Can you trust the numbers when deciding whether to extend credit? And what happens when the technology helping you analyze those numbers gets them wrong?
In this episode of Overdue Advice, host Bryn Griffiths reconnects with Andrea Browne, Director of Finance at KBH Chartered Professional Accountants, at the National Credit Conference in Jasper, Alberta.
Andrea brings decades of accounting experience and a passion for helping businesses make smarter financial decisions. She explains how credit professionals can use financial statements to assess a customer’s ability and willingness to pay, identify potential risks and make more informed credit decisions.
The conversation also explores how technology is transforming accounting and credit management. From Excel’s often-overlooked capabilities to the growing influence of artificial intelligence, Andrea shares practical examples of how these tools can improve efficiency while introducing new risks.
One particularly revealing example? Andrea asked AI to generate a financial case study for a presentation. The result looked impressive until she discovered that the balance sheet didn’t balance.
It’s a useful reminder that better access to financial information doesn’t automatically produce better financial decisions. Human judgment, professional knowledge and careful verification remain essential.
Bryn and Andrea also discuss the challenges of obtaining financial information from prospective customers, the importance of professional networks and why continuous learning is increasingly important for credit and accounting professionals.
The episode wraps up with a memorable observation about the difference between accounting profits and actual cash flow: “Profit is opinion. Cash is reality.”
Whether you’re managing commercial credit, evaluating customer risk or simply trying to make better use of financial technology, this conversation offers practical insights into making decisions with greater confidence.
Episode Highlights
00:14 — Meet Andrea Browne
01:57 — Excel: An Accountant’s Best Friend
03:53 — Making Financial Information More Useful
04:25 — Overcoming the Fear of New Technology
05:31 — Using AI Safely with Financial Information
05:59 — When AI Gets the Numbers Wrong
07:04 — Can They Pay? And Will They?
08:13 — How AI Is Changing Accounting
08:57 — Why Human Judgment Still Counts
10:49 — Getting Financial Information from Customers
12:23 — Keeping Up with a Changing Profession
13:44 — Andrea’s Unexpected Career in Credit
15:01 — Learning to Love Public Speaking
17:15 — Profit Is Opinion. Cash Is Reality.
Episode Transcript
Bryn Griffiths: My name is Bryn Griffiths. The world of credit and credit collection is always changing, mostly because the world is always on the move too. One of the keys for any company is collecting outstanding funds, but somebody needs to do the counting afterwards. Andrea Browne is the Director of Finance at KBH Chartered Professional Accountants.
They were founded back in 1981 as Coorie, Barazin, Heinrichs, and throughout the firm’s history, they have focused on personalized service. Like any great company, their goal is to build long-lasting relationships with their clients.
Now, Andrea is no stranger to our podcast, and there’s one thing she absolutely loves: solid accounting and financial practices. And she’s great at it. We met up with Andrea recently at the National Credit Conference in Jasper, Alberta.
Hi, Andrea, how are you doing?
Andrea Browne: I’m doing great. How are you?
Bryn Griffiths: Very, very well, thank you. Okay, so let’s talk about what you’re doing these days. Who are you working with?
Andrea Browne: I am working for KBH Chartered Professional Accountants these days. So, back in public practice. I feel like most accountants start out in public practice. I went on hiatus for 20 years or so, and now I’m back.
Bryn Griffiths: Excellent. Last time we talked, was that two years ago?
Andrea Browne: It was. No, it was last year.
Bryn Griffiths: Was it last year? That’s how it’s running together for me.
Andrea Browne: Same.
Bryn Griffiths: Well, let’s talk about your specialty. Finance and credit specialist is your title.
Andrea Browne: Yes.
Bryn Griffiths: But the thing that blew me away when we chatted a year ago was the fact that Excel spreadsheets, for me, that kind of thing is… I get very, very lost on that.
But you seem to know your insides and outs on everything, and you make it so much easier for people to track things. But tell everybody what you do.
Andrea Browne: Yeah, I use Excel. It’s my friend.
Bryn Griffiths: Okay.
Andrea Browne: But since we last talked, I found out that there’s actually an Excel games.
Bryn Griffiths: Okay.
Andrea Browne: And people compete with their Excel skills. I used to think I was pretty good, but I actually don’t know anything about Excel.
Bryn Griffiths: How did you find that out? Did you compete in the games, or did you just go online?
Andrea Browne: Scrolling through TikTok, as one does.
Bryn Griffiths: Yeah, yeah. Not everybody does, but okay, one would, yes.
