There’ll be people for the next 10 years going, Oh, am I using AI in practice? Yes, you are. It’s everywhere. Whether you think you’re using it or not, it’s been in your computers for the better part of a decade.
— Chris Wheatley, Founder and Director of Scope Accounting.
There is something about a 5:51 am airport run that makes for honest conversation.
On the way to the Sydney Accounting & Business Expo, I sat in the passenger seat while Chris Wheatley drove us through Brisbane traffic. Chris is a Brisbane-based chartered accountant, practice owner of Scope Accounting and co-founder of the Small Business Accountants and Advisors Brain Trust Facebook group, which is now pushing close to 9,000 members.
Between navigation directions and commentary about airport parking, we covered AI, peer influence, digital adoption and the shifting lending landscape.
A Modern Suburban Practice
Chris established his firm in 2014 and now runs a 10 FTE practice with approximately 1,900 clients on the lodgement list. No niche. No dramatic positioning statement. Just a well run, tech enabled suburban accounting practice.
Xero cent XPM centred. Strong in self managed super funds. A steady, consistent business.
It is a good reminder that not every successful firm looks like a glossy case study. Many are simply disciplined, organised and focused on serving their community well.
Chris spoke about starting Mondays with a sprint rather than a slow warm up. That mindset shift alone can transform how a team operates. When the leader moves early, the team is not waiting until Thursday for decisions.
Sometimes productivity is cultural, not technological.
AI Is Already Here
One of the sessions we are presenting at the Expo focuses on AI and practice tools.
Interestingly, Chris made the point that many accountants still ask whether they are using AI. The answer is almost certainly yes.
Optical character recognition has relied on AI for years. Platforms like Receipt Bank, now Dext, have embedded machine learning for over a decade. AI has been sitting quietly inside accounting software and hardware long before it became a headline topic.
The real shift is awareness.
Firms are now consciously evaluating AI tools rather than unknowingly benefiting from them. The question is no longer “Should we adopt AI?” but “How thoughtfully are we implementing it?”
Being at the absolute cutting edge is expensive. Sitting in the sensible middle of the bell curve, adopting tools once they are proven, can be a very practical strategy.
The Power of Peer Community
The Small Business Accountants and Advisors Brain Trust began as a small email exchange between peers. It evolved into a Facebook group that now plays a significant role in Australia’s accounting ecosystem.
Why has it grown?
Because accountants value peer recommendations over marketing.
Vendors can spend tens of thousands on advertising and conference sponsorship. But a trusted peer saying “We use this and it works” carries more weight.
Community also supports mental wellness. Smaller practice owners often operate in isolation. Having a space to ask technical and non technical questions reduces that sense of professional loneliness.
A rising tide raises all boats.
The strongest communities are those where members contribute beyond self interest. Chris and many others regularly provide guidance without expecting a commercial return. That generosity builds credibility.
A Message to Vendors
We also touched on vendor engagement within professional communities.
There is nothing wrong with vendors participating in Facebook groups. In fact, it is valuable. But participation should not be limited to dropping links or pushing demos.
Accountants are busy. If you are contributing, explain the feature clearly. Provide context. Add value beyond your product.
When vendors engage authentically and share knowledge freely, trust develops. When every interaction leads to a sales funnel, resistance grows.
Human support still matters. Technology is powerful, but knowing there is a real person behind it makes a significant difference.
Alternative Lending Is Gaining Ground
Chris is increasingly vocal about non bank lending and alternative credit solutions for small business clients.
The perception that non bank equals last resort is outdated. In many cases, alternative lenders offer competitive pricing and faster processes than traditional banks.
Accountants sit in a unique advisory position. Understanding funding options beyond the big banks allows us to better support clients navigating cash flow and growth decisions.
It is another example of the profession evolving beyond compliance.
Conversations That Matter
What struck me most about this conversation was its informality.
No stage lighting. No slide deck. Just two accountants discussing what is actually happening in practice.
AI is here. Community matters. Peer trust drives adoption. And modern firms are balancing technology with human connection.
If you are not already involved in a professional peer group, I strongly encourage it. The insights, support and perspective are invaluable.
And sometimes the best conversations happen in the car park at the airport.
