- 1 day ago
Running a business but struggling to keep track of your finances? Still relying on spreadsheets, paper records or guesswork to make important business decisions?
In the latest episode of the Life & The City podcast, hosts Aida Ahmad and Farid Wahab explore how digital accounting can help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) improve efficiency, strengthen cash flow management and prepare for future growth.
Joining them are Wendy Woon, Head of Strategy & Product Innovation, SME Banking, Community Financial Services at Maybank, and Jye Eng, co-founder and chief executive officer of Bukku.
Together, they unpack the challenges SMEs face in adopting digital solutions, from cost concerns and limited technical expertise to questions about security and trust. They also discuss why cloud accounting is becoming increasingly important and how real-time financial data can help business owners make better decisions, improve compliance and access financing opportunities more easily.
Whether you're a small business owner, entrepreneur or simply curious about how technology is transforming the way businesses operate, this episode offers valuable insights into building a stronger and more resilient enterprise.
The Life & The City podcast series airs fortnightly, spotlighting issues that matter to urbanites. Catch the full episode on www.youtube.com/@thestaronline/podcasts or www.thestar.com.my/metro
In the latest episode of the Life & The City podcast, hosts Aida Ahmad and Farid Wahab explore how digital accounting can help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) improve efficiency, strengthen cash flow management and prepare for future growth.
Joining them are Wendy Woon, Head of Strategy & Product Innovation, SME Banking, Community Financial Services at Maybank, and Jye Eng, co-founder and chief executive officer of Bukku.
Together, they unpack the challenges SMEs face in adopting digital solutions, from cost concerns and limited technical expertise to questions about security and trust. They also discuss why cloud accounting is becoming increasingly important and how real-time financial data can help business owners make better decisions, improve compliance and access financing opportunities more easily.
Whether you're a small business owner, entrepreneur or simply curious about how technology is transforming the way businesses operate, this episode offers valuable insights into building a stronger and more resilient enterprise.
The Life & The City podcast series airs fortnightly, spotlighting issues that matter to urbanites. Catch the full episode on www.youtube.com/@thestaronline/podcasts or www.thestar.com.my/metro
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LearningTranscript
00:04Farid, what do you, what comes into your mind when you hear the word digitalization?
00:09It sounds to me like you are moving away from the physical record keeping or at least
00:16integrating some kinds of digital systems or solutions to your existing process.
00:22That's what I understand when I hear that word.
00:24Yeah, and when it comes to numbers, I think digitalization is the way to go because I
00:31don't see myself manually entering numbers into a book if I'm running a business.
00:38So that topic will be the centerpiece for today when we talk about not only digitalization
00:46but digitalization and SMEs and cloud accounting.
00:51Have you heard about cloud accounting before?
00:54No, I mean accounting alone sounds like a very mind-boggling topic to me.
00:59And you come from an engineering background.
01:01Yes, and now you add digital to it, yeah.
01:03Well, today we have two experts who will enlighten us about these topics.
01:09We have Wendy Woon, Head of Strategy and Product Innovation, SME Banking at Maybank.
01:16Welcome, Wendy.
01:17And Jay Ng, Co-Founder and CEO of Boku, Maybank's accounting solution partner.
01:23Partner, welcome.
01:24Thanks.
01:24Thank you very much.
01:25We're very happy to have you here today.
01:28Before we get into the crux of this conversation, Wendy, please tell us what do you do in your
01:35job as the Head of Strategy and Product Innovation?
01:40I usually will have to do strategy planning for SME banking because in Maybank, SME banking looks
01:47after the segment, SME segment.
01:50So, how do we define SME segment is, of course, per Bank Negara.
01:55So, what will be our offering to the SME segment?
02:01It can be from transaction perspective.
02:05That means account opening, online banking, until and lending, or their trade requirement
02:14when they go cross-border.
02:16So, it's end-to-end, basically.
02:18And not only that, we also, at Maybank, we're also looking at beyond banking.
02:24So, what do you mean by beyond banking?
02:26It's beyond the traditional, conventional way of banking, meaning we're also trying to
02:32be an advisory or a partner to our SMEs.
02:36So, that's where we try to bring in a lot of partner tools, for example, in accounting,
02:43in HR management, or even in POS systems, so that, you know, we hope that our SMEs are
02:50able to not only grow, but able to sustain their business in a sustainable way, I would say.
02:59Right.
