Accounting Tech Archives

Fifteen years ago, Devon Coombs was sleeping in his car. Skip ahead, and he’s helping negotiate $20 billion AI deals at Google Cloud. His story isn’t just another rags-to-riches tale—it’s a preview of accounting’s future.

I interviewed Devon on the Earmark Podcast, and what struck me wasn’t his remarkable turnaround. It was his pattern recognition. Devon lived through technology’s destruction of the music industry. Now he’s watching the same forces reshape accounting. The difference? This time, he’s riding the wave instead of getting crushed.

The Recording Studio That Technology Killed

At 18, Devon owned Antipop Records in North Hollywood. He’d grown up in foster care. His mother died when he was 15, and he never met his father. But he had talent and a passion for music, so he did what passionate people do: invested everything in professional recording equipment.

Then Logic Pro happened.

“My rates went from $50-100 an hour to competing with guys charging ten bucks,” Devon told me. “Musicians could record in their kitchen and get 90% of my quality.”

The 2007 recession started the bleeding. Technology finished it. Devon’s $100,000 studio became worthless overnight. He ended up homeless, sleeping in his car, trying to figure out what went wrong.

Here’s what he learned: Technology doesn’t destroy industries. It destroys intermediaries. Musicians who could compose, produce, and distribute music thrived with infinite digital instruments at their fingertips. Recording engineers and session musicians who only executed other people’s visions? They became extinct.

The Community College Revelation

While living in his car, Devon started taking business classes at Pierce College, a community college in the San Fernando Valley. He planned to become a music attorney. But accounting grabbed him instead.

“I was surprised by how much I liked doing the work,” he says. The profession also offered something Devon had never experienced: predictable career progression and financial security.

His first internship taught him an unexpected lesson. The CPA who hired him was successful despite being disorganized and barely keeping clients happy. “If this guy could make bank being this scattered,” Devon thought, “imagine what I could do if I actually tried.”

1,000 Cold Calls and One Big Bet

At Deloitte, first-year associates reconcile bank statements. Devon had other plans. He made 1,000 cold calls and emails to controllers across Los Angeles.

His pitch was brilliant in its honesty: “I’m new at Deloitte. I want to learn. Give me your time, and I promise you’ll get more attention from me than from any partner here.”

It worked. He landed GoGuardian as a client—one of the first ASC 606 implementations in the country. The partner told him it would never work. Nobody wins clients as a first-year associate.

Deloitte gave Devon a $100 bonus for bringing in a $100,000 client. That’s when he knew the Big Four model wasn’t for him. When Effectus Group offered to double his salary plus commission, he jumped.

Becoming the 606 Expert

ASC 606 was rolling out, and nobody understood it. The guidance ran thousands of pages. Most accountants waited for CPE courses to explain it.

Devon printed every page.

“I’d read 30 pages every night, then figure out how to apply it,” he explained. In two years, he completed over ten implementations across industries—software companies, call centers, and even nonprofits.

Six months into his new job, he won Automation Anywhere as a client. A multibillion-dollar unicorn choosing a boutique firm over the Big Four. Why? Because Devon knew 606 better than anyone.

“Put in six months of deep work on any technical topic,” he told me, “and you’ll blow everyone else out of the water.”

The AI Orchestrator Revolution

Today, at Google Cloud, Devon helps negotiate billion-dollar AI deals. But here’s what matters: He’s not just selling AI. He’s living the future of professional services.

“Agentic workflows,” he calls them. AI bots handle routine tasks while humans orchestrate the work. “You’ll have bots calling companies, and no one will know they’re bots. All those little tasks in between? Just bots talking to each other.”

It’s the music industry all over again. Technology eliminates executors and elevates orchestrators. The accountants who only know how to follow procedures? They’re the session musicians of the 2010s. The ones who can design systems, manage AI workflows, and apply judgment? They’re the producers.

Devon is now leaving Google for PCG (Principal Consulting Group), where he’ll build a practice around this orchestrator model. His goal: “better quality work with higher judgment applied with all my expertise and one-tenth the cost.”

Your Window Is Closing

Recording studios were given years of warning, but they ignored it. By the time musicians started canceling sessions, the game was over.

Accounting firms today are experiencing the same warning signs: clients questioning fees, staff leaving for tech companies, and AI tools handling basic bookkeeping. The script is playing out again.

But unlike Devon’s recording studio, we can see it coming. We can choose to be orchestrators instead of executors. We can build practices around AI enhancement instead of human grinding.

The transformation isn’t some distant future. Devon’s already building it. He’s creating an entirely new service model where CPAs orchestrate AI agents to deliver superior results at a fraction of traditional costs.

“The AI movement is our chance to add real value,” Devon insists. “But only if we lean in now.”

Listen to the full episode to understand how to position yourself for this shift. Because Devon’s journey proves one thing: Those who embrace disruption don’t just survive. They discover possibilities they never imagined existed.

The question isn’t whether AI will transform accounting. It’s whether you’ll be the orchestrator or become obsolete. Devon made his choice. What’s yours?

If you’re like most accountants, you spend countless hours updating spreadsheets, reconciling data between systems, and generating financial statements. Month-end close often involves manual data entry, copying and pasting, and time-consuming validation checks. However, recent advancements in automation tools mean those days may be numbered.