This episode was recorded on the way to the Sydney Accounting & Business Expo, offering a candid and practical conversation about AI in practice, peer communities, vendor relationships and the evolving accounting profession in Australia.
Episode resources and links:
- Chris Wheatley, Director, Scope Accounting: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-wheatley-fca-29398533/
- Scope Accounting: https://www.scopeaccounting.com.au/
- Small Business Accountants & Advisers Brain Trust, Australia Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/977122739056681
- Accounting & Business Expo: https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/accounting-business-expo/index.stm
AI-Generated Transcript
Heather Smith
Heather, hello. I’m Heather Smith, and welcome to the accounting apps podcast exploring the accounting and business apps community. Today, I’m joined by Australia’s accounting and bookkeeping community’s favourite accountant, Chris Wheatley. Chris is a Brisbane based chartered accountant, and maybe he calls himself Redland based, so maybe that’s a Moreton Bay based chartered accountant.
And many of you will know Him as He is the one of the moderators and one of the co founders of the Facebook community Small Business accountants and advisors brain trust. And that is a discussion group for Australian based qualified accountants and bookkeepers to help navigate technical and non technical issues that arise in our profession.
There are close to 9000 members of that group. And if you are an accountant listening in and you’re not a member of the group, I’d encourage you to join it. I think it really helps people get especially when you’re in the smaller groups, smaller smaller practices or smaller businesses, helps you bounce ideas off people, and it also, I think, greatly supports the health and mental wellness of the accounting community, which was kind of, that is what community does. Community looks out for one another, so it helps you feel sane.
So this is the first in five episodes from the 2026 accounting and business expo edition. And yes, I managed to get five really, really interesting podcasts out of it. So stick with me for them. But this episode, as you will gather, is Chris driving me to the airport. Chris carpool. So Chris is famous for being available to carpool people to and from the airport. We actually went down on the same flight to Sydney, because we’re based in Brisbane, and we do frequently share an Uber here, there and everywhere. But he actually drove me, and he parked up for a few days there. Not that you needed to know that, but I hope you enjoy this episode with Chris Wheatley, and I do encourage you to join that group.
And I also, just before we jump in, I encourage you to stay up to date with the curated content that I’m sharing by signing up for the accounting Apps newsletter available at accounting apps.io and also joining my Facebook group, which is the accounting apps mastermind group. And feel free to connect with both Chris and I on LinkedIn. I hope you enjoy the episode.
Hello, listeners. Welcome to the accounting apps Podcast. Today. We have a very special guest who also happens to be my chauffeur driving me to the airport today. Much loved Brisbane and beyond accounting identity, Chris Wheatley joins us on the podcast today. Hey, Chris, how are you doing at 5:51am in the morning.
Chris Wheatley
I’m fantastic. I’m a little bit parched. I hope you give me five stars for this drive to the airport. Beautiful morning, though. Look at it. It’s like 21 degrees, bizarre.
Heather Smith
And the weather, because we are heading to the airport to go to the Sydney accounting and bookkeeping business expo, and the weather in Sydney is horrific. Yeah, I got a jumper. It’s 20 with a 90% humidity. So it’s horribly thought ahead, like raindrops when you took the screenshot. But the humidity was 90% so for those of you who don’t know, Chris is based out at Redlands. And runs scope accounting, but he also is one of the three admins for the very, very popular Facebook group, which is the Small Business Accounting and advisors trust. Australia, you’re not gonna forget it. Everyone hates the name of it, but there you go. Do they? Do they not? There’s a lot of controversy about my trademark. Lawyers love it butter.
So if you. Not in that group. I encourage you to connect with Chris Wheatley and join that group. Chris, tell us how the year has started off for you. The year
Chris Wheatley
has started off very organised, yeah, which isn’t like a New Year’s resolution, organisational mindset thing. It’s, it’s a, I suppose it is, but it’s like a, you know, you get all those billion things in your head, and I’m actually down and doing them. It’s um, it’s easy. I’m starting Mondays on a on doing a sprint, as opposed to warming up on Monday. I’m sprinting on Mondays, which is great, because then, you know, the teams let loose. They’re not waiting on me till Thursday. And I know it’s all, there’s always gonna be five days in the cycle. But you know, you can go straight ahead. You can go straight ahead. I can’t if your hands in the way Heather and I can’t see you get two stars for being a passenger.