02:59And you mentioned tools, and that's exactly what we need.
03:02I feel, even as a, Farid, you and I are not business owners, or journalists.
03:07Otherwise, we won't be here.
03:09That's right.
03:09But so, Jay, maybe you can tell us, as the co-founder and CEO of Buku, what is Buku?
03:17Buku is a cloud-based accounting software company that I started in 2019.
03:22We have been in the market around six years, so doing well, and currently the fastest-growing
03:31accounting software company in Malaysia.
03:32Wow, that's impressive.
03:34And interesting why you called it, Buku, Buku means book.
03:38Buku also means book in Japanese.
03:40Do you know that?
03:41No.
03:41Yeah.
03:42Yeah.
03:42So, that's...
03:44If we were going to do the B-U-K-U, it's going to be tough for us to actually
03:49get a
03:49trademark register.
03:50Yes.
03:50So, it's actually a twist that we want to go local, and then we're just adding a K in
03:55between, and it's just so nice that it's also a Japanese word.
04:00Right.
04:00Yeah.
04:00And if I typed in B-U-K-U, and all I got was just book, so that'll be hard
04:04to find you,
04:05won't it?
04:06Yeah.
04:06So, let's unpack this topic of digitalization, and how...
04:12Maybe you can tell us, how did Buku and Meibang sort of came together and forged this partnership?
04:18Yeah.
04:18I think one of the guys from Meibang contacted us through LinkedIn.
04:23That was like, back in the years, I think they are actively looking out...
04:27Oh, it's like LinkedIn is...
04:29Yeah.
04:30Yeah, a couple of years back.
04:32So, I think they are pretty active, looking to actually forge some kind of a meaningful
04:37partnership, exactly like what Mandy mentioned, going beyond banking.
04:42I think that's one part of the actual strategy.
04:44And that's where we started to have conversation, like how can we actually leverage on each other
04:49to actually bring in more benefits to the, in our case, SMEs.
04:55Yeah.
04:56Okay.
04:56Let's talk about the leverage.
04:59So, tell us, what is a big financial or operational problem now that SMEs face today in terms of accounting?
05:11Okay.
05:12From, you know, our engagement with SMEs across industries, in fact, their challenges mainly,
05:21you can see it's from two, broadly two perspectives.
05:25One is their cash flow, right?
05:27They always say that their cash flow is a concern because they don't have much buffer.
05:32So, they have to be able to, you know, look at visibility is very important to them in that sense.
05:39The cash in, cash out, whether they have enough cash to pay their suppliers and whether the payment
05:46collections from their clients are on time.
05:48So, these are the most crucial to them.
05:53So, if let's say they are not able to have good visibility on their cash flow, I think that will
05:59leads to, they would have problem in their financial planning, right?
06:05Whether they can, you know, whether I can expand or not, I can go to open my second outlet,
06:12they also may not able to have a view, right?
06:16So, that is one of the challenges that I see.
06:20Secondly is, of course, SMEs, they do not have a large workforce.
06:26So, they are very stretched thin.
06:29They are always, some are like a one-man show kind of thing, right?
06:34They do end-to-end.
06:35So, the business owners are sometimes being stretched into doing manual reconcilation of
06:44their accounting, paperwork, bank statements, you know, invoices and things like that.
06:50So, that will take their time away from managing business or even grow their business, right?
06:55Right. And that also perhaps may lead to compliance threats, right?
07:01If their bookkeeping is not improper or their reports, yeah, it's not there.
07:07I think basically, I think if I understand correctly what Wendy is trying to say is that
07:11businesses probably need to know where the money is coming in and going out.
07:15Because if you are like walking in blind, then you wouldn't know where you stand financially
07:19and you can't expand. If I have summarized that correctly, hopefully.
07:23Yes, yes. Because sometimes the client may bank in and if they do not have an online banking
07:30or, you know, a proper recording, they may not know that, hey, I have received these payments,
07:35for example, right? The transaction says in or not.
07:38And you mentioned something earlier, you said what? Manual reconcilation, yeah.
07:43That sounds painful. Just entering a lot of numbers and cash in and cash out.
07:49Yes, yes.
07:50Manually, can you imagine? So, I think we've come a long way from that and that is where
07:56Buku comes in, right, Jay?
07:58Okay. So, what is cloud accounting again and why does cloud accounting matter in this context?