Andrea Browne: Yeah, and the algorithm said, “Hey, I think this girl likes Excel, so I’m going to show her some videos from these games.”
Bryn Griffiths: So what have you learned out of all that, then?
Andrea Browne: That I don’t know anything about Excel.
Bryn Griffiths: So how do you learn more?
Andrea Browne: How do I learn more? I practice every day. So Excel is absolutely your friend as an accountant. And it can be really easy, too. You can take financial information and put it into that spreadsheet and have it look how you want.
Bryn Griffiths: I’m a believer that a lot of people maybe only use technology to about 30%.
Andrea Browne: Oh, for sure.
Bryn Griffiths: Do you think that’s high? Is that about right?
Andrea Browne: I think it’s maybe a little bit high for the average person.
Bryn Griffiths: Like on Excel spreadsheets, for example, I’m convinced that I use it to kind of keep things in a budget at home, but I don’t know what I’m doing with it. I’m pretty sure of that.
Andrea Browne: Well, and I would have said that I was probably a user who was in the 50% range, but after finding out about these Excel games, I feel like I’m in the 20% or less range.
Bryn Griffiths: Wow. So it’s an important tool for people, an important tool for businesses too, right?
Andrea Browne: Yeah.
Bryn Griffiths: But there’s way more.
Andrea Browne: There is way more. But I think for the average person, what Excel can do for you is really help create efficiency in your business. So one of the things that we do at work is the accounting software we use has an integration with Excel.
So we can take information in an Excel spreadsheet and sync it up with their accounting program, get all the data in there, get them some financial statements, make them look real pretty.
Bryn Griffiths: And smarter.
Andrea Browne: Yes, smarter for sure.
Bryn Griffiths: People seem to be scared, though, of tools like that. Is that fair?
Andrea Browne: Oh, 100% it is. And I mean, I’m of the age where I saw The Matrix. I’m scared of it too. But my fear was based in the unknown. And so I’ve taken time to learn more about some of these tools and how they work and how they can benefit me, and take away the fear that it’s going to take away my job.
Bryn Griffiths: That and AI seem to be a common theme we hear from a lot of people. The other thing, too, is that some people, I think, love to do it. They like to try doing it. And I will admit I have used AI on occasion to build me something that I can use with Excel. So it’s doing the heavy lifting, and then I basically just do inputting into it. Do you hear that at all from people or no?
Andrea Browne: I’m not seeing that a whole lot right now.
Bryn Griffiths: Then I’m really lazy, is what you’re saying nicely.
Andrea Browne: No, I think there are still people that are afraid, particularly when it comes to financial information. And I absolutely put a caution on using AI for financial information. One, for the privacy piece of it. If you are using OpenAI, then your information is out there.
Bryn Griffiths: Yeah, I’m not putting my details in. No, I’m just doing the structure. Because I don’t know how to make it so it adds up or subtracts or does all that stuff, right?
Andrea Browne: Okay, so it’s funny that you bring up making sure it adds up. I’ve been presenting recently on financial decisioning.
Bryn Griffiths: Okay.
Andrea Browne: And one of the things that I did, because there’s so much focus on AI, is I ran my presentation through AI and I asked it to build me a case study including financial information, which was great. I was like, wow. In a couple of minutes, I got this whole thing. But I went through and I was looking at the details. I had a balance sheet that didn’t balance.
Bryn Griffiths: That’s not good.
Andrea Browne: No, no. And I mean, the name is in the title, so it’s pretty inherently obvious what the end goal needs to be. So another caution, right? It’s great, but you do need to check. And if you’re not sure, you need to find out.
Bryn Griffiths: Well, at the National Credit Conference in Jasper, the Credit Institute of Canada put it on and you were speaking. So what was the big topic for you?
Andrea Browne: So my big topic was credit decisioning with financial statements. So people who are in their businesses granting credit, approving, maybe following up with existing credit, how they can use financial statements to help make better decisions.
Bryn Griffiths: Security the biggest issue, number one? Or what would the biggest one be?
Andrea Browne: So, from a financial statement perspective, security wouldn’t be part of that decisioning. That would be part of making an overall credit decision. So security is huge, absolutely. In the financial statement perspective, it’s about the stability in the statements, the quality of the data, and then what you can glean from that in terms of can they pay, will they pay? If things go sideways, what is the biggest risk?
Bryn Griffiths: Been doing this for a while here, and with obviously all the credit people in Jasper, do you get the same questions time and time again, or is it now changing year to year? Because we know technology is changing at a crazy rate.