Heather Smith
Do we not have navigation. We’re gonna go straight ahead, but instinctively
Chris Wheatley
I’m going, I’m going to trying to get to the Gateway vanity. We’re heading for
Heather Smith
the airport. We’re still safe. We’re safe, everyone. Don’t worry about that. So can you describe to our listeners your accounting practice,
Chris Wheatley
the accounting practice, we have 11, oh, no, 13 people. Isn’t that bad
Heather Smith
luck. We need to get something else happening.
Chris Wheatley
Well, it’s about 10 FTEs, okay, so there you go. So we have 1900 on our lodgement list, yes, which I think is a I’m ready for this with conference talk, and I gotta get the sass out of my system when people say, Oh, how many clients do you have? Are we talking about lodgements? Are we talking about groups? Are we talking about things? There’s no uniform definition. So we’re at 1900 we no niche. You know where you’re on in that regard. We, you know where you we average new school, suburban accounting business, yeah, zero cent X, pm centred. We have a heap of self we punch above our weight with self managed super funds, which is good because my kids are now in a expensive private school.
Heather Smith
Fantastic. How long has the company been going for?
Chris Wheatley
Oh, what are we in now? 2026 we started in, or both incarnations started in, 2014
Heather Smith
2014 so six weeks into starting Chris’s practice, I actually interviewed him on the accounting apps, so you can go back and listen to him there, fresh faced and eager and excited.
Still have that Batman toy that we referenced, fabulous.
So we’re in your car. Tell us about your car. I’m sure everyone
Chris Wheatley
wants it’s a the kids don’t like it because apparently it has a native stank to it.
Heather Smith
Let’s hope you get a car deodorizer in.
Chris Wheatley
The thing hanging from my rear view mirrors is well and truly expired. It’s a grey it’s a gun metal grey, 2025 Nissan X trail. It’s, I’m starting to feel like it’s starting to break. It’s probably worth, not very it’s probably worth just over a bit of couple of grand for scrap value. But I’m not a car guy, so you know, I’m not about to think. I’m not about to take advantage of fake FBT concessions and buy myself an EV. I don’t know. This has been good. I’m going to run this into the ground a little bit more.
Heather Smith
And isn’t the saying buy the cheapest car your ego can afford.
Chris Wheatley
Cheapest car my ego can afford is, is my greenness and micro that everyone knows me in the Redlands for. There’s three of them, and I’m one of them, and we give each other like a wave, like we’re bus drivers.
Heather Smith
Is it this one? Yes, yep, yes. Left here. Okay, hitting the gateway. Or, I think it’s been named at Leo shindlica bridge, but no one ever calls it that about 10 minutes out. So, um, we’re heading to the accounting and business expo. What sessions are you talking on?
Chris Wheatley
I have one with you on AI and practising tools, yes, with Tim
Heather Smith
from two drunk accountants, Kylie Baxter from IQ accounts. Liam Hindle from MYOB, yes,
Chris Wheatley
yeah, no, I’m I’m looking forward to that one. And a few people are interested in a can for that, because no one it’s like, it’s like everything in as an adult, yeah, you don’t know. You. Are Changing lands. You don’t like you don’t know what your peers are doing, but you feel like you need to know what your peers are doing. Yes, so it is. It’ll be a solid peer review session. Like, even though Kylie Tim and myself are probably very similar, other than, you know, age and family status, we’re very, I think we’re very similar, yes, in Bell Curve approach, if that translates without me, without you guys being able to see my finger district, finger movements. Yeah. But you know, there’s still people. There’ll be people for the next 10 years going, Oh, am I using AI in practice? Yes, you are. It’s everywhere. Yes, whether you whether you think you’re using it or not, it’s it’s been in your computers for for for the better part of
Heather Smith
a decade, or something like that. It’s just not a Receipt Bank, which is now Dex, always had a version of AI in optical character recognition has AI in it. Type of it? Yes, it’s
Chris Wheatley
been around since the since the late 90s. Yeah, absolutely. It’s on every photocopier.
Heather Smith
Yeah, absolutely. So it has been around a long time, and it will be interesting. And one of the interesting thing is is, as Chris says, he’s very far ahead on the bell curve. But if you were at the cutting edge, being at the cutting edge is the very, very expensive exercise. So it’s kind of at the sensible end of the bell curve of adopting, within reason tools.
