PEAK doesn’t Waste this Good Crisis 

We talked to Peem Petchged on how PEAK works alongside every business, startup, and SME to drive them to success and this is what he had to say.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Peem Petchged: Although Thailand managed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 quite well, we suffered a lot from the economic slowdown and tourism crisis. However, not to waste a good situation, we exploited this opportunity to transform the accounting industry in Thailand by introducing a new way of work for accounting tasks, which helps accountants remotely automate their work in a way that has never happened before.  

However, my brother lives in California, and COVID-19 made us apart for a long, long time. He and his family are safe, but I do miss him a lot.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded PEAK?

Peem Petchged: PEAK is a fintech startup aiming to transform SMEs to be data-driven companies.

A fundamental problem of around 3 million SMEs in Thailand is the lack of financial resources to support liquidity and expand their businesses. When we look more closely, those SMEs lack reliable accounting records as well as financial information.

PEAK started five years ago by creating a new online accounting program that anyone can use even though they aren’t accountants. We built a business data system consisting of revenues, expenses, and earnings. Moreover, PEAK helps entrepreneurs be aware of their inventory turnover, accounts-receivable aging report, next 30-days cash flow forecast, and notify them directly of the essential business data.

How does PEAK innovate? 

Peem Petchged: We are a business tool for small businesses to automatically make accounting/tax submissions while providing resourceful business management reports.

 – Accounting Software to generate financial statements and real-time business reports

 – Accounting Services / Tax Filing

 – APIs for connecting transaction data from E-Commerce/POS/CRM to do accounting records automatically  

 We introduced many innovative features to the industry, such as:

 – automatically fill-in name and address

 – bank reconcile

 – AI suggest accounting record

 – OCR read and record expense from image

 – QR payment in Invoice

 – LINE bot to interact with the user on mobile. 

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Peem Petchged: Although we are in the accounting software business, which is quite necessary for companies to use. However, because of COVID-19, We did see a sharp drop (-28% MoM) in our revenue in March 2020. Current paying customers are starting to switch to Free accounts. A significant portion of our customers is in the business consulting business, advertising agency, and tour operation. We have seen a considerable drop in their activities. We expect this trend will continue until the situation is resolved.  

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Peem Petchged: To counter the COVID, we decided to take actions as following;

1. Prepare cash: Earlier this year, we offered some customers to pay 2-3 years in advance. We did receive future revenue from this campaign.

2. New revenue stream: For future revenue stream, we launched a new PEAK Pro+ Package in June to boost revenue after the situation getting better. The new package will include essential features that help management, e.g., weekly/monthly reports, cash flow statements, or tax filing. 

3. Help customers survive: We want to keep long-term relationships with the right customers with a short-term liquidity problem, so we increase their credit terms

4. Cost reduction: We suspended paying management salary, reduced marketing and consulting costs, optimized software, and other operating costs, negotiated office rental to some portion of the payment. 

5. Prepare for the worst: We also started talking with banks about a soft loan for financing options. 

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Peem Petchged: Fortunately, my hometown is in Phuket, a beautiful island filled with peaceful white beaches. Spending my vacation there helped me relax from all anxiety. After COVID-19, I would like to invite everyone to visit my hometown and let me welcome you warmly. Apart from that, I also enjoy doing meditation and playing board games with the team. 

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Peem Petchged:  Our old-fashioned competitor is Express (offline accounting software which developed 30 years ago). We managed to be as we are, “the best innovative accounting solution for small businesses”. Please allow me to explain more as following:  

 We are a business tool for small businesses to automatically make accounting/tax submissions while providing resourceful business management reports.

 – Accounting Software to generate financial statements and real-time business reports

 – Accounting Services / Tax Filling

 – APIs for connecting transaction data from E-Commerce/POS/CRM to do accounting records automatically. We are under scale upstate with 2X growth (YoY). As of July 2020, we processed 320,000 transactions valued at approximately 500 million USD for around 6,000 small businesses in Thailand. We introduced many innovative features to the industry, such as;

 – automatically fill-in name and address

 – bank reconcile

 – AI suggest accounting record

 – OCR read and record expense from image

 – QR payment in Invoice

 – LINE bot to interact with the user on mobile  

Your final thoughts?

Peem Petchged: After the darkest is the light, the positive side of the situation is that people started to consider working from home and efficiency. Cloud accounting software is the enabler for that. Cloud accounting software will be a significant trend to help their operation and business continuity. 

Your website?

peakaccount.com