08:08Okay. So, traditionally, software, what you can imagine is that something you need to install,
08:14something you need to buy off the shelf, perhaps, I don't know, 300 bucks, a few thousand bucks,
08:19you buy it off and you install it. Whether it's a CD, whether it's a USB thumb drive,
08:23that's the concept of software. In terms of cloud, it's online. In a sense that you actually log in,
08:31just like you access your Facebook, you open your browser. So, that is the meaning of cloud.
08:36And the benefit, the biggest point to highlight here is it's everywhere. As long as you have
08:44internet connection, it's not bound to start in the office.
08:48Right. So, do I log in, for example, Buku, do I log in on a browser or do I need
08:52to have an app?
08:53It's a browser. Okay.
08:54Yeah. So, you can basically, whenever you are overseas, you don't have to worry about
08:58finding a way to connect to a local computer. You can naturally, it's just like how you access
09:06Facebook or whatever, you can do anything. You can issue an invoice on the go. You can use your,
09:13bring out your mobile phone. You can issue invoices, quotation while you are on the go.
09:19So, that is the convenience of having the cloud.
09:23Very easy and convenient and less stressful compared to taking the logbook and manually
09:30entering facts and figures.
09:32Yeah. That does sound like it has its appeal. But what I want to know is maybe, Wendy, you can
09:37answer
09:37this. Why are, I mean, what are some of the reasons that some SMEs are yet to adopt this solution?
09:44I mean,
09:45it sounds like it's going to be great, but the fact that some people are still not doing it,
09:50what might be the reason?
09:53I think end of the day, it goes down to mindset and familiarity. Mindset, meaning a lot of SMEs
10:01still feel that digital accounting, cloud accounting is like something that's so complicated.
10:06Really?
10:06Or time-consuming or I guess it's like something like, hey, I'm only at SME. I don't need that.
10:12I can do many or perhaps, right? My transactions are not that many.
10:16I'm not big enough to do that.
10:17Yes. No, that cloud accounting is more for bigger companies or corporates and things like that.
10:23Which is a big misconception.
10:24Yes. Yes. And if this is so, right, and they are always not sure, are you sure that I'm,
10:32should I go into this or I should not, right? If yes, then where should I start? You know,
10:38there's always this question marks or this, that they have. And then secondly is, I guess,
10:45currently there are processes in SMEs, you would have to like run banking, you have to collect
10:51payment, you have to do your invoicing, bookkeeping or even payroll, right? And they actually do it
10:56on different, different system because they don't have one system and they feel that, hey,
11:00you introduced me to digital account, cloud accounting, digital accounting. Is this something
11:07that going to add extra work for my team or for myself, right? And that's why they always have
11:13this misconstrued perception that they thought, they didn't, never ever think that it's a tool
11:20that actually can simplify their processes and actually help them save a lot of time.
11:26Yeah. That's less boring with it.
11:27Yeah. So my question is, does an accountant need to do this or who is tasked to sort of get
11:37the
11:37login from Boku and do all of this? Yes. The other important point I need to highlight here is that
11:44traditionally, accounting software, you could imagine is typically accountants, bookkeeper,
11:50them themselves, logging in, doing whatever. It's very hard to imagine a business owner going into
11:56accounting software, doing whatever back in the days. But the way cloud accounting was designed,
12:03it's to make it simple, simplified. And our target audience, at least for us, is no longer
12:10accountants. And we have to make it as user-friendly as possible because one of the key points is that
12:16we want to give the accessibility back to the business owner and for them to look at how their
12:23business is doing timely. We're talking about real time. Instead of calling your accountant,
12:29hey, how my business is doing? And what if the accountant couldn't pick out the call? And what if
12:33they're overseas? Right? And you simply do not have that kind of real-time visibility. So I think
12:39that's a key difference when it comes to accounting software, cloud accounting software, we are giving
12:44the power back to the business owner that they can log in and see, is my business profitable?
12:49Is my client paying?
12:50What Jay mentioned yourself would make me thought of one. We used to, you know, when we do credit
12:57applications, we will request for financial statements from a client, right? The client will say,
13:01Oh, sorry, you have to wait. My accountant is having maternity leave. He will come back next two months.
13:08So I chill back in the next two months.
13:10Yeah. So I was like, oops.
13:13Okay. So now, I thought that explains it very well.
13:16You can imagine time is money, as people say, right? So every minute counts.
13:20Right. So I'm a business owner. I want to keep my accounts all, you know, tally and all accordingly, right?