Andrea Browne: For sure it is. And actually, one of the things that I jokingly brought up in my session was accounting really hasn’t seen this kind of evolution since the 1400s when accounting was invented.
Bryn Griffiths: Wow.
Andrea Browne: So, you know, AI is having a big impact on that and how people are getting their information because now they have access to it. Easy access.
Bryn Griffiths: Between being scared or terrified and being concerned or wary of it, is it somewhere in between? Because I see there’s some good things with it, but I could see there’s some bad things with it. How do you figure out what’s good and what’s bad? Because you don’t want to do trial and error. That could be expensive.
Andrea Browne: Yeah, and that’s the million-dollar question, really, right? How do you know? And something that had come up in a recent conversation that I had specifically about AI was a lot of the models are built on averages, means, and compiling data. Well, if you go looking for something specifically saying, “Hey, I’ve got this business idea, I want to run it,” put that through AI. Well, AI’s data says that businesses fail within 10 years. So it’s going to spit you out a business model that sets you up to fail within 10 years. You probably don’t want that.
Bryn Griffiths: No, that’s not a good one. Okay, that’s a bad example. It’s a good example, but it’s a bad example.
Andrea Browne: Right. So to me, it was one of those things where it was, okay, this is a cautionary tale. And I’m starting to hear now a lot of the human intelligence factor coming into AI and the work that we do. So yes, let’s use this tool. It can be really powerful, but we still need to have that human intelligence part in the decision-making.
Bryn Griffiths: In broadcasting, I’ve heard commercials voiced with AI and they sound pretty good.
Andrea Browne: Yeah.
Bryn Griffiths: But there’s something missing. There’s no soul.
Andrea Browne: Yes.
Bryn Griffiths: Right? And I like to be able to, I will use the term cutting corners. It does save me a little bit of time. But I still feel like I’ve got to go back and check, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Andrea Browne: No, I don’t think so either. I think we still need to be involved. We can’t be hands-off because that’s where we’re going to run into pitfalls and balance sheets that don’t balance.
Bryn Griffiths: Yeah, not good, as we’ve mentioned earlier. So when you’re at an event and you’re speaking, what are the biggest concerns that people have? Because there’s a lot to talk about when we’re talking about accounting, right?
Andrea Browne: For sure there is. The biggest thing that I’ve heard over the last couple of days is, how do we get the financial information?
Bryn Griffiths: Okay.
Andrea Browne: Because they’re asking for financial statements in order to help make a credit decision. Companies are very protective over their financial information, and so it’s, you know, do the best that you can to try to get information. Depending on the type of company, it may be available publicly, so check the internet for that information. But if you don’t, use some of your resources, use your connections, your network.
Use your brain to help get that information because maybe you can’t get those statements, but maybe Sally that you met at the credit conference, you’re like, “Hey, we’re in parallel industries. I have a contact. She might know where it’s at.” So, you know, utilize that information the best you can.
Bryn Griffiths: Andrea, how long have you been doing this for now?
Andrea Browne: Credit or accounting?
Bryn Griffiths: Well, what’s the bigger number? All of it? Accounting?
Andrea Browne: Accounting. Yeah. So I’m newer to the credit profession. I’ve probably been doing credit for about eight years now. I’ve been in accounting for decades.
Bryn Griffiths: That’s good. I like how you worded that. Well done. How much is changing? Is it a weekly thing? Is it a monthly thing? Is it a yearly thing? It seems like the world is going so fast now.
Andrea Browne: It is. It is going so fast. And I feel like over the course of my career, right now, we are definitely in a period of time where things are changing rapidly. Accounting is always evolving in terms of rules and guidance and how we account for things.
But the overall impact that technology is having on accounting right now, I feel, is putting a lot of pressure on accountants to keep up.
Bryn Griffiths: How much reading do you have to do?
Andrea Browne: A lot.
Bryn Griffiths: Right? So every day, like an hour a day or more or less?
Andrea Browne: Yeah. I try to stick to true crime novels for about 90 minutes a day. It helps keep me grounded.
Bryn Griffiths: Yes, absolutely.
Andrea Browne: Yeah. So, and again, it’s really hard because what information do you read? Because there’s so much out there. So I really try to…
Bryn Griffiths: And what do you trust when you read a lot of that stuff, right?
Andrea Browne: Absolutely. So I try to focus on the tools that we use in our business and what changes are impacting them and our customers, our clients. What is impacting them and how can we help them move through this space?