Chris Wheatley
Because I wouldn’t say that I am a great adopter. But then you go to other conferences, and you realise that you are and you realise that the conversations that you do have with your peers, well, with your peer group, are beyond what other people are having with their peer group. And you know, you just, you feel, I know, you get a bit of comfort about that. It’s, it’s good for your ego a little bit, but, yeah, but then we’re all doing the same thing. So who’s doing it better?
Heather Smith
So one of the things that people will know you from is the small business, the spaboat socials, lots of can you tell us why you started that group? Let’s start with that question first.
Chris Wheatley
So a few of us were just emailing each other, just basic check in queries. What would you do here? What would you do there? So just migrated that to a Facebook group. Knew enough, knew enough people to be like the startup capital for it, and and here, yeah, do you like that industry?
Heather Smith
I like the startup capital, and I think it’s sitting at about 8000 members.
Chris Wheatley
We are pushing to 9000 Heather, I think our good friend Electra, name dropped us at a conference yesterday because about 40 of her friends joined, which is good, because, you know, talking about digital adoption.
Heather Smith
Thank you very much. Electra frost, I don’t know what conference she was at, possibly a cyber currency.
Unknown Speaker
She’s in Middle Asia at the moment.
Heather Smith
Oh, is she fabulous. So one of the things that we are really recognising is peer to peer recommendations are what people listen to. People are dropping 20k on adverts, Facebook adverts, people are dropping 20k on partnerships and having vendor stores at conferences, but the peer to peer relationships and information and insight is so important. How do you nurture that, and how do you sort of ensure that the people in the group are authentic,
Chris Wheatley
yeah, well, is it a case of there just being, if you’re if you’re an outsider, like that is the speed bump that you have to jump over in order to, like, buy into the buy into, I’m not gonna say the community, I’m gonna say the industry. You know, that’s your, that’s, that’s the default, oh, or if I want to be in in the Small Business Accounting space in Australia, New Zealand, I have to start off there, and then, and then, oh, look, hang on a second. People know me. People are coming to my little informal social events. I’ve got a little bit of credibility on, on all the on the two main platforms for our industry, yeah, which is, which is a concept that I’m still kind of adopting or trying to understand. Because, you know, few of the conversations that I’ve had with people, even with people that you’ve introduced me to, Heather, yeah, just changing lanes.
Heather Smith
Heather, I’m being front seat driver.
Chris Wheatley
I’ve never been to the airport like I’ve picked up Andy Wang before. I’ve picked up Alex from recharge. Lee, I know when I’m the industry I’m the industry deity. All right, I’m doing you.
Heather Smith
Are you? Are you? Are the hostess with the most. Justice from Brisbane,
Chris Wheatley
yeah, like the whole, are we? Am I still on topic about the, about the, I think you’re
Heather Smith
talking about yourself and your approach to the community, yeah, and
Chris Wheatley
how it kind of interacts with, you know, the value that we all have to each other. So people want that value. Don’t know
Heather Smith
they want. They want that. The thing is, we’re both chartered accountants and fellows, fellow fellows of the Chartered Accountants, and I think peer reviewed. Being with within sort of those Association, you have sort of a certain code of ethics and integrity. And then when you talk about something you are, yeah, you know you believe in it. And it’s not about a referral fee or something like the background, and it’s like encouraging those conversations. And I do think that the vendors, when they come into the community, some of them, like, I would say, Tony Harcourt, yeah, helps local, local legend, Tony, local legend, co founder of work guru, helps so much. If you ask a question and he knows the he knows where to point you in the direction of he will respond to that, even if it doesn’t lead you down his sales funnel. Yeah, because he has that knowledge. And I think that sometimes people come in, the vendors come in and are aggressively territorial. Territorial, aggressively after sales. And many of them can’t actually explain what the solution is.
Chris Wheatley
Yeah, I do, like, I’ve picked that up from your when people do, you know, like all of us, and I think you’ve said this in
Heather Smith
one of your articles about, like,
Chris Wheatley
the amount of time that a lot of us just like to give to, you know, the old rising tide raises all boats, kind of thing, yes. So we’re just at the car parks. I’m just going to hesitate as I make sure I’m in the right lane of 40 at the airport.
