Stuart Langer, Deputy CTO at Sage, says the biggest hidden cost of AI in finance is the time spent checking its work, which he calls the verification tax. A CPA by training, Stuart joins Doug and Matt to explain why AI tools that show their work beat flashy features, and what that means for finance jobs from staff accountant to CFO. He also makes a bold prediction about how accounting software will be built in the next six months.

• (00:00) - Podcast Welcome
• (00:38) - Meet Stuart Langer
• (01:47) - Why He Returned
• (03:58) - CPA To Tech Journey
• (10:11) - Teaching Future Accountants
• (12:46) - Understanding Verification Tax
• (15:38) - Building Trustworthy AI
• (18:21) - Humans In The Loop
• (21:19) - How Finance Jobs Shift
• (24:07) - Telemetry And Outliers
• (26:42) - AP Automation With AI
• (27:18) - Free OCR Changes AP
• (28:19) - Glass Box Versus Black Box
• (28:58) - IDC Trust Research
• (30:43) - Audit Trails Matter
• (31:32) - Teaching AI Fundamentals
• (33:51) - Chatbots Need Controls
• (36:45) - Differentiating ERP Trust
• (38:48) - Nonprofit Audit Agent
• (40:03) - Explaining AI At Scale
• (43:53) - Fiction In Training Data
• (46:42) - Six Month Agent Marketplaces
• (49:40) - Key Takeaways And Wrap

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In the second half of our conversation with Sage CTO Aaron Harris, Emily, Doug, and Matt set the tech talk aside to hear his origin story, from turning down investors for his own construction accounting software to joining Intacct as its first full-time developer just before the dot-com crash. Aaron explains how he ended up carrying the founder title after the company shrank from about 90 employees to 22, why selling to Sage beat going public in 2017, and why, after 26 years in the same job, his best career advice is to keep riding the wave you’re on.

Connect with the Hosts:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybmadere
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattlescault
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlewis715

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Sage CTO Aaron Harris joins Matt, Emily, and Doug, for the first of a two-part conversation, starting with the personal AI agents he runs at home (several named after Blade Runner characters) and what people should look at before handing an AI their personal data. He also explains why he thinks the SaaSpocalypse isn't coming for Sage Intacct, why AI agents need a platform like Intacct as much as human users do, and why developers who are 10 times more productive should mean 10 times more software instead of fewer jobs.

• (00:00) - Episode Preview
• (00:56) - Note Taking Habits
• (02:12) - Building Personal Agents
• (03:40) - Blade Runner Inspired Names
• (06:38) - Holmes Memory Agent
• (07:34) - Privacy And Data Control
• (10:04) - Sage Copilot Naming
• (12:17) - AI Team And Code Legacy
• (15:19) - SaaSpocalypse And Platforms
• (18:57) - AI Workforce Reality Check
• (22:12) - Sage Strategy And Stability
• (24:39) - Founder Advice And Closing

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Join us on this bonus episode where Matt talked to Jessie Gu, Business Development Manager for Sage Intacct Advisory, about how firms can package and price client advisory services, build the right tech stack to scale, and put AI to real use in CAS delivery. Matt draws on 20 years running TydeCo to explain why verticalization and industry specialization (think nonprofit, healthcare, and financial services) separate firms that turn CAS into real recurring revenue from those still stuck doing transactional work. They also dig into Sage's AI close and financial agents and how firms can practically deploy AI without losing the human judgment behind it.

• (00:00) - Welcome and Agenda
• (01:12) - Meet Matt and TydeCo Story
• (03:59) - What Sets SIA Apart
• (05:21) - Packaging CAS for Value
• (09:24) - Vertical Niches and Fit
• (11:59) - Client Readiness Signals
• (19:31) - Nonprofit Success Story
• (22:27) - Pricing Models and Value
• (30:11) - Why Sage Intacct Works
• (33:56) - Program Benefits and Enablement
• (38:14) - Dashboards and Reporting Layers
• (41:16) - Beyond Implementation Support
• (44:02) - AI That Actually Matters
• (48:36) - New AI Agents Explained
• (50:41) - Will AI Replace Accountants
• (52:33) - Live Q&A Change Management
• (56:27) - What to Automate First
• (57:29) - Wrap Up and Credits

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Donny Shimamoto, founder of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies and the Center for Accounting Transformation, joins Matt, Doug, and Emily to talk about why time, not technology, is the real bottleneck slowing down firms. He breaks down what firms actually ask for when they bring in a transformation consultant, why the profession needs to revive its apprenticeship roots as AI automates entry-level prep work, and what he's seeing on international standard-setting boards shaping AI guidance for audit quality.