13:33Right. So I can log it anytime I want. I don't need to contact my accountant.
13:37Technically, yes.
13:38Okay. So that sounds good.
13:40Okay. But I think if I were an SME listening to this, and I hope they are, my question would
13:46be,
13:46okay, they all sounds great, but how does this benefit me and my business? Maybe, maybe, maybe Wendy,
13:52you can, you can tell us that.
13:56Actually, before they jump into that, there was always a concern about trust and security.
14:01How, how...
14:02Data breach.
14:03Yes.
14:04The data is not with me.
14:05I'm putting on the financial, all my financial data is on cloud. How sure are we that? How sure am
14:11I that it is safe?
14:12Can you just explain what is the cloud?
14:16You see, traditionally, you own that piece of software. It's simple. You buy something off the shelf. That belongs to
14:23you.
14:24End of story. You are not renting. You are owning it. And that belongs to you.
14:28And you're going to install somewhere. And likely, one of the computers in your office, you own the data.
14:35And I think that's a very key concept. And when it comes to cloud, you don't see it.
14:40So it's like a website. So you will actually have that concern, like, where is my data? Is it safe?
14:46Right? What is the security? How is anyone having access to my data?
14:53Yeah. So those kind of concerns, we hear it all the time, especially before the MCO lockdown period.
14:59Right.
15:00So, and we were getting on a daily basis, like, are you guys safe? And things like that.
15:06Okay.
15:07I think I can relate to this, because, you know, as a journalist, when I first started, I used to
15:11type on my laptop.
15:13So whenever I don't have access to my laptop, that means whatever story that I've written, I had to go
15:17back to my laptop in order to retrieve it.
15:19But I think about a few years ago, I started putting everything up in a, like, what is it, Google
15:24Doc?
15:24Yeah.
15:24Google Doc.
15:25Yeah.
15:25So that's cloud, right?
15:26It's accessible everywhere.
15:27Yeah. So I could open it from my phone, from my iPad, you know. So that's the same concept, right?
15:33Correct.
15:33Right. It's like comparing Google Doc with Microsoft Word.
15:36Ah.
15:37Yes.
15:37Okay.
15:37Right.
15:38Okay. So accessible anytime, anywhere. So let's come back to, okay, let's say I'm a business owner, right? I go
15:46to, I go to see you, Wendy.
15:48How do you allay my fears about going into this cloud accounting, a cloud accounting sort of reel, right? How
15:58do you allay my fears?
15:59What does Maybank do to help me with this?
16:02Of course, as a bank, we emphasize and we, of course, we want to make sure that, you know, the
16:08security or the data privacy is being assured or the compliance to assure that the SMBs, that those sensitive informations
16:17are actually safe and all data is encrypted.
16:21So, you know, when they link their business account, right, we are talking about linking the account to a bank
16:26feed.
16:26So it actually go through or redirected to Maybank's secure login, just like our personal account when you log into,
16:33if let's say you have Mayapps, so you log in, it will always go through.
16:37So there's a secured password that you need to key in, same thing.
16:40So it's all authentication process is there.
16:42So not to worry so much where the credentials are actually never shared, right?
16:46And this process or this is always being audited and it complies to the industrial standard, right?
16:54So it is safe, safe, right?
16:58And being one of Maybank's partners, so in order to partner with Maybank, we actually went through a kind of
17:06tedious process.
17:07We were being asked a lot of documents, whether we are saying complying with, I don't know, some policies, some
17:14ISO standards.
17:15So those things are in place.
17:17So that is what I can say.
17:19So just out of curiosity, what kind of compliance are we talking about here?
17:24Mainly surrounding the sensitive data.
17:28When we're talking about collaboration between two parties, so there will be an exchange of data.
17:35And for this case, we're not talking about any random data, but those data are sensitive in a sense that
17:41it's like your bank transactions, the amount, who you are actually transferring money to.
17:45So those are the, I think the topics was around those things.
17:49How are we handling client data?
17:52Where are we keeping it?
17:53And whether there's any encryption and during the transfer of between two servers, are there any encryption?
17:59So those kind of questions.
18:01Yeah.
18:01Does the Personal Data Protection Act come into play here or does it?
18:05Definitely.
18:06Definitely.
18:07Yes.
18:07Of course.
18:08Okay.
18:09I'm interested to know, I mean, how can, I mean, how would an SME stand to grow?