During a recent Earmark Expo webinar, G-Accon showcased how its Google Sheets add-on integrates seamlessly with cloud accounting platforms like QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, and Sage. The demo highlighted a new era of accounting workflows—one in which real-time synchronization, automated data processing, and detailed reporting can dramatically reduce manual effort and give accountants more time for higher-value advisory work.

Below are the biggest insights from the live demonstration—and how they could reshape your month-end process.

Automated Reporting & Dynamic Templates

One of the standout features is how G-Accon handles financial reporting without storing any data on its own servers. Each time you refresh a report, G-Accon reaches directly into your accounting platform to pull in current numbers. By relying on live data, accountants always see the most up-to-date figures.

But the real magic lies in the template-based system. Rather than manually reconfiguring date ranges or reapplying custom formulas each time, you can define a structure once and let G-Accon handle the rest. Need to show net profit margin or custom KPIs on the P&L? No problem. Create the formula once, and it stays anchored even when new rows (like newly created accounts) appear.

“You don’t have to open each and every template,” explained G-Accon Chief Operating Officer Yelena Tretyakova. “You come here, change your formula in one place, and it updates everywhere.”

This means you can manage multiple sets of financial statements—like P&Ls, balance sheets, and cash flow statements—in a fraction of the time. Dynamic date ranges, color-coded negatives, and company logos can be baked right into your templates, giving clients professional-looking reports with zero repetitive effort.

Bulk Data Upload & Validation

Another common pain point is manual transaction entry. Whether you’re reclassifying expenses, correcting chart-of-accounts mappings, or posting large journal entries, uploading changes line by line is error-prone and labor-intensive.

G-Accon tackles this by allowing bulk uploads from Google Sheets to be directly uploaded to QuickBooks or other platforms. With one click, you can push thousands of lines—bills, invoices, journal entries, time activities—while G-Accon enforces validation rules. If the system detects an unbalanced journal entry, for instance, it flags the row and prevents erroneous data from ever reaching your GL.

You can also automate modifications in bulk. For example, if multiple transactions need a new class or department code, simply download them to a sheet, change the class code, and push them back. Each row’s status is tracked in real-time so you can see exactly which transactions were posted successfully.

“If you have errors because your debits and credits don’t balance, you’ll see that directly from QuickBooks,” Yelena noted. “You can go back, fix the row, and re-upload.”

Multi-Entity Consolidation & Intercompany Eliminations

For firms managing multiple clients—or businesses with multiple subsidiaries—the ability to consolidate is critical. G-Accon supports multi-entity consolidation by pulling data from all connected organizations, unifying it in Google Sheets, and even converting foreign currency amounts where needed.

Crucially, it also supports intercompany eliminations and grouping of accounts. If entities use different account names or numbering conventions, G-Accon lets you create elimination rules and group accounts under a shared heading (e.g., “Operating Expenses”). You can then generate consolidated P&Ls, balance sheets, and cash flow statements that neatly combine or exclude specific line items across multiple organizations.

“If you create new account codes in your chart of accounts, G-Accon picks that up automatically,” Yelena explained. “For multi-entity consolidation, you can map or group different accounts and then eliminate intercompany transactions.”

This streamlined approach removes a huge source of manual reconciliation and ensures you always have an accurate, real-time view of your organization as a whole.

Pre-Built KPI Dashboards

G-Accon also comes bundled with a set of pre-built KPI dashboards. With just a few clicks, you can stand up a visual snapshot of a company’s financial health, showing revenue, expenses, margins, and more. The underlying data is continuously refreshed from QuickBooks or other accounting systems, so these dashboards always display the latest numbers.

Best of all, these templates are fully customizable. You can add or edit charts, incorporate industry-specific metrics, or layer in additional Google Sheets formulas. Because everything lives in Sheets, you have the flexibility to adapt each dashboard to perfectly match client needs.

Workflow Automation & Detailed Logs

While automated reporting and bulk data uploads are huge time-savers, the workflow automation component ties it all together:

Scheduling: Set daily or hourly refresh intervals for reports.
Alerts: Configure custom triggers (e.g., email stakeholders if monthly expenses surpass $10,000).
Report Distribution: Automatically email dashboards or PDF statements to management or clients.
Backups: Generate snapshot backups of your Google Sheets file to preserve historical data.
Webhooks: If you want to connect with other applications or processes, G-Accon supports inbound/outbound hooks.

What’s more, G-Accon provides a detailed operations log showing every automated action taken. This means you can skip the frantic spreadsheet checks—simply look for “Success” or “Error” in the log to verify your tasks completed correctly.

“If you have 200 different reports, you’re not going to check each tab,” said Yelena. “You come here and see all actions in the log file.”

Real-World Use Cases & Pricing

Accountants use G-Accon for a wide variety of tasks, from month-end close to budgeting and forecasting. Franchise owners leverage multi-entity consolidation to handle dozens of stores; nonprofits integrate with QuickBooks to create advanced dashboards for board members; and businesses that run large volumes of transactions can bulk upload journal entries for year-end cleanups.

All features are included at every plan level. Pricing scales based on how many companies (entities) and users you need, so smaller firms can start affordably and expand without losing any functionality as they grow.

Move Beyond Manual Processes

Interested in exploring these automation capabilities further? Watch the entire Earmark Expo for a deep dive into G-Accon. You’ll see how easily you can move past traditional spreadsheet drudgery and deliver truly value-added advisory services to your clients.

From Homeless to $20 Billion Deals: An Accountant’s Journey Through Automation