The board, the executive team, have got really good faith and confidence in the finance team. When you have confidence in the numbers, you’ve got confidence to grow and confidence to open up more clinics and invest and continue to run forward. So you don’t want doubt in that. You want to just be able to execute the strategy and just go.

– Dianna Butterworth, CFO of Kieser Australia

Today I’m speaking with Dianna Butterworth, CFO of Kieser Australia. In this episode, we talk about . . .

• Background: Dianna’s path from financial advisor and entrepreneur to CFO
• Company Overview: Kieser Australia is a physiotherapy-led strength training provider with 31 clinics
• Initial Challenge: Managing 27 separate Xero files across clinics
• Solution Chosen: NetSuite ERP with implementation by Anexa
• Key Outcomes:

1. Replaced 80+ spreadsheets with NetSuite Planning and Budgeting
2. Improved team efficiency, moving from 1:5 to 1:12 clinic-to-bookkeeper ratio
3. Faster monthly reporting and greater data visibility
4. Budget cycle shortened from six months to one to two months

• Integrated Tools: Celigo, Zone & Co, ExpenseMe
• Conference Takeaways: Upcoming AI features in NetSuite and the value of peer networking
  Advice to CFOs:
  • Invest early in scalable systems
  • Prioritise agility as much as accuracy
  • Build confidence in the numbers to support growth

🧰 Apps & Tools Mentioned:

NetSuite, Xero, NetSuite Planning and Budgeting, Celigo, Zone & Co, ExpenseMe, ApprovalMax, Rippling, Blue Collar Cloud Solutions

Highlighted Timestamps

01:40 – Career Journey: From cufflinks to CFO
03:55 – About Kieser: What the business does and how it helps Australians
06:40 – Before NetSuite: The chaos of 27 Xero files
09:10 – Choosing NetSuite: Finding the right ERP for growth
11:30 – Empowering the Team: Moving from manual tasks to analysis
13:45 – Budgeting Breakthrough: Ditching spreadsheets for better planning
16:00 – Role of Anexa: Importance of a strong implementation partner
18:35 – Tech Stack Deep Dive: Celigo, Zone & Co, ExpenseMe
21:00 – Budgeting Speed: From six months to one month
23:30 – Advice for CFOs: Invest early and trust your data
25:20 – Insights from SuiteWorld: AI, networking and lifelong learning
28:10 – Wrapping Up: Thinking big and enjoying the journey

Scroll down for a full transcript (This transcript has been generated and transcribed by AI)

Heather Smith

Today’s guest is Dianna Butterworth, Director and CFO of Kieser Australia, a physiotherapy-led strength training business that blends health science and smart business systems. Dianna has worn many hats across her career, from running her own financial advisory and bookkeeping firm to creating Miss Links, a fashion brand specialising in cufflinks for women. She brings a unique mix of finance, entrepreneurship and purpose-driven leadership, and she’s passionate about how technology can streamline operations and support growth.

Dianna, it’s a real pleasure to have you with us here today on the Accounting Apps Podcast. 

Dianna Butterworth

Thank you for having me. That’s such a beautiful introduction. You’ve really done your research. 

Heather Smith

Well, I actually knew cufflinks and I was aware of that. I was like, Oh, okay. I went back and I reached out to a few friends of ours that crossover, and one of them sent me a message back, saying, Dianna is an incredibly awesome champion of women in business. 

Dianna Butterworth   

Oh my gosh, that’s a gorgeous compliment. 

Heather Smith  

Yes.

Dianna Butterworth   

I’ll have to chase you later as to who that was to say, thank you. So that’s very kind words. 

Heather Smith   

I just had lots of positive words. 

Dianna Butterworth  

Amazing. That’s beautiful. 

How has your day been so far here at SuiteWorld? 

Dianna Butterworth   

Oh, it’s so exciting. What a privilege to be here. First and foremost, when NetSuite invited me to speak and talk about our journey, I was really chuffed to start with, but really excited about the possibility of coming over and sharing our story. When I spoke to the CEO and said, I’m heading to Vegas to talk at SuiteWorld, he was like, what an amazing opportunity. You know, go, do this. And I said, and I’m bringing three of my staff with me, so I’ve got three of my team members here with me who worked on that project. Yeah, we are in our element here, really excited to be part of the community. 

Heather Smith  

Oh, that’s fantastic, yeah. It was wonderful during your talk, you called out your team members, and it can be a really bonding exercise, making the distance to come here to SuiteWorld. 

Dianna Butterworth  

Yeah, absolutely. I think you know, projects like this don’t happen on your own. It takes a team to come through this journey. So they’ve been on this journey for the last seven years along with me, so it’s definitely a reward and recognition strategy for them, as well as an amazing learning opportunity of what’s coming next from NetSuite. 

Heather Smith  

Yeah, absolutely. I’d like to get to know a bit of background about who you are. 

Dianna Butterworth 

Sure.

Heather Smith  

You’ve worn many hats. You’re currently CFO at Kieser. Yes. You’re founder of Friday Financial, creator of the fabulous Miss Links, designing cufflinks. 

Let’s share a bit of background about who you are. Can you tell us about your journey into these diverse roles? 

Dianna Butterworth  

Yeah, I’ve always been in finance, but I’ve always not just stuck in finance. I’ve always sort of looked over the fence when it comes to businesses. And I’ve, I’ve really loved how businesses start out from inception and then grow into, you know, as big as they can be. So I’m really, really passionate about small business. 