18:15So if they adopt, I mean, digital accounting, you know, obviously as an SME, whatever decision they make, it's all
18:22about how can I expand my business?
18:23So how would this help them in that direction?
18:26Well, in fact, if let's say your financial records are proper in the sense that then the biggest benefit is
18:32clarity.
18:33You have financial visibility.
18:36Just remember one of the challenges we mentioned about they do not know whether the money in or out or
18:40when is it coming in and things like that.
18:42So that real time or those accurate financial data or transaction information that they get, well, will give them a
18:50better view.
18:50So they have a better position to say that, hey, I should commit to this bulk purchase or not.
18:55Perhaps a supplier come in and say that, hey, I can give you a very good discount if you buy
19:00bulk.
19:00So it's like, you know, for SMEs, perhaps they have to assess, is my cash flow sufficient for me to
19:09make this decision or this transaction?
19:11So that comes with clarity.
19:13If they can have a proper visibility on the financials, I guess that they can make a very sound decision.
19:19And they need funding to grow.
19:23So in order to get funding, you need to have proper documentation.
19:28So that's where things like accounting software can come in and help with a proper documentation.
19:35Right.
19:36Well, you can explain to us what is MyImpact SME Scale-Up.
19:40It's actually a platform that we designed to cater for SMEs or a single gateway to cater for SMEs and
19:51which is fully online.
19:53Meaning when the SMEs browse through our website, when they go into a business page and then they can click
20:01into MyImpact SMEs.
20:03Inside that, you will see we have a pre-bundle kind of solutions based on the business cycle of the
20:11SMEs.
20:12Because SMEs, they go through different stages.
20:15They can have startup, micro or even small or medium, right?
20:20So they have different requirements during their business cycle.
20:24So we're trying to make it easy for the SMEs so that, you know, and this startup, maybe I just,
20:32micro, my requirement is just very simple.
20:37So, okay, I take this bundle of SME Lite.
20:40So if I need more, then I take up another bundle called SME Up.
20:45So that's how we differentiate and we're trying to, besides transactions, besides the fundamentals of doing their collections or payments,
20:58we even, we also introduce to them those tools or accounting, for example, Buku, the accounting software or other tools
21:09that will can actually help our SMEs to excel or to grow.
21:13So a lot of times they don't realize, they thought that, eh, my importance is I make sure that I
21:20collect money from my client.
21:22Right.
21:22Yeah, yeah.
21:23They don't realize that all these effects, they are pieces like at the end.
21:27Wendy, that sounds like a lot of, I mean, that sounds like quite a comprehensive series of services by Maybank.
21:34If I were an SME and I want to get more information about all this, where can I go?
21:38Is there a website for it or a number I can call?
21:41Yeah.
21:41It can go into Maybank2U, our page.
21:44Then you can actually click into that under business page and all the information are there.
21:50Right.
21:50Jake, can you tell us how much does it take for an SME to sign up on this cloud accounting
22:00arrangement?
22:01Like you said earlier, actually the fee is not very expensive.
22:03Yeah.
22:04So how much are we talking about?
22:05We have free trial.
22:06We are having a collaboration with Maybank.
22:08It can be up to six months free.
22:10Beyond that, we are talking about not RM100, not RM1,000, but it's starting at RM35 per month.
22:18So it's a monthly thing because think of it like a service that you are subscribing to, just like your
22:23Netflix, just like your Astro or whatever.
22:26Yeah.
22:26So that piece.
22:27I guess it's a different scale, right?
22:29RM35 will give you to access to different, just simple kind of.
22:33Simple one.
22:34And it can go up to RM100 per month kind of thing.
22:37Yeah.
22:37We're curious.
22:37How did you set up Boku?
22:41Do you come from an accounting background?
22:42No, my background is like software, computer science.
22:46So I see that opportunity and that's where I jump in and actually learn everything from scratch.
22:51Okay.
22:51When you say, you just said you saw the opportunity, what, how did you leverage on this opportunity?
22:58What do you see lacking in terms of the mindset in the SMEs who are not taking this up yet?
23:07That was exactly one of the reasons that I, when I see that, why, why is SMEs in Malaysia still
23:14a little bit like outdated?
23:17And to, to, to our surprise, it can be still using pen and paper even until today.
23:23So, and that's exactly, business aside, another reason is that I, I want to fix that.
23:28So, and that's one of the reasons for us to actually come in to actually make impact in, in this,
23:34this country.
