not your typical accountant
That Accounting Stuff was created by an accountant. But the reason it's not your typical accounting stuff is because Anna Mitchell is not your typical accountant ...
an accountant who didn't do her accounting
"If your accounting life is complete chaos, I totally understand," says Anna.
"Mine was so bad that I once got NINE years behind on my tax returns. Which is pretty embarrassing when you're an accountant!
"So I know all too well the overwhelm, the shame of not being on top of things, and the fear of getting busted by the ATO and being sent to the gulag for tax evasion."
Anna got her ‘stuff’ together in 2019 - when the ATO caught up with her.
"I spent the next three months learning about the tax system, and designing an accounting and paperwork system that would ensure things never got that out of control again. When the last return was submitted and I looked at all I had done and learned, I knew it could be of use to other solo small business owners."
And so the idea for That Accounting Stuff, accounting education for sole traders, was born, and Aussie sole traders' accounting lives began to be transformed.
Like you, I could name at least a couple dozen other things I’d rather be doing than my accounting.
That's why I used my Mad Skillz in systems accounting to figure out the quickest, easiest way to do it.
she sucks at math too
No, being an accountant doesn’t automatically mean you’re good with numbers.
“Yeah I suck at Math,” admits Anna. “Always have. But hey, that’s why calculators and spreadsheets were invented (probably by someone who sucks at Math).”
If you think you have to be good with numbers to be able to do your accounting, think again.
“I’ve always sucked at Math. Even before they brought the letters into it.’
“But if I can have a successful accounting career despite not being good with numbers, you are not a hopeless case.”
an accountant with personality
Nobody who met Anna outside of Planet Office ever believed she was an accountant, saying she had 'too much personality to be an accountant’.
Known within Planet Office for her entertaining work emails, Anna went on to write The Dummies Guide to the Inter-Company Accounting System, an internal procedure manual she created for her co-workers while on assignment at a multi-national mining corporation.
Not content with authoring emails and procedure manuals, Anna went on to publish a travel memoir, Fat Chick Goes AWOL, which is the story of an accountant - and fat chick - who just couldn’t be like all the other accountants (or fat chicks). It won two international book awards, including first place in the Humour section.
“People have always laughed when I told them I was an accountant.
I'll take that as a compliment."
the love child of macgyver
When her fellow corporate accountants had no idea why there were large balances in accounts that should be zero, and multi-million dollar differences between two numbers that should be the same, Anna put on her MacGyver hat and created reconciliations to find out why.
Using Excel in unique ways - some of which she now incorporates in the spreadsheet course - she managed to explain these discrepancies down to the cent.
Systems and processes are her jam, and now she’s using putting these Mad Skillz to use helping Aussie sole traders get their accounting house in order.
“An old boss of mine used to joke that my middle initial was ‘Why’. I’ve used that natural curiosity to figure out some pretty wicked accounting problems for large corporations.
Eventually the Why question became, “Why are there so many small business owners who know so little about the accounting stuff? Why don’t accountants explain this stuff to them? And why are all these bookkeeping courses so $#% boring?!”
Anna Mitchell, Founder
a born teacher
Anna has always had a knack for explaining accounting and systems, to non-accountants.
A co-worker at a large manufacturing company once told her, “You’re the only one from Finance we want to talk to - because you’re the only one we can understand!”
An accountant with the heart of a teacher, Anna realised she enjoys the teaching more than the accounting, and looks forward to being that teacher that inspired you - to do your accounting.
“A small business owner told me at our initial meeting, “I’ve learned more from you in fifteen minutes than I have from all the accountants I’ve had in the last five years."
I’ve since learned there are a lot more like him who could really use someone to explain this stuff to them. And I want to be that someone - that teacher who made things make sense, and made learning enjoyable.”
Anna Mitchell, Founder
a holistic accountant
Anna was a massage therapist for several years, and also trained as a Holistic Lifestyle Coach with the Chek Institute. She has a keen interest in holistic health, and has brought the holistic approach into That Accounting Stuff.
“I’ve always hated typical online education courses,” says Anna. “They’re information dumps. Created by someone who’s lost touch with their imagination.
“And I hate those classes and workshops where you have to sit still for hours on end while they shove information down your throat at a breakneck pace and don’t give you nearly enough break time.”
Anna's holistic approach ensures that our accounting courses are very different to what people expect an accounting course to be like - and are courses you want to do, instead of wasting your money on something you got bored with in an hour.
“I subscribe to the holistic approach to health, which says you treat the person who has the disease, not the disease that has the person.”
“That means I don’t teach accounting. I teach a person who wants to do their accounting. That’s a completely different accounting course.”
Anna Mitchell, Founder
the accounting teacher for you
If Anna sounds like your kind of accounting teacher, check out what she has to offer on our Courses page.
