For Josh Andler, being a chartered professional accountant (CPA) working in tech requires agility, well-roundedness and acting as the steady hand.
“Being scrappy and operational is so important when you’re wearing many different hats,” says Andler of his career. “You’re not focused on your month-end cycle, you’re focused on being a great business partner.”
Now the senior director of finance at Jane App, Andler earned his CPA designation in 2017 and articled at Big Four firms. After gaining experience at another tech company, he arrived at Jane App in 2020.
“Working in tech, you’re not put into this box of what a typical accountant does,” he says. “You’re there as a rational, strategic voice that helps guide the organization.”
B.C.-based Jane App is an online booking and billing platform for health and wellness practitioners. Since Andler started, Jane App has grown to more than 800 employees, most of whom are in Canada. Recently, the company hit US$100 million in annual recurring revenue, with over 245,000 practitioners now using the platform to support their clinics.
“We’ve been profitable since day one,” he says, “which eases pressure on our balance sheet. Our small finance team is highly operational, covering everything from forecasting to payroll to legal, and we support teams by implementing tools, building reports and delivering answers fast.”
Context switching
At Jane App, versatility is a defining part of Andler’s day-to-day role.
“Recently, I’ve been focused on building our financial roadmap and understanding how we can provide better reporting to our stakeholders,” he says. “This could mean switching from building databases with our data team to working through employment issues with our people team to managing investor requests.”
Working at the cross-section of tech and finance also means being early adopters of new software, helping develop the industry’s future.
“We’ve been using the accounts payment management tool Float for close to four years,” says Andler. “We’ve helped them shape their product offerings, and they’ve provided us the ability to pilot their new features.”
The CPA’s role in responsible AI use
At the same time, the tech industry’s current heavyweight—artificial intelligence—is transforming digital work.
“We recently launched AI Scribe, a feature that lets practitioners opt in to record patient visits. Then Jane App transcribes the audio and drafts chart notes,” he says.
Andler emphasizes that integrating AI was done carefully. “When we were building this tool, it was important for us to focus on accuracy, so practitioners need to review and sign off on all AI-generated charts to ensure the patient record is correct,” he says. “Many practitioners have told us this has saved them a lot of time and reduced administrative burden.”
Andler’s team is also utilizing AI to improve efficiency, including embedding bots into enterprise resource planning (ERP) and financial planning and analysis (FP&A) systems. “It’s incredible to think about the insights they can gather given the level of detail they can look at,” he says.
Andler emphasizes that AI integration should be done diligently. “As CPAs, we have a responsibility to the public to provide accurate information,” he says. “While it may be easy to fact-check a chatbot, information from embedded AI features may be harder to verify.”
As CPAs, he notes, “our professionalism is the most important thing, so ensuring the accuracy of the information that AI provides is key.”
For more, visit bccpa.ca.
Connect on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