23:36Right.
23:38We're talking about safety.
23:40The, the link connects my business account, for example, if I were to engage in this arrangement, connects my business
23:47account directly to the accounting platform.
23:51Yeah, I think the one thing that, that comes up in my mind is, is safety and scams and, and
24:00everything.
24:00How, how does the protection come into this?
24:03So, definitely we are following everything, bank level, security.
24:07Yeah.
24:08There's all this encryption happening everywhere, at rest, at transfer.
24:14So, between servers from both ends, so everything's encrypted and we are following whatever policy in place, defined by Maybank.
24:24So, we went through a tough process, so it was not easy.
24:27And stringent process, yeah.
24:28I think, in fact, for Maybank, where we want to filter who are the partners that they work with, we
24:34also have a very stringent or very strict guideline for compliance to make sure that.
24:39Because end of the day, whatever that we introduce to our client, we are responsible, right?
24:44And we have to be, it must be a very reliable partners before we actually introduce it to our client.
24:51Yeah.
24:51I would imagine so.
24:53Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:54It's a huge concern, but it's good to know that, you know, at least Maybank is taking that very seriously.
24:59Yeah.
25:01So, talking about automation, automated accounting, keeping the numbers all in check, if I were an accountant, should I be
25:10worried about my future as an accountant or will I still have my job?
25:16Yeah.
25:16This one, am I going to get replaced?
25:18But yeah, yeah.
25:19So, this one, I've been sharing everywhere.
25:23So, I don't think you will have to worry so much, but you will have to worry if your job
25:29is about data entry.
25:31And all this, like, lower level, like, the tedious stuff that you are still doing, likely will be replaced, if
25:41not already.
25:42And we are not just talking about automation that has been around, digitalization will be talking about 10 years.
25:47Now, we are talking about AI, so, and anyone that has actually used AI recently will know how powerful this
25:54thing can be.
25:55That's right.
25:55So, I think, to answer the question indirectly, so, as long as they can provide value, so, I don't know,
26:04advisory instead of data entry, so, I don't think accountant will be replaced anytime soon.
26:09Because the accountant still needs to do this job.
26:11Exactly.
26:12You just have to put yourself in the right position.
26:14Yeah.
26:14Yeah.
26:14So, I think, from our conversation, the takeaway that we get is less human error, correct?
26:25Less human error, cleaner data to work with, and real-time data accessibility, right?
26:32What are the other plus points?
26:35If you think positively, AI is here to actually help you with the tedious, right?
26:40So, unless you're telling me you are so passionate to actually do a data entry on a daily basis.
26:48Otherwise, I think you have to think positively, take away whatever that you don't feel like doing, and then just
26:53move on with your life and go higher level, give advisory.
26:58Think of a way to give better value.
27:01And, of course, at the same time, you can charge more.
27:03Actually, it's very true what Jay mentioned about higher value.
27:07Because a lot of SMEs that we talk to, when we look at their financial statement at the end of
27:11the year, right?
27:12And we are asking them, you know, why is it such where, you know, it doesn't reflect your business, right?
27:20Then they say, oh, we don't get a very good advice from our accountants, right?
27:24I guess, when they are looking at, when accountants are busy, maybe, on assuring accuracy of the data and reconciliation,
27:37they miss out the advisory part a lot of times, right?
27:41How do we advise the SMEs in their tax planning or even their margin?
27:47How do you plan?
27:49Because profit margin, at the end of the day, is very important to the SMEs.
27:53Especially now, you know, with the, everyone was talking about margin thinning because of the escalation of the cost.
28:02What is that margin thinning?
28:03What is that?
28:03You know, the escalation of the cost, whether it's compliant cost, where you have, what, they have to invest it
28:09in software because of A-invoicing that coming up, right?
28:13Or the minimal wages that are starting.
28:15So, I guess, cost of doing business are increasing.
28:18Yes, and we've done stories where we speak to a lot of business owners, especially the moms and pops shops,
28:26you know, our parents' generation, where they have had to close shop because even hearing e-invoicing sort of...
28:33Scary.
28:36How does the ease of doing, the ease of digitalizing your books, how does it ease the business management?
28:56Your question is, like, asking how that digitalization can actually help with...
29:02How can actually life make easy for SMEs?
29:06How can life make easy for SMEs?
29:09Easier with this one.