• (00:00) - Podcast kickoff
• (00:41) - Meet Donny Shimamoto
• (03:09) - Foodie side quest
• (06:31) - Why standards matter
• (08:56) - Who sets global rules
• (11:23) - US vs international standards
• (13:19) - Sage Intacct in midmarket
• (15:21) - Global rollout challenges
• (17:28) - Firms struggle for time
• (19:26) - Transformation roadmap calls
• (22:38) - Serving firms of all sizes
• (24:14) - Automation and new roles
• (26:10) - Triaging Firm Issues
• (27:06) - AI and Career Pathways
• (27:43) - Reviving Apprenticeship Training
• (29:21) - Fixing Onboarding and Curriculum
• (31:57) - Burnout and Busy Season
• (32:35) - Why the Center Exists
• (34:50) - Evaluating Software That Fits
• (38:56) - AI in Accounting Products
• (43:34) - Purpose and Leading Change
• (47:05) - Capacity Through Technology
• (48:41) - Dad Joke and Farewell

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Ellen Choi, founder of Edgefield Group and former Awin chief product officer, breaks down what actually separates firms making real AI progress from those stuck experimenting. She walks through her firm maturity scorecard, why "return on investment" is harder to pin down than most partners assume, and why the biggest AI decisions have to start at the top. The conversation also covers token costs, on-prem alternatives, and why an outdated AI policy might be a bigger risk than no policy at all.

• (00:00) - Podcast intro
• (00:38) - Meet Ellen Choi
• (02:22) - Meditation and retreats
• (05:07) - Who Edgefield serves
• (08:19) - AI adoption shifts
• (11:40) - What triggers change
• (13:21) - How firms implement AI
• (16:43) - Cutting through AI noise
• (22:03) - Edgefield AI Foundations
• (23:41) - AI maturity scorecard
• (27:20) - Vendor ROI hype
• (28:16) - ROI Investment Reality
• (29:24) - Hidden AI Enablement Costs
• (30:16) - Turning Time Into Revenue
• (31:43) - Measuring Qualitative Returns
• (33:03) - Why 20 Minutes Daily
• (36:50) - Big Firm Spending Headlines
• (39:31) - Rising AI Costs And Tokens
• (42:21) - Open Source On Prem 2.0
• (44:26) - Where To Start With AI
• (45:51) - Copilot First And Policy
• (47:02) - Who Owns AI Rollout
• (49:22) - Keeping The Human Touch
• (51:04) - Final Takeaway And Wrap

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Taylor Brown, CPA and director in CLA's digital practice, joins Matt and Doug to break down Sage Intacct's latest release: cash management and three-way matching, the new Financial Intelligent Agent, the MCP AI gateway, and fixed asset and audit trail updates. Drawing on her years as a Sage solutions consultant and her work teaching accounting at UT Austin, Taylor makes the case for why Sage is building AI into the product itself and why a foundational understanding still matters when AI gets accounting wrong 30 to 40 percent of the time.

• (00:00) - Meet Taylor Brown
• (01:45) - Can Teachers Do
• (03:09) - Accounting Paths Beyond Big Four
• (04:57) - Why Release Notes Matter
• (05:32) - Cash Tracking AP AR
• (07:03) - Three Way Match Upgrades
• (08:50) - Cash Is King Lessons
• (12:16) - Finance As Profit Center
• (13:49) - AI Copilot Enters Finance
• (14:26) - Training AI For ROI
• (16:10) - Sage Copilot Deep Dive
• (19:51) - Why Build Sage AI
• (22:47) - MCP And AI Gateway
• (23:13) - MCP Use Cases And Data
• (25:25) - MCP Access And Licensing
• (25:56) - MCP Licensing Questions
• (27:17) - Agent Marketplace Gatekeeping
• (28:12) - How Agents Get Sold
• (29:38) - Why Agentic AI Matters
• (30:11) - Customer Built Agents
• (31:38) - Worst AI Misuse Risks
• (33:47) - AI Accuracy in Accounting
• (35:26) - Fixed Assets Release Focus
• (36:04) - SFAM vs SIG Evolution
• (37:52) - Reversals and Audit Trail
• (40:01) - Splitting Assets Efficiency
• (40:58) - CIP and Migration Advice
• (43:58) - International Release Differences
• (46:05) - One Thing to Do Next
• (48:21) - Crawl Walk Run Change
• (49:48) - Dad Joke Sendoff

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David Westbrook, CFO of Robertson Stevens, joins Emily and Matt live at Sage Future 2026 to share what eight years as a Sage Intacct customer actually looks like from the inside. A former Deloitte auditor who chose Intacct when building the firm from scratch in 2018, David reflects on scaling from $500M to $9.5B in assets, how he's using AI to cut a week of quarterly close work down to a single day, and what he still wishes the platform would tackle.

• (00:00) - Live Stage Kickoff
• (00:47) - Meet David the Customer
• (01:41) - South Africa Roots
• (03:18) - Auditor to CFO Journey
• (05:27) - Robinson Stevens Story
• (07:06) - Choosing Sage Intacct
• (08:51) - Modules and Integrations
• (12:34) - Power Features Revenue AI
• (14:30) - AI Close and Copilot
• (16:32) - Finance as Business Partner
• (18:32) - Planning for Acquisitions
• (19:24) - Scenario Planning Goals
• (20:26) - Rolling Forecasts In Practice
• (21:12) - Under The Hood Improvements
• (21:31) - Vendor Onboarding Due Diligence
• (23:58) - Wishlist Investments And UI
• (25:18) - Top Loves And Bank Feeds
• (28:33) - Implementation And Reimplementation
• (32:12) - Advice For New Users
• (36:04) - Reporting For Non Accountants
• (37:22) - Closing Gifts And Life Advice

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