SOMETHING exciting has been happening in the invariably staid world of accounting, and it was revealed in an exclusive interview with The Manila Times amid — of all places — the powdery-soft sands, swishing coconut trees and gorgeous golden sunsets of Boracay, the unusual scene for a regional conference of a punctilious and highly reputable worldwide organization of certified public accountants known as Urbach Hacker Young International Ltd. (UHY).
In between presiding over sumptuous lunches, giving glowing speeches and organizing festivities on the beaches, UHY ML Aguirre & Co. CPAs founder and Managing Partner Michael "Mhike" Aguirre enthused to The Times how additional growth and change in local and even global auditing were being driven by proprietary accounting outsourcing application Babylon 2K with enhancement by artificial intelligence (AI) assistant BETH or Babylon-Easing TAX Habits.
"There's more demand than supply," Aguirre explained, referring to how the need for quality, trustworthy and speedy accounting services in the country and internationally has been dealt with by Babylon 2K since 2021. "We are addressing the supply."
Aguirre further explained that the name of the app was inspired by George Clason's book about how to keep more of what one earned, get out of debt, put one's money to work, influence good fortune, ask wise investors and secure legacy wealth.
He went on to expound about how the AI's name, BETH, came from his company's mantra, "Easing TAX Habits." "Easing," he said, was all about ensuring that doing business in a municipality, city, province or region had less red tape. "TAX" was an abbreviation of tax, accounting and auxiliary services. And "Habits" was about freeing taxpayers from the fear of regularly and accurately filing and paying.
The app could help clients throughout the Philippines find accountants near them. From the moment clients engaged with Babylon 2K, all they had to do was press the button, RFQ, which was the request for a quote. If the clients were happy with the quote, then they paid the company, and everything else such as the filing, the review and the archiving followed. This meant that clients didn't have to worry where to get files later because these were already in the app.
"You save on cost, you save on time and you mitigate risk," Aguirre enumerated the advantages in leveraging the company's network partners. "Our positioning is 'Timely business advice.'"
Because it had to catch up with technology beyond Babylon 2K, the company incorporated — through the help of Senior Information Technology Analyst Lalaine de Guzman — the AI-enhanced system, BETH, with free and premium versions.
The AI system was two-pronged: the first allowed accountants to forward BETH's answers to clients, or clients to find answers for themselves; the second allowed clients unsatisfied with BETH's answers to connect with real accountants nearby.
"That's how we really wanted to attack 2024 and maybe the next 3 years because our plan for growth is to look for strategic partners across the country and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or Asean region," Aguirre further revealed.
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