Master change, and take control of your accounting practice’s destiny, writes Vipul Sheth.
As is the case after two mammoth events, it’s time to take a breath and reflect on the past few days.
Our flagship conference, gbX 2026, held at the National Gallery, had an agenda for change. And right from the start, there was an enormous energy from both the audience and our speakers.
We had The High Performance Podcast presenters Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes on in the afternoon, and I have no doubt that everyone in attendance left inspired to bring their A-game.
Our key panel focused on the growth paradox – how to grow and scale in a world where having both the right people, and the right number of people, is more difficult than ever. It was also an opportunity to present the Accounting Talent Index 2026.
While the stats around resourcing, people and capacity are scary, practices that are prepared to try out new ways of working will be the ones to move forward. And the 2026 highlighted that many are making changes to how they operate.
It was definitely our best event – a reminder to take learnings from previous years to make the next one at least a bit better… and this year’s felt like a real step up. One client emailed to say it was the best conference they’d been to in 35 years – hopefully even more of you can share in that in 2027.
In reality, change in the business context is about making things better. Practices can be resistant to change because of two things: compliance services drive a solid and predictable rhythm, which can be disrupted where change is required. Secondly, practitioners have to concentrate on the changes brought about by a new set of rules and regulations each year. Changing how you do things within a practice can then seem a step too far – or certainly put off to a ‘quieter time in the year’.
Thinking about the disruption that AI is set to bring upon the accountancy profession, discussions around the topic were difficult to avoid at Accountex London. However, as our Accounting Talent Index shows, there is some trepidation about what that change looks like, and how a well-established practice can ‘play around’ with AI to find uses for it.
Many practices are still paper-based – and they will need to take steps towards digitising how they do things. We hope that the tax authority's digital agenda drives these firms to make that fundamental step, creating a platform for trialling AI and automation.
As we’ve said before, we’re all bound to this change. Advancetrack mirrors how accountancy practices work, therefore AI is not something we can ignore. Thankfully we’ve always built around a strong tech platform and great people; we’ll look to make AI work for us (and therefore, for our practice partners too).
Hopefully AI and further tech advances can help your practice improve, too.
Vipul Sheth is founder and MD of Advancetrack
You can access the Accounting Talent Index 2026 by clicking here
If you’d like to talk to us about driving your practice forward, then click here