29:12Just take e-invoicing, for example, because, like I said, a lot of business owners, the older people, they have
29:21closed shop because they can't adapt to this, well, new way of...
29:27The way we go about it is we always advise or tell our customers not to worry about all these
29:33compliant things.
29:34And we are trying to extract it out to make it as easy as possible.
29:39Of course, there are other guys out there telling you that, hey, e-invoicing is scary.
29:44Come and come to my workshop.
29:46I'm going to charge you 1,000 bucks per month.
29:47So, I mean, we went with a slightly different approach.
29:50We are making...
29:50We are trying to make it less scary.
29:53We are trying to actually...
29:54Otherwise, that's our job to automate.
29:57That's our job to actually make things easier, not to actually scare you.
30:01And we don't...
30:03Our business model is not about, like, charging people for, I don't know, whatever trainings.
30:07So, our job is...
30:08I mean, our business is selling software.
30:11And in order to sell software, we need to provide value.
30:14We need to actually make things happen in a more seamless, easier way.
30:20So, that has been our approach.
30:26There's plenty to think about.
30:30Let's see.
30:32What about the take-up rate of SMEs going into this cloud accounting, Wendy?
30:40Maybe you can tell us, is this going to be the next big lead for Malaysia's SMEs within the next
30:48five years?
30:50Yes, I would think so.
30:52Yeah.
30:52I mean, looking at the 13th Malaysian plan to align with what the government is coming up with, right?
31:00Inside there, they actually emphasize one of it is digital first.
31:04So, of course, digitalization comes into the picture and it is considered one of the key enabler for productivity as
31:12well as competitiveness, right?
31:16So, digitalization is just not only for large corporations.
31:21So, I mean, it is important for SMEs as well, like what we have been talking about.
31:25And I guess with digitalization, it allows SMEs to grow faster, respond better to the market changes, right?
31:32And to be able to compete, because now we're talking about cross-border, even globalization.
31:37So, you have to be compete in that larger or wider market now, right?
31:43So, yes, digitalization and digital first is very crucial.
31:49So, secondly, I think we look at 13th Malaysian plan also talking about higher value economy or higher value, how
32:00to move our SMEs up in the value chain, right?
32:03So, this digital accounting plays a role, critical role where it helps SMEs to move from their manual tracking, informal
32:13or inaccurate kind of tracking,
32:15to a more credible financial management like that, right?
32:20So, that will be an essential to move the SMEs or, how is it, a good help to the SMEs
32:32or to support the SMEs to move out the value chain.
32:35So, that is what I see that, you know, the next, that will be the next leap for the SMEs.
32:45Jay, maybe you can talk about the data-driven decision-making.
32:49Yeah, similarly, I think the next three or five years, one of the main team will still be around digitalization.
32:56So, forget about pen and paper.
32:58When you move things into a proper software, then you have the data, right?
33:03So, what can you do with data?
33:04And at the same time, we are also talking about real-time.
33:07Make sure the data is up-to-date.
33:09If you are talking about a one-year-old ago data, that doesn't help.
33:16So, you need to make sure, like, use any proper cloud solution.
33:21Then, and it can be connected to banks like Mabank to pull the transactions in almost real-time.
33:28Then, with all this in place, you will see a bigger picture.
33:32I mean, you can see a more complete picture rather than a fragmented data that you have to log into
33:37Mabank to see your bank balances.
33:39You can go into whatever software to see your profit and things like that.
33:44So, that prompts you to be able to, in a better control, not just about accountants.
33:51Of course, from an accountant point of view, they can give better advice.
33:54From a business owner point of view, they can, they know better, which is a very important thing.
33:59And a lot of people don't recognize.
34:00They thought accounting is just for compliance.
34:03This is a biggest misconception.
34:06Yeah.
34:06And that's exactly the reason why we constantly have customer calling in, complaining,
34:12and why are you guys charging so expensive?
34:14Because when they don't see the value, they will complain about it.
34:17It's just like you, accountant, charging 100 ringgit to do the data entry,
34:23and the business owner don't see the value, they will complain about it.
34:26But the point that you started giving more advisory, they're willing to pay more.
34:31And you'll be surprised about that.
34:33So, I think moving forward, digitalization is a must.
34:37And why is it still a main theme?
34:39Because a lot of our business owners are still being left behind.
34:44Yep.
34:45And we haven't even talked about AI.
34:46Yeah.
