

Jennifer Green: Thank you.

Thanks for having us, Twyla.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: Let's dive
right into our topic for today, and

I know that we all, we all feel it.

There's so many must-have tools and
features being released so often.

How do you assess what is hype and
what is genuinely useful for your firm?

Jennifer Green: Great question.

It's not always easy nowadays.

We take really strongly at our core
that we have a responsibility to

our clients to be really confident
in the applications that we use.

Confidence in the app itself, but also
the company behind the app in their

future, in their levels of security.

That's really important to us.

That's why we choose partners like Karbon,
like those types of providers that we

have a certain level of confidence in.

You know, world class apps that
we're able to trust as much as

possible in this day and age.

We watch a lot of the quarterly app
roadmap webinars as well, and we pay

attention to what's being promised
and then later what gets rolled out.

And we understand a hundred percent
that app development isn't easy and

not everything can come out on time
and things are subject to change.

But each app partner can— and I say
this to my teams too—every interaction

you have with people either builds
confidence or breaks confidence.

So we do pay attention to those apps
that are able to continuously deliver the

things that they're promising out to us.

So that's really important.

Karbon, as an example, has been great in
delivering their promises consistently

and advising us if something's not
ready or if something's being delayed.

And you're always rolling out
great products, even before

we've often thought of it.

For the newer or notable
products, we're more likely to

test those internally on our

internal files and data before
we'd roll anything like that

out to be client facing.

We just need to be able to communicate
confidence to our clients with the

apps that we're recommending so
that we always wanna have them

tried and tested internally.

The last point I'll make on that is
we're always encouraging our team to

submit request features and give feedback
because we know that our app partners are

listening and they value that feedback.

So it's definitely a lot of work, but
we like kind of staying on the edge of

seeing what's new and coming all the time.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: Well, love
hearing that you're empowering your

team to also give us that feedback.

'Cause sometimes it's the team that's
so deep into the work and the, you know,

the fine features of the product that
they really can bubble up some, some

really great scenarios for us to have
from the tech side from firms like yours.

If we keep going with technology,
I know that inside of your firm

you use about five tools to help
run your firm, and six tools to

help with client service delivery.

And then you've got an
interconnected system around that.

So Michelle, you know, tell us
what are the essentials in any tech

stack and what's the advantage to
cloud-based and integrated solutions?

Michelle Felip: Well, obviously
as Jen mentioned, we're

using Karbon and Microsoft.

Those are front-end

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: pieces

Michelle Felip: that we're
using as well as Ignition and

Practice Protect is another app.

And Teams, as part of
Microsoft that we're using.

We used to use Slack and we've actually
just made a change over to Teams.

Externally on the client side,

also Karbon huge for us
with the client tasks.

And now every system is interconnected
from the initial client leads right

through to their financial reporting.

Allowing data to flow smoothly between
all these different applications helps

our workflows, but also helps us engage
with our clients throughout the process.

So an example

is like right from the get go
when Jen starts quoting a client,

Ignition's talking to Karbon, it's
creating those templates which

allows the team to jump right in.

They know as soon as the client
is signed off, there's onboarding

work right and ready in Karbon
for them to start working through.

We've been on QuickBooks Online
since 2013, and actually been

a remote team since 2016.

Something like COVID really didn't
affect our team because we were

already ready, adapted to the remote
technology and be able to deliver to

our clients without very many hiccups.

And really the entire focus of our
firm is our tech stack for both our

teams and our client communications.

So Karbon is the main main source of that.

I would say.

It connects our team internally to
applications, communications, and

literally each piece of work that's in
there so that both the client is aware

of what's going on and also everybody
on the team knows what we're doing.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: And we know as on
the Karbon side, as you've interacted

with our team and, and had your own
progression over the last number of years

that you've been automating more and
more of the work of your workflow, and

reported that, you know, that reduces
the manual work and increases accuracy.

So, how have you been able to reinvest
the time that's been saved and

the effort back into your clients?

Michelle Felip: So, really, automating
that data extraction piece and

the transactions, that part has
really transformed how we work,

and also how we serve our clients.

Reducing the amount of manual work,
literally taking pieces of paper and

typing in that information into a system,
has gained back hours on our team.

And so we try to use that time that we've
got to reinvest in higher value work.

It means spending more time
actually connecting with the clients

understanding the goals they have,
showing them their actual numbers

and helping them make decisions.

This helps us focus on bigger picture
things that we can look at with them.

What those numbers mean and how they can
actually move and progress their business.

I also love to talk about that
it allows us to be more creative

and collaborative as a team.

We dive really into process improvement.

Is there some way faster
or better we can use that?

And going back to your initial
question with Jen, is there a different

tool we can use to make something
happen and how can we evaluate that?

Having the time to do that
really allows that to happen.

So it makes not just
our team's lives easier.

It really hopefully helps
our clients' lives as well.

We really believe though at Jade
that technology should actually

enhance the connection we're
having with people, not replace it.

And I think that's something people
need to embrace as they look at

AI and additional technologies.

It may help you save time in one space,
but that really should allow a space

to connect with people more thoroughly.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: I love that example.

And I mean, when we have freed
up time inside of our firms, there

is this decision matrix that we go
through either really in an obvious

fashion or in a less obvious fashion
around what do we do with that time.

And so, your example of what
the client— that now you've, you

know, been able to enhance their
workflows and save them time,

that's, that's significant.

And I'm confident you've got now
a client for life because that

investment that you made in them.

So let's talk a little bit more about
your team and about being remote.

You all are a hundred percent
remote and Jade relies on

technology and automation by design.

We've heard a little bit about that
already, but how do you inspire

collaboration and engagement in your team
without actually having a physical office?

