Tech leadership spotlight: Colman Edwards, accounting technology expert

Countsy, a leading startup solution in the financial, accounting, and HR space, was one of Vic’s first clients in the U.S. Over the last 10 years, Countsy has only continued to grow forward as new advanced technologies have emerged — allowing them to help their clients - high growth startups - scale. 

Because of their long-standing relationship with Vic.ai, we decided to have a sit-down conversation with their Senior Director of Technology, Colman Edwards. In this Q&A session, we got to ask him a few questions about his professional journey, with a glimpse of what his day-to-day looks like at Countsy. 

Without further ado, let’s get into the questions.

Q&A: Colman Edwards, the Senior Director of Technology at Countsy

Q. “What is your strangest talent?”

A. “I can juggle. I'm pretty good at it. I learned it as a kid, and it's just one of those things that's stuck with me.”

Q. “What sparked your interest in technology?”

A. “I have been interested in technology from a very young age. 

When I was younger, personal computers were starting to become popular and Netscape was the go-to browser at the time. I quickly became intrigued by technology in general which led me to build my own computer. I also helped my family members with computer configuration in my spare time to learn everything I could about the technology space.”

Q. “What is your favorite technology?”

A. “Technology should make life easier. 

One type of technology I really enjoy is anything that has to do with home automation. I know all these companies are trying to say they have home automation, but it's kind of scattered right now. 

I like how with this technology, you can just walk into a room and it will automatically turn your lights on. But I believe that they can take this a step further and build out a more automated system.”

Q. “What is your background? Were you an accountant before becoming the Senior Director of Technology?”

A. “I started out at Countsy as an accountant. I was really happy working at Countsy because we were fully cloud-based. This means that we didn’t use some old-school, desktop, on-premise system.

We initially worked with a lot of the SaaS tools, but then I pivoted to learn how we could integrate our tools and processes together to further automate and improve accuracy.”

Q. “As a Senior Director of Technology, what does your day-to-day look like?”

A. “In the day-to-day, I still do a good amount of accounting. But, I am also in charge of troubleshooting any issues that may arise with those technologies. 

In addition to this, I also find new technologies for us to use in our business and I am on a lot of sales calls. During our virtual demos or sales calls, I learn if our tools could be a right fit for a client or not.”

Q. “How do you choose the right technologies?”

A. “I look for a few things when choosing the right technology. Some of the things I ask myself include: 

- Is it best-in-class?

- Has it been proven to work?

- What kind of integrations does it have? Does it work with ERP systems?

- What are its accuracy, speed, and automation capabilities? 

- What are its pros and cons?

At the end of the day, what works for one client might not work for another, but the end goal is to always make our client’s internal processes more efficient and accurate to enable them to scale.” 

Q. “When deploying new technology, what are your keys to success?”

A. “As mentioned before, every need is slightly different. But the main thing we focus on when deploying new technology is how well it integrates with their current technology. To make a seamless deployment, we pinpoint what integrations we need and then we analyze the outcomes we expect to come out of that integration.”

Q. “What technology do you see emerging?” 

A. “The emergence of AI/ML is inevitable and a perfect complement to business systems. Integrating AI/ML into business tools will help reduce human error and time processing while increasing accuracy and compliance. Utilizing AI within a FP&A tool will help build better forecasts and budgets while helping the CFO make stronger business decisions.

We’re also currently demoing some good FP&A tools emerging on the market. Most of our clients are enterprise-level, so we are generally always scoping out a good, lightweight tool that will integrate with their current systems. We’re always looking for technology that’s adaptive and has proven itself in the space.”

Q. “What advice do you have for your clients who struggle with new accounting technologies?”

A. “My best advice is to look to the future. What is the future of payables? It's not manually entering transactions by hand. 

I think every company should start looking into these automated tools to help reduce costs and speed up the close process. In my opinion, that's the number one benefit of turning to accounting tools like Vic.ai. 

The future is automation. That's where Vic has its leg in the door before most of these other tools.”

Automate your internal processes with Vic

Countsy has been an invaluable partner to Vic.ai over the years. We look forward to continuing Countsy's growth as we work towards our shared vision of bringing automation to businesses everywhere. 

Thank you, Colman, for taking the time to have a conversation with us!

Looking for an AI accounting system to expedite invoice processing? Download the full Countsy case study here to learn more!