Google just discovered the top 5 traits successful teams have :

1. Dependability. Team members get things done on time and meet expectations.
2. Structure and clarity. High performing teams have clear goals, plan and have well-defined roles within the group.
3. Meaning. The work has personal significance to each member.
4. Impact. The group believes their work is purposeful and positively impacts the greater good.
5. Psychological Safety. The work environment and culture is one in which everyone is safe to take risks, voice their opinions, and ask judgment-free questions. Managers provide air cover and create safe zones where employees can let down their guard. 

So start building your dream team today!

Following the PIE fatal accident, this article puts forth succinctly the perils of the GeBiz system and how it can be improved. But this problem also exists in other tender evaluation models that uses price as its most significant criteria.

If price is the most significant factor, more often than not it will reward mediocrity and thus potentially lead to a race to the bottom for the industry the bidders are in.

We always advocate to our clients that price shouldn't be the only or significant factor in their "best of X bids" tender evaluation process. Quality of the products or services, albeit harder to measure, should also weigh in just as importantly. 

So claims this interesting article from Forbes. But the fact remains A.I. is still able to do some of the heavy lifting from accountants so that they can provide more value added services.

As mentioned in the article, cloud based accounting solutions have already forced many firms to adapt. We are excited by these two up and coming innovations :

• Siri-type interface for business finance: Pegg, an app that works with the messaging app, Slack, is already showing what’s possible in terms of creating invoices, responding to questions about revenue projections and status of expense accounts. This app as well as other conversational interfaces have huge potential to disrupt accounting and make some tasks as simple as chatting.
• Automated invoice categorization: Accounting software firm Xero is deploying a machine learning automation system that will be able to learn over time how to categorize invoices, something that currently requires accountants to do manually.

Imagine being able to create different categories of invoices on the fly just by talking to your smartphone! The days of Her might not be too far away.

This is not to say I don't see the value in blockchain technology. It's just that virtual currencies that can be mined just don't make sense to me. This article from David Kuo of Motley Fool Singapore has a better way of putting my scepticism across (emphasis mine).

Dear Foolish readers,

Guess what? I've come up with a really clever way to make some money from secure currency transfers. It goes something like this…

I bake a batch of cookies using my special recipe that's been handed down through the generations. No one bakes cookies quite like we do. I think they are unique and impossible to replicate.

They look just like coins but they are really just biscuits, which is why I have called them Bikcoins. Ta-dah!

So, the next time you want to transfer money from Singapore to, say, London, all you have to do is see me. Currently, each Bikcoin costs around US$1,000. There is no real reason why it should be a thousand bucks. I just plucked a number out of the air.

So, if you give me S$1,000, I will give you one of my Bikcoins in exchange.

And here's the clever bit.

Encrypted formula

When you get to London, just look up one of my relatives. Hand over your Bikcoin, and in exchange, you will get US$1,000 or the equivalent in sterling.

My family will know it's a genuine Bikcoin because it is made using our secret ingredients. Only I know how to make them. That’s downright ingenious, eh?

What's more, you can give the cookie to anyone you want. It’s like a form of currency that’s been encrypted with my secret recipe – a cryptocurrency, so to speak.

Limited supply

There's something else I should mention. The price of my cookies could fall as well as rise, depending on demand. Right now, I can’t bake them fast enough. So prices are high. But who knows what might happen by next week?

It could be worth a lot more or, perhaps, a lot less by the time you get to the UK. That’s a risk you will have to take.

If you think it might go up – and the charts seem to suggest that it might -- you could buy more and store them in an air-tight cookie jar until you need them. It could be worth a mint later on.

That would be fantastic, wouldn't it? You could store your entire wealth in a cookie jar, if you wanted. Brilliant!

Hard biscuit

But I suggest you don’t, though. You see, my cookies are quite sought after. They could get “eaten” before you exchange them for real money.

So are my Bikcoins worth all the effort?

That would depend. They weren’t really designed to be a store of wealth. They weren’t meant for speculation, either. They were only supposed to be a secure way to transfer money. But some people tend to get ahead of themselves.

It’s also important to point out that my Bikcoins have no intrinsic value. They are not like any other asset.

Unlike bonds, they don't pay coupons. Unlike property, they don't deliver rent. Unlike cash, they don't pay interest. And unlike shares, they don't pay dividends.

Blind hope
​
So all you have is the hope that I will exchange your Bikcoins for cash, when the time comes. You must also pray that they don't vanish before then.

There is something I haven’t mentioned, yet. I hear that other people are planning to, or have already, copied my idea. I believe that there are now 900 similar cookies on the market.

However, I think that mine are the best.

(But I would say that, wouldn’t I?)

Feeding frenzy

And if you own one of my Bikcoins, you would like to think so too. That’s why some people like to talk up their value.

In fact, the feeding frenzy for my Bikcoins could drive prices much higher. It’s a supply and demand thing.

But that is until someone comes up with a better-tasting cookie. And when that happens, the value of my Bikcoins could evaporate. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

No one can dispute that cryptocurrencies could one day be an effective way to transmit money.

But are we able to value them properly? I can’t. But I think that I can value stocks with some certainty.

As more and more businesses move into cloud accounting, you are probably wondering if you should jump on the bandwagon. With the right accounting software, you can and you should. 
​

Here's five ways cloud accounting software can benefit your business :

1. You have a clear overview of your current financial position, in real-time.
2. Multi-user access makes it easy to collaborate online with your team and advisors.
3. Automatic updates mean you can spend more time focusing on your business.
4. Everything is run online, so there’s nothing to install and everything is backed up automatically. Updates are free and instantly available.
5. Upfront business costs are reduced – version upgrades, maintenance, system administration costs and server failures are no longer issues. Instead, they are managed by the cloud service provider.

​Sure, you are concerned about security.

​But the cloud is one of the most secure ways to store information. For example, if your laptop is stolen, no one can access your data unless they have a login to your online account. But if your data is on your hard drive, anyone can retrieve it using data retrieval services.

In the event of a natural disaster or fire, being in the cloud also means business productivity doesn’t need to be affected because there’s no downtime. All of your information is safely and securely stored off site. As long as you have access to any computer or mobile device connected to the internet, you’re back up and running.

In addition to this, if you invite users to view your data, you can control the level of access. This is much more secure than the old-fashioned way of emailing your files or sending out a USB stick with your data on it.
​
Cloud-based software companies ensure that the security and privacy of data about you and your organisation is always airtight. If you use online banking, then you’re already primed to use cloud accounting.

​With cloud accounting software, you have the option to run your business remotely, from anywhere in the world. And when data is fluid and accessible, the possibilities are endless. 

So start revolutionising the way you do accounting today!