I was working in corporate for a long time. I had two girls within a really short space of time. And when I was working in corporate, you know, I just couldn’t find cufflinks for women, and I loved wearing shirts. So I created my own brand. And, geez, talk about an MBA in a in a short period of time. You’re the marketer, you’re the HR person, you’re IT, you’re finance, your operations, logistics, warehousing, packaging. So it was a really great experience for me starting my own business.

 You know that project still exists today in a small form. I was really passionate about helping businesses grow. So after my two girls, I started Friday Financial and that was my return to work plan. Yeah, working with really small and medium businesses who were wanting to grow.

I was consulting with Kieser, and that’s how the opportunity came about. Gosh, the people at Kieser are an amazing group of individuals. So they’re led by the CEO and the COO, who are both physios, Brett and Todd. They’re incredibly intelligent people, but I think the passion behind the people and the brand and what they want to do in Australia is really what attracted me to Kieser, Australia. Yeah, I’m really passionate about helping Australians just really live a strong and healthy life.

Heather Smith 

Yeah, you said that lots of times in talk, and people don’t often sort of say, Okay, I’m helping the whole country.

Dianna Butterworth   

Well, I think sometimes in finance, you can really disconnect from what you do and why you’re there. So it’s really important to connect with the brand. For me, that was a really important piece of you know going to work for someone who I connected with the product and the services and the impact that it was having in the day-to-day life of everyday Australians.

Heather Smith  

Absolutely. 

For the listeners who may not be familiar with Kieser, the company you’re currently working at, can you share a quick snapshot of the company and what it does? 

Dianna Butterworth  

Absolutely. I mean, like you mentioned, we’re a physiotherapy-led strength-training organisation originated in Switzerland in 1967 when our founder Werner Kieser discovered the benefits of strength training. We opened in Australia in 2006 and we’ve grown to over 31 clinics nationwide. We have around 800 staff and around 75 people in head office.

We are a group of passionate health individuals, physios, exercise scientists, exercise physiologists, really working with everyday Australians to help them reduce pain, prevent injury, but often supporting after injury as well. But really working with everyday Australians who identify the benefits of strength training and really want to improve their health and well being on a day-to-day basis. 

We typically see clients from a physiotherapy perspective, we lead them into a strength training programme that is using specialised equipment that is Swiss engineered. Our clients typically engage in two 30-minute training sessions a week. The research behind that, it’s all science based and science backed. There’s no mirrors or music in a Kieser clinic. You might get in there and feel a little bit like it’s bit medical or a bit clinical. That is deliberate. We really want our clients coming in and focusing on their strength training.

Heather Smith  

Not creating TikTok videos of themselves,

Dianna Butterworth 

Correct. That’s right. We really want them to focus on their muscle groups and so, and really train to like, I mentioned, fatigue. 

Heather Smith   

As an older lady, the TikTokers in the gyms just terrify me. But it’s interesting, because my husband looked into attending your clinic a week before Julian assigned. Yeah, so where’s this intersecting? There’s a massive facility just down the road from me.

Dianna Butterworth   

Incredible. Yeah, we should chat.

Heather Smith 

Kieser moved from now I understand 27 separate Xero files into one NetSuite platform. 

Can you paint a picture of what life was like before NetSuite, and what finally tipped the balance to make you change?

Dianna Butterworth   

Absolutely. We were operating on 27 different accounting files, and it was fairly chaotic. I had a bookkeeping team that was logging in and out of 27 different files, you know, doing bank recs, accounts payable, accounts receivable, running General Ledger transaction reports. 

It felt very manual and labour intensive, and I felt like the team were, I guess, just, you know, really buried in that manual entry, sometimes low value added tasks. I knew it wasn’t sustainable. We were opening three to five clinics a year, and I was opening up three to five Xero files every time we opened up a clinic. So I knew it wasn’t sustainable. 

I also knew that we needed consistency around our chart of accounts, our supplier databases, our customer records. I needed a single source of truth that could take everything that was happening in those 27 different Xero files into one world. NetSuite was just a really clear standout for us when we did the research. We had problems and we needed a solution. And yeah, Annexa in Melbourne were very much NetSuite can solve your problems for you. 

It was a it was an interesting time for us, because there’s so many products on the market. I, as a CFO can’t be across everything. You know, we as CFOs were expected to know everything, and I don’t. I don’t think we have the time to research necessarily every ERP system.

Heather Smith  

Yes.

Dianna Butterworth   

Once we found NetSuite, we knew we were in the right space. It took care of all our intercompany invoicing, our multi-entity structure that we had. It gave us bank rec functionality. Single source of truth across ledger and reporting was literally at the hit of a button. So it’s pretty amazing product for us.

Heather Smith 

Fantastic. 

You have talked about drowning in manual labour with all the data entry. What was the human impact on your finance team? How has that changed?

Dianna Butterworth   

Yeah, great question. 

 We had a ratio of five clinics to one bookkeeper, and we now have a ratio of one to 12, probably still going. So the team are able to get out of that sort of low-value sort of tasks and that manual data entry and actually spend a bit more time analysing the data. 