Bryn Griffiths: I was curious to know how people went from one category to another. So you go from accounting to obviously working with credit.
Andrea Browne: Yeah.
Bryn Griffiths: Was that an easy change for you? Was it a natural progression? Did you stumble into it?
Andrea Browne: I 100% stumbled into it. In terms of my roadmap for my life and my career, credit was absolutely not on it. Didn’t even realize there was a profession in it for a lot of years. An opportunity came up and they said, “Hey, we’ll also support getting your designation.” And I was like, “I like lots of letters behind my name with C’s. So yeah, I’ll do that.”
Bryn Griffiths: Like a CPA, a CMA, and a CCP?
Andrea Browne: Yeah.
Bryn Griffiths: I just happen to have it here handy in front of me. I was looking at your biography there. So yeah, C’s are good.
Andrea Browne: Yeah, I like them. And there was so much more to that credit designation and the credit profession itself than I realized when I started. And I’ve learned so many things and it’s been amazing, like really interesting things. So I’m so grateful that it happened to come my way.
Bryn Griffiths: And then there’s public speaking.
Andrea Browne: Public speaking, yes.
Bryn Griffiths: You’d never done a podcast before until we had talked a while ago. And so, how many have you done since?
Andrea Browne: Just that one.
Bryn Griffiths: So this is two?
Andrea Browne: This is now two. And I think I might be addicted.
Bryn Griffiths: I think you’re doing very, very well. But it’s one thing to do this because we’re just talking over a coffee here, but when you walk down the hallway and you’re into a boardroom, how’s that going?
Andrea Browne: It’s going well. Again, it’s something that I’ve sort of happened into and found that I really loved, but where that came from is the opportunity to educate. I personally love to learn, and if I can help others learn, I’m all in, 100%.
Bryn Griffiths: When you’re learning, it’s one thing to think that you could be a good public speaker. It’s a huge fear factor for a lot of people. I think it’s number two after snakes. I think that’s what it is. And fear of heights is right up there. But speaking in front of people is in the top three. I just know it. But how do you get over that hurdle? Because you’ve got the information, you have it, and you want to share it, but not everybody can do that. But you’re doing quite well with this.
Andrea Browne: Well, thank you. I think really, let’s be honest here, the first couple were pretty ugly. And I feel bad for the people that came to those sessions, but also appreciate that they helped me learn and grow. And I always have a bit of nerves going in, but I have to remind myself that everyone that comes to a session, they want to learn. They’ve made the choice to be there. And it’s up to me to make that a good experience for them, and I can do that.
Bryn Griffiths: Take that anxiety and use it. That’s what I do when I public speak all the time. So, you know, it’s nerve-wracking. It is still for me. You know, 37 years in the radio and television business, I still get butterflies before I go out there, but I’m glad that it’s really working out well for you. Is there anything you want to pass along before we wrap it up? I’ve been hearing good things at the conference.
Andrea Browne: Oh, you know what? Something that I came across just recently, really, in credit, you hear “cash is king.”
Bryn Griffiths: Right.
Andrea Browne: Which, obviously. But one phrase that I found to be more relevant nowadays is… Oh, now I’ve lost it.
Bryn Griffiths: That’s all right. Hang on. If we take a couple of deep breaths, it’ll come back to you. Cash is king and? Cash is king and?
Andrea Browne: Profit is opinion.
Bryn Griffiths: Okay.
Andrea Browne: Cash is reality.
Bryn Griffiths: There you go. I knew we were going to talk that out.
Andrea Browne: Yeah, I almost cracked under the pressure.
Bryn Griffiths: Well, listen, thank you for dropping by today. It’s great to see you again. And like I said, every time I talk to you, I feel a little less nervous about doing what I’m doing with budgeting on Excel and that kind of stuff. It’s always great to chat with you. Thanks.
Andrea Browne: Thank you so much.
Bryn Griffiths: Hey, that’s it for today’s episode of Overdue Advice. We’re easy to find online. MetCredit is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X, @MetCredit. And you can also check out Brian Summerfelt’s blog. It’s easy to find too. It’s blog.metcredit.com. The website also includes numerous helpful tools and calculators to assess your business debt risk. And we’d also love to hear from you, so subscribe, like, or leave us a review on this or any of our podcasts, and make sure you share that podcast with your friends and business associates. You can drop us a line at overdueadvice@metcredit.com. Overdue Advice, the podcast about cash flow strategies to grow your business. I’m Bryn Griffiths.