Heather Smith
Yeah, a rising tide raises all boats. So we all there’s a lot of us who try to help them, but when someone just jumps in and only wants to talk about their solution and tells you they’re the best solution. It’s like, there’s no yardstick
Chris Wheatley
for that leaves a weird taste in your mouth, yes, because, you know it’s just a little bit questionable, because long Yeah, because you know that you looked at you know that you look at, you look at their LinkedIn, because you can’t help but it’s easy to store people on social media these days, anywhere on Earth, like, oh, look this. You, you worked it somewhere. I’m completely, completely unrelated to even financial technology, yes, four months ago. Yeah, you obviously know the, know the world you’re playing in? Yeah.
Heather Smith
So I would encourage you, if you are a vendor, I’m sitting in one of these Facebook groups with peer to peers. You’re welcome in them. You’re welcome in the accounting apps group. You’re welcome in Chris’s group, and there’s probably other ones out there, but jump in for 15 minutes and have different conversations. Don’t just talk about your solution. Put answer where it’s appropriate answer for your solution, but also go in and see where else you can help people and put two or three sentences. Just don’t tag your solution, because it’s like, we’re not going to we’re so busy, we’re so busy we don’t have time to go and investigate. Tell us what it does, tell us the features. Yeah, we’re
Chris Wheatley
not going to, don’t, don’t try to get us to sign up for a demo where we’re signing up for a conversation. We’re not signing up for a demo, because then we know you’re going to harass us for the follow ups.
Heather Smith
Yeah and yes. And we’re humans, and it’s really important. That was sort of, we know, the human there supports one, I always say supports my number one thing I go for, for technology. What about you?
Chris Wheatley
Just, it’s an assumed, isn’t it? I’ve never really thought about it.
Heather Smith
So let’s pull back to Conference. What’s the other thing that you’re doing the conference?
Chris Wheatley
What you mean like the like, just, are you leading into anything? Heather, or you
Heather Smith
have another? Do you have you? You’re doing the AI tools talk, yep, doing. You’re doing something else, aren’t you?
Chris Wheatley
Like, Oh yes, yes. I am Emma from Adelaide, and I doing a bingo session. Fabulous. Yep. Which, which you go, which, um, which. Which will be, which would be good fun. Hopefully we’re not against anyone that will draw, draw a crowd. And I am, oh, that’s disabled car park. There I am, then on a panel with APX taxpayers, one over there, one over there. Yeah, yeah.
Heather Smith
Oh, AP, Oh, fantastic, yeah. So that’s, um,
Chris Wheatley
it’s actually be be really good, because I’m a heap, I’m a big, oh, look at all these car parks. I’m a massive I’m becoming a believe, Oh, a advocate of I don’t say it’s non bank lending, because that just sounds dodgy, but of alternative sources of credit that aren’t predatory, because I don’t know what, why keep on going back to the banks. If someone, if there’s a rich person, that’s got money, and then I lend it to you for half the price of of you know if they’re going to, if you’re going to meet in the middle and not saying apex, aren’t, I don’t know if they’re rich people, they’d be cool if they were, but yeah, like, just, just telling everyone, hey, it’s not a lender of last resort anymore. This non bank stuff. Go there first. The banks aren’t going to be your friend. Go to the non banks first. Like you know, I’m even I’m co owner of a non bank lender.
Heather Smith
That was an interesting revelation there for you. Chris Wheatley, we parked so we’re going to finish it here. It’s for safety and brevity to get to our flight. Thank you so much Chris for joining us on the podcast. I encourage you to connect with him on LinkedIn, Chris, W, H, E, A, T, L, E, y, and join the Facebook group, but you’ll probably be able to work that out. If you need if you need a lift, give me a message. If you need a lift from the airport to somewhere, give him call. Thank you.
Hey. I hope you enjoyed that episode with Chris Wheatley certainly was a bit of fun, and I hope you felt like you were part of that conversation, too. Be sure to hit subscribe, so you get the next episodes. We’ve got another four in this series from the recent Sydney accounting and business expo also encourage you, if you’ve not done so already, sign up to the accounting Apps newsletter at accounting apps.io and you can find me on Social Media at Heather Smith AU, until next time you you.