Our bookkeepers are amazing individuals, and on day one and day two, they’re analysing sales, comparing it to last year, wage costs according to sales, operational expenses, EBITDA, actuals versus budget, actual versus last year. What’s it going to look like for the next nine months?

They’ve turned away from being, I guess, spreadsheet Wranglers, to real data analysts. NetSuite has given them the power to do that. From the team’s perspective, I think there’s a huge amount of work satisfaction that probably wasn’t there before. We all come to work to have fun and enjoy each other’s company and enjoy the work that we do. I think that NetSuite has given us that new breath of life to go actually, finance can be really fun. So it’s not so monotonous, and doesn’t feel like Groundhog Day logging in and out of 27 different files.

Heather Smith  

When it’s hard to find talent at the moment.

Dianna Butterworth  

Yes. 

Heather Smith 

Having an enjoyable technology solution helps.

Dianna Butterworth  

Absolutely. And I think the thing with NetSuite is we’re constantly learning something new every day, and even just sitting down with each other, we’re like, oh, I didn’t know you could do that. So we’re finding tips and tricks and easier ways to do things, which before in the past…I mean, Xero is great. Xero is a great small business accounting package, but it is very, I guess, limited in what it can do. Whereas NetSuite, it’s like, wow, we’re only scratching the surface of what’s really capable.

Heather Smith   

Well, the conference is the ‘No Limits Conference’, isn’t it? 

Dianna Butterworth   

Oh, it’s unbelievable. I think I’ve mentioned this before. It’s like being handed, you know, the keys to a Formula One. We don’t really know how fast this thing can go yet, so we’re still trying to work that out as to its capabilities. That’s kind of fun, too, for the team.

Heather Smith  

Absolutely, absolutely. Accounting and Finance is a fun field that gives you a lot of ability to influence the direction of the business.

Dianna Butterworth   

Absolutely, absolutely. 

One of your wins for Kieser was replacing 80+ spreadsheets with NetSuite planning and budgeting. You implemented that about a year after NetSuite went live. Was that as freeing as it sounds?

Dianna Butterworth   

Absolutely. After FY24 budget period, I was pretty exhausted with the 80 plus Excel spreadsheets that had started to fail from a formula perspective, a links perspective, cells being deleted. Version control was an issue, so I think my exact words were to the CEO, I’m not doing this again next year, we need to change platforms.

We knew about NetSuite planning and budgeting well before we had even implemented NetSuite. I was patiently waiting to get NetSuite up and running before we then implemented NetSuite planning and budgeting. But it really has transformed the way we budget. I’ve got one source of truth. 

We use the NetSuite ledger as the base. We’ve got predictive analysis coming that we’re using within NetSuite planning and budgeting, and it really has made our life easier in terms of having all 31 clinics within one system, all 20 head office departments as well within that system, and linking the two together, and really just getting complete visibility within one world over on what does the next 12 months look like.

Heather Smith 

It sounds like if they’re going to roll out another clinic, you’re not dreading it.

Dianna Butterworth   

No, absolutely not.

Heather Smith  

It’s like, bring it on. 

Dianna Butterworth  

Absolutely. Previously in the past, when you know we were budgeting for five clinics, we’re like, okay, here we go. Another five Xero files, another five Excel, you know, budget templates. The thought of that is, it just doesn’t even exist, really anymore. We’ve got complete confidence in growing and, yeah, there’s no fear really when it comes to this system and the growth that’s coming. We know as a finance team, we can support the business in that growth now.

Heather Smith   

That’s fantastic. So Kieser worked with Annexa, a, double N, E, X, A as an implementation partner. How important was utilising the services of an implementation partner to make the transition a success?

Dianna Butterworth   

I think that your implementation partner is the make or break of your success when it comes to an ERP transformation. I mean, it’s a fairly big project, and again, you don’t know what you don’t know. So when I researched implementation partners, I really wanted the best, and Annexa kept coming out as a standout regarding their credentials. 

They had done hundreds of implementations before they knew the product like the back of their hand. But the thing that I really liked about the team. There are, they sit down with you. They get to know your business. They get to know your processes. And you know, they’re not scared to sit down with you and say, right, when NetSuite comes along, we may need to change this process, because it will change the way that you work. 

I love that, because everyone’s really reluctant to change when it comes to processes. But the reality is, when you have a new system coming on board, your processes do have to change. So I think Annexa gave us comfort that, you know, when that product came along and came into Kieser, we were going to be okay. We were still going to get the same outcome, but in a quicker, faster and more efficient way. 

Those guys are incredible at what they do. We’ve been really fortunate, I think, to have them alongside us in this journey. And you know, still to this day, we call them and go, Hey, we’re just, you know, we’re feeling this pain point. Can you point us in the right direction? Who do we need to speak to? And they’re very gifted at bringing the right companies and the right solution to the table at the right point in time.

Heather Smith  

Fantastic, fantastic. 

Are Annexa accountants or project managers?

Dianna Butterworth  

Ah, it’s a great question. Probably a little bit of both. I think, you know, they allocate you a project sponsor, and then they give you a project manager as well. But then the team that sit behind that are just incredibly talented, and there’s accountants in the back that are hearing and talking your language. 

Dianna Butterworth  

But you know, the team we worked with, I think their true talent was really just getting to know our processes and then conveying it back to the dev team to go, right, This is how we’re going to customise the suites specifically for Kieser to achieve the outcome that you need. So, yeah, so I think they’re just incredibly good at what they do, and whether that’s through the experience they’ve gained over the years, very, very knowledgeable and a smart group of people.

