On May 7, 2025, we held our first-ever Netgain Accounting Summit in Denver. It was an amazing day, packed full of insightful conversations with accounting professionals.
One of the common themes we heard from attendees is that accountants and finance leaders don’t have a lot of events where they can learn tips and strategies to apply to their day-to-day work.
We want to change that, so we’re sharing everything we learned that day.
Watch the 11 full sessions led by experts from Netgain, Oracle NetSuite, Cross Country Consulting, the Rocky Mountain NetSuite User Group, BlueCollar Cloud Solutions, SquareWorks, RSM, and Connor Group.
To give you a taste, here are seven of our favorite insights from the day.
1. Accountants are empire builders
In the opening keynote, Adam Riches, CEO and Founder of Netgain, shared examples of how accountants have shaped history, from the expansion of Venetian merchants to the industrial revolution in the U.S.
This was a powerful reminder of the role of accounting. It’s how companies rise and fall.
And yet, the profession has been relegated to the back office. Adam’s theory is that poor accounting tools are to blame. With slow or unreliable data, compliance burdens, and a mountain of spreadsheets, accountants don’t have the time to deliver strategic insights.
But with the right tools and a mindset shift, accountants can return to their influential roles. As Adam put it:
“I don’t think we should forget that we are not number crunchers or spreadsheet jockeys or bean counters. We’re empire builders. We’ve been building empires for 500 years.”
2. We need to understand where AI works—and where it doesn’t
AI can help accountants be more productive, but it needs the right data for the right tasks.
First, we need the right database. Adam shared that it’s more important than ever for data to reside in a single place, the enterprise resource planning platform (ERP). And this is where we can leverage AI to get the most accurate insights.
Next, we need to use it for the right tasks. Through experimenting at Netgain, we’ve discovered the areas where AI works for our solutions, like extracting data from lease contracts and performing variance analysis.
But even more interesting are the cases where AI didn’t work. The Netgain developer team tested using AI for fuzzy matching, trying to capture the transactions that aren’t matched with pre-set rules. But it didn’t work. The process was inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate.
Then, one of our developers had an idea: Instead of using AI to make the matches, let’s use it to write a better fuzzy matching algorithm. The result? A fast, powerful, consistent algorithm.
Adam’s takeaway is that sometimes AI is not the answer, but it can be the teacher that helps you find the answer.
3. Accountants who leverage modern tools will thrive
While a lot is changing in our industry, some things remain constant. As Nathan Smart, President and Founder of Netgain, shared, “Capable accountants are as in demand now as they’ve ever been.”
With a high percentage of CPAs exiting the workforce, the need for accountants continues to grow.
But as Nathan points out, it’s the most capable accountants who will make a difference in a business. As routine tasks are automated, companies need accountants who understand the “so what” behind the numbers.
Automation allows us to declutter ourselves from the busy work, giving us time for innovation and insights. That’s why a professional who can leverage evolving tools like AI and automation will always outperform those who brute force the work.
Because, as Nathan concluded, “Automation doesn’t replace talent; it multiplies it.”
4. The direct cash flow statement is the most underrated financial statement
The introduction of the direct cash flow statement in the 1980s promised to be revolutionary. After all, the number one reason companies go out of business is because they run out of cash, and granular cash reporting can help predict and prevent that.
But the reality is most businesses don’t use this layer of cash reporting because it’s incredibly time-consuming to build. And no solution had built a direct cash flow statement directly in NetSuite.
Until now.
Adam announced Netgain’s automated direct cash flow functionality in NetCash. Now, accounting teams can produce this statement the moment bank transactions are reconciled—no Excel needed.
This means business leaders can drill down into individual transactions, providing more operational control and financial clarity.
Adam knows this from experience as one of the first beta testers of the direct cash flow statement. He shared: “We’ve caught things faster. We’ve managed spend tighter. And we’ve stopped flying blind as it relates to our cash positions”
5. Having a single source of truth is mission critical
In Nathan’s mind, if your data isn’t in NetSuite, it’s not accounting grade.
But there’s an outdated idea of the “best of breed” tech stack, which relies on complex integrations that take time and resources to build and maintain. This results in fragmented systems that create confusion and mayhem.
This is why Nathan thinks it’s time to bring financial data back to the core system: NetSuite.
That’s why embedded accounting tools inside of NetSuite are the ideal replacement for complicated tech stacks. They centralize financial data and processes in the ERP, helping accounting teams ensure consistent, accurate, timely financials.
6. Better data = A seat at the table
Kirt Christensen, CEO and Founder of BlueCollar Cloud Solutions, echoed the importance of a single source of truth for accurate data.
And this data is what can give accountants a seat at the table when it comes to making business decisions.
“I don’t think any of us got into accounting thinking ‘I want to be an accountant to sit in a cubicle all day and not talk to anybody.’ I wanted to become an accountant because I wanted to have influence over business decision making,” Kirt shared.
So, Kirt built his solution to bring project accounting data into NetSuite and extract valuable insights. Because he knows having accurate information in real time is going to help accountants become NetSuite superheroes in the eyes of the C-Suite.
7. Automation impacts the bottom line
One of the ways accountants can influence the business is by finding efficiencies that impact the bottom line.
Lee Jacobs, Head of Product Management at SquareWorks, shared an example of how accounting teams can achieve this with accounts payable automation.
The average invoice processing cost for a business is $9.87. Best-in-class businesses that implement automation can bring that cost down to $2.81.
Now multiply that by the hundreds or thousands of invoices a business processes in one month, and you can see how those savings of over 71% can make a difference on the bottom line.
Watch all the sessions from Netgain Accounting Summit
One of the major themes of Netgain Accounting Summit was the major shift the profession is undergoing today. And like Adam said, it’s about more than tools. “It’s about reclaiming our identities as builders and enablers of our economies and leaders at our enterprises.”
We left the event feeling inspired to get to work and be part of this transformation.
To get inspired with us, check out all the sessions from Netgain Accounting Summit and join us in the conversation about the role of accounting today.
