In episode 157 of the Woodard Report Podcast, Joe Woodard sat down with Tanya Hilts, owner of Cloud Business Services and leader of Bookkeepers’ Bootcamp, a training community designed to help bookkeepers strengthen their skills, refine their workflows, price with confidence, and move into advisory work without unnecessary complexity or fear.
Tanya is an accomplished bookkeeper, educator, and firm owner with decades of hands-on experience. Her story reflects a core theme of the episode: professional growth in the accounting and bookkeeping profession is not driven by rigid formulas or gatekeeping, but by collaboration, shared learning, and practical application rooted in real-world client work.
Tanya draws a sharp contrast between collaboration and gatekeeping, describing gatekeeping as a rigid, one-way approach that treats best practices as universal rules. “There’s not one way to do things,” she explained. “I am not right on everything.” Instead, collaboration allows professionals to share what works without insisting it is the only path forward.
Her own experience dates back to early QuickBooks Online (QBO) adoption in Canada, when isolation was common among home-based bookkeepers. What changed everything was intentional cooperation. “The collaboration of that really allowed us to grow and was the start of the community in Canada,” Tanya said, reflecting on how peer support helped shape what later became a strong national QBO community.
That spirit of collaboration, she emphasized, continues to influence how she teaches and mentors today. “It is not my way or the highway,” she said. “It is the culmination of everything and everybody’s experiences.”
One of the most practical takeaways from the conversation centers on moving from compliance work into advisory services. Tanya emphasized that the shift does not require a dramatic leap, only a willingness to start. “The very first step is just do it,” she said. “Don’t be afraid.”
Like many bookkeepers, Tanya initially felt intimidated by the word advisory. Over time, she realized that fear was misplaced. “It turned out I was already doing advisory,” she shared. “I just didn’t call it.”
A defining moment came when a client called Tanya, rather than the accountant, to ask for guidance on pricing and break-even analysis for a new revenue opportunity. When Tanya later asked why, the answer was simple and revealing. “I just know you have the information at your fingertips,” the client told her. That moment marked a clear transition from historical reporting to real-time business guidance.
Joe reinforced this idea by pointing out that questions, not answers, are often the safest entry point into advisory conversations. Asking thoughtful questions creates space for dialogue and trust without requiring immediate expertise.
A significant portion of the discussion focused on artificial intelligence and its growing role in bookkeeping and accounting. Tanya reframed AI not as a replacement for professionals, but as a shift in how value is delivered. “AI is not a threat to us,” she said. “The bookkeepers that are embracing and using AI are the threat to us.”
She compared today’s moment to the introduction of bank feeds, which once felt like an existential risk but ultimately elevated the profession. “We were able to go from true data entry to a data management,” she explained, noting that AI represents the next evolution, which is moving professionals into oversight, analysis, and advisory roles.
Tanya shared how she uses different tools for different purposes, relying on Claude for data analysis, ChatGPT for creative work, and Perplexity for research. Her advice to others was intentionally simple and accessible. “Use it for five, ten, fifteen minutes a day,” she said. “Schedule it in there and go in and do it.”
As advisory relationships mature, Tanya sees cash flow conversations as a natural next step. Moving beyond informal discussions, she described how structured deliverables like cash flow projections create clarity and confidence for clients. She highlighted the Cashflow Canvas as a framework that reverse engineers budgets by starting with pricing and value rather than expenses alone.
What made the framework work, she explained, was its grounding in behavioral science. “It is the behavioral science around why people can’t stick to a budget or a business plan,” Tanya said, noting that understanding client behavior is just as important as understanding the numbers.
Throughout the episode, a consistent theme emerged: bookkeepers and accountants do not need to have all the answers to add value. Collaboration, whether through professional communities or carefully chosen technology, fills the gaps. “As long as you have resources, you don’t have to have all the answers,” Tanya said.
Her perspective offers a grounded reminder that the future of the profession is not defined by gatekeeping or fear of change, but by professionals who are willing to learn together, adapt openly, and guide clients forward with confidence, curiosity, and trust.
🎧 Listen to the full episode at woodard.com/podcast.
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This article was written with the assistance of AI and edited by a human.