Heather Smith   

I imagine it’s actually an interesting career for an accountant to potentially pursue. 

Dianna Butterworth  

Yes.

Heather Smith    

If they’re looking if they like a bit of project work, and they like a bit of standardisation and implementation.

Dianna Butterworth   

100%.

Heather Smith  

Kieser has integrated NetSuite with Celigo, Zone & Co., and ExpenseMe. Can you explain what each of those solutions does and how it’s helping your business?

Dianna Butterworth    

Yeah, absolutely. So I’ll start with Celigo. We have a custom CRM at the front that sits within our clinics and records all of our client transactions: when they come in for a physio appointment or sign up for a contract to do some services. Then that is happening within the clinics. 

 Celigo transfers all of the invoicing and payment data every night into NetSuite. Prior to that, it was failing, so we were sending so much volume down to Xero that we actually had system and integration failures. So Celigo was a really important piece for us to make sure that that data every night was coming back into NetSuite. 

 To be honest with you, in the past, we would wake up some mornings and go there’s actually no data here today for us to reconcile, because it was just so backlogged in terms of how it was trying to how much it was trying to push through. Annexa introduced us to Celigo, the implementation and the integration was seamless, and all of our data comes through every night. 

Annexa also introduced us to Zone & Co.; Zone & Co. captures a product that reads all of our accounts payable invoices and transfers them straight into NetSuite with a copy of the invoice attached. So my team don’t really code accounts payable invoices. They kind of just already see them there and push a button and push them through, which is amazing, and it exists within the NetSuite world. So you feel like you’re in NetSuite. You’re not loading into a separate portal with Zone and Co.

Then ExpenseMe, we do all of our CBA corporate cards and AmEx cards and all of our expense claims through there. So our users have an app where they snap and go, they code off their transactions, and we interface that into NetSuite as well. So all three of those products have been really integral to our success, and again, it really just helps the efficiency of how we operate on a day to day basis. 

Heather Smith   

Thank you so much for sharing that. I always think it’s interesting to hear what else is happening there. 

You’ve mentioned that your budgeting cycles have shrunk from three months to one month. What does the speed mean for Kieser’s ability to grow and make decisions?

Dianna Butterworth   

I think it was probably more like six months to one month. We would start our budgeting process in January, just to get them into the system by July. So the finance team was stuck in budget mode for six months, which is just crazy when you think about it. 

As a CFO, we have a huge amount of tasks on our plate, so I needed to somehow free up some time. NetSuite planning and budgeting has enabled us to shrink that time to about one to two months, and we’re able to get budgets out quicker, faster to the board and the executive team. 

But it’s not just about that. NetSuite planning and budgeting enables us to do scenario analysis. In the past, we really couldn’t do that. So if the Board want to understand a high, medium, low-case scenario, or a particular impact on whether it’s sales or costs or wages, we’re able to do that in minutes rather than what would take sometimes weeks. So quicker, faster decision making just really gives the board and the executive team confidence in the numbers, and confidence in the numbers really helps us grow faster.

Heather Smith   

Speed and decision making is really important in a fast business. Everything’s going so much faster now. We need speed in our decision making.

Dianna Butterworth   

We do. We want to make educated decisions as well. For me, you know, as a CFO, if I don’t have accurate numbers, you’re driving a little bit blind. I’ve always said that. I think you know, having confidence in the numbers, having them faster and quicker, and being able to make decisions quicker, means we can just keep moving ahead with, you know, the ultimate strategy of opening up more clinics and impacting more Australians.

During your talk, you shared three lessons for CFOs. Could you share them with us here?

Dianna Butterworth  

Yeah. So the first lesson was, invest early. I wish we had have looked at an ERP system when we were 13 Xero files and, you know, 200 staff and a small business unit, but we just didn’t think it was that big of a priority back then. But invest early and build the foundation before you scale, because as you scale and the faster you scale, you know, cracks really do expose areas of finance and the business. 

The second comment was, or the second piece of advice was, agility is really important, and just as important as accuracy, we used to take 20 to 25 days to get results out. But the reality is, the business can’t wait that long to make decisions. So you’ve got to move fast. You’ve got to get your numbers out quicker. They need to be accurate, because decisions are being made on those numbers.

The last one really is about just confidence again in the numbers. The board, the executive team, have got really good faith and confidence in the finance team. When you have confidence in the numbers, you’ve got confidence to grow and confidence to open up more clinics and invest and continue to run forward. So you don’t want doubt in that. You want to just be able to execute the strategy and just go.

Heather Smith  

Thank you for sharing that. I’m sure people will find it useful. 

What are you hoping to discover while you’re at SuiteWorld 2025?

Dianna Butterworth   

Yeah, I think I get asked this question a lot. I really love talking to people, and I love talking to other clients about where they’re at in their journeys. Whether I can help them in that journey, how can they help me in that journey? So I think I love networking with other clients. 

But then there’s the NetSuite ecosystem of NetSuite employees themselves, the alliance partners that are around. And to be honest, I spend more time on the expo floor talking to people, probably more so in the sessions, because I just tend to get tips and tricks and know what else is out there by having a chat with people that are around me. I’m a lifelong learner, and I love connecting with people. My biggest learnings come from others, so I’m hoping to really just learn from other people in the system.

