{"id":35723,"date":"2021-06-28T09:39:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T13:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=35723"},"modified":"2021-07-06T08:26:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T12:26:09","slug":"looking-for-a-different-kind-of-accounting-career-this-fiu-business-alumnus-is-building-the-uber-of-accounting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2021\/06\/looking-for-a-different-kind-of-accounting-career-this-fiu-business-alumnus-is-building-the-uber-of-accounting\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking for a different kind of accounting career? This FIU Business alumnus is building the \u201cUber of Accounting\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Looking
Richard\u00a0Lavi\u00f1a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in 2015, Richard\u00a0Lavi\u00f1a\u00a0(MAcc \u201813) was rising through the ranks at accounting giant PwC. He was offered a job at the firm\u2019s national headquarters in New Jersey, required for all partnership candidates, which meant leaving his Miami home and family.<\/p>\n

Hitting what he called \u201ca fork in the road,\u201d he turned the opportunity down. And with the decision to stay,\u00a0Lavi\u00f1a\u2019s\u00a0entrepreneurial streak, nurtured since he was a kid, took hold.<\/p>\n

He had been tossing around ideas about a more efficient way to do tax returns outside the big-firm model. In 2015, those ideas took shape in Taxfyle, which uses an algorithm to match clients\u2019 tax return work with skilled freelance CPAs.<\/p>\n

Described as an \u201cUber for accounting,\u201d\u00a0Taxfyle\u2019s software allows individuals and companies to post their accounting jobs to a central website. The company\u2019s version of \u201cdrivers\u201d are CPAs who register on the website and take on work as they are available, completing anything from a simple 1040 to a complex corporate case.<\/p>\n

Six years later,\u00a0Taxfyle\u00a0has signed on\u00a0over\u00a03,200 CPAs, a number that grows each day, and clients in 14 countries. The company has raised $11 million in four rounds of funding with more on the way. The company\u2019s gig offerings are a good fit for a generation seeking work-life balance, or for corporate accounting staff members looking to pick up extra work.<\/p>\n

Lavi\u00f1a,\u00a0Taxfyle\u00a0co-founder and CEO, shared his experience as an accountant and entrepreneur at his talk, \u201cRedefining Accounting,\u201d part of Wertheim Wisdom Wednesday, a virtual version of the Wertheim lecture series. Speaking to an audience of students, alumni and others,\u00a0Lavi\u00f1a\u00a0stressed that while working for a major accounting firm was a great opportunity that he still appreciates,\u00a0it wasn\u2019t the only path to moving forward for accounting grads.<\/p>\n

Background in \u201cBig Four\u201d and agility are keys to success.<\/em><\/p>\n

In his undergraduate years at the University of Miami,\u00a0Lavi\u00f1a\u00a0ran a tutoring company and wrote a\u00a0SAT math preparation book, among other ventures. After college, he started his career at local and regional accounting firms, bouncing between audit and tax, and wound up at PwC, \u201cwhat everyone in the accounting industry wants.\u201d He had the opportunity to work with some of Miami\u2019s most admired corporations and traveled around the world on merger and acquisition deals.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeading right out of college into audit\/tax is the path of least resistance. You know the salary and you know the path.\u201d And, he said, \u201cPwC was fantastic. I wouldn\u2019t be here without that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encourages entrepreneurship that\u2019s grounded on experience and agility, balanced with an individual\u2019s own risk tolerance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe honest with yourself about the risks you want to take \u2013 and have realistic expectations,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely ways to do it. At night, start working with a team you eventually want to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 2015, Richard\u00a0Lavi\u00f1a\u00a0(MAcc \u201813) was rising through the ranks at accounting giant PwC. He was offered a job at the firm\u2019s national headquarters in New Jersey, required for all partnership candidates, which meant leaving his Miami home and family. Hitting what he called \u201ca fork in the road,\u201d he turned the opportunity down. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":35725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[52],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35723"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35735,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35723\/revisions\/35735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}