34:47But going back, just going back to non-compliance, I mean, there are some stiff penalties
34:53if a business doesn't keep up with their compliance.
34:57You know, even you will face LHDN with their penalties.
35:03If your records are incomplete, you can get fined between 300 to 10,000 ringgit.
35:08That's a lot of money.
35:10And businesses, I didn't know this, businesses have to keep records for seven years.
35:14Right?
35:15Maybe, Jay, you can share with us a story about a success story.
35:20I think don't wait until you get penalized each other.
35:24So, and don't wait until the government announce e-invoice.
35:27Then only start looking around, hey, do I need accounting software or not?
35:31Yeah.
35:31So, always stay ahead of the curve because otherwise, you might be more vulnerable for anything happening out there.
35:39All the uncertainties, the war, the threat war, the AI disrupting certain industry.
35:46Right?
35:46So, how secure are you from all these threats from outside?
35:51So, I think that is one of the points that I think we can actually think about.
35:56I'm interested to know, has there been any example of an SME that has successfully transformed itself?
36:02I don't know.
36:03It could be SME.
36:04It could be something other than, because I imagine SMEs are not the only ones doing accounting.
36:09Yes, yes.
36:10And GMBs and all that.
36:11For us, we mainly deal with SMEs.
36:14And we are having a lot of SMEs.
36:18And yes, it's actually happening on a daily basis.
36:22So, I still recall back in the days, we actually helped one of these particular clients.
36:28We helped them to fully digitalize the creation of invoices.
36:33500 or 600 invoices created within five minutes.
36:37So, thanks to automation.
36:39And you could never imagine that they have been doing it manually.
36:45It takes them three to five days until that thing become not sustainable during that lockdown period.
36:53And that's when we actually have that.
36:56They reach out to us, like asking, is there anything Buku can do?
37:00So, and back to the current time, we are helping our clients doing the exact same thing.
37:10We're helping condo management body.
37:13We're helping tuition center to automate all this invoice creation.
37:17So, they do not need to actually really hire.
37:20I mean, start to sitting there to do that for the first three or five days.
37:23And the next 10 days, it's like processing the payments coming in.
37:29Because we also have an integration with Payment Gateway, which you will be able to,
37:35I mean, your client will be able to pay everything online.
37:39It's just like an online shopping experience.
37:40They put in their credit card, they put in their debit card, touch and go or whatever.
37:45Then everything is reconciled automatically in the system.
37:48There's no need for you to constantly open your WhatsApp asking,
37:52hey, have you made the payment?
37:54And all this back and forth is time consuming.
37:57Yeah, I would imagine so.
37:59For us condo dwellers, I think a lot of J&Bs need to get on this.
38:02Yeah, I can see that, yes.
38:04Yeah, just to make their accounting seamless and less stressful.
38:12You shared earlier about a small F&B outlet that reduced their month-end closing
38:18from 10 days to 2 days.
38:21So this is what, this is some of the, how to say, the ease that comes with doing cloud
38:27accounting, right?
38:28Yeah, definitely.
38:29Yeah.
38:30So I think the whole idea behind cloud accounting is the accessibility, the real-timeness,
38:36and also the streamline of the process, right?
38:43And automation, the process, so that you can do what matters more for your businesses,
38:51instead of you still struggling, whether you can hire an admin staff for you to do on the groundwork.
38:57Right.
38:58Okay.
38:59Well, when you retire, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you know who to call.
39:04We are two experts here.
39:05Yes, yes.
39:06Let's call.
39:06So, Kau Mebank, get on the website and go to the business.
39:11Business.
39:11Yes.
39:12Business panel.
39:13And then go click into My Impact SME.
39:15And for Buku?
39:17You can just Google B-O-K-K-U.
39:19Okay.
39:19You'll be able to find us.
39:20B-O-K-K-U.
39:21Yep.
39:22Double K.
39:22Double K.
39:23One key.
39:23Yeah.
39:24Okay.
39:24Thank you guys for being on our show.
39:28Thank you for having us.
39:29I think we learned a lot of things about accounting, cloud accounting, and numbers.
39:34Yeah.
39:34I hope our listeners or SMEs out there who are listening to this,
39:37this has given you guys some useful information on how to grow your business
39:41and how to keep your accounting in order.
39:43Thank you for listening and watching.
39:45And this podcast will be available on The Star Online at thestar.com.my.
39:57And this podcast will be available on The Star Online at thestar.com.my.
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