Heather Smith  

Yeah, absolutely. And I believe all of the three solutions you mentioned are here. So being able to say, hey, yeah, what have you got coming down the pipeline I need to know about is great. 

Dianna Butterworth  

So great. 

Heather Smith   

There have been a lot of product announcements in the keynote this morning. 

Dianna Butterworth   

Yes.

What were the product announcements that caught your eye from a CFO’s perspective?

Dianna Butterworth 

AI is such a big buzzword at the moment, isn’t it? And you know, sometimes as finance individuals, we feel like we’re missing out a little bit. And if we’re not at the forefront of the usage of that, then, gosh, we’re falling behind. I don’t tend to get caught up in all that. I’m very curious about what’s coming. And we’re being really, I guess, patient with the AI and what’s happening in that space. 

I’m excited about the fact that NetSuite is building the capability within itself, and that’s where we will leverage that. NetSuite Next looks pretty exciting, and I get really excited about that kind of, hey, you know, Oracle, you know, what can you tell me about what happened with sales last month to this month? 

I’m really excited about using some of those. I guess it’s a bit like a ChatGPT function that’s just been built into NetSuite, but it’s going to do it within the ecosystem. The reality is, all our transactions are in there. All our data is in there. Of course, it’s the best place to go for us to go, Hey, what’s happening here from a variance or a numbers point of view? So I’m really looking forward to that component of that sort of built in AI capability to see what it can generate.

Heather Smith  

Natural language.

Dianna Butterworth  

Oh, my goodness, absolutely yes. I’m really excited about that component.

Heather Smith  

Fantastic.

Heather Smith   

You’ve talked about how you like to share with accountants and mentor people along the way. 

If you’re in a room full of accountants running small firms, what’s something you’d encourage them to do?

Dianna Butterworth  

In relation to ERPs, or just in general? 

Heather Smith  

Anything. You can choose.

Dianna Butterworth 

I think sometimes as finance people, we tend to stick within our own bubbles. My advice would be, just get out of the bubble and get networking and collaborate with others. I think that we’re better when we work together, and I think that you can never stop learning, and you can never stop sharing your learning as well.

I have gotten caught up in my career in some times where you get so busy you don’t get out of your shell and you don’t get out enough. But over the last few years, I’ve really tried to get out more and listen and learn, but also share my experiences too. 

Heather Smith  

Yeah. 

Dianna Butterworth 

I think my encouragement would be, it’s hard in a small business, it can feel really isolating and a bit lonely at times. Just get out there and just start talking to people, because you never know who you might meet.

Heather Smith 

Yeah, absolutely. From my perspective of coming to SuiteWorld, is that you have the opportunity of meeting other CFOs, yes. And everything is just on such a bigger scale here in America.

Dianna Butterworth 

Yes.

Heather Smith   

Such a bigger scale. It really kind of opens your eyes up. Okay, there is actually so much more possible. There are no limits. 

Dianna Butterworth  

100%

Heather Smith  

I’m sending like…

Dianna Butterworth  

But no, it’s very true.

Heather Smith   

Which you would think is not there, is there. It opens your eyes up a lot further.

Dianna Butterworth  

Yeah. And I think, you know, you just need to think big. So, you know, everything is possible.

Heather Smith 

Beyond big. It’s enormous. 

Dianna Butterworth  

It is. But I think, you know, we have a real mentality at Kieser, everything is possible and anything is possible. You just need to think about outside of the box. Think about how you’re going to do things. So we’re constantly challenging each other about how can we do things better, bigger, different. When you come to an environment like this that is really quite, quite big, the ideas really start to flow.

Heather Smith   

Yeah, absolutely. 

Heather Smith  

Finishing up on a lighter note, tomorrow night, we’re going to the SuiteWorld party featuring Mr Worldwide Pitbull. 

Time of Our Lives, Give Me Everything, Fireball, Feel the Moment, Timber. Do you have a favourite Pitbull song?

Dianna Butterworth 

Oh, you’re really testing me now. You know what? I’m so terrible about this, like, I don’t know the names of songs and who sings them, but when they get going, I’m the first person to start singing. Tomorrow night, I will be there dancing, there is no doubt about that, and my team will see me in a new light. I have seen Pitbull before, and he is awesome, and he really gets the crowd going. So I’m kind of excited about what we’re gonna see tomorrow night.

Heather Smith  

It should be an amazing evening.

Dianna Butterworth  

Sorry, I can’t pick a favourite song, unfortunately.

Heather Smith  

Thank you so much, Dianna, for talking to us here on the Accounting Apps Podcast. It’s been a really lovely hearing everything from you. 

Dianna Butterworth 

Thank you for having me. 

In this section, I’ve selected some interesting and diverse speakers who, I hope, give you a flavour of the event and the ecosystem around NetSuite. 

Can you share with me who you are and what company you work for?

Alex Keselman  

Sure, sure, absolutely. My name is Alex Keselman. I am a solutions engineer in ApprovalMax, a leading platform for both accounts payable and account receivable approval automation.

Heather Smith  

Fantastic. 

What’s the experience been like for you at SuiteWorld ’25? 

