Shannon and I were working on the presentation gallery outline. Our topic for the day was accounting. We got to a certain point and basically said "plus, plus, plus" meaning and it just keeps going. I was ready to stop and Shannon kept asking some great questions. Before long, we had more than double what we started with and were still going. I'm really glad that she kept asking questions and having us talk about things.

As a fun takeaway from our meeting, we talked about making conscience decisions and then sticking to those decisions. For example, we often say to people, sorry, but we do it this way vs that way (fill in the blanks). As Shannon and I were talking, we decided that we are not doing this because we have to or we got forced into something. This, what we do and why we do it, is a conscience decision and that's what makes us who we are.

See attached for our brainstorming document. You may have to scroll down to page 18-19 to get to the new brainstorming stuff on the business function of accounting. Just for fun, here are some of the ideas...

- We started out with basic stuff like: balance sheets, P&L's, user-maintained items, system maintained items, accounts receivable, accounts payable, aging, reimbursements, expenses, banks, inventory tracking, layaways, work in progress, loans, etc.

- Next we got into photos, media content, custom documents and ways of connecting with other outside file assets (documentation).

- Natural flow, flex grid tie-ins, payroll, people, deposits, invoices, customers, users, stock/units, floorplan, tons of reports and exports, bank reconciliation, etc.

- Slight switch to more concepts such as: operational lead accounting, mapping, roll calling, translating, where do the numbers come from (relationships and cause and effect options)

- Loyalty points, taxes, sales tax, withholdings, PO's, manufacturing, inventory tracking and manipulation, life cycles, going backwards and forward, and automation.

- Traditional vs non-traditional accounting

- System and how that makes a difference - everything is there and you can start to interconnect the pieces - digital storytelling

- We do accounting because we have good data - the accounting comes from the data

- Tons of permission levels and who gets to see what

- Accounts, ledgers, glossary, terms, and concepts

- Data assembly line, digital story telling, cause & effect, characters interact to solve trouble and problems, more relationships and building, maintaining, and in some cases destroying those relationships. Processes.

- Time - time is a huge piece of the puzzle

- How do we zipper operations and accounting together to close the gap between the two?

- How does the system handle roll call technology, who, how, what, and why???

- If someone can do their accounting by their own design and take it to their accountant (shoe box, spreadsheets, random records) - then why can't I create something that automates and maps out that process.

- We play according to the standards and the rules but we on purpose create the processes to get to those data points.

- Tradition - our biggest competition

- This is daily, real-time, sharing, no batching/waiting, managers and admin can look at things real-time, cloud based, editable, full history, audit trail, cause and effect, cart and horse, data drill-downs, proof behind your numbers.

- Why we chose to build in a non-traditional manner - because we see all the benefits and we want to keep going in this direction - conscience choice

- We are pioneering and we are on purpose creating tools that are proof of concept

- Crazy accounting things like phantom costs, funny money, slush funds, etc.

- Sub inventory and cost controls - perfect costing vs other costing models

- Normal revenue, COGS (cost of goods sold), gross profit, expenses, net profit, assets, liabilities, equity, retained earnings, etc.

- Future - we have a challenge and we build to solve that challenge that is before us - this is part of our accounting model

- Some people expect us to be completely done but we are not done - we are going to keep building and breaking, building and breaking. That is part of our model.

- You really need human input at certain places - decisions have to be made - you really can't automate some pieces.

- Ongoing development - bring your ideas - stone soup "Bring what you've got, throw it in the pot. We are making stone soup."

- Open to suggestions and new growth

- Things that drive change: pain, brick walls, burning platforms - all these pain points help to bring about change and new solutions

- Static vs dynamic - both flow and environment - things are built differently based on the conditions (static vs dynamic)

- Allow for updating inventory counts - how do you deal with theft, shrinkage, expiration dates, spoiling, and other inventory reconciliation stuff.

- In-store credit, accounts, discounts for terms, bonuses, games, vendor credits, etc.

- We give you the tools to play the game

- Accounts, sub accounts, locations, sub locations, phases, sub phases, etc. - details, layering, and stacking (aka space)

- Add notes to anything, able to add log notes and tie things together

- Track the story - the story is powerful - telling the story is your audit protection

- We can and do deal with multi-locational stacked models. We also deal with cross corp stuff and multi-worlds rolling up or down into the respective holding containers. It can get really deep and complex.

- We don't require you to do this... this, meaning how we do and track accounting, is optional.

- From Russell Moore back in 2016 - We can be a good companion with any other software package. Run any part of our application without using the pieces you don't want. We can feed information to any other software package you want to use. Adilas is a great companion software package for ANY business.

- Conflict management - it is okay to stand your ground. Be confident in what you have built and why you have built it that way. We are going in this direction! If you like what we are doing, great! If not, great, feel free to use some of our other products, services, or pieces if you would like. You do not need to apologize for things that are in line with your values and your vision. The vision helps us all work and succeed.

Anyways, fun brainstorming session. We will take these ideas and refine them into a section in the presentation gallery that deals with the business function of accounting. Great session and fun stuff.