Ignition Council established to help transform how professional services do business with clients

Seattle, WA., November 30th — Ignition, the world’s first client engagement and commerce platform for professional services, has formed the inaugural Ignition Council in North America. Ignition has enlisted 16 leading accounting, bookkeeping, and tax entrepreneurs to help Ignition on its ambitious path to transform how accounting and professional services businesses engage clients, get paid and optimize revenue.

With the current state of the accounting profession across North America shifting clients to recurring and high value work and adopting cloud technology, there is a growing appetite for automation, community connection and education.

Convening four times annually, members of the Ignition Council will share their professional expertise, insights, use cases and more with the company’s leaders and executives. The Ignition Council will also inform discussion topics with its community on a range of topics including, preparing for tax season, as well as finding and adopting the right technology. 

“We’re thrilled to convene the Ignition Council,” said Matt Kanas, Head of Americas at Ignition. “Our US team has deliberately assembled this group of accomplished  executives who are running their own successful and progressive accounting firms. We are creating opportunities to hear from these experts first-hand and develop insights to enable professionals across different markets. The Ignition Council engagements will allow us to enhance our go-to-market strategies and  generate thoughtful conversations with our customers.” 

The first cohort of Ignition Council members are also customers who will offer advice on compliance, cloud accounting, partnerships and more include: 

• Andy Smith, Founder and President of Numberwise Accounting - Newbury Park, CA
• Chris Williams, Owner and CEO System Six - San Francisco, CA
• Enae Jackson-Atkins, Founder of Esquire Accounting - Huntington Beach, CA
• Marie Phillips, Founder and CEO of Connected Accounting - Los Angeles, CA
• Clayton Achen, Founder of Achen Henderson CPAs - Calgary, AB
• Sandy Johns, CPA for Revolution Financial - Atlanta, GA
• Carla Caldwell, Founder of Caldwell Consulting & Training - Marietta, GA
• Jeremy Wells, Owner of JWellsCFO - Saint Augustine, FL
• Michelle Vilms, CEO of Vilms Consulting - Boston, MA
• Tiffany Davis, President of Washington Accounting Services Inc. - Waldorf, MD
• Anne Napolitano, CEO and Founder of Anne Napolitano Consulting Inc. - Melville, NY
• Daniel Gertrudes, CEO and co-founder of GrowthLab Financial Services, Inc. - Providence, RI
• Erin Reece, CEO of Bear Financial Solutions - Knoxville, TN
• Logan Graf, Owner of The Graf Tax Co. PLLC - Austin, TX
• Marcus Dillon, Founder of Dillon CPAs, PLLC - Katy, TX
• Sean Duncan, Founder of SMD Consulting & Accounting, LLC - Plano, TX

“Having worked in the accounting profession for over 20 years, I can attest to the volatile nature of this profession, said Enae Jackson-Atkins, Founder of Esquire Accounting. Partnering with a forward-thinking company like Ignition and to be a part of their Customer Council is an exciting way for me to distill my knowledge to help other business owners thrive in the future,” Jackson-Atkins said. 

“There has never been a better time for accounting professionals to come together and drive conversation about the evolving SMB conditions,” said Daniel Gertudes, CEO and Co-Founder of GrowthLab Financial Services Inc. “I am honored to be a part of the Ignition Council and share my expertise to hopefully make a positive, lasting impact on the future of the accounting profession.”

Providing professional services firms and their clients with complete clarity, confidence, convenience and control is the hallmark of Ignition’s purpose. Having conversations with customers is imperative for Ignition to continue to deliver on its purpose and propel the accounting profession forward.

For headshots and bios of the members follow the link, HERE 

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About Ignition 

Ignition is the world’s first client engagement and commerce platform for professional services businesses, to streamline how they engage clients and get paid. Over 6,000 accounting and professional services firms around the world use Ignition to win new business with impressive digital proposals, engage clients with a clear scope of work, and get paid on time by automating payment collection. Ignition also integrates with leading business apps such as Gusto, QuickBooks, Xero and Zapier to automate time-consuming tasks. Founded in 2013 by a progressive accounting entrepreneur to find a better way of doing business, our goal is to help customers grow, be more efficient, and create win-win client relationships. To date, we’ve helped facilitate more than 2 Million client engagements and over US$3 Billion in client payments. Practice Ignition has teams in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, The Philippines, South Africa, US and the UK, with approximately 200 employees globally.