Alex Keselman  

It’s quite interesting where the market is going to. The trends are all about AI. We can hear it everywhere, lots of providers and market leaders are talking about AI and what type of things they are doing with this. So it’s quite interesting to see where it’s all heading to. And of course, we are going to the same direction providing our customers, first of all with the most robust workflows, but also insights and where these approvals are actually coming from.

What industries are the customers who walk by and approach your stand coming from?

Alex Keselman  

It’s actually not only industry, but all over the world and all other markets. So we are seeing companies from both manufacturing, construction, entertainment, non for profits, especially. All of them are looking for different software providers to help them build these robust financial controls in place.

What has been your experience like in terms of integration and partnership with NetSuite?

Alex Keselman  

It’s quite interesting, because just about two years ago, we were nowhere near being in SuiteApps. No one really knows about ApprovalMax. So that was completely a wild, wild west for us. And now, two years after, we have a long-lasting relationship, both with NetSuite and Oracle itself. 

We’re doing a lot of collaboration, both in the UK or in the US markets. It’s the second time for us being here in SuiteWorld. So it’s quite interesting to see how this all been progressed, and more and more companies knowing about ApprovalMax, and how do we collaborate with Oracle?

If a client is currently on Xero and ApprovalMax and needs to migrate to NetSuite, would their setup in ApprovalMax essentially remain the same, and could they simply transition? 

Alex Keselman  

Exactly. That’s actually the beauty of ApprovalMax, that no matter which accounting system you’re working with right now, if you’re migrating from Xero or QBO into NetSuite, your user experience will remain the same. If you already know how to build this workforce, if you already know how to approve things, you’d be surprised that it’s pretty much exactly the same user experience. 

You can start from initial integration process all the way to approving your documents in just one single day. And that’s a big surprise for big corporate guys who are actually always thinking about, how many months would it take for us to integrate? It takes days, not months. 

Heather Smith  

Fantastic. 

What’s something that’s piqued your interest since we’re here at SuiteWorld? 

Alex Keselman  

I think we’re NetSuite heading to in the first place. So both yesterday keynotes and today, keynote was all about AI and what type of tools there will be bringing in AI agents, the integration between them and all of the different types of AI assistants, like Gemini, like Cloud, like chat, GPT. So it’s interesting to see, both worldwide, what is the market trend and also Oracle in the same direction. 

Heather Smith  

Fantastic.

Thank you so much for joining me on the Accounting Apps Podcast, Alex.

Alex Keselman  

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me here, Heather.

Heather Smith  

Welcome to the Accounting Apps Podcast.

Could you please tell me who you are and which company you represent?

Ian Medina  

Yeah, my name is Ian Medina. I’m a solution consultant. I work for Rippling.

Can you explain to our listeners, who are primarily accountants, what Rippling does and talk about the integration with NetSuite?

Ian Medina  

Yeah. 

So what Rippling is, is kind of a modular platform. We started out as an HR and payroll service. Now we’ve branched out to do things like IT, Spend Management, from corporate cards to AP bills and travel. With the integration with NetSuite, what that permanently does is, as soon as someone swipes their credit card, we can bug them for all the receipts information, coding aspect from a text message. Then immediately send that information to NetSuite, so you don’t have to track people down for missing information, pull over memos, even house copies of the receipts in NetSuite. So you get all the information. NetSuite still report off of it in there, but with the availability of like a software backed credit card and expense platform.

How many employees can sit on Rippling?

Ian Medina  

Yeah, it really depends how many you got. We service a wide range, from a small 50 employee companies, to everything until around 200,000 employees. So a big range, just really depending on the need and exactly what you’re looking for.

Heather Smith  

How long does it take to implement Rippling?

Ian Medina  

Yeah, there’s a few different parts of it. 

Payroll is probably gonna take a little bit longer than, say, a corporate credit card expense management. But corporate credit card sides around, we give a 60-day implementation time, but really it’s around two to four weeks. The 60-day one is, hey, we’ll get you up and running. Let’s go through your first close together, make sure you’re comfortable. Then, the next close we’ll kind of let you run it on your own, and then come to us with any questions. We’ll be there on the next month to kind of advise, if anything weird comes up, we’re happy to help and drop in.

We’re here at SuiteWorld. What’s something that’s caught your eye?

Ian Medina  

Yeah, I think just all the AI conversations. I know that’s a big buzzword probably everywhere at this point, but just I know as accountants, I’m a former accountant myself, so I always kind of fear AI coating that.

Heather Smith  

Stop, stop, stop. No one is a former accountant. We are all still accountants.

Ian Medina  

That is fair. That is very fair. So that’s kind of my concern. Is like, All right, yeah, accounting is going to be AI-driven, but now does that mean I’m just gonna review AI coatings rather than employees? So that’s been making sure how accurate is it? What is it learning from and just making sure it fits their business, rather than, you know, the AI platform itself.

Heather Smith  

Yeah, absolutely. 

I think the phrase is ‘human in the loop’. 

Ian Medina  

There we go. Thank you for that.

Heather Smith  

That was what they kept saying yesterday in the keynote, ‘human in the loop’.

Ian Medina  

Perfect. I’m glad to take that into consideration.

Heather Smith  

Perfect. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience at SuiteWorld? What do our accountants need, and what should the community know about Rippling?