Jennifer Green: People, like hands
down, are the important, most

important element of success for us.

You know.

It's as much as we embrace
technology and AI and everything,

like the people element, we still
feel is of utmost importance.

And so we focus a lot on team culture
and helping the team, as we say, be

engaged and successful every day.

And that's both in their work
and in their personal lives.

You know, life's honestly, life's
too short to spend eight hours a day

doing work you don't enjoy, surrounded
by people you don't care for.

So we spend a lot of time making
our culture a priority here.

We sort of have an internal
joke that people will ask, how

do you guys get along so well?

Or everyone seems to like,
really love Jade and get along.

And we joke that no one's
putting fish in the microwave.

So it's, you know, you don't have
these opportunities the same way

as you would in like a physical.

Base to, to have those friction moments.

So we actually kind of believe that
remote does bless us a little bit with

some of these opportunities for less
friction that might come up otherwise.

And then taking that, you know, negative
side out of it, we really lay into the

more positive approach and making sure
everyone is engaged to bring their

authentic self to work every day.

And that's, that's a big part of
who we are and what we wanna do.

And with technology, we're able to
stay connected with everyone as we

go through the process of whether
it be onboarding a new hire or not.

It's really important to us that
we understand and that the team

understand no one's doing this alone.

Like just because you're sitting remote
in your home office, you're not alone.

You are a part of a team.

And you're not an island,
like we're all here for you.

So several times throughout every
week we have different touchpoints

with team members.

They have access to other people
every single day of the week.

So we do open office hours, as we call
it, with various senior team members.

We have a mandatory team call
every week where we're going, you

know, it starts out with some just
chitchat, hanging out, catching up.

But then we're moving into our firm-wide
updates, we're discussing new apps,

any client issues that come up.

We always have an optional team
call, which is kind of more chitchat.

And then, twice a month, we actually
give the team... they have coffee

chats with each other just to, to
stay connected with people that they

may not work with on a regular basis.

So try to give lots of
different opportunities for

the team to stay connected.

The other thing we do is a biweekly
survey with every team member to

gauge satisfaction and engagement.

And what we've shown through
our eNPS score, which is like an

employee net promoter score, is
that compared to other remote

teams in this day and age, like our
scores are off the charts when it

comes to satisfaction and engagement.

So we feel, we feel very fortunate
about that and how we're able to

keep everyone feeling connected.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: I love that you're
asking them for that feedback because

sometimes as the founder or the partners,
you don't always want the feedback, right?

Because you then you should do
something with the feedback.

And I just also wanna say that, you
know, having met the two of you and

spent time with the two of you, you
two are also showcasing by example

what it's like to really enjoy
spending time with one another.

The two of you are clearly very
close and, and get along so well,

and that synergy is very obvious.

And so I'm sure your team feels that too.

You know, you're modeling, you
know what it's like to work with

somebody that you do enjoy spending
time with and that you don't put

fish in the microwave on behalf of.

Jennifer Green: Well,
thank you for saying that.

That means a lot.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: Yeah, you're welcome.

So it's, if it's not already clear
to our audience, obviously you are

prioritizing using smart and intentional
technology, but that is being used

in a way that's also bringing your
clients and your team closer together.

So as you support your clients in
their digital transformation journeys,

how do you empower them to do the
same and to bring their teams and

their customers closer together?

Jennifer Green: I think
this is a neat question.

'Cause to me, it's just as much of a
culture question and a human question

as it is a technology question.

And that's what always gets me going.

No one... no one wants to do work
that doesn't need to be done.

Like, period.

End of sentence.

So I think it's important that
we're talking to clients all the

time about creating efficiencies
in their workflows and in their

businesses so they can be more
successful, but as well as their team.

And that's not so that they need
less people, it's so those people

can do more meaningful work.

And I think that's really important
because going back to no one wants

to spend their days doing work, they
don't enjoy, let's free people up

to do really what's their, you know,
like, call it their area of genius.

Like freeing people up from mundane
tasks allows more space for

their greatness to show up, and
I think that's really important.

And team members are happier when they can
embrace technology that they understand

how it's gonna improve their lives too.

You know, part of successful change
management, whether that be in our firm

or in our client's firm, is to make
sure there's an understanding before

you start to make a drastic change
of how people are being impacted by

this and making sure you're able to
communicate the benefit for them as well.

In a very basic example, that's, you
know, come to light a couple times for

us in the construction industry, the
rhetoric there is typically, well, the

guys in the field won't use an app to
track time, or the construction firms

don't wanna accept electronic payment.

They only want checks.

That's how we've always done it.

Well, turns out in both cases,
people just wanna get paid.

So if you can actually remove
the friction in that change,

people will adapt and accept.

And we've seen great success, both
the benefits in our internal processes

by implementing some of these changes
as well as those of our clients.

So we really feel it's,
it's a big win-win.

And I think leading with that
change management mentality of

understanding what you're doing before
you start rocking people's boat is

really, really important to success.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: Yeah, and it
sounds like you're really getting to

the heart of the motivation, right?

In terms of what will have them embrace
the change and do something different that

helps with their connectivity as well.

Well, thank you both for your time.

It's been such a pleasure
to have you two on.

I just love spending time with you,
whether it's virtually or in person.

So, so great to have
you on the podcast today.

Jennifer Green: Thank you
so much for having us.

Michelle Felip: Thanks, Twyla.

Twyla Verhelst, CPA: To our audience.

You've been listening to the 2025
Karbon Excellence Awards podcast.

Every episode, we ask Karbon
Excellence Award winners, a series

of questions on how they raise the
bar for the accounting profession.

For more advice and strategies on
how to grow your firm, visit Karbon

Magazine at karbonhq.com/resources.

Bye for now.