Ian Medina  

No, I mean, I would say there’s a lot of emphasis on the accountant side inside of rippling. I was gonna say former accountant. I’m still an accountant here. I was actually a consultant over at NetSuite before I came to Rippling. So there’s a lot of drive make sure the NetSuite integration is really good, and also the accounting side of making sure that side of the team is very happy, not only HR and the employee side.

Heather Smith  

Thank you so much for joining us on the Accounting Apps Podcast.

Ian Medina  

Thanks so much. It was great speaking with you. 

Heather Smith  

Welcome to the Accounting Apps Podcast.

Could you tell us who you are and the organisation you represent?

Jeff Locklear  

Yeah, my name is Jeff Locklear. I’m the VP of Customer Success for a NetSuite alliance partner, BlueCollar Cloud Solutions.

Can you explain to us what BlueCollar Cloud Solutions does?

Yeah, we are a purpose-built solution for construction companies. So we do construction project management, construction financial accounting, real-time WIP reporting, retainage, change-order management, subcontractor management, all within the NetSuite platform.

How long have you been around?

Jeff Locklear  

Two and a half years. 

Heather Smith  

The business has been around for two and a half years. 

Jeff Locklear  

Yes. 

Heather Smith  

Oh, sensational. 

What was it like to integrate with NetSuite? What’s your partnership like with them?

Jeff Locklear  

We’re a NetSuite alliance partner. There’s no integration because it’s built into the platform.

Heather Smith  

Oh, okay, okay. Oh, okay. But there you go.

We’re attending SuiteWorld 2025. What has caught your attention so far?

Jeff Locklear  

Oh, wow.

All of the incredible partnerships that we…So we’ve all been in the NetSuite ecosystem for a long time. I’ve been, you know, 12 plus years, but we have developed so many partnerships with other partners here. We have so many construction companies that are here, and private equity firms that are here, that are in the construction space. Really, really interesting.

Heather Smith  

Oh, okay.

Could you explain a little more about what an alliance partner is? Sounds like it’s something different to a normal partner. 

Jeff Locklear  

Yeah.

So an alliance partner is that we don’t sell the NetSuite licences. We partner in co-sell with the NetSuite direct-sales team, and we help them. We help them close the deals, and then we implement the products.

Heather Smith  

So you’re a construction solution, integrator and implementer. 

Jeff Locklear  

We are.

But we’re also, we also implement NetSuite, even without our product. Oh, yeah. So we do so we do both just core NetSuite implementations, but then we also do our product as well. So we sell the licences for our product. We don’t sell the licences for the NetSuite product.

Heather Smith  

Oh, okay, fantastic. Thank you for sharing that with me. 

Now, is there anything else you think the accounting community should know about your solution, BlueCollar Cloud?

Jeff Locklear  

Yeah.

I mean, it’s like I said, it’s a purpose-built solution for construction companies. It’s really kind of a one of a kind within the within the NetSuite ecosystem that was built from the ground up, purposely for construction companies, and we solve problems for construction companies.

Heather Smith  

Fantastic, fantastic. And it’s such a niche area that needs big solutions to solve their big problems.

Jeff Locklear  

Absolutely, absolutely. 

For the longest time, it really wasn’t a niche industry that NetSuite focused on, but now with our solution, they can.

Heather Smith  

Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much for joining me on the Accounting Apps Podcast. 

Jeff Locklear  

Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. 

Heather Smith  

Welcome to the Accounting Apps Podcast. 

Who are you and which organisation do you represent? 

Megan Welsh  

Absolutely.

My name is Megan Welsh. I’m with the Sole4Souls organisation. We are a nonprofit social enterprise. We’re based all over the world. We are in 134 countries, and we actually collect both new and used shoes and create economic and job opportunities with those. 

Fantastic.

Here at SuiteWorld, there are numerous giant stickers on the floor, asking me to take shoe selfies. Can you explain that to our listeners?

Megan Welsh  

Absolutely. 

We’re trying to raise awareness to Soles4Souls. So what we’re doing today is we’re trying to get everyone to pledge to donate a pair of gently used shoes. If you can see over here, there is, we have 882 pair committed. Those shoes will actually go internationally, and they will create economic and job opportunities for individuals all over the world.

How does the shoe create a job opportunity? 

Megan Welsh  

What we do is we collect gently issues from individuals, businesses, civic groups, faith-based groups, and those shoes are actually put into small businesses internationally. So the shoes are sold for a minimal fee, and we partner with individuals on the ground in other countries like Haiti, Honduras, and Moldova. Those shoes actually are creating jobs for individuals. So individuals are selling those shoes in the countries that they live in. 

Heather Smith  

Fantastic.

How are you involved with SuiteWorld?

Megan Welsh  

Okay, so we have been a customer of NetSuite for the last three years. They’re an amazing organisation, and they’ve actually impacted our business significantly. We actually came to them for the Hackathon. So we applied for the Hackathon, which is where we present a challenge or an opportunity, where we could see improvement with our organisation by using NetSuite. 

There were about 40 or 50 individuals that came in and created. They took a look at our business, and they made recommendations, they did some coding, and they helped us with opportunity of updating our logistics programme. So it’s an incredible opportunity for a nonprofit to actually come in and get some incredible in kind work from organisation like this.

Heather Smith  

That’s amazing. Totally amazing. 

Megan Welsh  

Thank you. 

Heather Smith  

So if for people who can’t see we are sitting in this sort of big round, circular area, and there’s lots of a digital board full of shoes. So I’m sure everyone is quite excited about getting their shoes. 

Have you come across any interesting shoe photos? 

Megan Welsh  

We’ve had plenty of interesting shoe photos. We had some high-heeled tennis shoes. We’ve had some beautiful rainbow, sparkly shoes. We’ve seen it all.

Heather Smith  

Fabulous. 

We’re attending SuiteWorld 2025. What has caught your attention during the past few days? 

Megan Welsh  

I mean, I think what’s piqued our interest is just the amount of opportunity to kind of grow and expand our business by utilising partners of NetSuite and SuiteWorld.

Heather Smith  

Fantastic. 

Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. 

Megan Welsh  

Thank you for having me. 

Heather Smith  

Welcome to the Accounting Apps Podcast. 

Would you like to tell us your name and the company you work for?

Kelly Gonyea  

Yes. I’m Kelly Gonyea, and I am with BPM Caravel.

Can you explain to our listeners what the company does? 

Kelly Gonyea  

Yes. 

So we are an Alliance partner of NetSuite, which essentially means we are an implementation partner, advisory partner, and we take NetSuite, we implement it for our customers, and we also extend it in a few ways.

Where are your customers located?

Kelly Gonyea  

Everywhere. I’m based in Austin, Texas, but as a firm, we’re based all over the United States, Canada, globally. Then our customers, I would say, primarily North America, but they also have global enterprises all over the world.

What does the implementation look like for you?

Kelly Gonyea  

Well, it depends on the customer, right, and what their needs are.

Depending on what vertical they’re in, depending on how complex their needs are, a NetSuite implementation can be anywhere from three to four months to, you know, six to seven to even longer, depending on what specifically they need. 

Major start of the implementation is to really look at your chart of accounts, get ready to start taking you through the implementation steps, business requirements, and then going through that configuration with training. A big part of this as well, is migrating data over into a new system, right? And so we help with that. But enablement training and getting you live on a new system and going through the biggest, biggest sometimes hurdle is that change management into a new system and making sure everyone moves over successfully.

Here in the USA or North America, what solution are the clients primarily coming from?

Kelly Gonyea  

QuickBooks, okay, yeah, enterprise, desktop, online, all of QuickBooks.

Heather Smith  

Sensational. 

How does someone find out about you, and what is that initial relationship and those initial stages like?

Kelly Gonyea  

Yeah, so it depends, right? 

We have clients that find out about us through word of mouth, in a sense of they hear of BPM as an accounting firm, and then they hear of Caravel as an extension of the technology arm from NetSuite, or through going in and evaluating NetSuite. 

NetSuite sometimes will bring us in into that evaluation to help as a partner, because we have specific direct expertise in the space. Or maybe we have what we call IP or intellectual property that we’ve built and extended NetSuite to handle other things like construction or DCA compliance. They’ll bring us into those types of opportunities where the customer has those needs.

Heather Smith  

It sounds like a really interesting avenue for an accountant to explore. 

Do you have a lot of accountants working in your business?

Kelly Gonyea  

I used to be an accountant. 

Heather Smith  

Yes, you are an accountant.

Kelly Gonyea  

Yes, I am at heart. I love, you know, I still love to get into Excel, what I can, but and not, see, always. But yes, I am still an accountant at heart. So I totally relate. 

I started off my career in public accounting, and then I was Accounting Manager, and then came over to the ERP space, worked directly at NetSuite, and worked in a few other softwares, like Sage as well, but came back home to be Director at Caravel. 

Heather Smith  

Fantastic.

What’s grabbed your attention at SuiteWorld 2025?

Kelly Gonyea  

Oh, man. I mean, everyone’s top of mind today.

I think this whole entire week has been AI, right? And ways that we can automate and bring that efficiency into NetSuite. I think my biggest thought of all of this, and maybe new idea, has been really having, like, guardrails around AI.

I think that’s, like, been top of mind for me this entire time. It’s like, yes, we have AI that is so exciting and so new and and just right, it’s awesome. But I think that there’s a lot that we need to be careful of. And I think there’s definitely advice that we can be given upon bringing that AI into your business, but also doing it in a way that doesn’t cause any kind of just trying to think of the right words here, I think in the right way.

Heather Smith  

Yeah.

I think sometimes it’s suggesting we’ll do autonomous decision. Is it like, is it going to be a brave decision or a conservative decision? 

Kelly Gonyea  

Yeah. 

Heather Smith  

And companies change and evolve, and they move in different ways around those decisions. So those autonomous decisions we’re worried about.

Kelly Gonyea  

Yes, exactly. And so I think bringing it in the right way, with levels and permissions, and also review that helps us.

I would have thought that with all the talk about AI, the transition should become smoother and quicker, because surely this AI magic will improve that aspect of it?

Kelly Gonyea  

Transition in the sense of moving over to a new system?

I mean, yes, of course it’s going to help, but I think there’s always going to be the change management, the training side of the implementation that you want to learn from humans. And I think that’s a really important touch, is the human touch on an implementation and making sure that we all learn from each other, and training is still going to be primarily led by humans. 

Heather Smith  

Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. 

How can people get in contact with you? 

Kelly Gonyea  

They can email me, find me on LinkedIn. My name is Kelly Gonyea. Thank you for the time. 

Heather Smith  

Cheers, awesome.